The study of the relationship between the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets and Earthly events and human traits. Astrology had appeared in Mesopotamia by 2000 BCE and then passed to China, Greece and India. Astrology became more ambitious as knowledge of celestial motions increased and became more accurate. Tetrabiblos, a major work which influenced Western astronomy, was written by Claudius Ptolemy, the greatest astronomer in the Greek tradition.

“Judicial” astrology used a horoscope, or star chart, relating to a person’s moment of birth to discover that person’s character and their chances in life. The success of an enterprise was supposed to be influenced by the relative positions, or aspects, of the heavenly bodies when the enterprise was undertaken. Many European scientists took judicial astronomy seriously until the triumph of Newtonian thought in the late seventeenth century. However, astrology was condemned by two fathers of the Christian church, St. Augustine 354-430 and St. Thomas Aquinas c. 1225-1274, as well as by the Jewish philosopher and physician, Maimonides 1135-1204.