Astrology is one of those subjects which is easy and fun to learn a little about but can take a lifetime to master. Most people are only familiar with the most basic aspect of astrology, their zodiacal sign or Star Sign, and usually they can name at least one characteristic of their sign. Star signs are popularized in magazines, newspapers and tabloids. In many places today you can even dial a telephone to find out your fortune according to your Star Sign. Unfortunately however, many people think that Star Signs and dubious tabloid predictions is all there is to astrology. I hope to show you in these articles that real astrology is both far more complex and far more useful than you may have previously thought.

Fundamental Ideas

The most basic premise of astrology is that the cyclical movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets in our solar system, which can be observed and predicted mathematically, reflect other cycles in the world we live in. These "heavenly bodies" don't actually cause anything to happen. Instead, astrologers see them as symbols that point to natural trends, characteristics, and potential events in the lives of individuals, businesses, and sometimes even whole countries.

Astrology is partly a technical "science" and partly an interpretive "art". It can be studied systematically through teachers and books, and a person does not have to possess any particular psychic abilities in order to become a good astrologer. What practicing astrology does require, however, is proficiency with a complex set of symbols and the sensitivity and imagination needed to relate those symbols to the everyday lives of human beings.

Astrology has many different uses, and so there are many different "schools" of astrology. Some astrologers specialize in Medical Astrology, while others use astrology to analyze financial trends in business and the stock market. Mundane Astrology is the study of politics and world events, while Electional Astrology helps people find favorable times or days to get married, start a business, begin a new job, and so on. Horary Astrology answers questions about the past, present, or future based upon the specific moment they arise in the mind of the questioner. However, the most popular type of astrology is Natal Astrology, which analyzes an individual's personality and life potentials based on their date, time and place of birth. This branch of astrology has developed tremendously in the past fifty years, and now includes many concepts from analytical psychology.

Astrology has been studied for millennia, and it dates back as far as recorded history. Our modern Western astrology is descended from the ancient Greek tradition, which was also introduced to the Middle East and India. Believing that fate was determined by the stars, the ancient Assyrians, Babilonians, and Egyptians all had astrologers to observe, record, and interpret the positions of heavenly bodies to insure survival and prosperity. These people were priests and scholars, and they were looked up to as doctors and learned men.

It was only in the 17th century that astrology, the study of the meaning of the stars, was separated from astronomy, the study of the movements and positions of the stars. This happened for a number of reasons, both political and philosophical. For several hundred years thereafter, astrological knowledge was mostly dismissed in the West as either "unscientific" (because it did not conform to the Newtonian worldview) or "heretical" (because it took power away from the priests of the Catholic Church, who wanted to be the only intermediaries between the Will of God and ordinary men and women). This situation has only begun to change in the last century, especially in the past thirty years with renewed interest in mysticism and personal psychological development. Recent developments in quantum physics have even suggested plausible "scientific" explanations for what astrologers, after thousands of years of observation and more recent statistical investigation, have always known to be true: that astrology really does "work".

Some people of the past and present have objected to the use of astrology on religious or philosophical grounds. For instance, some people say that it is useless to try to guess what is going to happen to us, since God has alread determined our fate and only He can know our future. However, these and other objections are almost always based in misunderstanding over how astrology is actually practiced and what astrologers themselves believe about the universe we live in.

Astrologers do not believe that God always decides what will happen to us. Instead, they believe that we were created with the power to choose how to make the best use of our natural abilities and the circumstances we were born into. We cannot change our family background, ethnic origin, or overall appearance; however, within certain limits we always have the ability to change our views, develop (or not develop) our talents, choose the people we associate with, and decide what we will do from one day to the next. Some people choose to live by strong moral principles, doing the best they can to live up to their potential for doing good in the world. Other people choose to think mostly of their own pleasure and are not overly concerned if they hurt other people in the process of getting what they want. Some people are able to live long lives and die at a very old age. Still others (knowingly or unknowingly) make choices that put their lives in physical danger.

Some religions teach that when we die, our good and bad deeds are weighed and our soul either ascends to a blissful heaven or falls into a fiery hell. Other religions teach that our soul is on a long journey, and must go through many lives before it can eventually reunite with its Creator. Astrology is not overly concerned with such questions. Astrologers simply believe that as mankind has been created by the Divine, so he has been given numerous guides to help him understand himself on his journey through life. The movements of the planets is our solar system are one such guide.

Astrology does not predict everything about you. It simply reveals the psychological tendencies you have developed as a result of the environment you were born into. These tendencies push you to act in certain ways, develop certain patterns of thinking, and be attracted to certain types of work, people, entertainment, etc. Astrology shows your natural talents as well as conflicting patterns of acting and thinking that could cause problems for you if you are not aware of them. However, astrology cannot reveal if you will succeed or fail in life, if you will be rich or poor, or if you will die young or old. Even when astrologers "predict" your future they can only determine the general nature of the circumstances that will arise and offer various scenarios based on the kind of life you have already led up to that point in time.

It is not the stars but the way you choose to handle your life that determines your success or failure in any venture. The usefulness of astrology lies in its ability to help you understand the choices that are before you so that you can choose to act wisely.

Astrology as it is practiced professionally is far more complex than popular magazine and tabloid horoscope columns would make it appear. "Popular" astrology divides human character into twelve personality types known by the names Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. Whether you are called an Aries or a Taurus is a matter of determining where the Sun was located on the day you were born. Technically, this is done by measuring the angular position of the Sun as it moves along an imaginary band of sky called the zodiac, whose 30-degree divisions (12 x 30 deg. = 360 degrees, or a perfect circle) are given the names Aries, Taurus, Gemini, etc.

Of course, the Sun does not really "move" at all, but only appears to move because of the Earths 365-day orbit around the Sun. The accessibility of popular astrology lies in the fact that the Sun's position in the zodiac is approximately the same from one year to the next; if it was in the section of the zodiac known as Leo on the 25th of July 1967, it will again be in that same "sign" on the 25th of July 1968, and so on for the next year. Because the interpretations of popular astrology are based on the position of the Sun (and only the position of the Sun) amongst the twelve zodiacal signs, popular astrology is also known as Sun Sign Astrology.

However, the Sun is only one factor (albeit a significant one) amidst a host of other "heavenly bodies" which include the Moon, the other eight planets (excluding the Earth), and a number of other symbolic elements—all of which are so particular to the date, time, and place of a persons birth that Sun sign astrology simply cannot take them into account. This is why, even though you were born a supposedly intense and secretive Scorpio by Sun sign, your friends might see you more as a talkative Gemini, you might spend money as extravagantly as a Leo, think like a dreamy Pisces, work as energetically as an Aries, or cope with romantic relationships as cautiously as a Capricorn. Only a professional astrological analysis takes these differences into account.