ASTROLOGY ZODIAC SIGN
People who study the Astrology Zodiac Sign are called an astrologer, astrologist or a mathematicus.
Astrology is considered as a form of divination and is different from the study of astronomy.
The word Astrology stems from the Greek.
The belief in astrology is that the positions of certain celestial bodies either influence or correlate with a persons personality trait.
In the past, those studying Astrology used observation of celestial objects and the charting of their movements.
These days the Modern study of Astrology uses astrological tables called an ephemeris.
There a number of different schools of Astrology including, Babylonian astrology, Hellenistic, Medieval & Renaissance, Modern Western astrology, Modern tropical and sidereal horoscopic, and others.
Much of the ASTROLOGY we see these days originated from the ancient Babylonians around the 2nd millennium BCE.
By the 4th century BCE, it had found its way to Greece.
By the 1st century BCE, it was transformed into the Egyptian tradition of Decanic astrology to create Horoscopic astrology.
Horoscopic Zodiac Astrology can be divided into four major branches:
Natal Zodiac Astrology: the study of a person's natal chart.
Katarchic Zodiac Astrology: includes electional and event astrology.
The former the best time to begin a new project.
The latter is about understanding an event from the time at which it took place.
Horary Zodiac Astrology: used to answer a specific question.
Mundane Astrology: the use of astrology in relation to world events.
Astrology for Yourself: How to Understand And Interpret Your Own Birth Chart
Over history a number of very prominent scientists contributed to astrology and the zodiac including, Tycho Brahe, Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Carl Gustav Jung Johannes Kepler, Carl Gustav Jung and others.
Esoteric traditions in Astrology:
Many mystic or esoteric traditions have links to astrology.
In some cases, like Kabbalah, this involves participants incorporating elements of astrology into their own traditions. In other cases, like divinatory tarot, many astrologers themselves have incorporated the tradition into their own practice of astrology.
Esoteric traditions include, but are not limited to:
Alchemy
Chiromancy
Kabbalistic astrology
Medical astrology
Numerology
Rosicrucian or "Rose Cross"
Tarot divination
Historically, alchemy in the Western World was particularly allied and intertwined with traditional Babylonian-Greek style astrology; in numerous ways they were built to complement each other in the search for occult or hidden knowledge.
Astrology has used the concept of the four classical elements of alchemy from antiquity up until the present day
Horoscopic astrology:
Horoscopic astrology is a Sign system that was developed in the Mediterranean region and specifically Hellenistic Egypt around the late 2nd or early 1st century BCE.
The tradition deals with two-dimensional diagrams of the heavens, or horoscopes, created for specific moments in time. The diagram is then used to interpret the inherent meaning underlying the alignment of celestial bodies at that moment based on a specific set of rules and guidelines.
A horoscope was calculated normally for the moment of an individual's birth, or at the beginning of an enterprise or event, because the alignments of the heavens at that moment were thought to determine the nature of the subject in question. One of the defining characteristics of this form of astrology that makes it distinct from other traditions is the computation of the degree of the Eastern horizon rising against the backdrop of the ecliptic at the specific moment under examination, otherwise known as the ascendant.
Horoscopic astrology has been the most influential and widespread form of astrology across the world, especially in Africa, India, Europe, and the Middle East, and there are several major traditions of horoscopic astrology whose origins are Hellenistic, including Indian, Medieval, and most other modern Western traditions of astrology.
The horoscope:
Central to horoscopic astrology and its branches is the calculation of the horoscope or astrological chart. This two-dimensional diagrammatic representation shows the celestial bodies' apparent positions in the heavens from the vantage of a location on Earth at a given time and place. The horoscope is also divided into twelve different celestial houses which govern different areas of life. Calculations performed in casting a horoscope involve arithmetic and simple geometry which serve to locate the apparent position of heavenly bodies on desired dates and times based on astronomical tables. In ancient Hellenistic astrology the ascendant demarcated the first celestial house of a horoscope. The word for the ascendant in Greek was horoskopos from which horoscope derives. In modern times, the word has come to refer to the astrological chart as a whole.
