History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.285
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.285
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Before proceeding further I must point out that India was not singular in its firm belief in Astrology The case was the same throughout Europe and among the Greeks after Alexander the Great. It has been already seen (p. 521) how Babylonian astrologers made reports to the king about the position of the Sun, the Moon and the planets and what they portended for the country, the king and the people Vide for example, Nos 9, 15, 16, 21, 32, 33, 52, 53, 63, 66, 67, 72, 74, 76, 86, 151, 164 from 'The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon' by R Campbell Thompson (vol I and II, Luzac and Co. London, 1900). But horoscopic astrology was developed by them later In the Old Testament Isaiah (759-710 B. C) 47 1 and 5 apostrophize Babylon as the daughter of the Chaldeans and in verse 13 we read 'let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee'. In Daniel 4.7 it is said that on Nebuchadnezzar's order 'came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans and the soothsayers.' Vide also Daniel 1 20 and 2.2 and 27.
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The Chaldeans held that the five planets specially controlled men's destinies and five Babylonian deities were identified with them As Bouchè-Leclercq observes (in 'L' Astrologie Grecque', p 572) 'Chaldean astrology had lived on a fund of naive ideas, it began at a time when the heavens were deemed to be nothing but a cover of the earth, when all the stars were ranged at small distances on the vault and the planets were supposed to move in the midst of stars like shepherds inspecting their flocks. Greek science having extended the world, the influence of stars moved back at enormous distances was not a postulate of common sense' (vide note 748 above). Herodotus⁸¹² (II. 82) refers to a peculiar practice of the Egyptians to regard each month and day as sacred to some deity, and says how from the day of a man's birth they determined his fortune, character and the manner of his death. But this has no reference to horoscopic Astrology. The Egyptians knew nothing about the Zodiac before the Alexandrian age There is no trace of astrology in early Greek astronomical writers and it appears that the Greeks got it from Babylon⁸¹³ after Alexander conquered Babylon, when teachers of astrology began to arrive in Greece. The Hellenistic mind was soon completely captivated by astrology.
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Before the advent of astrology the Greeks tried to peep into the future by oracles, interpretation of dreams and inspection of the entrails and livers of sacrificed animals, from the flight and cries of birds and from prodigies and unusual occurrences such as eclipses, comets and meteors Berossus⁸¹⁴, a priest of the god Bel at Babylon, dedicated to his patron Antiochus I Soter (280-261 B C.) an elaborate work on Babylonian and Chaldean history and it was he who was instrumental in spreading Babylonian astrology in Greece by first introducing it in his school at Cos, an island not far from the south-western corner of Asia Minor. From Greece astrology spread to Rome about the 2nd century B. C The signs of the Zodiac became house-hold words in Greece and Rome. Stoics like Posidonius helped it by defending it. Cato in⁸¹⁵ his work on agriculture warns a farmer against consulting a Chaldean and in 139 B. C. an Edict was passed for expelling Chaldeans from Italy. Diodorus⁸¹⁶ Siculus (a contemporary of Augustus of Rome) describes the theory and method of the Chaldeans in casting horoscopes. Horace⁸¹⁷ (died in 8 B. C) in his ode to Maecenas refers to the influence of the signs Libra, Scorpion and Capricornus and of the protective power of Jove and about baleful Saturn in his horoscope. Strabo,⁸¹⁸ who died in 24 A D., averred (XVI. 1.6) that some Chaldeans were skilled in astronomy and the casting of horoscopes. Petronius (1st century A.
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D ) describes in his novel Satyricon a dinner in forty pages in which a tray displayed the signs of the zodiac under each of which was placed appropriate food (vide Will Durant in "Caesar and Christ" page 298, (New York 1944). Juvenal,⁸¹⁹ who flourished about the close of the 1st century A D, strongly inveighs against ladies who have great confidence in Chaldean astrology. It should not, however, be supposed that no dissenting voice was raised against astrology in Rome and medieval Europe. Cicero did not believe in astrology⁸²⁰ as he said that the planets were too far away (Bouché Leclerq's work p 572). St. Augustine (354-430 A. D.) in his work 'City of God' calls astrology a delusion⁸²¹ There were some points of difference between Babylonian astrology and Greek astrology, viz Babylonian astrology originally at least was interested in the State and the royal family, while Greek astrology was interested only in the individual and Babylonian astrology was a priestly business while in Greece the astrologers were laymen. Astrology became a study of international importance in Europe and was cultivated in the Universities as a subject of real value throughout Europe by the side of astronomy. Its great vogue among even well educated people was due to its apparent scientific structure with its houses, planets, twelve signs and so forth Allen (in ‘Star-crossed Renaissance’ Preface p.
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VIII) says that everybody in the Renaissance period in the West believed to, some extent in astrology. In ‘Stars above us’ by Prof. E. Zinner, Tycho Brahe is quoted as saying that he prepared every year an astrological forecast for his king (p. 76). Even Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler practised astrology themselves or countenanced its practice. Bacon was prepared to say that there was no fatal necessity in the stars, but they rather incline than compel Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos reigned supreme for about 1400 years and is even now a work of great authority for those who believe in astrology. It may interest the reader to know that the great German poet, dramatist and philosopher, Goethe⁸²² (1749–1832), begins his Memoirs by mentioning the aspects of planets at his birth.