What are horoscopes for?

Question

Who created horoscopes? What are they for? Are they important?

Answer 1

The origin of horoscopes and astrology predates recorded history. It is older than Judism, and predates Ancient Egypt. It is obviously nature-based, but other than that, we know little about the start of astrology.

What are they for?

A good reading of your natal chart by a qualified professional astrologer can help you understand yourself a little better. It can point out your strengths and weaknesses, and what is the best way to work with what you were born with.

Predicting with astrology is like making plans using the weather report. You might plan a road trip. You check the weather. It says it will rain for the next two days. You can delay your trip for two days, or you can head out anyway but drive extra carefully. Free will is always involved.

Are they important?

Yes and no.

You could live a good healthy life without ever having and astrology reading. Or you could choose to see an astrologer to help give you the tools to guide yourself.

By the same concept, some people like to go for psychotherapy, and some people don't.

It depends on what you feel you want to do.

Answer 2

The actual beginnings of astrology are lost in history. From the Old Babylonian period (1800-1700 B.C.) we have the first records of attempts to correlate such simple, basic problems as famine, death, or war with the positions of the stars and planets. These records were kept over a wide range of territory, from what is now Turkey to Iraq and Iran. The “Venus Tablets of Ammisaduqa,” recording the motions of the planet Venus, were themselves copies of earlier observations made in the time of King Ammisaduqa, tenth ruler of the First Dynasty of Babylon, circa 1626 B.C.

      In the earliest times, omens derived from astronomical observations were applied solely to the rulers or to matters of public welfare; it was some time before other, ordinary individuals were permitted, by law, to have forecasts made for them. In Rome, astrology was so popular at one period that Caesar Augustus (63 B.C. - A.D. 14) forbade its use as too dangerous to the proper conduct of government.

      Astrology was, in its beginnings, a genuine search for knowledge——an attempt to find, in the configurations of the stars and planets, some meaning for humans that might enable them to ascertain something about the future, as if that future were written, obscurely but gloriously, in the heavenly patterns that nightly present themselves to observers.

      Only five planets——Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—— were known to the early observers. Since they were named after gods and were believed to represent the actual bodies of the gods, the movements of those objects against the background of mythical figures represented by the constellations seemed important. It was that relationship of god to “sign” that was the basis for the notion that the fortunes of humanity were to be found by examining the night skies.

      There were two divisions to astrology at first. Horary astrology dealt with measuring motions of the stars and planets and thereby predicting their configurations. This division eventually grew into astronomy. Horary astrology was essential for performing the second type, judiciary astrology, the popular aspect that offered——and still offers——predictions and trends to the clients.

      Such a notion is seductive because it seems to make life simpler. It attributes everything from interpersonal relationships to the destiny of nations to the stars. It appears to eliminate the understandable confusion offered by life, confusion created both by the advances of new technology and by highly specialized knowledge that are beyond the reach and comprehension of the average person, and it seems to remove the need for personal responsibility, handing it all over to fate but allowing a glimpse into the future that might provide some advantage.