Astrology does not offer an explanation of the laws of the universe, nor why the universe exists. What it does, to put it in simplest terms, is to show that there is a correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm. In short that there is a rhythm to the universe, and that man's own life partakes of this rhythm.

The oldest evidence of astrological study and practice are found within China. These developments predate those of Mesopotamia, dating back thousands of years. The ancient Chinese were meticulous in preserving their astrological records. Even today we may respect their comprehension of the heavens. By 2001 BCE the astronomers of China had determined the length of the year to be 365 days as well as the cardinal points of direction. They also clearly mapped the paths of the Sun and Moon well enough to predict eclipses.

Current records in Bharat, India, indicate a well-developed knowledge of astrology dating back to far ancient times. Remnants of work still exist from sometime around 3,500 BCE. Although most of the original manuscripts were lost, certain Astrologers reproduced their own versions of these earlier works. Some of these copies can be found in libraries belonging to Maharajahs.

Apparently, Indian astrology was held in very good standing elsewhere in the literate world of the time. In his book, Ancient Calendars and Constellations, E. M. Plunkett writes, "The opinion of the Greek writers at the beginning of the Christian era may be quoted as showing the high estimation in which Indian astronomy was held. In The Life of Appollonius of Tyana, the Greek philosopher and astrologer, written by Philostratus about 210, the wisdom and learning of Appollonius are set high above his contemporaries because he had studied astronomy and astrology with the sages of India."

Astrology's ancient beginnings are also traced to Mesopotamia at least as far back as 2001 BCE. These early records reveal a complex cosmology in which the Sun, the Moon and the planets represented gods who possessed the power to direct and intervene in the course of physical events.

With the Astrology found in the history of Babylonia, we can begin to recognize the basic forms of Astrology, as we know it today. As Babylonian Astrology evolved, a relationship was recognized between happenings in the heavens and events on earth.

The Egyptian Pyramids remain singularly impressive to this day among all ancient astronomical buildings. They are aligned to the North Pole and the cardinal points. They were set so accurately, that a 1/12 degree deviation was discovered and accounted for by scientists as Africa's participation in the 'continental drift', rather than an error in Egyptian engineering. An interesting note: The angles of the pyramids of Giza, one to another, are exactly the same as the angles of the stars in the belt of Orion as known in ancient astronomical records.

The pyramids served a dual purpose; burial place of the pharaohs, and astrological calculators. There are sloping corridors leading from the faces into the interior. These were used as sighting tubes, allowing Egyptian astrologers to make naked-eye observations of great accuracy from which astrological calculations were progressed.

Astrological history eventually found its way into Greek scrolls where the Greeks zealously converted Chaldean Astrology to their own traditions. Here, it became formal and complicated. The Greek tradition is credited with developing a system of diagnosis; and a method of calculating individual destinies based upon the moment of birth. The Greeks also associated myths with the star groups. The heavens became an array of sacred objects, monsters, animals and heroes. They added human qualities to the heavens in constellation figures which embodied arrogance, love, fear, strength, compassion, vanity and tenderness. Alongside this mythological view, another based on geometrical and mathematical relationships was seeded in Greece. Science began when the Greeks applied mathematics to the study of the heavens.

By about the third century BCE, Aristarchus calculated the distances to the Sun and Moon. His calculation for the Moon proved correct, but he was way off on the Sun. Still impressive, as he did this measuring without the availability of Instruments.

Such tools were finally invented by Hipparchus. His instruments were so accurate that by 150 BCE he determined the length of the year to within six minutes. Three centuries later Ptolemy relied almost entirely on Hipparchus' data as the basis of his world system. Ptolemy constructed a model of the universe that could explain the retrograde movements of the planets as well as the variations in their speed and brightness. The Ptolemaic model of the universe dominated Western thought for over 1400 years. The first textbook of Astrology, The Tetrabiblos, was written by Ptolemy.

In 1543, it was Copernicus who put the sun at the center of the universe. This was the same premise that had been held by Aristarchus in the middle of the third century. Old ways die hard, and the Copernicus system was not accepted for another 100 years. It was the work of both Kepler and Newton that dealt the deathblow to the Ptolemaic system. Kepler found that the planets actually move in ellipses, not circles, and Newton explained why. Kepler believed only those people who had never studied astrology could possibly deny it.

"Astrology interested us, for it tied man to the system. Instead of an isolated beggar, the farthest star felt him, and he felt the star. However rash and however falsified by pretenders and traders in it, the hint was true and divine, the soul's avowal of its large relations, and, that climate, century, remote natures, as well as near, are part of its biography."

- R. W. Emerson, Regarding Naturalists in his essay on Beauty.