Zodiac signs are a faith that queer time periods like twelve months of the year or the cycles of the moon have special value and may be used for the prophecy of life and fortunes of a person who is born in the time amount of time of that sign. Astrologists are those humans who study the signs and they commonly do it for assorted years for having an clear or deep perception of the significances behind the zodiac.

During ancient times even before the humane race started in villages and before writing was invented, the capacity to predict the passage of the moon, sun and other objects in the sky was mainly utile because the only way was memorizing the positions of the stars and planets in relation to the moon for predicting the altering of seasons, determining their path and position and appeasing the gods who were perpetually inconsistent versus each other and on occasion versus people.

The stars and planets are seen in innovative times as celestial objects having mass and their own orbits rather than gods. However, the value of the ancient’s observations must not be discounted as they were the ones who made the introductory calculations and calendars that are still in use today for tracking movements of outer space objects. The need for predicting other celestial objects like comets helped in base for the progressed astronomy.

As early as around 6000-7000 years back, the Mesopotamian priests of the summer valley used to track the movements of the Venus, moon and the sun in relation with the stars as they appeared for the duration of the year. The moon, Venus and soon were considered as gods and their path in the space was used for indicating the altering seasons, the winter and the summer solstices. The pattern of the stars were not of extreme importance, nonetheless the events like shooting stars were considered as a sign of good luck or as a sign of approaching doom depending on the priest’s reading at that time.

The passage of the sun was used by the Indian astronomers in Vedic times for understanding the altering of seasons and the sun was identified with Vishnu who was said to have three aspects, the bull, the lion and the ram. They were coincidently the symbols that continued into the shifting political scenery of India and Near East for the duration of the sovereignty of Alexander the Great.

The ancient Egyptians were the initial to discern signs relating to the person in the stars passage of the moon, sun and other outer space objects. According to the records, the astrologers as early as 2750 BC wrote horoscopes for prominent people of Egyptian society. However, they were not based on zodiac signs accordingly they are not direct ancestors of the horoscope readings of today.

During the 1300 BC or perhaps earlier, the Assyrian humans in the Near East started benefitting power and control of the region and conquered most of their neighboring territories. They noticed that the more they travelled further away from home, the stars remained always the same, perhaps a bit lower or higher in the space but were basically the same. This led to the development of constellations, this was an act that made more precise calendars. Some symbols for their constellation were borrowed by them from their own religion and from the legends of the conquered people.

The Assyrians in the first place had eighteen constellations but scaled down to only twelve by the time of Alexander the Great. The psychological result of perception learning and reasoning of the Babylonian constellations was brought back by the Greek warriors to the ancient Greece whose priests found them as a superb addition to their existent cognition of gods. The constellations of Babylonian zodiac were twelve – Aquarius, Capricornus, Pisces, Sagittarius, Libra, Scorpio, Leo, Spica, Praesepe, Pleiades, Gemini and Aries.

The Greek astrologers changed the names of Capricornus, Spica, Praesepe and Pleiades to Capricorn, Virgo, Taurus and Cancer. These names have stayed till today. Every constellation was assigned to a god or hero has a particular importance affiliated to each zodiac sign depending on the magic or intensities of the sake of it is name.

The birth of a person had enormous importance for Greeks. With the new constellations, the amount of energy of person at birth was now possible to determine, this would perhaps prepare their parents it was hoped that the person would be conscious of the challenges in front by knowing which god or hero would be their protector. The Greeks later started believing that a person’s life was already ordained and the cognition of horoscopes could support in predicting each major event.

The progressed astrology revived for the most part from the writings of Ptolomy who was a Greek astronomer and mathematician. We don’t know any relation of it to the Egyptian pharoahs of the same name. However he was the head librarian at the Alexandria’s outstanding library and has access to each writings of the civilized world on the passage of the outer space objects. The Tetrabiblos was his fourth volume work on astrology which explained each detail in regards to the astronomy known to the ancient Greeks.

The succeeding Arabic and Roman cognition of astronomy directly came from the writings of Ptolemy. The Romans were not too much mesmerized in astronomy than the medieval people and the Greeks, they tended to disagree that a person’s life was already ordained and they rather preferent to place their fate in the hands of gods and their own actions.

When the Roman Empire fell, the medieval society reverted to local folklore and the astrology was lost to the western society until later Ptolomy’s writings were rediscovered by the Arab world around the turn of the primary millennium. From the times of Greek into the renaissance period, astrology was largely unchanged in spite of disappearing from daily use for various hundred years. Astrology was rejected by puritan and protestant Christians and was termed as un-Christian. However in Catholic elements of Europe, the zodiac signs and horoscopes were steadily identified with the power of the saints.

Astrology found new converts in the 20th century in the western world, exceptionally in the US where humans sought more meaning of life as a traditionalisti community around the local church was disappearing. People investigating other faiths like buddhism, kaballah, wicca and other mysterious traditions without apparent effort adopted astrology. Astrology was found to have great synergy amidst galore tarot readers and have been helpful in keeping the ancient art of astrology alive in the 21st century.

Most helpful customer reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
best “textbook” ever
By R. Kristiansen
Reading this for my History of Psych class was actually enjoyable. Ludy Benjamin writes well, in clear terms, and has a sense of humor. Hated the class – LOVED this book. I wish he would write on some other topics in psychology as well.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Very brief, but full of valuable info.
By A.B.
At just a little over 200 pages, this is indeed brief. Nevertheless, it does a good job of organizing the material. It starts at the beginning of the birth of “true” psychology with Wundt while touching upon the pseudosciences of phrenology and physiognomy. It does a good job of explaining the evolution of the science throughout the book and focuses on specific areas in each chapter. However, I would have liked it if the author had delved into psychoanalysis just a bit more, owing to the fact that the field has influenced pop psychology more than any other field and therefore most people reading this book have that kind of background.