Branches of horoscopic astrology:
Traditions of horoscopic astrology can be divided into four branches which are directed towards specific subjects or purposes. Often these branches use a unique set of techniques or a different application of the core principles of the system to a different area.
Many other subsets and applications of astrology are derived from these four fundamental branches.
Natal astrology, the study of a person's natal chart to gain information about the individual and his/her life experience.
Katarchic astrology, which includes both electional and event astrology. The former uses astrology to determine the most auspicious moment to begin an enterprise or undertaking, and the latter to understand everything about an event from the time at which it took place.
Horary astrology, used to answer a specific question by studying the chart of the moment the question is posed to an astrologer.
Mundane or world astrology, the application of astrology to world events, including weather, earthquakes, and the rise and fall of empires or religions.
In Astrology, the sign Aries, which is Latin for Ram, is one of the constellations of the zodiac.
The area resembles the head of a ram.
Read more on....
Aries
In Latin, the zodiac sign Gemini means twins.
The constellations of Gemini lies between Taurus to the west and Cancer in the East.
More here on Geminni in astrology....
Gemini
The Western astrology zodiac sign of Cancer is my favorite.
What beautiful people cancer are.
Cancer is Latin for crab.....
Cancer
Leo is Latin for lion and its constellation lies between the zodiac sign Cancer to the west and Virgo to the east.
Keep reading here about Leo in Astrology....
Leo
Virgo is Latin for virgin and is the constellation of the zodiac that lies between Leo to the west and the Libra to the east.
One of the nice signs in Astrology, find out more about....
Virgo
The Astrology zodiac sign of Libra is Latin for balance.
Its constellation lies between Virgo to the west and Scorpius to the east....
Libra
Scorpius is one of the constellations of the zodiac and in western astrology it is known as....
Scorpio
Sagittarius is Latin for Archer.
Its constellation lies between Scorpius to the west and Capricornus to the east.
In AStrology it is depicted as a centaur drawing a bow.
Read more here on....
Sagittarius
In Astrology Zodiac Sign Capricorn means the Horned Goat.
Capricorn rules the knees, bones, and skin.
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Capricorn
Aquarius is Latin for the Water-bearer or Cup-bearer.
They are a astrology sign that has a natural gft for photography.
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Aquarius
Pisces is Latin for fish and its zodiac constellation lies between Aquarius to the west and Aries to the east.
A popular sign in astrology they are a gifted people in the area of writing, music and the arts.
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Pisces
Taurus are the most stubborn astrology Zodiac Sign, yet they are also the most interesting sign of the astrology zodiac.
Its constellation lies between Aries to the west and Gemini to the east.
Lots of information here on....
Taurus
Want to know what all those technical terms you often how about in Astrology Zodiac Sign.
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Astrology and Past Lives
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Astrology Seduction Guide
How we all love Chocolate. But what is interesting in Astrology is how the different starsigns eat and love their Chocolate.
Read more here about how how starsigns choose and eat their chocolates in the ....
Astrology Guide to Chocolate
Zodiac in Astrology:
The zodiac is the belt or band of constellations through which the Sun, Moon, and planets transit across the sky. Astrologers noted these constellations and so attached a particular significance to them. Over time they developed the system of twelve signs of the zodiac, based on twelve of the constellations they considered to be particularly important.
The Western and Vedic zodiac signs have a common origin in the tradition of horoscopic astrology, and so are very similar in meaning. In China on the other hand, the development of the zodiac was different. Although the Chinese too have a system of twelve signs (named after animals), the Chinese zodiac refers to a pure calendrical cycle, as there are no equivalent constellations linked to it like the Western or Indian zodiacs. The common choice of twelve zodiac signs is understandable considering the interaction of the Sun and Moon was central to all forms of astrology.
Twelve cycles of the Moon the months Roughly coincide with one solar year, making twelve a natural choice.
The majority of Western astrologers base their work on the tropical zodiac which divides the sky into twelve equal segments of 30 degrees each, beginning with the first point of Aries, the point where the line of the earth's celestial equator and the ecliptic (the Sun's path through the sky) meet at the northern hemisphere spring equinox. Due to the precession of the equinoxes, the slow changing of the way Earth rotates in space, the zodiacal signs in this system bear no relation to the constellations of the same name but stay aligned to the months and seasons.
