All the Great Astrologers Every Believer Should Know About
The 21st century is the era of science and technology. This makes it so easy to crowd out things left for us by our ancestors. The list of those is clearly the extensive one, but what we are hinting at is astrology along with all the things related to it. In fact, astrology is a science many people seem to undermine nowadays. To be honest, most of them claim that astronomy is a science in the full sense of the word, but astrology is just a hobby for some folk. We think that it is an unfair approach, and we are going to try and even things out a little. We’ll prove that astrology does have the right to exist as well as that astrologers are as good scientists as all the others.
It would be only fair to describe in a few words how astrology works. The truth is that astrology is a language. Just like with any foreign language, it takes time and effort to learn it in order to read and translate it. That is primarily what astrologers do. They learn how to decipher the language of the sky and then bring it to the masses put in simple words, which we, the majority of the Earth population, are able to understand. That is one of those key points that so many modern people choose to leave unnoticed, whereas it is highly important, and it does not take a scientist to figure that out.
Astrology is a language of symbols and signs, so there is no wonder why it is so unacceptable for some people. Many of us seem to pretend that something does not exist or is not real, as long as we cannot understand or explain it. It is exactly how it sounds – wrong, but there is nothing we can do about it. However, the fact remains that astrology works, and the number of people who claim the science is more than effective is also more than impressive. The truth is that in a host of cases, it is astrology that helps people understand their lives and themselves as well as why certain things happen and how to benefit from that. We think that as long as something helps people improve their lives and find their calling, it is worthy of attention.
We know that the matter of astrology is highly interesting, intricate and deep, no matter what some tend to claim. However, today, we are going to center on those particular people who helped the science exist through all the ages. This means that we shall bring to your attention the number of known and prominent astrologers who lived throughout the centuries, starting from the very ancient times. Once you get over with the list, you will see the reason why astrology is so popular up to these days and who has contributed to it.
Claudius Ptolemy
We shall begin with such a prominent astrology figure in the known history as Claudius Ptolemy. The fact that he lived almost two thousand years ago didn’t affect the contribution he made. During the second century the astrologer lived in, he was someone we call a polymath. At that point in time, the profession wasn’t much valued in Roman Egypt, but Ptolemy did everything he could to be known as well as remembered. One of the significant contributions he made was the topical zodiac adoption. His idea was that planets are directly responsible for bringing some changes rather than just serving as the omens that predict some future events. We must admit that at that time, the idea was not only innovative and radical but also heretical to the extent. Yet, that didn’t stop the scientist who strived to leave his mark in history.
Two centuries after Ptolemy’s death, astrologers all over the globe used his Tetrabiblos as a textbook full of revelations. Even thousands of years after the astrologer’s death, his followers all over the world tend to use these translations in their interpretations.
If you are into astrology and you are eager to learn more as you are moving through, then it is a name you should remember. It seems that after all, the greatest dream of the astrologer has come true.
Nechepso and Petosiris
As a matter of fact, there is a little proof of what these two stated figures did for the science of astrology, but what is left up till these days defines their importance, there is no doubt about that.
To begin with, we should state that there were some quite serious book series written during the 1st century BC. The books formed the basic knowledge about the Hellenistic astrology tradition, which traveled to our modern world. It needs to be noted that there was no author who would claim the books to be of his authorship, but instead, they were all ascribed to Nechepso as well as Petosiris. The two were a king of Egypt and a priest correspondingly. No one knows how true the facts are, though.
There is very little left of the original books, only some quotes, and also references, but these can still define that the two figures are the oldest astrologers in the present history.
Masha’allah
Another recognized astrologer is Masha’allah. The astrologer lived during the 8th century in Baghdad. What made him famous was the suggestion he gave to a ruler of the Islamic Caliphate. He offered a favorable chart when it came to moving the capital. This is how Baghdad became the capital of the Islamic Empire in 762 if you believe the remains of his story.
Apart from that, Masha’allah’s astrological treatises were used by next-generation astrologers centuries later. It should be added the astrologer also wrote texts on horary astrology, which survived until nowadays. This would be another name on your famous-astrologers-to-remember list.
