So where did astrology come from? It had to start somewhere. The origins may or may not surprise you but they are certainly fascinating as in its early beginnings many people felt that the battle between astrology and "real" science would destroy one or the other, with astrology being the likely victim. Interestingly, it didn't work out quite that way.

Long before there was ever such a thing as physics, chemistry, biology or any of those horrible subjects you cringed at having to take in high school, there was, believe it or not, astrology. Technically, this was the very first science, though there are those who would argue that it isn't a science at all but just a lot of hocus-pocus.

Astrology goes back to about 2900 BC. During this time, the Sumerians built temples in the form of pyramids. They did this to observe the stars and planets. Some say that it is even possible that Astrology goes back even farther than this but there is little evidence to support this theory.

It wasn't until about 2000 BC that the magi of Mesopotamia believed that there were indeed no accidents. He believed that everything in the universe including people, objects and all events, was connected. Not only did these magi, or priests study the stars but they also looked for omens in weather patterns. They would predict future events from the internal organs of many animals and even listened to the words of trees, dogs, cats and insects to hear what they had to say.

The main use of astrology, however, was to study the relationship between the position of the Earth and other bodies in the heavens such as planets, stars and even meteors and asteroids. They believed beyond any doubt that the position of each object in the universe has an effect on every person and even on our planet. It should be pointed out that with astrology, our Earth has no effect on these bodies themselves. This may or may not be true. Nobody knows for certain.

Because astrology was the first science, it was the first science taught in universities and continued to be taught all the way up until the 1600s. During this time the so called "rational" sciences began to take over and astrology was looked at as more of a myth. Ironically, however, almost all astrology professors were college educated with degrees in various fields, mostly in psychology or counseling.

In spite of this education, especially today, astrology is not taken very seriously as an academic discipline. Some colleges may still offer classes on the subject but programs specializing in astrology are pretty much non existent. Still, there are many people in the world, including well educated people who take astrology quite seriously.

The battle between real science and the occult will no doubt continue. But for the purposes of this series of articles we will treat astrology like the serious science that it was 4000 years ago when man first began to study the stars and the planets.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Astrology