The endurance of astrology is one of the surest indexes of the value man places on himself and his destiny. Its roots are planted five thousand years ago, in the lore of Israel; and its branches include every race that has a history. The Egyptians, Babylonians, Chiness, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians, Indians, all had their astrology. The Greeks acquired it from the East, and the western world inherits it today. First carefully guarded, it was part of the Hermetic doctrine of the priests of Isis, by which they ruled the masses of the Egyptians. Later it became the luxury of kings and captains, a means of determining propitious moments for victory and of guarding against or slaving enemies.

Man's interest in stars and planets can be traced back to at least 6000 years when he opted to settle down at a suitable place and cultivate the land. The earliest and the most ancient of these settlements were centered round fertile river valleys. The Egyptians chose the Nile valley, the Sumerians the land between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia (now in southern Iraq) the Chinese the Hwang Ho Valley, and the Indians the Indus Valley. All these four eastern civilizations developed advanced techniques of agriculture and became prosperous. The merchants and soilors went from one settlement to the other, and established trade and communication which led to the spread of knowledge and culture. Since agriculture and farming were their main occupation, they were interested in finding out the right time for sowing and harvesting. They studied the seasonal variations and the arrival of monsoons. They not only noticed a cyclical rhythm in nature but also discovered its correspondence with star-patterns in the sky. They observed the beneficial effect of the waxing moon on their crops as also the damage done to them by the scorching sun. They saw the eclipses and the comets, the meteors and the shooting stars with a sense of awe and foreboding. They began to keep records of these natural events and marked the time of their recurrence. The Egyptians noted the time of the floods on the river Nile and found they recurred once in 365 days. This marked the birth of a solar calendar, and the concept of an year consisting of 365 days. They also divided their year into three seasons marked by distinct climatic conditions. The time was approximately 3000 B.C.

In Mesopotamia around 2000 B.C.,there lived two distinct groups of people, the Assyrians in the north, who were a semetic nomadic tribe from Southern Arabia and the Sumerians in the South who came from the East and had an oriental appearance. Gradually the Assyrians or the Akkadians moved to the south and joined the Sumerians and the area became known as Summer-Akkad. After a few centuries, however, the Akkadians, being more aggressive, took possession of the land and made Babylon their capital around 1750 B.C.