Practitioners of the Vedic astrological tradition and a minority of Western astrologers use the sidereal zodiac. This zodiac uses the same evenly divided ecliptic but approximately stays aligned to the positions of the observable constellations with the same name as the zodiacal signs. The sidereal zodiac differs from the tropical zodiac by an offset called the ayanamsa, which steadily increases as the equinoxes drift further. Furthermore, some siderealists (i.e. astrologers employing sidereal techniques) use the actual, unequal constellations of the zodiac in their work.
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Traditions in Astrology:
There are many traditions of astrology, some of which share similar features due to the transmission of astrological doctrines between cultures.
Other traditions developed in isolation and hold completely different doctrines, although they too share some similar features due to the fact that they are drawing on similar astronomical sources.
Current traditions
The main traditions used by modern astrologers are:
Vedic astrology
Western astrology
Chinese astrology
Vedic and Western astrology share a common ancestry as horoscopic systems of astrology, in that both traditions focus on the casting of an astrological chart or horoscope, a representation of celestial entities, for an event based on the position of the Sun, Moon, and planets at the moment of the event.
However, Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, linking the signs of the zodiac to their original constellations, while Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac.
Because of the precession of the equinoxes, over the centuries the twelve zodiacal signs in Western astrology no longer correspond to the same part of the sky as their original constellations. In effect, in Western astrology the link between sign and constellation has been broken, whereas in Vedic astrology it remains of paramount importance.
Other differences between the two traditions include the use of 27 (or 28) nakshatras or lunar mansions, which have been used in India since Vedic times, and the system of planetary periods known as dashas.
In Chinese astrology a quite different tradition has evolved. By contrast to Western and Indian astrology, the twelve sign of the zodiac do not divide the sky, but rather the celestial equator. The Chinese evolved a system where each sign corresponds to one of twelve 'double-hours' that govern the day, and to one of the twelve months.
Each sign of the zodiac governs a different year, and combines with a system based on the five elements of Chinese cosmology to give a 60 (12 x 5) year cycle. The term Chinese astrology is used here for convenience, but it must be recognised that versions of the same tradition exist in Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and other Asian countries.
In modern times, these traditions have come into greater contact with each other, notably with Indian and Chinese astrology having spread to the West, while awareness of Western astrology is still fairly limited in Asia. Astrology in the Western world has diversified greatly in modern times. New movements have appeared, which have jettisoned much of traditional astrology to concentrate on different approaches, such as a greater emphasis on midpoints, or a more psychological approach.
Some recent Western developments include:
Modern tropical and sidereal horoscopic astrology
Cosmobiology
Psychological astrology
Sun sign astrology
Hamburg School of Astrology
Uranian astrology
Historical traditions:
Throughout its long history, astrology has come to prominence in many regions and undergone developments and change. There are many astrological traditions that are historically important, but which have largely fallen out of use today. Astrologers still retain an interest in them and regard them as an important resource. Historically significant traditions of astrology include:
Arab and Persian astrology (Medieval, near East)
Babylonian astrology (Ancient, near East)
Egyptian astrology
Hellenistic astrology (Classical antiquity)
Mayan astrology
Astrology and Astronomy:
In the modern Western world, astrology and astronomy (Latin: Astronomia) are generally regarded as completely separate disciplines. Astronomy, the study of objects and phenomena beyond the Earth's atmosphere, is accepted as a science and is a widely studied academic discipline.
Astrology, which uses the apparent positions of celestial objects as the basis for psychology, prediction of future events, and other esoteric knowledge, is not widely regarded as science and is typically defined as a form of divination.
Early science, particularly geometry and astronomy/astrology (astronomia), was connected to the divine for most medieval scholars. The compass in this 13th Century manuscript is a symbol of God's act of Creation, as many believed that there was something intrinsically divine or perfect that could be found in circles.
Historically, most cultures have not made a clear distinction between the two disciplines, lumping them both together as one. In ancient Babylonia, famed for its astrology, there were not separate roles for the astronomer as predictor of celestial phenomena, and the astrologer as their interpreter; both functions were performed by the same person.
