占星術（或譯占星學）的英文astrology是來自早期拉丁文的單字astrologia，[19]該單字派生於希臘文的ἀστρολογία ─ 由ἄστρον，希臘拉丁轉寫astron（“star”，星宿）以及-λογία，希臘拉丁轉寫-logia（“study of”，研究 ─ “account of the stars”，星宿的解釋）所組成，意思為研究星宿的學問。Astrologia後來導入了‘星宿占卜’（star-divination）的含义並且與astronomia（天文學）一起成為科學術語而使用。[20]
至於發揮古代占星技巧方面，現代西方講求心理性格分析，並不著重事件預測。然而，有些占星家認為占星推算理應精益求精，從而提高預測事件的準驗性，於是重溯古代占星術的原創精神，重新評定古代占星術的原理和方法。最著名的當屬三位名字都叫羅伯特（佐勒、漢德、施密特）的占星家，於1990年代所發起的古鏡重光計畫（英语：Project Hindsight），將希臘、中世紀時期的古代經典翻譯註釋，後來三位雖因為理念的不同而分道揚鑣，而佐勒透過二十年的經驗累積，開辦中世紀占星課程，持續教導中世紀預言占星術，他的研究與努力更於2002年獲得占星界軒轅十四獎（Regulus Award）極高的肯定。而漢德則創立“歷史上的占星文本檢索协会”（Association for the Retrieval of Historic Astrological Texts）繼續古籍的翻譯與保存。古典占星（僅包含希臘占星和中世紀占星，但不包含亞非的也門占星）的再度復甦彌補了現代西洋占星術的不足，也保存了古人的智慧結晶，功不可沒。
關於印度占星術的來源說法，歷史學的立場認為最早印度使用的占星術系統被稱做「二十七宿[65]:376」（Nakṣatras[65]:377，音译为“纳克沙特拉”），這一種占星術主要以觀察月亮運行。當亞歷山大東征印度之後把希臘占星術傳入，因而促進兩者之間的交流。此外在公元149-150年Yavanesvara[65]:377翻譯自希臘人的一本書Yavanajataka（Sayings of the Greeks）[65]:382，是早期印度占星術重要著作。
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.]
