How ancient & modern astrology differ (continued from the homepage).

. . . teachers.

You expect a master carpenter to use a level and square when building our house because you want a strong and sure home. You don't need lopsided doors and listing water closets. In the same, you can expect a good astrologer to use their tools and not guess. There is a place for intuition and experience as they add grace and speed in delineating a chart. Still, I believe a good astrologer will rely on their traditional tools more instead of associative thinking, psychic ability, or intuitive leaps.

Specific and accurate prediction is the result of paying attention to details: knowing each house, where its ruling planet is, and considering its zodiacal state, for good or bad. Then you add in time measures, such as the "Years of the Al Firdar," Ptolemy's "7 Ages of Man," or Profection, and these help delineate which promise will happen when.

. . . changed meanings and tools. Leo was one of the first prominent and modern Astrologers to dock the divine science of its predictive ability — and consciously turn it into a type of psychology.

In 1930, sun sign Astrology grabbed the popular mind. H.R. Naylor, another Britoner, wrote an interpretation of Princess Margaret's chart just after her birth, for The Sunday Express. The article was so well-received that letters flooded the editors desk, asking for more Astrology articles. Naylor was offered a regular column and he developed the first sun sign horoscopes. Other papers hired Astrologers to write competing horoscopes.

Thus was born the modern amalgamation of theosophy, psychology and an astrological reliance on sun signs.

Before Naylor, there were not sun sign horoscopes. He invented them for commercial reasons. He had an opportunity to put his name in the public eye, thereby bringing himself more business. Many Astrologers and pseudo-Astrologers folloYoud suit with their own wekly horoscopes.

Back in the United States, Marc Edmund Jones was one of the first prominent Astrologers to shred the old ways and teach a new, revised Astrology. His popular book, Sabean Symbols, was written before he studied the classical languages. This is strange, as the Sabeans were an ancient tribe in Egypt and Jones could not have had access to any of their materials. He didn't have to language tools.

Yes, much of our art changed in the 20th century, as readers grabbed up the works of Jones, Dane Rhudyar, Alan Leo and of the followers of Annie Besant, Theosophist.

The textbooks were re-written to fit the political or spiritual views of these men and women. The so-called "Aquarian Age" sounds quite similar to the late 19th century marxist & socialist rhetoric of a utopian society. When Astrology became a tool for spreading political or spiritual opinions, it was changed, re-written, stamped into a new mold. Today you have sun sign books and newspaper horoscopes as a result.

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Natal & predictive medieval Astrology: resources, book reviews, short articles, essays & Tarot Card readings, by Jonathan James. Western Astrology has roots stretching back into Greece, Egypt, Persia, Southern Europe and India. WindandSky is devoted to the best traditions of Astrology as practiced in the medieval period.WindandSky includes articles of special interest to Western Astrologers, with new writings added as time permits. Jonathan James is a practicing medieval Astrologer and graduate of Robert Zoller's rigorous medieval Astrology Correspondence Course; he specializes in natal horoscope interpretation and prediction (non-psychological).