What is Astrology… Really?

When asked, “what’s your sign?” you probably can give an answer, but do you know what that answer says about you? Astrology is a popular subject, especially with young adults today, however; true astrology is something far less popular. When you think of astrology, you most likely think of silly posts that tell you what kind of puppy you are based on your sign. That is far from real astrology, so what is real astrology?

The definition of astrology is the study of planetary or celestial beings’ motion in relation to human affairs. Astrology is broken up into three main parts: 12 zodiacs, 14 planets, and 12 houses. The 12 zodiacs are common knowledge to most people, as that’s probably the answer to the opening question I provided, but those zodiacs interact with the planets and houses to create what is called a birth chart. An individual’s birth chart maps out the three parts of astrology based on what time you were born and where. This shows where the planets were and how they were moving (houses) at the time of your birth. By combining the sky’s alignment with the zodiac signs, astrologists can make claims about individual personalities and traits.

Because most people only know one of their zodiac signs, their sun sign which delineates your outward personality based on the sun’s position, some may say their zodiac does not “fit” them. This is because one must look at all 14 planets and 12 houses to gauge a person’s true personality.

I provided two sample birth charts above to go over some basics. The chart to the left may seem complicated and overwhelming to look at. That is a Natal birth chart used by most astrologists because it maps out all aspects of astrology in one place.  The larger symbols in the outer ring are the zodiac signs, and the smaller symbols on the inside are the planets, that are placed by the zodiac sign that represents them. The lines in the center show the houses, which are representative of how the planets move. For beginners, this type of chart can be confusing and hard to read, so the chart to the right is a good starting point to understanding astrology. However, it is missing the element of houses. This chart clearly states what sign represents each planet, for example; Sun in Scorpio means the sun’s position in the sky during your birth was in Scorpio.

Before reading charts one first must understand what each aspect of the signs, planets, and houses mean. In this blog, I will be diving into those topics, so anyone who is interested in learning more about astrology can interpret and better understand charts and themselves.