Introduction to Astrology Part I

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Have you ever picked up a newspaper or magazine and read your horoscope? You are not alone if you said yes. I would say a great percentage of the people of the world that has access to such things, has looked. You know the shallowness and vagueness that it conveys on Astrology. This is simply not the way Astrology really is. Astrology is not some simple "You are going to be faced with an important decision today." Please you are faced with them everyday. To really get the full meaning of Astrology, you have to dig beneath the surface and peel back the layers of time.

People have studied the stars and their movements since the beginning of time. The shiny objects in the night sky captivated their imaginations, forcing them to want to learn more, to find out what they were. The Mesopotamians are believed to be the first to develop solid theories about Astrology. They thought the Earth was stationary and that all the cosmic activity around them revolved around their tiny planet. They noticed how the stars seemed to be stationary on a slow moving, fixed orbit. They also noticed that five did not. These five wandered among the stars like children at a fair. They would race, move in other directions, slow down, speed up, but they never left their simple orbit. These were the five visible planets of their time Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. As their movements could be recorded, Astrologers and Astronomers could calculate how long it took the plant to revolve around its path, or zodiac.

A sidereal period is the time it takes a planet to move from the star it started at and go all the way around the zodiac. The Mesopotamians, once they learned each planets sidereal period and the planets speed around the path, could then predict where the planet would be in the future. Even the sun followed this sky path, earning the path great interest with the ancients.

The ancients soon began connecting these "dots" called stars in the night sky to create pictures. They later called these pictures constellations. Each section of the zodiac has its own unique constellation. It took one full year for the stars to reach their exact same position. The Mesopotamians noticed this too of course, and developed a giant calendar out of the sky. Aries rose at the first of Spring, Cancer Summer, Fall Libra, and Capricorn in the Winter.

As the years progressed, the ancients began to believe that the stars caused the seasons. They identified the different zodiacs accordingly, calling Aries fiery and energetic for bring Spring and Capricorn cold and serious for the bring of Winter. This theory lasted for hundreds of years.

Each year the stars rise three seconds later than the previous year. Today, this is known as precession. Over the course of the centuries, the constellations have shifted an entire constellation, making Pisces the bringer of spring.

Hipparchus, a Greek astronomer, discovered the precession in 125 B.C., before astrology had even matured fully. The astrologers of the day must have been deeply upset, for if Aries was not the true bringer of Spring, then they needed a new basis for their beloved zodiac.