Alan Leo
Not everyone knows, however, there is a vast gap between 17th-century astrology and 20th century. No one really knows the origins of such a decline of interest in astrology, but at least we are now aware of the father of present-day astrology. You may have already guessed it is Alan Leo. The astrologer was born in 1860 and dedicated his life to the science of astrology. Leo was the author of many books, as well as magazines that remain influential up to these days. Apart from that, the astrologer is the founder of such an organization as Astrological Lodge of London, which remains active up till these days.
The main task the astrologer set for himself was to bring astrology closer to people. He wanted to simplify the knowledge so that all of his students would be able to understand it. Besides, he wanted astrology to be taught to all who were interested in it, without exception.
Alan Leo’s approach and also his connection made it possible for astrology to thrive again not only in England but also all over Europe. He died at the age of 57 in 1917.
Vettius Valens
Strangely enough but Roman times were extremely rich in talented and known astrologers and other types of scientists. Vettius Valens is yet another Roman scientist with a high curiosity about astrology. One of the well-known works of his is Anthology. The anthology is not just one text – it is rather a book series on astrology.
What makes Anthology as well as its author quite peculiar is the fact that aside from more than a hundred charts, it also contains works of astrologers that lived before Valens’s times. There are no other tomes in the world, which contain the same information as Anthology does. Among these charts, some are drawn for regular people, but there are also those that belong to vary famous people too. For instance, Nero, the known emperor, is also on the list, and that means a lot.
We should add that Valens’s texts have some personal thoughts and ideas included, not to mention some peculiar anecdotes and that sort of thing. Such a peculiar approach to astrology defines the astrologer as a highly educated and witty one.
Nostradamus
We are convinced that all of you have already heard the name of Nostradamus at one or another point in your life. What is more, some of you may even know that he was the famous prophet whose prophecies traveled to the modern world. Some of his prophecies have not come to life yet, and some are not even deciphered. What you may not know is that Nostradamus is not a real person. It was just a pen name for a physician Michel de Nostredame.
Michel lived during the 16th century and created many famous works over the course of his life. The prominent book of his is The Prophecies. What makes the book so popular is the fact that it contains countless predictions about the future. Nostredame wrote all the prophecies in the form of quatrains. Those of you who do not know what quatrains are – they are short poems that consist of four cryptic lines.
It has been noted that all the poems in The Prophecies contain actual prophecies connected to the future, and the author himself claims that he came up with those using astrology for the most part.
All the stated above may seem like Nostradamus was one of the prominent astrologers of all time. However, that is far from the truth. The fact remains that the prophecies do not contain any technical proofs that support astrology as a science.
Dane Rudhyar
If you think about it for a while, Dane Rudhyar can be considered as one of the best-known astrologers of modern times. What made him so popular was his peculiar approach to the science of astrology. The truth is that against the background of traditional science, he decided to discover the relation between deep psychology and astrology.
We must say that he really succeeded in the research since his particular approach to astrology and deep psychology remains on the pedestal up till these days. That aside, the famous physician didn’t produce any technical works, and that makes his contribution quite insignificant when it comes to the science itself.
William Lilly
It wouldn’t be a secret to state that for the longest time, all books were written only in Latin, and astrology books were clearly not the exception. Nevertheless, in 1647, the book Christian Astrology was released, and it was written not in Latin but in English. The author of this book was William Lilly. The book he published was a sort of astrological manual that had been making its impact on the next generations for centuries.
If you wonder what was the best essential thing that the astrologer did – he predicted the Great Fire of London more than ten years prior to the accident. Despite the fact that he was later charged for setting the fire himself, all the charges were dropped during the trials.
Dorotheus of Sidon
The last name on this list is clearly not the least significant than all the mentioned above. The truth is that Dorotheus of Sidon made such an impact upon electional astrology that it can be felt during modern days as well.
His work was not a manual or a regular text – it was a poem. Surely, you would agree that a poem on the science of astrology is an unusual approach to the field. In addition, it is an excellent example of classical Greek poetry of the time. Anyway, it remains the best guiding light for thousands of years throughout the globe.
To sum everything up, it is safe to state that astrology is both foreign language and interesting science. The field of astrology has attracted the best minds all over the globe throughout the centuries: some of them are long forgotten, but some survived up to this day. It is difficult to say that one of them cracked the code to the full extent, but the fact that they tried and left their valuable legacies behind matters greatly. One can say that astrology is a fiction or a myth, but the reality proves otherwise. If there were nothing to discover in the field, it wouldn’t attract all these powerful and wise people.