占星术（或译占星学）的英文astrology是来自早期拉丁文的单字astrologia，[19]该单字派生于希腊文的ἀστρολογία ─ 由ἄστρον，希腊拉丁转写astron（“star”，星宿）以及-λογία，希腊拉丁转写-logia（“study of”，研究 ─ “account of the stars”，星宿的解释）所组成，意思为研究星宿的学问。Astrologia后来导入了‘星宿占卜’（star-divination）的含义并且与astronomia（天文学）一起成为科学术语而使用。[20]
至于发挥古代占星技巧方面，现代西方讲求心理性格分析，并不著重事件预测。然而，有些占星家认为占星推算理应精益求精，从而提高预测事件的准验性，于是重溯古代占星术的原创精神，重新评定古代占星术的原理和方法。最著名的当属三位名字都叫罗伯特（佐勒、汉德、施密特）的占星家，于1990年代所发起的古镜重光计画（英语：Project Hindsight），将希腊、中世纪时期的古代经典翻译注释，后来三位虽因为理念的不同而分道扬镳，而佐勒透过二十年的经验累积，开办中世纪占星课程，持续教导中世纪预言占星术，他的研究与努力更于2002年获得占星界轩辕十四奖（Regulus Award）极高的肯定。而汉德则创立“历史上的占星文本检索协会”（Association for the Retrieval of Historic Astrological Texts）继续古籍的翻译与保存。古典占星（仅包含希腊占星和中世纪占星，但不包含亚非的也门占星）的再度复苏弥补了现代西洋占星术的不足，也保存了古人的智慧结晶，功不可没。
关于印度占星术的来源说法，历史学的立场认为最早印度使用的占星术系统被称做“二十七宿[65]:376”（Nakṣatras[65]:377，音译为“纳克沙特拉”），这一种占星术主要以观察月亮运行。当亚历山大东征印度之后把希腊占星术传入，因而促进两者之间的交流。此外在公元149-150年Yavanesvara[65]:377翻译自希腊人的一本书Yavanajataka（Sayings of the Greeks）[65]:382，是早期印度占星术重要著作。
Koch-Westenholz, Ulla. Mesopotamian astrology: an introduction to Babylonian and Assyrian celestial divination. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. 1995: Foreword, 11. ISBN 978-87-7289-287-0.
Jeffrey Bennett; Megan Donohue; Nicholas Schneider; Mark Voit. The cosmic perspective 4th ed. San Francisco, Calif.: Pearson/Addison-Wesley. 2007: 82–84. ISBN 0805392831. 引文格式1维护：冗余文本 (link)
Kassell, Lauren. Stars, spirits, signs: towards a history of astrology 1100–1800. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. 5 May 2010, 41 (2): 67–69. doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2010.04.001.
Chapter 7: Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding. science and engineering indicators 2006. National Science Foundation. [2012-07-28]. （原始内容存档于2011-12-30）. About three-fourths of Americans hold at least one pseudoscientific belief; i.e., they believed in at least 1 of the 10 survey items[29]"... " Those 10 items were extrasensory perception (ESP), that houses can be haunted, ghosts/that spirits of dead people can come back in certain places/situations, telepathy/communication between minds without using traditional senses, clairvoyance/the power of the mind to know the past and predict the future, astrology/that the position of the stars and planets can affect people's lives, that people can communicate mentally with someone who has died, witches, reincarnation/the rebirth of the soul in a new body after death, and channeling/allowing a "spirit-being" to temporarily assume control of a body.
Thagard, Paul R. Why Astrology is a Pseudoscience(PDF). Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association (The University of Chicago Press). 1978, 1: 223–234 [2016-01-15]. （原始内容存档(PDF)于2017-08-28）.
Hartmann, P.; Reuter, M.; Nyborga, H. The relationship between date of birth and individual differences in personality and general intelligence: A large-scale study. Personality and Individual Differences. May 2006, 40 (7): 1349–1362. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.11.017. To optimise the chances of finding even remote relationships between date of birth and individual differences in personality and intelligence we further applied two different strategies. The first one was based on the common chronological concept of time (e.g. month of birth and season of birth). The second strategy was based on the (pseudo-scientific) concept of astrology (e.g. Sun Signs, The Elements, and astrological gender), as discussed in the book Astrology: Science or superstition? by Eysenck and Nias (1982).
