Effects on world culture

Astrology has had a profound influence over the past few thousand years on Western and Eastern cultures. In the middle ages, when even the educated of the time believed in astrology, the system of heavenly spheres and bodies was believed to reflect on the system of knowledge and the world itself below.

Astrology has had an influence on both language and literature. For example, influenza, from medieval Latin influentia meaning influence, was so named because doctors once believed epidemics to be caused by unfavorable planetary and stellar influences. The word "disaster" comes from the Latin dis-aster meaning "bad star". Adjectives "lunatic" (Luna/Moon), "mercurial" (Mercury), "venereal" (Venus), "martial" (Mars), "jovial" (Jupiter/Jove), and "saturnine" (Saturn) are all old words used to describe personal qualities said to resemble or be highly influenced by the astrological characteristics of the planet, some of which are derived from the attributes of the ancient Roman gods they are named after. In literature, many writers, notably Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare, used astrological symbolism to add subtlety and nuance to the description of their characters' motivation(s). Often, an understanding of astrological symbolism is needed to fully appreciate such literature.

Some modern thinkers, notably Carl Jung, believe in astrology's descriptive powers regarding the mind without necessarily subscribing to its predictive claims. In education astrology is reflected in the university education of medieval Europe, which was divided into seven distinct areas, each represented by a particular planet and known as the seven liberal arts. Dante Alighieri speculated that these arts, which grew into the sciences we know today, fitted the same structure as the planets. In music the best known example of astrology's influence is in the orchestral suite called "The Planets" by the British composer Gustav Holst, the framework of which is based upon the astrological symbolism of the planets.

Are, Muslims, allowed to read our daily, monthly or yearly horoscopes?

Sheikh Sayyed M. Ad-Darsh, the former Chairman of the UK Shri`ah Council, states the following:

"Let us make this absolutely clear that there is no room in Islam for anyone predicting the future. True, if anyone reads horoscopes thinking that the stars will accurately chart his or her life, his Prayers will not be accepted by Allah, according to a prophetic Hadith in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The prayer of one who goes to a soothsayer, asks him something and believes in what he says, will not be accepted for forty days.". This applies equally to those consulting soothsayers and clairvoyants who cannot exercise any influence on their future.

Of course, one could argue that there is nothing wrong in a harmless glance at the horoscopes once in a while as long as you as one does not believe in them. But if you have a few glances at the horoscopes, you might find yourself unable to plan your day without looking at them."

Here, it is noteworthy to mention what the prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi states in his well-known book, the Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam:

"Believing in those who foretell the future constitutes Kufr (disbelief). Islam's campaign was not confined to the soothsayers and diviners but included all those who go to them, ask their help, and believe in their superstitions and errors. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "The prayer of one who goes to a soothsayer, asks him something and believes in what he says, will not be accepted for forty days." (Reported by Muslim)

He is also reported to have said, "Whoever goes to a soothsayer and believes in what he says, has denied what was revealed to Muhammad."

The above ruling is based on the fact that what was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) asserts that the knowledge of the Unseen belongs to Allah alone and that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) has no knowledge of it, much less anyone else: "Say: I do not tell you that the treasures of Allah are with me or that I know the Unseen, nor do I tell you that I am an angel; I follow only what is revealed to me." (Al-An`aam: 50)

If, after being aware of this clear and explicit statement of the Qur'an, a Muslim believes that some people can foretell future events and know the secrets of the Unseen, he has indeed denied what was revealed to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)"

Significance of Astrology in Judaism

In Judaism, Astrology is not regarded as "idol worship," even though the generic name for "idol worship" is "Avodat Kochavim U'Mazalot," Worship of the Stars and the Signs of the Zodiac."

From the Jewish perspective, the stars are not unrelated to events on earth. It is not irrelevant whether one was born on Pesach, or Yom Kippur, or Lag Ba'Omer or on any particular day. Each day is special and has a unique imprint.

On the other hand, if an individual was born under the "sign" of Mars, the Talmud says that he will have a tendency to spill blood. This tendency can be realized in a number of very different ways, however, which are subject to an individual's choice. In this case, options might be a soldier, a surgeon, a murderer, a "shochet," a ritual slaughterer of animals, or a "mohel," one who performs ritual circumcisions. These options correspond to a potential hero, a healer, one who violates the "image of G-d," to those who do "holy work" of different types.

There is a principle, "Ayn Mazal L'Yisrael," "Israel's fate is not determined by the stars." The Jew, raised in his People's traditions and Torah values, feels the reality of "freedom of choice" in his bones. So deeply ingrained is this knowledge and feeling, that the Jew rarely has cause to think about astrological factors.

It is the belief that one cannot escape from the grip of the stars that distinguishes Astrology from "Worship of the Stars and Signs of the Zodiac." It is always possible to define one's fate, by choosing behavior which is guided by morality and integrity, within the parameters - intellectual and emotional, physical and spiritual, which a person is given to work with.

