Modern Astrology
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
During the reign of the Roman Empire and during the conquests of Alexander the Great, Sabian-Roman astrology took on many qualities of Ethiopian-Egyptian, Chinese, and Aryuvedic systems. Most of the matriarchal elements were removed from astrology by this time. The African constellation names were converted to Greek and Roman ones, a calendar cycle was dated, set, and codified in relation to the heavens and seasons. The month names for modern astrology come from this period, and so do conceptions such as leap years and the beginning of the year in January rather than in the Spring or Summer months. Counting the Ecliptic at the point of Aries was also introduced in Christian Rome in the later period of the empire. This was codified during the Medieval Renaissance and Aries has been seen ever since as the Ecliptic origin in modern Astrology.
Medieval Astrology had codified most of modern Astrology except for the lack of our modern planets. It took until the modern era for science to discover the remaining planets, although there is some archeological evidence that the Egyptians and Sumerians knew of our complete solar system, somehow. The Sabians and Medievals saw the universe emerging from God as a great divine machine called the Primum Mobile, the first moving of the mover. Then emerged the creatures of fire, then the zodiac and starry firmament, then the planets and stars. Through science we have discovered today that the stars and planets did indeed arise out of fiery stellar creatures, not named Cherubim as in Medieval times, but called “the big bang,” which is not thought of so much as an explosion of a huge celestial body anymore by scientists, but rather a huge, hot, fiery bursting into being by some unknown phenomena that scientists are still debating as to what it truly is. Although lacking the last three planets, the Medieval astrological cosmology looked like ours today.
With modern astrology we have a comprehensive system comprised of all these past elements. The Moon's passing through the signs is influential on a daily level. The sun, all the planets’ residences in the different Houses, their Aspect, Dignity, Element, and combined influences, are taken into account when making a monthly Horoscope or Natal Chart. In modern Astrology, Orb and Delineation are important. Orb is a sphere of influence that trails in the wake of a passing planet. The Orb is an aura of influence before and after an astrological meaning event. For example Mars passes through Leo, its Orb of influence, empowered fire, remains for 20 degrees after Mars has entered the next sign. Delineation considers the meaning of the aspect, the natures and combined meanings of the planets, and the strength of the planets by virtue of their signs. The Zodiacal Constellations are said to have positive and negative polarities, depending upon their qualities. Only Gemini is said to contain qualities of both positive and negative polarities.