rk, 1911, p. 210.

With the rationalizing influence of the Persians the hold of astrology
weakened, and according to Jastrow it was this, in combination with
Hebrew and Greek modes of thought, that led the priests in the three
centuries following the Persian occupation, to exchange their profession
of diviners for that of astronomers; and this, he says, marks the
beginning of the conflict between religion and science. At first an
expression of primitive "science," astrology became a superstition, from
which the human mind has not yet escaped. In contrast to divination,
astrology does not seem to have made much impression on the Hebrews and
definite references in the Bible are scanty. From Babylonia it passed to
Greece (without, however, exerting any particular influence upon Greek
medicine). Our own language is rich in words of astral significance
derived from the Greek, e.g., disaster.

The introduction of astrology into Europe has a passing interest.
Apparently the Greeks had made important advances in astronomy before
coming in contact with the Babylonians,--who, in all probability,
received from the former a scientific conception of the universe. "In
Babylonia and Assyria we have astrology first and astronomy afterwards,
in Greece we have the sequence reversed--astronomy first and astrology
afterwards" (Jastrow).(18)

(18) M. Jastrow: Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice
in Babylonia and Assyria, New York, 1911, p. 256.

It is surprising to learn that, previous to their contact with the
Greeks, astrology as relating to the individual--that is to say,
the reading of the stars to determine the conditions under which the
individual was born--had no place in the cult of the Babylonians and
Assyrians. The individualistic spirit led the Greek to make his gods
take note of every action in his life, and his preordained fate might
be read in the stars.--"A connecting link between the individual and the
movements in the heavens was found in an element which they shared in
common. Both man and stars moved in obedience to forces from which there
was no escape. An inexorable law controlling the planets corresponded to
an equally inexorable fate ordained for every individual from his birth.
Man was a part of nature and subject to its laws. The thought could
therefore arise that, if the conditions in the heavens were studied
under which a man was born, that man's future could be determined in
accord with the bel