What Is Astrology?

Astrology is the study of celestial bodies and their connection to events on Earth. We look at astrology much like a wall on the clock. The clock indicates the time but it does not cause the time. Similarly, astrologers do not believe that Mars (or any other planet) sends down its fiery rays every now and again to stir things up, but rather the symbolism and movements of Mars may be applied to our earthly events to develop a further understanding of our world, and in some cases of very talented astrologers, to predict the future.

Astrologers use what is known as a natal chart to map out the planets and their positions around Earth at a specific moment in time, most notably for a persons birth. Charts may be drawn up for any person, place or thing but a natal chart refers to the chart of a persons birth.

Knowing your exact birth time is very important when looking at natal astrology, as the Ascendant or Rising Sign changes roughly every two hours and is the first domino when mapping out your natal chart. Someone born at 3.45am may be an Aries Rising, where someone born at 3.46am may be a Taurus Rising. The Ascendant refers to the sign that was rising over the Eastern horizon at the specific time of birth, so for me who was born at 4.44am it was Taurus. Furthermore, knowing your Ascendant sets up exact degrees for all your other planets, and gives us an exact idea of the aspects between your planets – meaning the relationship the planets in your chart have to one another.

Astrologers use a tool called Birth Time Rectification to determine an estimated birth time, based upon life events.

Who invented astrology?

Like mathematics, there is debate on whether astrology was created or discovered.

Western Astrology was conceived/discovered by the Greeks and the Babylonians approximately 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. They believed that since the Sun is the centre of the Solar System, the relationship of the Earth to the Sun is of utmost importance, and this is why we calculate natal charts in the way we do.

There are 12 Western Zodiac Signs: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces

The 12 signs (one for each month of the year – more or less) are based on constellations’ positions relative to the earth. The constellations were named in accordance with Greek mythology. Interestingly the planets are nearly entirely named after Roman Gods. Greeks decided not to name the planets because they associated them with their gods and did not see the need, whereas the Romans many centuries later applied names to the planets based on their Gods.

The Western astrological calendar is like a normal calendar year that is based on the Earth’s orbit around the sun, and so what you may hear to referred to as a star sign is known in astrology as a Sun Sign.

The Vernal Equinox occurs on or around March 22nd every year, and it is when there are equal parts day and night for one day. This is the astrological New Year. Due to this, Aries is the first sign of the Zodiac.

The planets play a big role in Western astrology, and can represent different areas of a persons psyche. Such as the Moon ruling over emotions, Venus over affection and Mars over action – however the planets can represent much more than psychology.

A Brief Overview of the Planets

The Personal Planets

Sun – Ego, Consciousness, Vitality, Stamina

Moon – Emotions, Unconsciousness, Instincts, Mother

Mercury – Communication, Intellect, Language

Venus – Attraction, Love, Relationships, Art, Beauty

Mars – Aggression, Sex, Action, Desire, Courage, Passion

Jupiter – Luck, Expansion, Optimism, Abundance, Understanding

Saturn – Karma, Father, Restriction, Discipline, Responsibility

The Outer Planets

Uranus – Eccentricity, Technology, Rebellion, Reformation

Neptune – Dreams, Intuition, Mysticism, Imagination, Delusions

Pluto – Transformation, Power, Death, Rebirth, Evolution

The Ascendant – Personality, Physical Body, Perceptions

The Midheaven – What you are known for, reputation

There are Four Elements which rule over each zodiac sign: Fire, Earth, Water and Air.

In addition to this there are three Modalities which also rule over the Zodiac Signs: Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable – this is especially prevalent in Tropical Astrology as it relates in some to the changing on the seasons.

The Signs, their Elements and Modalities are as follows:

Aries: Cardinal Fire

Taurus: Fixed Earth

Gemini: Mutable Air

Cancer: Cardinal Water

Leo: Fixed Fire

Virgo: Mutable Earth

Libra: Cardinal Air

Scorpio: Fixed Water

Sagittarius: Mutable Fire

Capricorn: Cardinal Earth

Aquarius: Fixed Air

Pisces: Mutable Water

As you can see, this follows a pattern – and what is astrology, if not the accumulation of patterns?

What can astrology do for me?

You may ask yourself what the point in astrology is, if it’s just ifs and maybes? Astrology has a bad reputation of being a “pseudoscience”, however we can not measure the accuracy of astrology in the same way you can measure the accuracy of physics.

I am very fortunate in that I strongly resonate with a lot that my chart has to say, (I’m looking at you Capricorn Moon). Sometimes it’s easier to believe in something that you resonate with, and I feel like time and time again astrology is proven to be very real.

But the bottom line is, astrology is not a science. It could be referred to as a belief system, or even an art, but it isn’t comparable to sciences which rely on maths to be proven right. Astrology is all about correlation, we look at the symbolism of transits and their correlating mythologies and apply it to our earthly lives.

What kind of astrology should I look into?

There any many different schools of astrology, and the bottom line is there is no one that is better than the other as each uses its own logic to come to their conclusions. It is my belief that the themes that arrive throughout the different schools of astrology will be applicable to different areas of your life. This blog is written from the perspective of Western Astrology, more specifically Tropical Whole Sign Houses.

There are 3 main types of astrology:

Western

Chinese

Vedic

A Brief Overview of Chinese Astrology

There are 12 signs within Chinese astrology: the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.

The 12 signs were born out of a myth that when God was creating the calendar, all creatures on Earth were summoned to participate in a race. The first 12 to cross the finish line were bestowed signs within the Chinese zodiac system.

Each of the zodiac animals was assigned to a specific month on the Chinese solar calendar, which means that each sign/animal relates with two out of the 24 solar terms for a time period.

Birth year aside, Chinese astrology has three other key pillars that determine your fate: birth year, birth month, birth date, and birth hour. Chinese astrology is greatly influenced by the lunar phase at the time you were born. The four moon phases are new moon, waxing moon, full moon, and waning moon.

The Chinese astrology system incorporates five different elements fire, water, earth, metal and wood.

A Brief Overview of Vedic Astrology

Vedic astrology means “the science of light.” Vedic science comes from the Vedas, one of the oldest spiritual scriptures of India dating back to approximately 1,500-2,000 BCE.

The name of Vedic astrology comes from modern-day astrologer David Frawley, but traditionally it was known as Indian or Hindu astrology. Within Vedic astrology, Karma is extremely important and the planets are considered to be the karmas of the soul.

Vedic astrology uses the Sidereal Zodiac compared to the Tropical Zodiac of Western Astrology.