Astrology and Astronomy in the Ancient World

Overview

The first records of systematic astronomical or astrological observation and interpretation lie in the scattered remains of ancient Egyptian and Babylonian civilizations. The earliest evidence of the development of astronomy and astrology—in the modern world distinctive representatives of science and pseudo-science, respectively—establish that they share a common origin grounded in mankind's need and quest to understand the movements of the celestial sphere. Moreover, evidence suggests an early and strong desire to relate earthly everyday existence to the stars and to develop a cosmology (an understanding of the origin, structure, and evolution of the universe) that intimately bound human society to a coherent and knowable universe.

Background

The most primitive origins of both astrology and astronomy predate the human written record. There is abundant archaeological and artistic evidence that long before there were the stirrings of true civilization in ancient Egypt or Babylonia, humans constructed elaborate myths and folk tales to explain the wanderings of the Sun, Moon, and stars across the celestial sphere.

In ancient Egypt, priests became the first practicing practical astrologers by linking religious beliefs to the apparent movements of celestial objects. The type of observations and predictions made by the earliest Egyptian astrologers were, however, fundamentally different than those of the later dynastic periods when the cosmology of ancient Egypt yielded to the influence of Greece. Although the point is hotly debated by many archaeoastronomers (scientists who study the relationships between archaeology and ancient astronomy), there is little convincing evidence that the ancient Egyptians constructed anything approaching the horoscope of modern astrology. Nor is there clear evidence that the constellations of the zodiac were especially important in ancient Egyptian society.

The emphasis on a zodiacal division of the constellations was first advanced in Babylonia and in other branches of Mesopotamian civilization. These fundamental divisions and groupings of the constellations lying along the plane of the ecliptic—the plane of Earth's orbit and the Sun's annual path—subsequently influenced the development of Greek cosmology, and via that culture, subsequently altered the course of Egyptian cosmology. Only in the architectural remains from the later stages of an Egyptian civilization dominated by Greece are zodiacal signs evident.

Impact

The extant record indicates that astrological interpretations of celestial patterns date to ancient Mesopotamia. Astrology evolved from simple celestial observation, onto which was laid a theological base of interpretation. The movements of celestial objects were used as portents of the future—a methodology to predict the rise of kings, the fate of empires, and other issues critical to the continuation of power by the ruling priestly class.

Aside from a desire to elevate mankind's terrestrial existence to an astral plane, the development of astrology in Babylonian society provides evidence that in the development of Babylonian cosmology, the universe was thought to be a vital (living) entity. This societal worldview and quest for the heavens is also strongly reflected in the construction of Mesopotamian ziggurats (tiered towers with temples).

The experience of Babylonia was repeated in the rise of astrology in India, China, and among the Mayan civilizations in Central America.

However errant by the standards of modern science, the development of a zodiacal-based cosmology in ancient Babylonia signaled an attempt by early man to rely on something fixed and objective as a determinant force in human affairs. Prior to the development of ancient astrology, the tide of events was left more to the whimsy of widely varying bias toward dreams and visions as portents of future events.

The accurate prediction of the movements of the Sun, Moon, and celestial sphere took on an enormous practical importance to stable and successful agricultural development. In a very real sense, the rise of ancient astrology in Babylonia was an outgrowth of continual refinements to ancient calendars that were themselves predictors of the ebb and flow of the seasons. Accordingly, it may be fairly argued that this desire for prediction underpinning astrology also spurred the rise of real astronomical science as a more mundane cyclical predictor of celestial and seasonal occurrences. There was, for example, a chain understanding of terrestrial seasons and events derived from the regularity of variation in the location of the rising and setting Sun.

Over time, the regularity of observation first emphasized by Babylonian astrologers made the accurate prediction of the flooding of the Nile River a practical benefit of later Egyptian astronomy. Regardless of the initial religious importance of the movements of bright star Sirius, eventually the location of its rise on the horizon of the Nile plain became an accurate predictor of annual Nile flooding.

Although a proper understanding of the celestial mechanics associated with solar and lunar eclipses would await the Copernican revolution more than a millennia distant, the regularity of such occurrences was noted in the religious practices associated with these phenomena. Indeed, the need to develop increasingly accurate calendars was often driven by priestly desire to make timely predictions of celestial events that could be interpreted, with due variance to local need and custom, as messages from the gods.

The emphasis on the supernatural qualities of astrology continued to develop and influence the affairs of society. At the same time, astrology became fused with astronomical precision. Thus, only with the accurate measurement of the celestial sphere could there be accurate prediction.

Following the death of Alexander the Great (356-323 b.c.), who spread the Greek philosophical tradition and intellectual culture across much of the known world, astrology began to take on an emphasis in Greek society that soon overshadowed pure astronomical observation. Influenced by Eastern traditions, a more mundane form of everyday astrology became commonplace in Greek society, and later in Roman civilization. No longer regulated to the prediction of grand affairs of state or religion, astrology became used by Stoics as a practical medicinal art. Good evidence of this everyday application of astrology is found in surviving Greek poems and plays that show that the position of the planets was used as a guide to ordinary affairs.

Although there is often an emphasis on the influence of the supernatural upon ancient society, this masks real achievements that resulted from an increased emphasis upon astronomical observations. Notable among such observations and calculations are Aristotle's (384-322 b.c.) observations of eclipses that argued for a spherical Earth, Aristarchus of Samos's (310-230 b.c.) heliocentric model that proposed that Earth rotated around the Sun, and Eratosthenes of Cyrene's (276-194 b.c.) accurate measure of the circumference of Earth. Stimulated by astrological mythology, in 370 b.c. Euxodus of Cnidus (c. 400-c. 350 b.c.) developed a geocentric-based (Earth-centered) mechanical system that set out to explain the observed motions of the stars and planets. Moreover, these advances in astronomy laid a foundational base for the scientific development of astronomy. Hipparchus's (fl. 146-127 b.c.) classifications of magnitude of brightness, for example, are still a part of the modern astronomical lexicon.

Later, Greek astronomer Ptolemy's (fl. second century a.d.) Algamest became the most influential work of the scientific astrology produced in the ancient and classical world. Although his models of an Earth-centered universe composed of concentric crystalline spheres were incorrect, they dominated the Western intellectual tradition for more than a millennium.

During the decline of the Roman Empire, the tenuous place of scientific astronomy was completely overwhelmed by either a renewed emphasis on astrology, or upon an avoidance of both astronomy and astrology as contrary to the tenets of a growing Christian civilization.

The lure of astrological explanations in ancient Babylonian civilization evolved into a desire among the philosopher-scientists of Greece and Rome to define the essential elements of life—and of the forces that influence these elements. In addition, early astrology provided a coherent worldview that reconciled astronomical science with myth and religion, thus providing social stability. The development of a stable civilization and society was enhanced by astrological interpretations that provided a sense of divine control and immutable fate to human affairs.

K. LEE LERNER