History of Zodiac Signs

Millions look to their zodiac signs for guidance on love, work and life in general, but where did all this start? In this article, we take a look at the history of zodiac signs.

The history of zodiac signs stars a very long time ago. Some point to the Romans. Others point to the Greeks. Both are wrong. The history starts long before that. How far back do we go? How about the Babylonians in the first millennium pre-BC? Yes, that far back…at least we think so. The archeological record is not entirely clear when you get that far back in time, but it would appear that we can date the zodiac signs at least that far back.


The zodiac is believed to have started during the Bronze Age. As time moved forward, the tracking of the sun’s movement across the night sky boiled down to 12 signs. This is believed to have happened around the 7th century BC. The Babylonians based in what is currently Iraq, divided the sky into 12 equal constellations across the longitude lines of the ecliptic path of the sun. Of course, the sun wasn’t moving, the earth was. Still, the movement of the constellations were noted and the idea of zodiac signs was born.

As time passed, the zodiac signs showed up repeatedly in history. It was known to spread to India and China. The twelve tribes of Israel were associated with the 12 signs of the zodiac. The Greeks then picked up the Babylonian version and mixed it with their own primitive form of astrology. This re-constituted Hellenistic form of astrology was then introduced to Egypt when it was conquered by Alexander the Great.



The Egyptians already had a very strong astronomy expertise. They took to the idea of predicting characteristic and events based on the celestial bodies like mad. The resulting Egyptian astrology is generally considered the first to focus on specific daily horoscopes for individuals. The horoscopes were based on the date of birth of the individuals and how the planets intertwined with the celestial houses on said dates. It was this form of horoscope that spread like wild and became incredibly popular throughout the world.

The history of zodiac signs is obviously a very long one. They zodiac has influenced nearly every society in one form or another and has been further refined by each. The fact it exists today is testament to its relevance. Getting a personalized reading can be shocking given the accuracy as your zodiac sign, birth date and ruling planets are taken into account.

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