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Astrology

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oceanknowledge0
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century,[1][2]

that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying
the apparent positions of celestial objects.[3][4][5][6][7] Different cultures have employed forms of
astrology since at least the 2nd millennium BCE, these practices having originated in calendrical systems
used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications.[8]
Most, if not all, cultures have attached importance to what they observed in the sky, and some—such as
the Hindus, Chinese, and the Maya—developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from
celestial observations. Western astrology, one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its
roots to 19th–17th century BCE Mesopotamia, from where it spread to Ancient Greece, Rome, the
Islamic world, and eventually Central and Western Europe. Contemporary Western astrology is often
associated with systems of horoscopes that purport to explain aspects of a person's personality and
predict significant events in their lives based on the positions of celestial objects; the majority of
professional astrologers rely on such systems.[9]

Throughout its history, astrology has had its detractors, competitors and skeptics who opposed it for
moral, religious, political, and empirical reasons.[10][11][12] Nonetheless, prior to the Enlightenment,
astrology was generally considered a scholarly tradition and was common in learned circles, often in
close relation with astronomy, meteorology, medicine, and alchemy.[13] It was present in political
circles and is mentioned in various works of literature, from Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer to
William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, and Pedro Calderón de la Barca. During the Enlightenment,
however, astrology lost its status as an area of legitimate scholarly pursuit.[14][15] Following the end of
the 19th century and the wide-scale adoption of the scientific method, researchers have successfully
challenged astrology on both theoretical[16][17] and experimental grounds,[18][19] and have shown it
to have no scientific validity or explanatory power.[20] Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical
standing in the western world, and common belief in it largely declined, until a continuing resurgence
starting in the 1960s.[21]Main article: Milky Way (mythology)

In the Babylonian epic poem Enūma Eliš, the Milky Way is created from the severed tail of the primeval
salt water dragoness Tiamat, set in the sky by Marduk, the Babylonian national god, after slaying her.
[40][41] This story was once thought to have been based on an older Sumerian version in which Tiamat
is instead slain by Enlil of Nippur,[42][43] but is now thought to be purely an invention of Babylonian
propagandists with the intention to show Marduk as superior to the Sumerian deities.[43]

In Greek mythology, Zeus places his son born by a mortal woman, the infant Heracles, on Hera's breast
while she is asleep so the baby will drink her divine milk and become immortal. Hera wakes up while
breastfeeding and then realizes she is nursing an unknown baby: she pushes the baby away, some of her
milk spills, and it produces the band of light known as the Milky Way. In another Greek story, the
abandoned Heracles is given by Athena to Hera for feeding, but Heracles' forcefulness causes Hera to rip
him from her breast in pain.[44][45][46]

Llys Dôn (literally "The Court of Dôn") is the traditional Welsh name for the constellation Cassiopeia. At
least two of Dôn's children also have astronomical associations: Caer Gwydion ("The fortress of
Gwydion") is the traditional Welsh name for the Milky Way,[47][48] and Caer Arianrhod ("The Fortress
of Arianrhod") being the constellation of Corona Borealis.[49][50]

In Western culture, the name "Milky Way" is derived from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky"
glowing band arching across the night sky. The term is a translation of the Classical Latin via lactea, in
turn derived from the Hellenistic Greek γαλαξίας, short for γαλαξίας κύκλος (galaxías kýklos), meaning
"milky circle". The Ancient Greek γαλαξίας (galaxias) – from root γαλακτ-, γάλα ("milk") + -ίας (forming
adjectives) – is also the root of "galaxy", the name for our, and later all such, collections of stars.[51][52]
[53]

The Milky Way, or "milk circle", was just one of 11 "circles" the Greeks identified in the sky, others being
the zodiac, the meridian, the horizon, the equator, the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the Arctic Circle
and the Antarctic Circle, and two colure circles passing through both poles.[54]

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