From Omens to Horoscopes: A Brief but Informative History of Astrology

From Omens to Horoscopes: A Brief but Informative History of Astrology

Astrology is ancient. How ancient, you ask? Well, it’s older than math, older than most religions, and much older than your grandmother’s zodiac tattoo. What started as a way to read omens in the sky evolved into a richly symbolic system that is still helping people make sense of their own lives today. 

In this blog, we are going to take a journey through stars and time to see where astrology came from, how it changed, and where we are now. 

3,000 - 1,000 BCE: The Original Stargazers

Our first stop is Babylon and the Babylonians did not skip a beat. By around 2,000 BCE, they were already tracking the movement of celestial bodies and recording eclipses with scary accuracy. They believed the heavens reflected the will of the gods and that the fate of kings (as well as crops) could be read in the stars. 

The Babylonians laid the foundation for what would eventually become horoscopic astrology, dividing the sky into 12 equal parts (aka the Zodiac). They didn’t have fancy apps, but they had clay tablets…and those clay tablets lasted longer than Nokias. 

1,000 - 500 BCE: Egypt and the Greeks - The Philosophers

The Egyptians contributed plenty, especially when it came to decans (10-degree segments of the Zodiac) and their famous obsession with the stars (look at the pyramids and Sirius if you don’t know what I mean). However, it was the Greeks who truly geeked about astrology and developed philosophy around it. 

In the 5th-4th centuries BCE, philosophers like Plato and Aristotle considered the cosmos a perfectly ordered and divine mechanism. Then came Ptolemy, the astronomer, the astrologer, and living encyclopedia. His Tetrabiblos became the go-to astrology manual for centuries to follow. 

This is when astrology split into two main branches:

Natural Astrology - Study of the weather, seasons, and medicine.

Judicial Astrology - Study of predicting individual and political futures.

0 - 500 BCE: Rome and the Rise of Natal Charts

In Rome, astrology was booming. Especially, personal astrology. Birth charts (aka natal charts) became a hot commodity. So much so that Emperor Augustus had charts commissioned. Some used astrology to rule while others tried to ban it out of fear it could reveal some inconvenient truths (like when they were going to be assassinated).

The early Christian church was a little suspicious about astrology whether it be because it was too pagan or too fatalistic, but the system had already spread far and wide. 

500 - 1100 CE: The Islamic Golden Age

While Europe was deep in the Dark Ages, the Islamic world preserved, translated, and expanded upon the Greek and Roman astrological texts. Scholars like Al-Biruni and Masha’Allah were refining planetary calculations and blending astrology with philosophy, medicine, and math.

This was a time of massive development and respect for astrology as a serious science. 

1100 - 1600 CE: Medieval Europe

Thanks to translations from Arabic to Latin, astrology made a comeback in Europe. Especially, in universities. It was taught alongside medicine and astronomy. Doctors used astrology to diagnose illnesses and determine treatment. Charting the sky before a major surgery? Totally normal! Even Thomas Aquinas, the ultimate church man, admitted the stars might influence the body (just not the soul), which is a pretty huge endorsement for astrology at the time. 

1600 - 1800 CE: The Enlightenment and Divorce Papers

This era is when astrology started losing its official credibility. With the rise of the scientific method, people wanted testable, measurable, and repeatable results. Enter the astrology homewreckers: Newton, Galileo, and Kepler. With them, astronomy officially divorced astrology.

However, Kepler still liked astrology. He only hated bad astrologers. Unfortunately, the academic world moved on and downgraded astrology as superstition. It still existed but in hushed tones, in privacy, and in almanacs. 

1800 - 1900: The Occult Revival

Victorian spiritualists and mystics brought astrology back into the public eye alongside tarot, seances, and a general obsession with the beyond. In the 20th century, Carl Jung (you’re right, the psychologist) called astrology “the summation of all psychological knowledge of antiquity.”

Then came newspaper horoscopes, which simplified astrology into sun signs and easy phrases. Millions loved it. Purists were weeping. Astrology made another comeback for the masses.

 2000 - Now: The Astro Renaissance

Astrology is everywhere again. From memes and mobile apps to therapy offices and TikTok, astrology has evolved beyond sun signs into full personality systems using birth charts, transits, and planetary archetypes. 

Thanks to the internet, astrology is now:

• More accessible - A wide range of apps that have astrology as its core focus

• More inclusive - No more flat horoscopes

• More self-reflective - Used for growth and not just prediction. 

It’s not about believing if it’s hokey or not anymore. It’s about exploring yourself through an ancient, symbolic lens. 

Astrology has never really disappeared. It’s been reshaped by empires, religions, revolutions, and technology. At its core, it’s always been a way for humans to find meaning in the sky. Whether we’re casting birth charts on parchment or iPhones, we’re asking the same questions…

What is the universe saying to me?