Rising Moon | The History of Astrology

With the recent launch of our new Rising Moon Collection which includes the 12 Zodiac Signs, we wanted to share with you about the fascinating subject that is astrology. We all know that this 'concept' of the Zodiacs has been around for thousands of years and it has influenced us and so many others before, but we wanted to delve a little deeper and learn how it has truly affected our history.

Crazy fact No. 1:The first beliefs of correspondences between celestial observations and terrestrial events is dated back to the 3^rd millennium Before Christ! Early civilizations of Mesopotamia had already identified some of the biggest constellations we still refer to today. They quickly realized that the moment these constellations were visible corresponded to specific times during the year, creating a sort of calendar. At that time,astrology was more deterministic. People hunted, planted and migrated with the stars, living in perfect rhythm with nature’s cycles which helped civilizations survive - Makes sense right? Seasons changes, ocean & tides, discovering an out of earth existence, planets circulating etc... 

Crazy fact No. 2. The oldest known horoscope chart is believed to date to 409 B.C!

Starting from 2 400 B.C, Babylonians continued to explore the starry sky and, inventing the first astrological system over thousands of years. After lots of observing, documenting and discovering patterns, they created the zodiac wheel we still use today. Along with developments in other fields like medicine, mathematics and philosophy, Greek Civilizations came up with the modern names for planets and zodiac signs. They also created core techniques on how to read and interpret astrology so everyone else could comprehend this complex yet magical system!

Astrology flourished in the Middle Ages and became an important part of everyday culture, practiced by doctors, mathematicians and astronomers 'globally'. People considered astrology a true, reliable science to determine their future and the decisions they made. But as Religion and the Church gained power, the belief in astrology started declining...

During the Age of Enlightenment, with so many new discoveries, astrology declined even more, and people became skeptical. It was viewed more as an entertainment than a science, and astrologers even had to work under pseudonyms. The 19^th Century renewed interest in spirituality and mysticism, especially in England which is something we still see to this day.

Nowadays we have easy access only to Star-Sign-based horoscopes, reducing astrology to a very simple study. In fact, the study of the Zodiacs, planets and astrology is much more complicated than that and would take years of dedicated study & learning to ever fully understand.

Technology and the internet has made it very easy to learn the surface values of our own individual 'Sun, Moon & Rising' signs as well as get your own birth chart (you can do it here). However once you do a little more research, knowing and understanding your signs & chart is a whole other story as this includes all of the other planets in our Solar System....Interested in learning more? Watch this space!

You can check out our 'Rising Moon' Zodiac collection of necklaces online over here.