Who started horoscopes?
The “who” is unknown. The earliest astrological insciptions date back to circa 300 BC. The Chaldeans of Babylon developed astrology to a high art and may have “invented” the horoscope. “Horoscope” — literally “picture of the hour” — is a map of the solar system at a particular moment in time as it would have been seen from a specific locale. The map is divided into 12 segments, called “houses,” each of which governs a department of life. It should not be confused with the “horoscopes” that appear online and in the daily paper. As a result of the confusion caused by misusing the term horoscope, astrologers generally refer to the skymap as a “natal chart” or “birth chart.
