Who Are You? What’s Your Sign? — The History, Science, and Art of Decoding Your Personal Destiny in the Heavens
I don’t believe in astrology; I’m a Sagittarius and we’re skeptical — Arthur C. Clarke
Did you check your horoscope for today? What does Cosmo Snapchat say about the best Starbucks drink that’s compatible with your zodiac sign?
Astrology is dismissed as a load of rubbish even though millions of rational, down to earth people flock to read their horoscopes every day.
The idea that planetary bodies whizzing through outer space having even the tiniest effect on the human psyche, let alone world affairs, is mind boggling to the modern day Westerner.
Yet for thousands of years — actually, since the dawn of civilization — humans have staked out their lives by mapping out the constellations and tracking heavenly movements. The summer and winter solstice marked the longest and shortest days of the year. The moon cycles made up the seasons. Monolithic structures were constructed all over the world to honor and dignify these celestial events. In terms of an agrarian society, the cyclical movement of heavenly bodies allowed for the planning and preparation of farming and harvesting.
Could you believe that some of the greatest scientific minds, even household names such as Newton, Copernicus and Galileo, were deeply entrenched in astrology? They lived and breathed the stuff.
Astrology was not only an art but a science. As they gazed into the annals of the past, these Renaissance men saw how influential astrology had been upon the development of civilization. The Greeks were the first to systematize astrology, although it is believed to have originated in the Indus Valley. They had mythological paeans written in honor of the constellations. The emperors and leaders all had a personal astrologer at their side to consult for auspicious days.
Having since spread all over the world, there are now many different astrological traditions and styles, each having their own roots, their quirks and benefits. Astrological references are sprinkled throughout the most revered pieces literature written by man. The Old and New Testament manuscripts are littered with references to the zodiac signs (the “three wise men” who visited Jesus in his manger were drawn due to a star they saw in the heavens.) Shakespeare was greatly influenced by astrology and it is evident by the number of references he included in his plays.
But is astrology compatible with today’s materialistic and scientific understanding of reality? There are only twelve zodiac signs after all, could all seven billion people on planet Earth really be categorized into twelve segments? We can’t all be Libras and Capricorns and Scorpios and Geminis, can we? After all, those who are people born within the same month, with the same sign, appear to behave and think completely different.
Modern day astrology as we read about it in our Cosmo magazines is actually extremely shallow. The answers are much, much deeper.
Back in the early 1900’s, horoscopes (horo meaning hour, scope meaning to measure) began to be included in American newspapers. These forecasts caused such a craze and demand in their readers that, in order to simplify the readings, editors decided that only the “sun signs” would be included in the Sunday paper.
But the sun sign is actually only one part of our zodiac make-up. To understand a birth chart completely, we must also consider our moon sign, mercury sign, venus sign, mars, jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune and even pluto! At the time of your birth, each heavenly body was in a specific sign of the zodiac. It just so happens that it takes the sun approximately one month to transit from sign to sign, therefore, making it easy to decipher someone’s sun sign based on their day of birth.
- The sun is one of the major astrological bodies in the art of astrology. It represents your core, ego, will, essence. It is the energy you embody. Each other planet signifies something different:
- The moon represents your emotional consciousness. It is the aspect of you that people may not recognize at first, since it is hidden. It represents your needs, what you require for emotional fulfillment.
- Mercury represents communication, coordination of thoughts, ideas.
- Venus represents love, relationships, the arts, harmony.
- Mars represents action, passion, physical vitality, sex.
- Jupiter represents expansion, benevolence, luck, philosophy.
- Saturn represents contraction, restriction, rules, laws.
- Uranus represents sudden events, revolutionary ideas, forward thinking.
- Neptune represents fantasies, dreams, mysticism.
- Pluto represents transformation, death, rebirth.
The Birth Chart — Your Fingerprint of the Heavens
Your birth chart is a circular drawing of the zodiac signs divided into twelve segments with each planet placed in a house, corresponding to where in the heavens it was at the time of your birth.
The placements of planets and the angles make to each other (either positive, neutral or negative) dictate your dreams, your fears, your aspirations, what makes you tick, what makes you afraid, what burdens you, how you look, how others perceive you and how you approach reality.
The twelve segments, or houses, describe areas of life such as:
identity, belongings, communication, home, play, work, relationships, death, philosophy, career, friends, and the collective conscious.
The different combinations of planets, their house placements, and the angles they create with other planets give the variety of personalities. That is why you cannot just compare one Scorpio sun sign person with another Scorpio sun sign person; you have to take a deeper look at the rest of their planetary positions!
A birth chart will also make you realize that other people are much, much different than you. You begin to see what causes other people to act the way they act, to do the things they do. It opens your eyes to the undercurrents of the human psyche. Analyzing someone’s birth chart can explain aspects of a close friend that you know too well, or may have never realized.
That we can now think of no mechanism for astrology is relevant but unconvincing. No mechanism was known, for example, for continental drift when it was proposed by Wegener. Nevertheless, we see that Wegener was right, and those who objected on the grounds of unavailable mechanism were wrong — Carl Sagan
What causes astrology to actually work? Well, no one has fool proof answers. But science has made enormous leaps of knowledge in subjects such as quantum physics and electromagnetism that create hope for one day discovering the exact mechanisms for the effects of planets and stars upon our world and reality. As for now, the longest standing tradition is proof enough of the validity of the discipline.
As humanity begins to move into a post-modern era, the answer that have sufficed us in the past begin to fall away as improved theories of the nature of reality, of life, of the universe begin to take their place. Spiritual virtues and truths that have laid dormant in monasteries and temples begin to surface and reveal themselves in the collective consciousness. To say that we have an answer to every problem would be false, but we continue to push and grow closer and closer to ultimate, universal truth.
And those answers are the types of answers that we can all use.
