CHAPTER 1

Short History of the Art of Prophecy
/ILL WESTERN PEOPLES HAVE A DOUBLE LINE OF .jcJ. ancestors: their own forefathers and the great Eastern civihsations. Both sets of ancestors have contributed to modern methods of prophecy. Thus only very few prophetic beliefs are original to a given people — most are mankind ' s common cultural heritage , i.e. they have been transmitted to us along the well-trodden paths of civ- ilisation from the ancient East via Greece and Rome. This is partic- ularly true of the most persistent and most common branch of prophecy, viz. astrology.
Prophecy is believed to have originated in Mesopotamia, the country between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, more than 5000 years ago. It was in Babylon and in the other cultural centres of Meso- potamia, that brilliant men first systematised these arts, and raised them to the status of a science. Astrology in particular, i.e. the belief that the future can be read in the stars, is of Babylonian origin.
Babylon's claim to supremacy in this field has not always been recog- nised. Thus Newton asserted that astrology was of Egyptian origin, and only reached Mesopotamia very much later. According to Newton, astrology was first systematised by the Egyptian King Nicepsos of Sais
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8. The Babylonian god Adad was the "Lord of the Oracle", but also the god of storms, thunder, and lightning.
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