Many people consider Astrology to be a “New Age” phenomenon, associated with Hippies and the New Age “Counter-Culture”; but Astrology stretches back to the ancient Babylonians; (are there any modern Babylonians?) circa 1645 BC, where the earliest known horoscope appeared around 410 BC.
Astrology can also be connected to several other cultures, including Egypt, Greece and Rome, where many learned men — including emperors — predicted and advised citizens on events or “happenings”, based on the interaction of stars and planets. During the Renaissance, when literacy became more widespread, notable founders of the modern scientific movement like Galileo and Copernicus, were also practicing astrologers; and astrology was considered a related branch of science.
But astrology began to lose credibility when predictions about the “Great Conjunction” that was to occur in February of 1524 in the Constellation of Pisces, which, being a “water sign”, predicted flooding and /or an “abundance of rain and snow”. Some more sensational predictions stated a world-wide deluge similar to Noah’s Flood would occur.
Although it was a very wet and rainy year, the anticipated “Noah’s Flood” did not occur, and Astrology lost some of its credibility as a rational science, and further declined during the rest of the era of “The Enlightenment” in the 16th century. The primary cause for the decline of Astrology as a science, and its eventual role as a “counter culture” phenomenon, was due to the increasing acceptance of what we now consider to be “modern scientific disciplines”, based on, among other things, visible ”cause and effect” events.
Bur obviously, astrology still is practiced, as an accepted form of cultural perception of natural events. It may not be science, but it is a more visible form of “supernatural” forces, created by the interaction of heavenly bodies that influence both human and earthly events.