This overlap does not mean that astrology and astronomy were always regarded as one and the same.
In ancient Greece, presocratic thinkers such as Anaximander, Xenophanes, Anaximenes, and Heraclides speculated about the nature and substance of the stars and planets. Astronomers such as Eudoxus (contemporary with Plato) observed planetary motions and cycles, and created a geocentric cosmological model that would be accepted by Aristotle -- this model generally lasted until Ptolemy, who added epicycles to explain certain motions.
The Platonic school promoted the study of astronomy as a part of philosophy because the motions of the heavens demonstrate an orderly and harmonious cosmos. In the third century B.C.E., Babylonian astrology began to make its presence felt in Greece. Astrology was criticized by Hellenistic philosophers such as the Academic Skeptic Carneades and Middle Stoic Panaetius.
However, the notions of the Great Year (when all the planets complete a full cycle and return to their relative positions) and eternal recurrence were Stoic doctrines that made divination and fatalism possible.
While the Greek words astrologia and astronomia were often used interchangeably, they were conceptually not the same. Both words more often than not referred to astronomy. The words for astrology proper, were more typically apotelesma and katarkhê.
Astrology was widely accepted in the Middle Ages as astrological texts from Hellenistic and Arabic astrologers were translated into Latin. In the late Middle Ages, its acceptance or rejection often depended on its reception in the royal courts of Europe. Not until the time of Francis Bacon was astrology rejected as a part of scholastic metaphysics rather than empirical observation. A more definitive split between astrology and astronomy the West took place gradually in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when astrology was increasingly thought of as an occult science or superstition by the intellectual elite.
Because of their lengthy shared history, it sometimes happens that the two are confused with one another even today. Many contemporary astrologers, however, do not claim that astrology is a science, but think of it as a form of divination like the I-Ching, an art, or a part of a spiritual belief structure (influenced by trends such as Neoplatonism, Neopaganism, Theosophy, and Hinduism).
Distinguishing characteristics of Astrology and Astronomy:
The primary goal of astronomy is to understand the physics of the universe. Astrologers use astronomical calculations for the positions of celestial bodies along the ecliptic and attempt to correlate celestial events (astrological aspects, sign positions) with earthly events and human affairs. Astronomers consistently use the scientific method, naturalistic presuppositions and abstract mathematical reasoning to investigate or explain phenomena in the universe.
Astrologers use mystical/religious reasoning as well as traditional folklore, symbolism and superstition blended with mathematical predections to explain phenomena in the universe. The scientific method is not consistently used by astrologers.
Astrologers practice their discipline geocentricically and they consider the universe to be harmonious, changeless and static, while astronomers believe that the universe is without a center and is dynamic, expanding outward.
Astronomers, on the contrary, believe that both order and randomness simultaneously exist in the universe; that is, astronomers believe the universe is not entirely orderly, predictable and predetermined, that randomness does in fact exist in the universe to at least some extent. Random cosmic collisions and other random phenomena occur everywhere in the universe.
Both astrologers and astronomers see Earth as being an integral part of the universe, that Earth and the universe are interconnected as one cosmos (not as being separate and distinct from each other).
However, astronomers teach that nothing in the universe is divine or supernatural, and that nothing in outer space directly manipulates world events or the personal lives of people in supernatural or divine ways. Astronomers believe that, because the Earth is an integral part of the universe, celestial objects are just as humbly natural as terrestrial objects, being composed of exactly the same substances, and controlled by exactly the same forces, as objects on Earth. The substances iron, hydrogen, sulfur, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, as well as the fundamental interactions of gravity, electromagnetism, weak force and strong force, are just as prevalent within the stars and planets as they are on Earth.
Astronomers refers to star patterns as "constellations" and "asterisms", while astrologers refer to star patterns as "signs". Contemporary astronomers, who are academic instead of mystical or superstitious, have little use for the constellations, accepting them only as "regions" or "provinces" of the sky for scientific observation and academic study, instead of as real pictures in the sky.
