<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Astrology is a pseudo-science of predicting events by means of the positions of the heavenly bodies.

It is one of the oldest of the proto-sciences, being found among the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Hindus and other eastern nations at the very beginning of history.

An argument has been made that the "three wise men" in the Bible were using astrology to predict the significant birth, and that the Star of Bethlehem was used in their calculations.

It made its way to the western nations of Europe, and reached its height of popularity in the 14th and 15th centuries, when chairs of astrology were established in some of the European universities. Francis Bacon, John Napier, Johannes Kepler and other scientists of their period believed to some extent in astrology.

But with the acceptance of the Copernican scientific method system and the growth of testable science, belief in astrology has become almost exclusively an entertainment medium as it died out among credible academics.

Some people still place credence in it, and testing of different "signs" having different characteristics (ending up in different professions, having different driving records, committing different types of crimes, etc.) continues. Famously, Nancy Reagan is alleged to have consulted with an astrologer.

One difficulty is that Earth has shifted relative to the stars since the Western system of astrology was developed, which places people under a different sign than their birthdate would have indicated at the time.