Divination Toolkit: The Astrology Series- A Brief History

Greetings beloveds,

I’m very excited to begin a new divination series focused on Astrology. This spring The Bliss Institute will provide an introduction to astrology as a form of divination focusing on the Western 12 House, Planet, and Signs. We’ll start with a brief history of astrology to explain how this practice came to be. Then we will cover the fire and earth signs followed by a post over the air and earth signs. Then in May we will discuss the planets, their meanings, and associations. Concluding in June with an overview of the astrological houses and how they apply to astrology. Here we go!

A Brief History of Astrology

It is believed that astrology as we are familiar with it today began with the Egyptians, but it is noted that the Babylonians were the earliest found to have recorded charts of the stars and planets. These were used to track the cycles of time, seasons, and days. At that time astrology and astronomy were synonymous, having not yet been divided into different systems. From the Babylonians, astrology was passed to the Greeks and further developed by many of today’s famous Greek philosophers. Astrology grew in scope through it’s acceptance by the Romans, Arabic groups, and eventually the world. Primarily used as a way to track weather patterns, predict weather conditions, and assist in agriculture astrology played an important role in culture and society.

Astrology as we know it now being associated with the particular attributes of animals through the zodiac holds its origins in Greek culture. Zodiac, derived from the the late French term zodiaque from the Latin term zoidiakos from zoidion meaning sculpted animal figure which comes from the word zoion meaning animal. The zodiac, in terms of astrology, is associated with about an 8 degree band of celestial space on either side of the ecliptic or the path that intersects with the sun over a year which can be divided into 12 equal spaces. Along with there being 12 moon cycles each year it was a simple conclusion to assign 12 representations to each section. These became the 12 zodiac signs which represented specific traits and attributes that those in those sections were found to hold.

The 12 signs are associated with an element, direction, planet and house as can be seen here:

Sign	Dates	Element	Direction	Planets	House
Aries	March 20-April 19	Fire	Cardinal	Mars	1
Taurus	April 20- May 20	Earth	Fixed	Venus	2
Gemini	May 21-June 20	Air	Mutable	Mercury	3
Cancer	June 21-July 22	Water	Cardinal	Moon	4
Leo	July 23-August 22	Fire	Fixed	Sun	5
Virgo	August 23-September 22	Earth	Mutable	Mercury	6
Libra	September 23-October 22	Air	Cardinal	Venus	7
Scorpio	October 23-November 21	Water	Fixed	Pluto	8
Sagittarius	November 22-December 21	Fire	Mutable	Jupiter	9
Capricorn	December 22- January 19	Earth	Cardinal	Saturn	10
Aquarius	January 20- February 18	Air	Fixed	Uranus	11
Pisces	February 19- March 20	Water	Mutable	Neptune	12

 

Over the next few months we’ll dive deeper into each one of these aspects of astrology creating a brief but comprehensive guide to astrology. The purpose of this will be to have an on site resource to help you better understand any posts that feature astrology aspects or references.

I’m so excited for this new project and look forward to learning with you all!

With love,

-Rose