Unlike the mystical and superstitious astrologers, who believe and teach that pictures truly exist among the constellations and have supernatural or divine influences on people, today’s academic mainstream astronomers believe and teach that pictures do not truly exist among the constellations. Instead, today’s academic mainstream astronomers believe and teach that people and cultures throughout history only imagined pictures among the constellations and composed myths and stories about what they imagined in the sky, and that such mere "pictures of the imagination" have no supernatural or divine influences on people whatsoever.
Today’s academic mainstream astronomers believe and teach that a constellation is nothing more than a group of stars in a specific region of the sky, and that any person or culture, at any time or place, can imagine whatever picture they wish among a particular group of stars, as history proves via the many ancient and modern cultures, each culture having its own unique star lore.
Astrologers and astronomers differ in their approach to concepts such as constellations. Astronomers recognize a thirteenth constellation, Ophiuchus, in addition to the twelve astrologers recognize. Astrologers traditionally omit Ophiuchus from their zodiacal signs, preferring twelve due to a long-standing conceptual system in which twelve signs are vital. In addition, due to the 26,000 year precession cycle of Earth on its axis of rotation, the constellations along the ecliptic are no longer positioned the same as they were during Aristotle and Ptolemy's day (when the current astrological system was first established).
The Sun, for example, no longer enters Aries on the vernal equinox, instead, it now enters Pisces during that time, making Pisces the true contemporary first sign of the zodiac instead of Aries. Precession only affects the astrological traditions employing the tropical zodiac, such as Western astrology, however. Indian astrology, which uses the sidereal zodiac, uses modern star positions.
Historical divergence:
As in many medieval illustrations, the compass here is an icon of religion as well as science, in reference to God as the architect of creation.From ancient times until the 17th century, astrologers constantly desired more accurate astronomical tables, and for this reason, they instigated and even funded many important developments in astronomy.
The role of astrology as an important motivation for astronomical research diminished as the works of Galileo and others solved the problems in celestial mechanics that were of interest to astrologers, and as belief in astrological influences or correlations became extinct among astronomers. The needs of modern navigation and physics became more important motivators for astronomical research.
Astrology and astronomy began to take divergent paths during the rise of the rational and the scientific method in the Western World. The science of astronomy as we know it today (mathematical, mechanical, empirical) is of relatively recent origin. This discipline became separated from and generally antagonistic towards astrology only beginning around the time of the "Great Astronomers" -- Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus, Brahe, etc. (though they were all still astrologers as well as astronomers).
This period is defined as the beginning of the scientific revolution, leading on into The Age of Enlightenment, sometimes referred to as The Age of Reason -- as stated, the two fields diverged completely in the West between approximately 1750-1800.
Perhaps the words astrolomer/astrolomy or astronoger/astronogy would be sufficient to describe the aforementioned dual roles of just about every person seriously studying (astronomy) and interpreting (astrology) the sky from antiquity until about 1750-1800. In Medieval Europe the word Astronomia was often used to encompass both disciplines as this included the study of astronomy and astrology jointly and without a real distinction; this was one of the original Seven Liberal Arts.
Astrology and astronomy stayed together for a very long time - the funding from astrology supported major astronomical research, which was in turn used to make more and more accurate ephemerides for use in astrology. As the funding and technology progressively increased, this inexorably lead to greater and greater discoveries that eventually drove the two apart.
Most of the very early, ancient astronomers/astrologers up until about 1750-1800 were simultaneously employed as astrologers for the powerful and the wealthy; many Kings and Queens employed court astrologers to aid them in the running of their kingdom, and this is where most of the money that was used to fund much need astronomical research came from.
University medical students were taught astronomy/astrology for use during their practice as physicians; they needed to know how to observe (astronomically) in order to be able to interpret (astrologically) and treat the illness. (See Medical astrology.)
More often than not it was only because of the prospect of getting better and more accurate astrological predictions that the rich (Royalty) were willing to invest in the very expensive projects of creating observatories and funding constant astronomical observations which were very time consuming and just didn't seem quite as interesting as the 'mystical' art of astrology.
Chinese Astrology
Find out more in our complete Astrology Zodiac Sign Seduction Guide:
Aries
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
Libra
Scorpio
Sagittarius
Capricorn
Aquarius
Pisces
Astrology For Beginners (Llewellyn's Modern Astrology Library Series)
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