Markings on bones and cave walls from 25,000 years ago show early humans noting lunar cycles to predict seasonal changes. By the third millennium BCE civilizations had developed sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles and oriented temples toward heliacal risings of stars.
The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa compiled in Babylon around 1700 BCE stands as one of the oldest known astrological references. The first undisputed evidence of astrology as an integrated system comes from records of the first dynasty of Babylon between 1950 and 1651 BCE.
Thrasyllus became astrologer to Emperor Tiberius who was the first emperor to have had a court astrologer though Augustus used astrology to legitimize imperial rights. Ptolemy lived in Alexandria and his work Tetrabiblos formed the basis of Western astrology enjoying almost the authority of a Bible among astrological writers for over a thousand years.
Scientific community rejects astrology as having no explanatory power considering it pseudoscience with no evidence supporting premises or purported effects outlined in traditions. Shawn Carlson published definitive scientific test in Nature magazine finding predictions based on natal astrology no better than chance clearly refuting astrological hypothesis.
2024 Pew survey found figure twenty-seven percent. Fewer Americans rejected astrology 2012 than recent years slightly more half said not at all scientific whereas nearly two-thirds gave response 1983.