Astrology is now a norm in this era, everyone is talking about it. You’ll hear terms like horoscope, dasa systems, birth charts, zodiac signs, etc., on social media platforms and other platforms. It’s become so normal that it’s now part of our everyday life but not everyone who makes use of their horoscope knows how it all started. If you are like me and you became curious about the origin of Astrology, then you are in for a ride, all you have to do is sit and read through the article because, in today’s article, I’ll be telling you how it all started.

Origin of Astrology 

Today, it’s pretty easy to determine your astrological sign, but not everyone knows the origin of astrology (how it all started). The history of astrology can be traced back to the first civilization of the world and in terms of years, it’s over four thousand years old. The early societies used the constellations in the sky to predict climatic events, and changes in seasons as part of their religious worldview.

From ancient records, we have come to know that the Greeks did inherit their knowledge of the heavens from the Mesopotamians and they, in turn, inherited their knowledge of the heavens from the Sumerians. 

Dating back to 1500 BC, the Babylonians who inherited what they knew about the heavens from the Sumerians popularized the concept as a way of dividing the seasons. The Babylonians are also famous for being the creators of the basic concept of the modern time measurements of seconds and minutes. They were able to achieve that by dividing the path of the planets and the sun into 12 equal segments represented by constellations and then used them to measure time. They were able to tell that certain weather conditions took form when the sun was closer to certain constellations and that it took the sun 12 lunar cycles to return to the same position in the sky.

In their time, the zodiac signs were only used as a means to measure time and because they were able to accurately predict time using the zodiac signs, it became useful in predicting weather patterns which in turn had a great effect on food production and farming.

Fast-tracking into the future when the Greeks got hold of that information, they were the ones who were able to use the zodiac sign for something else other than to measure time. The Greeks were able to link the zodiac signs to human destiny and they were able to use it to read a person’s trajectory and they also popularized the zodiac names we use today.

Back then in Greece, every sign of the zodiac represented a Greek goddess, god, or any other important figure. The names of the western constellation zodiac signs also came from the 12 Olympian gods of Greek mythology. These gods were called the Olympic gods because they were believed to live on Mount Olympus (the highest mountain in Greece). When the Romans conquered Greece, they changed the names of all but one of the gods. For example, Zeus a Greek god was now named Jupitar and Ares a war god was named Mars only Apollo’s name remained unchanged.

Each god was a protector of its sign and each sign was characterized with a different personality type coupled with its own weaknesses and strengths and every sign was influenced by a star or planet. 

Today, the names of the twelve (12) zodiac signs are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.