Overall, this is a good read, but probably not worth the purchase price for its really just being an overview. You might do better paying a little extra for an old edition of a textbook and reading that, because it covers about the same material, only more indepth.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
BRIEF, BUT ENLIGHTENING
By HARBINGER
THIS IS A FINE SHORT BOOK ON RECENT PSYCHOLOGY. IT IS WELL WRITTEN AND EASILY READ. BENJAMIN HITS UPON THE MAIN POINTS AND AREAS OF PSYCHOLOGY IN THE “MODERN” ERA. THE SECTION EXPLAINING FREUD’S THEORIES AND THE LATER PART OF THE BOOK DEALING WITH BEHAVIOR, COGNITION, AND AREAS OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY ARE VERY WELL DONE. I AM A SCHOOL PSYCHOMETRIST AND I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR ANYONE WANTING A SHORT TAKE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PAST 150 YEARS OR SO.

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Brief History Modern Psychology

In A Brief History of Modern Psychology, Ludy Benjamin, leading historian in the field, discusses the history of both the science and the exercise of psychology since the establishment of the initial experimental psychology laboratory in 1879.

• Captures the excitement of this pervasive field that features prevalently in modern mass media
• Presents facts and interesting tidbits when it comes to person psychologists’ lives and ideas, as well as illuminating tie-in’s to the social contexts in which they lived
• Features widely known figures such as William James, Carl Jung, Wilhelm Wundt, G. Stanley Hall, James Catell, John B. Watson, and B.F. Skinner as well as lesser known luminaries such as E.B. Titchener, Mary Calkins, Leta Hollingworth, Kenneth and Mamie Clark, and Helen Thompson Wolley
• Provides the historical and disciplinal context that will support readers to better understand the richness and complexity of contemporary psychology
• Includes discussions of indispensable events, societies, and landmarks in the history of psychology such as the growth of psychological laboratories in the US, the Thayer Conference (the landmark summit which specified school psychology), Kurt Lewin’s social action research, and Lewis M. Terman and the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale (now the well known, “Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale”)
• Test Bank for instructors with identification, multiple-choice, matching, and essay questions written by Ludy Benjamin available at www.wiley.com/go/benjamin .

Review”From a widely known and esteemed historian and teacher of psychology comes what psychology students will welcome – a crisp and beautifully crafted history of their discipline, replete with arousing and attention holding stories of the humans who shaped it and whose shoulders we now stand upon.” David G. Myers, Hope College

“A Brief History of Modern Psychology will itself become share of the history of modern psychology. It is a classic work by one of the most distinguished living historians of psychology. Anyone who wishes to grasp how the field of psychology has reached it is present state ought to read this book.” Robert J. Sternberg, Tufts University

“This book offers stimulating new analyses of such diverse topics as G. Stanley Hall’s genetic psychology, the 19th-century ‘public psychologies’ of phrenology and mesmerism, and the late-20th-century emergence of a psychology of social action. A Brief History of Modern Psychology provides a stimulating new resource that will inspire 21st-century psychology students’ interest in their science’s past. ” Michael M. Sokal, Founding Editor, History of Psychology

“The Behaviorism chapter was the best historical introduction that I may do not forget reading — just what historical writing ought to be.” Wesley G. Morgan, Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee

“The reader is guided through over a century of psychology in less than three hundred pages, yet the experience is never a taxing one. Both the precision and the conciseness of the book will undoubtedly make it likeable for undergrad course work.” ISIS

“Conversational and…quite readable…easy to study from and deliver[s] a great deal of utile information…would likewise be idealisti for the lay reader for a survey of psychology’s history.”
Metapsychology Online Reviews

From the Publisher”From a widely known and esteemed historian and teacher of psychology comes what psychology students will welcome—a crisp and beautifully crafted history of their discipline, replete with arousing and attention holding stories of the persons who shaped it and whose shoulders we now stand upon.” David G. Myers, Hope College

“A Brief History of Modern Psychology will itself become portion of the history of modern psychology. It is a classic work by one of the most discerned living historians of psychology. Anyone who wishes to comprehend how the field of psychology has reached it is present state will have to read this book.” Robert J. Sternberg, Tufts University

“This book offers stimulating new analyses of such diverse topics as G. Stanley Hall’s genetic psychology, the 19th-century `public psychologies’ of phrenology and mesmerism, and the late-20th-century emergence of a psychology of social action. A Brief History of Modern Psychology provides a stimulating new resource that will inspire 21st-century psychology students’ interest in their science’s past. ” Michael M. Sokal, Founding Editor, History of Psychology

From the Back CoverNo subject captures the attention of persons today more than psychology. It pervades television in the form of soap operas, celebrity court cases, police and hospital dramas, talk shows, ‘reality‘ shows, and infomercials. It is the stuff of movies, magazines, plays, novels, self-help books, sports, jobs, music lyrics, talk radio, and the internet. In A Brief History of Modern Psychology, Ludy Benjamin, a leading historian in the field, discusses the history of both the science and the exercise of psychology since the institution of the basi experimental psychology laboratory in 1879.

In engaging prose, this book weaves together the historical and promotional disciplinary context that will help readers to better perceive the richness and complexity of contemporary psychology.

Brief History Modern Psychology Photo

Brief History Modern Psychology Photo

Brief History Modern Psychology Picture

Brief History Modern Psychology Picture

Brief History Modern Psychology Picture