Where does Western astrology come from?
In 1000 words or less: We don’t know where it started, but we know the ancient Babylonians used it way back in 2000 B.C. Some historians think the Babylonians invented it, but I strongly suspect it’s far older than that. The ancient Egyptians used astrology, and as the Greeks looked to Egypt for many things spiritual, the Greeks took the Egyptian astrology and modified it to fit it with their worldview. Since the Romans looked to the Greeks as the source for culture and education (see a theme developing here?), astrology really caught on in Rome about 100 BC. There are a few very good surviving works on astrology by Roman writers; Manilius (who writes of the horoscope of the Deified Augustus among other things), Thrasyllus (Tiberius’s court astrologer), Dorotheus (who wrote five books on astrology in verse), and of course, the encyclopedist Ptolemy, who wrote THE book on astrology, the Tetrabiblos. As the Arabic world became wealthier and more established in the 8th century AD, Arabs b
