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The foundations of western astrology started long before the ancient Greeks. The people who settled in Mesopotamia (It is in the general vicinity of what is now called southern Iraq) around 4000 BC considered the sun, the moon and Venus to be gods, or the homes of gods. Mixed with the other people were those who were believed to have the ability to contact Gods. They understood the basic cycles of the planets and stars and could predict major natural events such as eclipses. Later held beliefs and astrological traditions, including the practices of classical Greek and Hellenistic astronomies, were based on the astrological theories initially developed in ancient Mesopotamia.
Both Hellenistic and Western Astrology were influenced by Islamic astrology.

How is Ptolemaic Alexandria defined? Alexandria, Egypt was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC and became the capital of the Ptolemaic Kingdom (named after its first ruler, Ptolemy) from 332 BC (when the Alexander died) up until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC. Alexandria continued to be the capital of Egypt for nearly a thousand years until the Muslim conquest of the country in the middle of the 7th century AD and Hellenism (the Greek way of life spread by Alexander) continued to prosper there throughout that time.

Hellenism is unique with distinct features that blend Classical Greek culture with the cultures of people, conquered by Alexander the Great, who were living east and south of them.
In Alexandria, this translated into a mixture of Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Macedonian, Persian, Syrian, Jewish, and Babylonian (Mesopotamian) cultures. One aspect of the rich cultural activity underway in Ptolemaic Alexandria is the development of Astrology Readings.

Babylonian astrologists first invented signs of the zodiac around 600 BC, but the earliest Babylonian horoscopes that were developed are only rudimentary charts that show the positions of celestial bodies at the exact times of particular occurrences (usually the conception or the birth of a person); most contain no predictions. Nevertheless, horoscopic astrology had its beginnings in Babylonian astrology.

Around 350 BC, Babylonian astrology entered into Greece. At this time, Greek Myths became entwined with astrology, creating the names that we know now. However, the most significant contribution of the Greeks to Western Astrology was the development of Horoscopic Astrology under Hellenistic rule – in Ptolemaic Alexandria.

The nucleus of Greek society, Ptolemaic Alexandria, melded the traditions of Babylonian astrology and Pharaonic Egyptian astronomy together. Greek had become the language of communication from Greece to India to Egypt, allowing for unprecedented amalgamation of knowledge. Hellenistic astrology was built on Egyptian and Babylonian traditions and produced a system of Horoscopic Astrology that is the origin of the modern day western Horoscopic Astrology.

The work of an astronomer / astrologer by the name of Claudius Ptolemy was particularly important to the development of horoscopic astrology in Alexandria at the time.
Ptolemy was a Hellenistic scholar and although he was born in the south of Egypt (85 BC?) also perished within Alexandria (165 BC?), it was unknown if he was an Egyptian or a Greek. He was a Greek man who had been born in Egypt yet resided in Rome, but it did not make the difference that it does now.

Ptolemy, a writer, is famous for his works the Tetrabiblios (where he compiled all known astrological theories of the time), and the Almagest (an examination of the workings of the solar system contained in thirteen volumes). Ptolemy not only believed that the earth was round, he also thinks that the sun and the planets revolved around the earth. The Ptolemaic theory, as set down in the Almagest was a work of reference for astronomy students for almost 1400 years, until it was established that the earth revolves around the sun. In spite of his contribution to the theory of Horoscopic Astrology, no horoscopes actually made by Ptolemy have ever been discovered.

However, several zodiac wheels found in Egypt are dated from the Ptolemaic era and provide evidence of that eras contribution to Horoscopic Astrology.
The most widely known of these is the Dendera zodiac ,found on the ceiling of a chapel dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Osiris.
It can be viewed at Paris' famous Louvre Museum.

In the early 19th century, the renowned French linguist Jean-Francois Champollion (they were the ones who had figured out what the hieroglyphics had stood for a number of years earlier.) correctly dated the Dendera zodiac to the Ptolemaic era. Currently the date that is agreed upon is 50 BC since it demonstrates the situation of the stars and planets as they would have been observed then. The Dendera zodiac is a map of the stars on a plane projection and shows the twelve constellations (zodiacal band) forming 36 ten-day Decans, and is further evidence of how Babylonian astrology merged with traditional Egyptian Decanic astrology.

The Horoscopic Astrology Symbols developed by Hellenistic scholars in Ptolemaic Alexandria was the result of the fusion of Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Greek astrology. Hellenistic astrology lasted until about the seventh century AD. In the eighth century, Muslim scholars revitalized interest in the basic elements of ancient astronomy to provide the original source for Western Horoscopic Astrology as we know it today.