FRANCIS Bacon was of the opinion that "Men must pursue things which are just in the present, and leave the future to divine Providence". Weather forecasters, of course, have never heeded this advice, but at least they confine their predictions to the elements. Astrologers, on the other hand, are more ambitious: they try to discover the very core of human nature.
Astrology originated with the early Babylonians. They were a nomadic people, and they existed in an environment that allowed them a clear view of the unobstructed sky. They noticed that many of the brightest stars were arranged in groups, making the cohesive patterns which are called constellations. They gave these patterns names, calling them after gods and heroes, and after animals and other images with which they were familiar.
Careful study revealed that there was even more order in the heavenly array than might at first have been suspected. The constellations rose and marched across the sky in a great and regular procession, and then disappeared. Twelve of them received particular attention, because it was noticed that the sun and the moon always rose and set within the part of the sky which held one of the 12 - a part of the sky which came to be called the Zodiac, the "circle of living things".
The 12 constellations which appeared special in this way came to be called the Signs of the Zodiac. They were Taurus the bull, Aries the ram, Pisces the fish, Aquarius the water carrier, Capricorn the goat, Sagittarius the archer, Scorpio, the scorpion, Libra the scales, Virgo the virgin, Leo the lion, Cancer the crab and Gemini the twins.
Every month a different sign" appeared on the eastern horizon, and for that month the sun and the moon seemed to rise within its ambit. Given such a perfect order, it was but a small step to accepting the idea that divine energy was manifested in some way in this celestial synchronicity, and in due course it was believed that one could forecast the destiny of an individual by calculating which sign of the zodiac was nearest to the eastern horizon at the time that he was born.
The belief in this fate of preordained simplicity was almost universal until the late Middle Ages. Nowadays, however, we are more inclined to agree with Julius Caesar: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings".