Anti-Colonial Praxis: Manazil al Qamar

What does it mean to have an anti-colonial astrological practice? Just like any other form of intellectual pursuit, there are so many parts of the way astrology is taught, learned, read, worked, explored that are colonial in nature. The constellations and the asterisms1 within that humans have gazed upon for millenia are a part of a larger system of knowledge that was formed in Mesopotamia, the Zodiacal belt having been tracked as early as 700 BC.2 The equalizing of the signs which forms a facet of the Tropical Zodiac also traces its roots to the Babylonian astrological system.3 The Tropical Zodiac that we use today is linked to the Solstices and Equinoxes, with 0 Aries beginning at the Spring Equinox, but the system the Babylonian astrologers used, similar to the Sidereal Zodiac, tied the signs to the fixed stars.