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relig ion , aside from its myth–
ology, were the elaborate sys–
t em s o f mag i ca l pract ices
(incantations) and the inter–
pretation of omens (divination) ,
particularly the movements and
position of the heavenly bodies
(astrology), the actions of an i–
mals, and the character istics of
the liver of sacrificial victims (p.
26).
The Zodiac
T he Baby lonians we re a lso th e in –
ve ntors of the zodiac. The ir astrono–
mers di vid ed th e hea vens into
sections in o rde r to tell time a t night
as we ll as seasons of thc year. At
first the re we re sorne 36 sccti ons o r
areas, co rrcsponding to various sta rs
or conslc lla lions. Later lh is number
was reduced to 12, o r one con–
stella tion fo r each month of the
ye a r.
So mc o f l he Ba by lonian con–
slella ti ons o r "s igns" bore the same
names as they do today. Thus the
Ba by lon ian " bull o f Anu" is th e
conste llali on (or ign) Taurus; " t hc
Grea t Twins" a re lhe conste llation
Gem ini : "thc !ion" Leo: " th e scor–
pion" is nat ura lly Scorpio. Olh e r
igns, however, were given different
names by Greek aslro logers so rn e
centuries la te r; the " modern" names
fo r the signs of the zodiac a re ac–
tually G reek o r La tin .
Mos t, if no t a ll , o f th e con–
ste lla tions o f the Baby lonian zodiac
were mytho logica l figures which we
read a bout in the grea t Ba by loni a n
myths a nd ep ics. For instance t he
" bull o f Anu" was sent by the god–
dess lshla r to punish the he ro G ilga–
mesh . T he planets and the sta rs as
well were considercd divi ne beings:
the god Shamash was lhe sun , the
p lane l Ve nus ( Baby loni an Dilba t)
was lhe "s ta r" of lhe goddess Jsh ta r.
By about 450 B.C., thc pla ne ts,
sta rs, and zodiac wc re a ll put to–
gethe r into one cosmic system of the
gods tha l supposedly controll ed o r
inft uenced a n individua l's life he re
on ea rth .
The First Horoscopes
Nol coincidenta lly, it •s
JUSI
aboul
th is time tha t we havc th e first
known ho roscopcs. Th ese ho ro–
scopes, fo und inscribed on clay tab–
lc t s i n Ba by lo ni an cunei fo rm
cha raclers, we re cast a t lhe moment
14
o f birth . just as modern ho roscopes
a re cas t. And li ke modern horo–
scopes, lhey tell the exacl positions
o f the plane ls in lhe zod iac and how
th ey will inOuence the life of thc
newborn indi vidua l.
T he first known ho roscopc da tes
to the year 4 1O B.C. 1t is fo und on a
clay tab le l now kept a t Ox ford Uni–
ve rsily. l t reads:
Mon t h N isan , night of th e
14th ... son of Shumausur,
son of Shuma-iddina, descen–
dan t of Deke, was bo rn . At that
t ime the moon was below the
Horn of the Scorpion . Jupiter in
Pisces, Venus in Tau rus, Sa–
tu rn in Cancer, Mars in Gemini ;
Mercury, wh ich had set fo r the
1a s t t i m e w as s t i 11
i n v i s–
ible . .. Things wi l l be good for
you
( J ournal of Cun eiform
Studies,
1952, p . 54) .
Seve ra! o thcr ho roscopcs. quite sim–
ila r in form lo this one. a re known
from aboul lhe same time. lt is plain
from these records that astro logical
ho roscopes. applicd to human indi–
vidua ls at birth, were a Babylonian
invent ion.
The Greek Connection
By a bout 400 B.C.. Greek scient ists
and philosophers were lraveling
through o ul t h e Med it er r a n ea n
wo rld . Especia lly dur ing and a ft er
the time of Al exande r th e G rea t, the
G reeks began lo lea rn of the be liefs
a nd science o f the Babylonians,
Egyptians, a nd o th ers. With the
he lp of the Babyloni an priest Ber–
ossus, whose treatise on astrology
reached Gr ecce a bou l 250 B.C. .
they took over and modified the
Ba by lonia n system of aslrology. The
G reeks eve n kepl m a ny of th e
names for the astro logical signs; to
o lhers lhey gave new names . How–
ever, it was clea rly recognized that
the astrologica l pred ictions and in–
te rpre ta tions were still based on pa–
ga n Ba by loni a n my tho logy.
In the fi rst century B.C. , the
G reek hi stori an Diodo rus wrote the
fo llowing abou t the as trology of the
Cha ldeans:
Under the course in whic h the
planets move are situated, ac–
cording to them , thirty stars,
which they designate as
" counseling gods" ; of these,
one half oversee the regions
above the earth and the other
half those beneath the earth ,
havi ng un der their pu rview t he
affairs of mankind and likewise
those of t he heaven s ....
Twelve of these gods, they say,
hold chief autho ri ty, and to
each of these the Chal daeans
assig n a month and one of the
sign of the zodiac , as they are
called . And t hrough the midst
of these signs, they say, both
the sun and moon and the five
planets make their course ...
(Diodo rus, 11, 30, 30) .
T he G reek as trologers g rea tly
mod ified and embe llished the as tro–
logica l system tha t the Cha ldean
div ina tion pri es ts had deviscd . They
o rganized
a~ trologi ca l
me th ods in to
a complex scheme of hou es, a -
pects, signs. and planets. with doz–
ens. if not hundreds. of ru les a nd
va ri a tion .
The greatesl of lhe Greek astro lo–
gc rs was lhe Al exandri an as trono–
me r and ma lhematici a n Cla udius
Pto lemy. H is astro logica l wo rk.
The
Terrabiblos,
became the handbook
upon wh ich a ll subsequent astro logy
i based. Howeve r, even in th is "sci–
en tific" wo rk . importan t traces o f
Ba bylonian and G reek my tho logy
slill appear. Not ice Pto lemy's com–
ments on t he influence of the pla ne t
Mars (in G reek and Roman myth–
o logy the god of war):
Mars . .. br ings abo ut wars ,
c ivil facti on, capture, enslave–
ment, uprising, the wrath of
leaders, and sudden death s
arising from such cases . ..
(Tetrabiblos,
11 , 8) .
While ma ny o f Pto lemy's inte r–
p re ta tions o f the heavens stem from
the (mistaken ) astronomica l be liefs
o f h is day, it is clear that much of
his astrology is ultimately based on
pagan my tho logy, whi ch in many
respects goes baek to the my ths and
be liefs of anc ienl Ba by lon. Fu rther–
more, th e e labo rate astrological sys–
tem wo rked out by Ptolemy act ua lly
fo rms the basis of m uch o f mode rn
as trology.
This then is the o rigin of a p rac–
t ice fo llowed by millions o f twen–
tie th-cen tury devotees. Regard less
of whe ther one actua lly be li eves in
as trology or no t. it is clea r tha t sueh
beli efs ultima te ly or igina ted in the
magic and superstition of th e divi–
nation p ri ests of ancient Baby lonia
and Assyria . D
The
PLAIN TRUTH November 1976