History of astrology

This section traces the history of astrology in eight stages, from the scribes of Mesopotamia, who set the zodiac of twelve signs, to the psychological astrology of the 20th century. In between come the Egyptian decans, the birth of the natal chart in Alexandria, Ptolemy's codification in the Tetrabiblos, the transmission through Baghdad, the European golden age of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, then the split from astronomy.

Read the entries in chronological order. Each one follows the same outline, the context, the contributions to astrology, the key figures and texts, the legacy, which lets you follow a technique from one era to the next: the decans move from Egyptian star clocks to the division of the signs, and the Hellenistic places become the houses.

These eras have left traces in your AstralPro reports, which the other sections detail. The terms follow the Egyptian table, the one al-Biruni, in the 11th century, describes as in use among professional astrologers. Sect and the Part of Fortune come from Hellenistic astrology, and the medieval tradition passed the lots down under the name of Arabic parts. The almuten scoring is Lilly's. The modern rulerships, which give Scorpio to Pluto, Aquarius to Uranus and Pisces to Neptune, are the most recent legacy, like the psychological reading the reports favor.