Western astrology, a more common form of simplification, is what today calls "constellation divination." Astrology is a concept from the ancient to the 17th century before the scientific revolution. With the development of natural science and social science, the foundation on which astrology relies has long been denied, but in today's world, astrology is a superstition. The cultural phenomenon of mysticism is still popular in the world.
The spiritual world of the ancients
The history of mankind is very old and long, beyond the imagination of ordinary people. Archaeology and molecular biology (DNA analysis) show that today's direct ancestors of human beings have gradually emerged from the African savanna from 100,000 to 150,000 years ago and gradually distributed throughout the world. About 10,000 years ago, some places gradually entered the agricultural settlement society and prepared for the birth of civilization.
In order to chase the beasts and collect food, people noticed the rhythm of nature, especially the relationship between the growth of vegetation, the reproduction of animals, and the operation of the sun, the moon and the stars. Unlike other passive species that adapt to nature, human curiosity encourages people to question the relationship between the world, especially the bright sun, moon and stars on the earth. The twins of astronomy and astrology were born in this context. At first, they have me and you and me, regardless of each other.
The object of modern astronomical research is the operation, structure and nature of celestial bodies, and the formation and evolution of the universe. Astrology is to think that the position of the sun, moon and planets in the zodiac constellation will affect the personal character of the earth and even the destiny of the country, thus indicating the future. But in the eyes of the ancients they were almost indistinguishable. In fact, the original meaning of the word "astronomy" in ancient China was "the image of the celestial bodies", which is the will of God. Therefore, in the Book of Changes, there is "a view of astronomy, to observe time-varying; It is said that "astronomy" is closely related to the rise and fall of the world. Ancient astronomy and astrology are such a unity, and some scholars believe that it can be called "astronomy."
"Astrology" is a type of divination. Divination is a situation in which human beings are unable to grasp the laws of nature and hope to use the changes in certain symbols to glimpse the will of the gods. There are many symbols used in divination. There is no inevitability. You can use a bamboo stick to scribble grass, yin and yang gossip, playing cards, tarot cards, constellation planets, or oracle bones after burning, or cut off the internal organs of sheep. . The more complex the divination symbols and rules, the more advanced they are. In the name of the sacred celestial body, astrology combines the complex "celestial attributes" and "human attributes". Although it has been repeatedly attacked, it has successfully survived with the blind worship of the masses.
Divination is to make predictions about things that have no idea. In fact, the final decision is the mind of the principal. For example, "Historical Records of the Japanese and the Biography of the Sun" records that the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty invited seven diviners to ask the Japanese woman Geely, and the results given by the seven families were different. Finally, the emperor himself chose one of them. Although the time of divination is not working, the ancients are willing to believe it because in the eyes of the ancients, there are some gods (mysterious forces) that dominate the world. These gods may be the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains and rivers, the wind and rain, the trees and flowers, or the fictional and real ancient heroes, celebrities, ancestors. In the world of the ancients, it is more than "three feet to have a god", in fact, there are gods everywhere. This mysticism, or animism (pantheism, animism), is a phenomenon that existed in ancient times in all countries of the world. Walking into the Pantheon in Rome, or the Taoist temple in China, we can all see these gods worshipped by people. The ancients made a detailed and complicated division of the power and authority of the gods. In short, as long as you are willing, everything in life can be related to these unclear gods. In the spiritual world of the ancients, these gods are real and therefore need to be awe.
The way to communicate with the gods (mysterious forces) was originally carried out by priests or wizards. For this purpose, the ancients invented the magic language (in the eyes of the ancients, language is a kind of magic) and the symbols on which divination depends. Mysticism (called superstition today) is a speculation of the ancient people's rules of connection between things. It is a pity that they guessed wrong and regarded the human imaginary god as real. The fortune-teller in the streets, or the astrologers in the high-rise buildings, rely on this mystery from ancient times (some modern packaging).