| Astrology's origins can be traced to third millennium BCE Mesopotamia, to the beginning of Western civilization. Mesopotamia's use of astrology in astral religion is both divinatory and magical, revealing its concern with the eternal questions of fate, free will, and the individual's relationship to the cosmos and the divine. Astrology differentiates and develops through diverse historical and cultural contexts; it influences and is influenced by the worldview it finds itself within---a paradoxical and complex relationship that continues to our present day. Today, the dominant scientific perspective dismisses astrology, and even much modern astrology does not recognize the divination, magic, and concrete prediction that comprises most ancient and traditional astrology. This thesis explores the philosophy and praxis of these forsaken branches of traditional astrology and argues for their re-adoption. Ancient and traditional views on the integral relationship between the individual, the collective, and the cosmos are also examined. |
