Despite the fact that the world has gone through the Industrial Revolution, and the many calls for a secular society, on major street corners throughout the world, in every country and major city, you can find the street astrologer.
Street astrologers defined a new form of astrology called electional astrology that could be used for all manner of divination in everyday life, such as the discovery of propitious moments for the undertaking of a journey, or the beginning of a business venture etc. They also were the first to speak of 'favorable' and 'unfavorable' indications, rather than categorical events.
Just as the sacrificial method of divination rested on a well-defined theory - to wit, that the liver was the seat of the soul of the animal and that the deity in accepting the sacrifice identified himself with the animal, whose "soul" was thus placed in complete accord with that of the god and therefore reflected the mind and will of the god - so astrology is sometimes purported to be based on a theory of divine government of the world.
On the mythological presumption that mans life and happiness is dependent on upon phenomena in the heaven and that the fertility of the soil is dependent upon the sun shining in the heavens as well as upon the rains that come from heaven; and that, on the other hand, the mischief and damage done by storms and floods, were to be traced likewise to the heavens - the conclusion was drawn that all the great gods had their seats in the heavens.
In that early age of culture known as the "nomadic" stage, which under normal conditions precedes the "agricultural" stage, the moon cult is even more prominent than sun worship, and with the moon and sun cults thus furnished by the "popular" faith, it was a natural step for the priests to perfect a theory of a complete accord between phenomena observed in the heavens and occurrences on earth.
