Before we had the Zodiac wheel, the night sky was mapped by star lists and astrolabes, which were drawn to show which stars were visible and to identify their paths across the heavens.
Today’s Zodiac Wheel appeared around the 6th century BC and is believed to be a Babylonian invention. Some Greek sources suggest a parallel development in Greece. Before the Zodiac Wheel, there were Star lists and Astrolables.
Astrolables arranged the stars into three paths which were then divided into 12, identifying the months of the year with the rising of a particular star.
Advances in astronomy created a need for a better system of measurement which saw the introduction the Zodiac signs and the Zodiac Wheel when the 12 monthly divisions of the Astrolables were placed within a 360 degree circle with each sign measuring 30 degrees.
The Origin of the Creation of the Zodiac Wheel
It is widely believed by most astrology students that the Zodiacal creatures were originally conceived by ancient peoples watching the night skies and tracing the stars into the forms of animals, birds and other significant beings. Often constellations are named after animals that they bear no resemblance to. It is more likely that the signs are symbolic of the qualities of the sign. Cancer is represented by the crab, a land and sea creature which perfectly represents the characteristics of the sign: Cancerians are notably practical and grounded (earth) and also very emotional (water). In the past different images were used for the signs. Virgo is sometimes symbolised by a harp or a vase of flowers. Scorpio is sometimes given as a phoenix and Aries was represented by the head of a goose in Ancient Egypt. There were and remain a few areas in the world where icons were frowned upon, people chose not to illustrate the signs.
Sacred 12 and the Zodiac Wheel
The Ancient Assyrian texts give a total of 18 constellations including the 12 we use today. The other 6 are star clusters that later amalgamed in the development of the equally spaced Zodiac wheel that we have today.
Illustration of horoscopes (rawpixel.com)
No one knows why the particular 12 constellations chosen to name the Zodiac signs were selected although in many cultures 12 is considered a sacred number and represents perfection and cosmic order.
it has been suggested that the constellations were not all developed together at the same time but were defined over thousands of years in 3 sets of four corresponding to where the Sun lay at the time of the Spring Equinoxes, Winter Equinox and Solstices. The first 4 star groupings to be defined were Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces.
