Ever since humans looked toward the sky for some kind of meaning to life and answers to the big questions, astrology has been a part of many people's lives. The fact that essentially every culture has, at different times, looked towards the stars for understanding speaks to the universal nature of astrology.

As it evolved from one end of the globe to the other, it took on a different significance and gravity. Some cultures used it to determine laws and punishments, others for love and spirituality. The growth of astrology is marked with peace, war, abundance and famine. Human history can be charted with the history of astrology. Here are a few interesting facts about the history of astrology.

The origin of astrology is thought to begin with the ancient Babylonians two centuries before the birth of Christ. They took celestial events that were witnessed in the night sky and interpreted them to signify certain events. Major events like a passing comet, a meteor shower or an eclipse were given extreme importance and they often believed that significant actions were needed to calm the anger of the gods. Human sacrifice wasn't unheard of in some situations to deal with what the Babylonians thought were upset deities.

The first areas of the world that astrology spread to were China, India and Greece. Each culture infused the basic Babylonian astrological belief structure with its own myths, legends and interpretations. In Greece, many of the characters from ancient Greek mythology were combined with the stars to give their astrology its own local style. The same was true for India and China where local religion and superstition was combined with astrology to give it more meaning to the local population.

Astrologers were some of the first scientists in medieval Europe. It was astrologers that made the first accurate maps of star movement as well as the orbit of the moon and many astronomical observations about the Earth, itself. Many scientists today look down upon astrology as being a pseudo-science, but without the tireless work and immaculate record keeping of astrologers hundreds of years ago, the more respected science of astronomy would have been set back by centuries.