Western Astrology

Our previous article talked about Indian Astrology and explained how it works. Now, we will focus on Western astrology that is widely prevalent in western countries. Its origin is traced to great ancient culture of Mesopotamia. It is said to be originated there and later on spread to other parts of the world. Egypt played a great role in development of western astrology. From Egypt, it moved to the historical land of Greece and there is witnessed the incorporation of new concepts.

Ptolemy was a Greek astrologer and astronomer and he is credited with introducing western astrological tradition. He wrote a book named ‘Tetrabiblos’ which contained foundations of the western astrological tradition. His theory took time of birth of a person in consideration and derived horoscope. Western astrology works on a different pattern than our own Indian astrology. According to them, different times witness different position of the cosmic bodies and that affects how our lives pan out.

Later on, western astrology moved to Middle-East and Arab and Persian scholars helped in reviving and refining western astrology and sent it to Europe. Astrology played a major role in European society. In medieval Europe, no function or policy announcement was performed without consulting astrologers. Western astrology is made up of twelve signs and further subdivided into four basic elements, Fire, Earth, Air and Water. The twelve zodiac signs represent twelve basic personality types.