According to ancient astrologists, for nearly every religion the New Year begins on 21 March. The ancient systems of measuring the year were based upon the equinoxes and the solstices. The year always began with verbal equinox celebrated on 21 march with rejoicing to mark the moment when the sun crossed the equator northward up the zodial arc. The summer solstice was celebrated when the sun reached its most northerly position and the day appointed was June 21. After that time the sun began to descend towards the equator, which is recrossed southbound at the autumnal equinox September 21. The sun reached its most southerly position at the winter solstice December 21. (The symbolical language of Ancient and Mythology: Pyne Knight).
New panchangs will be issued and there will be many predictions by astrologers, priests, soothsayers and so on. But it is difficult for this age to estimate correctly the profound effect produced upon the religious, philosophies, and science of antiquity by the study of the planets, luminaries, and constellations. The Egyptians were honoured with a special appellation because of their proficiency in computing the power and motion of the heavenly bodies and their effect upon the destinies of nations and individuals. Ruins of primitive astronomical observatories have been discovered in all parts of the world, although in many cases modern archaeologists are unaware of the true purpose for which these structures were erected. While telescope was unknown to ancient astronomers, they made many remarkable calculations with instruments cut from block from granite. In India such instruments are still in use and they possess a high degree of accuracy. In Jaipur, Rajputna, India, an observatory consisting largely of immense stone sundials is still in operation. The famous Chinese observatory on the wall of Peking consists of immense bronze instruments, including a telescope in the form of a hollow tube without lenses.
The pagans looked upon the stars as living things, capable of influencing the destinies of individuals, nations and races. The word zodiac is derived from the Greek (zodiakos), which means “a circle of animals” or, as some believe “little animals”.
The occultists of the ancient world had a most remarkable understanding of the principle of the evolution. They recognised all life as being in various stages of becoming. They believed that grains of sand were in the process of becoming human in consciousness but not necessarily in form; that human creatures were in the process of becoming planets; that the planets were in the process of becoming solar systems; and the solar systems were in the process of becoming cosmic chains; and so on ad infinitum. One of the stages between the solar system and the cosmic chain was called the Zodiac; therefore, at a certain time a solar system breaks up into a zodiac. The houses of the zodiac become the thrones for twelve Celestial Hierarchies, or as certain of the ancients’ state, ten Divine Orders. Pythagoras taught that the number 10, or unit of the decimal system was the most perfect of all numbers, and he symbolised the number ten by the lesser tetractys, an arrangement of ten dots in the form of an upright triangle. The Pythagoreans declared that arithmetic to be the mother of all mathematical sciences. This is proved by the fact that geometry, music, and astronomy are dependent upon it but arithmetic is not dependent upon them. Thus, geometry may be removed but arithmetic will remain; but if arithmetic be removed, geometry is eliminated. In the same manner music depends upon arithmetic, but the elimination of music affects arithmetic only by limiting one of its expressions. I am not going to labour extensively on the Pythagoras’ philosophy on monad and the universe is considered as a monad. The sun occupies a very important role in astronomy and in my next article I will elaborate more on the sun as a powerful divinity.
The ancients believed that the theory of man’s being in the image of God was to be understood literally. They maintained that the Universe was a great organism not unlike the human body, and that every phase and function of the Universal Body had a correspondence in man. The most precious key to Wisdom that the priests communicated to the initiates was what they termed the Law of analogy. Therefore to the ancients, the study of the stars was a sacred science, for they saw in the movements of the celestial bodies the ever-present activity of the infinite Father.
In the Third book of the Mathesis of Julius Firmicus Maternus appears the following extract. «The seven ages of man are under the control of the planets in the following order: infancy, the moon; childhood, Mercury; adolescence, Venus; maturity, the sun; middle age, Mars; advanced age, Jupiter; and the decrepitude and dissolution, Saturn».
To conclude I would say that nearly all religions of the world show traces of astrological influence. The Old Testament of the Jews, its writings overshadowed by the Egyptian culture is a mass of astrological and astronomical allegories. Nearly all the mythology of Greece and Rome may be traced in star groups.