All,
Have you ever thought about where astrology CAME from? It clearly doesn't CAUSE anything to happen...it just indicates when things happen for PEOPLE. While there have been some attempts to create a "pet astrology" or other non-human astrology, the astrological symbolism simply doesn't match up with animals (e.g., no animals are going through a "Saturn return"). Also, astrology ONLY works on Earth: move anywhere else in the solar system and, while you will continue to experience your normal human cycles of (for example) the thirty-something years, Saturn (the planet whose return indicates on Earth the "thirty-something years") won't be in the right place to indicate anything from wherever in the solar system you are. This suggests that astrology was CREATED to be a SIGN for PEOPLE on EARTH so that they could understand both themselves and the other people around them better...sooooo WHO created it?
Wondering,
Tim
Hi Tim,
That would be the Sumerians or their fore-runners.
The Hebrew texts say Earth was divided in the day of Peleg.
That's taken from an older Sumerian story.
In that story, the gods were arguing over who was in charge, so the three chief gods An, Enlil and Ea (Anu, Enlil and Enki in Akkadian language) drew lots.
An got the heavens, Enlil got Europe and Enki got Africa.
Then the constellations were created to reflect this new order or scheme.
You have the Way of An which consists of the 12 constellations we know between 30 deg N and 30 deg S, then the Way of Enlil which was 12 constellations of stars between 30 deg N and 90 deg N and then the Way of Enki which was 12 constellations between 30 deg S and 90 deg S.
The stars in the constellations in the Way of Enlil are not an issue, but the stars in the constellations in the Way of Enki are problematic.
Sumer was located in south central Iraq, so they could see the stars that make up the constellations in the Way of Enlil, but not the stars in the constellations that make up the Way of Enki.
To see those stars, the Sumerians or somebody would have to travel below latitude 30 deg S and for some stars, they can only be seen from the tip of South Africa.
That tells us somebody was traveling to and from South Africa.
The interesting thing about these lists of constellations found in Sumer, Akkad, Babylon and the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal's library is that they all start with Pisces.
Why?
Was the Zodiac created during the Age of Pisces? That would have been 27,000 years ago circa 25,000 BCE.
We know the Sumerians knew Earth was a sphere and were aware of the phenomenon of precession, which means you have to believe Earth is a sphere. It's in all their art: Gemini, Taurus, Aries.
Recent excavations at Jericho show it was inhabited 9,500 years ago circa 7,500 BCE. It was apparently a trading outpost with just a dozen buildings or so.
The walls of those buildings have frescoes of crabs painted on them. That would be the Age of Cancer which just happens to be 9,000 years ago, so we know the Zodiac is at least 9,000 years old.
But, the Sumerians claim the Deluge (not the idiotic "Flood") happened during the Age of Leo, and more than that, claim a sphinx was built in the land of Magan (Egypt) to memorialize the event.
The sphinx had the face of a lion (for Leo) and since they were built in pairs, I suspect one might have been on the Saudi Peninsula by the Red Sea or on the west coast of India which was the domain of the goddess Ianna (Asherah in Canaanite and the wife of Yahweh).
That proves the Zodiac existed at least 12,000 years ago.
But if you created it during the Age of Leo and you know how to calculate backward to determine the other Ages, why would you stop at Pisces?
Why would you not start your list with Leo?
If the Zodiac was not created 27,000 years ago, then it would some very, very important event took place that we know nothing about yet happened at that time, and that's why the lists always start with Pisces.
Initially, astrology applied to kingdoms, then later to kings, then to social elites and then the common man.
We know the common man was consulting astrologers during the Amorite Period. The Amorites are the people everyone erroneously calls "Babylonians." After the Amorites came the Assyrians and then the people who ousted the Amorites returned with the 2nd Babylonian Empire. I'm not really sure who those people were, except that they were very cosmopolitan. Lots of different ethnic groups who had one thing in common: language.