OVERVIEW

Historically, most cultures have not made a clear distinction between the two disciplines, lumping them both together as one. In ancient Babylonia, famed for its astrology, there were not separate roles for the astronomer as predictor of celestial phenomena, and the astrologer as their interpreter; both functions were performed by the same person. This overlap does not mean that astrology and astronomy were always regarded as one and the same. In ancient Greece, presocratic thinkers such as Anaximander, Xenophanes, Anaximenes, and Heraclides speculated about the nature and substance of the stars and planets. Astronomers such as Eudoxus (contemporary with Plato) observed planetary motions and cycles, and created a geocentric cosmological model that would be accepted by Aristotle -- this model generally lasted until Ptolemy, who added epicycles to explain certain motions. The Platonic school promoted the study of astronomy as a part of philosophy because the motions of the heavens demonstrate an orderly and harmonious cosmos. In the third century B.C.E., Babylonian astrology began to make its presence felt in Greece. Astrology was criticized by Hellenistic philosophers such as the Academic Skeptic Carneades and Middle Stoic Panaetius. However, the notions of the Great Year (when all the planets complete a full cycle and return to their relative positions) and eternal recurrence were Stoic doctrines that made divination and fatalism possible.

While the Greek words astrologia and astronomia were often used interchangeably, they were conceptually not the same. Both words more often than not referred to astronomy. The words for astrology proper, were more typically apotelesma and katarkhê.


The earliest to differentiate between the terms astronomy and astrology was Isidore of Seville in the 7th century, while the earliest semantic distinction between astronomy and astrology was given by the Persian astronomer and astrologer Abu Rayhan al-Biruni circa 1000.

Astrology was widely accepted in the Middle Ages as astrological texts from Hellenistic and Arabic astrologers were translated into Latin. In the late Middle Ages, its acceptance or rejection often depended on its reception in the royal courts of Europe. Not until the time of Francis Bacon was astrology rejected as a part of scholastic metaphysics rather than empirical observation. A more definitive split between astrology and astronomy the West took place gradually in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when astrology was increasingly thought of as an occult science or superstition by the intellectual elite. Because of their lengthy shared history, it sometimes happens that the two are confused with one another even today. Many contemporary astrologers, however, do not claim that astrology is a science, but think of it as a form of divination like the I-Ching, an art, or a part of a spiritual belief structure (influenced by trends such as Neoplatonism, Neopaganism, Theosophy, and Hinduism).

History
In the decade before personal computers became available, astrologers who wanted their charts calculated for them by computer could send payment to Astro Computing Services (ACS) in San Diego and receive printed charts by mail. Founded by 17-year IBM employee Neil Michelsen (5/11/1931 - 5/15/1990) in 1973, ACS published the first computer-generated ephemeris in 1976, The American Ephemeris, providing an alternative to Raphael's Astronomical Ephemeris of the Planets' Places from Britain and the Golgge Tages-Ephemeride from Germany. Along with Thomas Shanks, Rique Pottenger, and other members of the ACS staff, Neil produced more than 20 sets of ephemerides and tables, including atlas/time zone change reference books, and tables of houses, asteroids, heliocentric, sidereal, and planetary phenomena.

When personal computers first became available, astrologers and astrology hobbyists were quick to purchase them and to look for astrological/astronomical calculation software. The job of calculating the planet and house positions for someone's place and time of birth from a printed ephemeris and table of houses by hand with pencil and paper or even with an electronic calculator took about one hour. And there was no guarantee that the calculations were made without mistakes.

Astrologer Michael Erlewine was the first astrologer to write complete astrological programs for microcomputers, in 1977, and make them available to other astrologers. In 1978, Erlewine founded Matrix Software. Matrix Software, some 28 years later, is still the largest astrology software company in the U.S.

A number of other astrologers or their spouses wrote programs to quickly do the astronomical calculations on early personal computers. When electronic bulletin board systems became popular with the introduction of 1200 bit/s modems in 1985, astrologers began to search for a downloadable calculation program. To meet this demand, John Halloran wrote and released into the public domain a program first for CP/M computers and then for the IBM PC. The final version of this popular download to be released with source code was version 7, also called ASTROLPC.BAS. A number of astrologers subsequently told Halloran that they had been working on their own programs, but that, after trying his free program, they switched to using it. Similarly, astrologers on the internet sought an astrological calculation program that would work on Unix systems. This demand was met by the open source software program Astrolog, first posted to Usenet in 1991.

The Astrology Book (2003) by author James R. Lewis includes the history of several of the major astrology software companies. The Matrix Software company began in 1977 as a magazine that published astrological/astronomical algorithms contributed by hobbyists before anyone realized that computer software would become a business. By 1986, commercial programs included Blue*Star from Matrix, CCRS and Nova from Astrolabe, and Graphic Astrology for Macintosh from Time Cycles Research. The Astrology Book also profiles Cosmic Patterns Software (1983), Halloran Software (1985), and Esoteric Technologies (1993). During the decade of the 1990s, these companies made the switch from linear menu-driven programs that tried to maximize what could be done in a small amount of memory to object-oriented programs for Windows and the Mac that exploited newer computers' graphic interface and huge RAM memory. The Solar Fire program from Esoteric Technologies and the AstrolDeluxe for Windows program from Halloran Software both came out in 1992. Halloran's Astrology for Windows freeware/shareware program, which is available now in 15 languages, came out in 1994.