Harper, Douglas（英语：Douglas Harper）.astrology. [2015-05-01]. （原始内容存档于2017-06-27）.Online Etymology Dictionary（英语：Online Etymology Dictionary）. Retrieved 6 December 2011. "Differentiation between astrology and astronomy began late 1400s and by 17c. this word was limited to "reading influences of the stars and their effects on human destiny.""
astrology, n.. Oxford English Dictionary Second. Oxford University Press. 1989; online version September 2011 [2015-05-01]. （原始内容存档于2015-02-19）. In Old French and Middle English astronomie seems to be the earlier and general word, astrologie having been subseq. introduced for the 'art' or practical application of astronomy to mundane affairs, and thus gradually limited by 17th cent. to the reputed influences of the stars, unknown to science. Not in Shakespeare.请检查|date=中的日期值 (帮助)
Veenstra, J.R. Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France: Text and Context of Laurens Pignon's "Contre les Devineurs" (1411). Brill. 1997: 184–185. ISBN 978-90-04-10925-4.
Saliba, George. A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam. New York University Press. 1994b: 60, 67–69. ISBN 0-8147-8023-7.
Jeffrey Bennett, Megan Donohue, Nicholas Schneider, Mark Voit (2007). The cosmic perspective (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pearson/Addison-Wesley. pp. 82–84. ISBN 978-0-8053-9283-8.
Marshack, Alexander. The roots of civilization : the cognitive beginnings of man's first art, symbol and notation Rev. and expanded. Moyer Bell. 1991. ISBN 978-1-55921-041-6.
Evelyn-White, Hesiod ; with an English translation by Hugh G. The Homeric hymns and Homerica Reprinted. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1977: 663–677. ISBN 978-0-674-99063-0. Fifty days after the solstice, when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end, is the right time to go sailing. Then you will not wreck your ship, nor will the sea destroy the sailors, unless Poseidon the Earth-Shaker be set upon it, or Zeus, the king of the deathless gods
Russell Hobson, THE EXACT TRANSMISSION OF TEXTS IN THE FIRST MILLENNIUM B.C.E., Published PhD Thesis. Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies. University of Sydney. 2009 PDF File （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
From scroll A of the ruler Gudea of Lagash, I 17 – VI 13. O. Kaiser, Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments, Bd. 2, 1–3. Gütersloh, 1986–1991. Also quoted in A. Falkenstein, 'Wahrsagung in der sumerischen Überlieferung', La divination en Mésopotamie ancienne et dans les régions voisines. Paris, 1966.
Rochberg-Halton, F. Elements of the Babylonian Contribution to Hellenistic Astrology. Journal of the American Oriental Society. 1988, 108 (1): 51–62. JSTOR 603245. doi:10.2307/603245.
North, John David. The eastern origins of the Campanus (Prime Vertical) method. Evidence from al-Bīrūnī. Horoscopes and history. Warburg Institute. 1986: 175–176.
Durling, Robert M. Dante's Christian Astrology. by Richard Kay. Review. Speculum. January 1997, 72 (1): 185–187. JSTOR 2865916. doi:10.2307/2865916. Dante's interest in astrology has only slowly been gaining the attention it deserves. In 1940 Rudolf Palgen published his pioneering eighty-page Dantes Sternglaube: Beiträge zur Erklärung des Paradiso, which concisely surveyed Dante's treatment of the planets and of the sphere of fixed stars; he demonstrated that it is governed by the astrological concept of the "children of the planets" (in each sphere the pilgrim meets souls whose lives reflected the dominant influence of that planet) and that in countless details the imagery of the Paradiso is derived from the astrological tradition. ... Like Palgen, he [Kay] argues (again, in more detail) that Dante adapted traditional astrological views to his own Christian ones; he finds this process intensified in the upper heavens.
Woody, Kennerly M. Dante and the Doctrine of the Great Conjunctions. Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society. 1977, 95: 119–134. JSTOR 40166243. It can hardly be doubted, I think, that Dante was thinking in astrological terms when he made his prophecies. [The attached footnote cites Inferno. I, lOOff.; Purgatorio. xx, 13-15 and xxxiii, 41; Paradiso. xxii, 13-15 and xxvii, 142-148.]
