Some Things You Should Know About Astrology

So my last post was supposed to be one of those “pillar articles” that every good blog is supposed to have if it intends to entice a healthy readership to it. But as this is my first blog, I’m still a bit new to this whole idea, and as such I admit I may have fallen a little short. So this post is intended to pick up where the last one left off and specifically address astrology.

As stated previously, most people in the U.S.A. can tell you what “SIGN” they are, astrologically speaking. Fewer people can tell you what the hell a sign actually is.

When a person says “I am a LEO” or “My sign is CAPRICORN” they are saying that the SUN was in this particular constellation at the time of their birth. There are twelve such constellations, or “signs,” used in Western astrology (this is the astrology that comes from the ancient Egyptians by way of Greece). In order, they are:

ARIES
TAURUS
GEMINI
CANCER
LEO
VIRGO
LIBRA
SCORPIO
SAGITARRIUS
CAPRICORN
ACQUARIUS
PISCES

Now, when a person wants to find out what “sign” they are, they look at a picture of the sky on their day of birth. This is particular type of horoscope called a NATAL CHART (“natal” just means “birth”). The sun appears to travel around the twelve “Signs of the Zodiac” throughout the year, lingering in each sign for about 30 days, and each sign is about a month long.

When looking at a natal chart, an astrologer looks at the placement of the SUN as the main indication of a person’s tendencies. However, the MOON and the other planets of the solar system are also examined to determine tendencies in various areas of a person’s personality.

That means that in addition to having a “Sun Sign,” you also have a “Moon Sign,” a “Mars Sign,” a “Saturn Sign,” etc. Pretty far out, huh?

A lot of people blow off astrology for one or more of the following reasons:

1) they don’t know anything about it (they’ve never heard/read about it, in other words)
2) their horoscope in the newspaper is never, or very rarely accurate
3) they say that “any of the signs could apply to them,” not just one sign
4) they say that they are nothing like the description of their sign
5) astrology isn’t “scientific” enough for them

Ignorance is, of course, excusable...a person always has a chance to learn something new in their lives, and the fact that they don’t know anything about astrology or are ill-informed is fine and dandy. I am ignorant of the rules for lacrosse, even though there was a lacrosse team in my high school but that doesn’t mean I’m not still a nice person.

As far as reasons #3 and #4 it’s quite possible that certain parts of a “sign” don’t fit a person because of other planets in a person’s chart...also, that more than one sign first the person for the same reason. A person with Mars conjunct Jupiter conjunct the Ascendant in Aries in the 1st house will generally NOT be a quiet, restrained person, even if they have a Cancer or Capricorn Sun sign. They may even say they see much more of the Aries or Sagittarius (or Gemini “talky”) personality in themselves...especially if they have a Mercury in Sagittarius (for the Capricorn) or Leo (for the Cancer). Throw Venus on top of Mercury and you have a pretty extroverted socialite. But the Cancer or Capricorn Sun will still color their motivations for their behavior.

As far as the newspaper goes...well, I never bother reading the newspaper horoscopes. And not because I “do my own” or something. First off, I use astrology to predict overall tendencies, areas to focus, areas to “work on,” etc. I’m not attempting to predict the future for myself or others. Secondly (and most importantly), newspaper horoscopes are based on only one thing: a person’s Sun Sign. Now the sign of a person’s Sun IS very important in the description of a person’s personality...it colors everything about a person. However, the newspaper horoscope does not take into account the other planets in the chart. Thirdly, when casting a horoscope for predictive purposes, an astrologer is looking at how the planets in the sky interact with a person’s chart within a handful of degrees of a 360 degree circle. Since the newspaper astrologer doesn’t know a person’s exact sun sign degree (they can’t know unless they have the exact time, date, and place of birth) the predictions aren’t going to be accurate more than 16% of the time (using a three degree range)...and again, this fails to take into account anything else in a person’s natal chart.

Finally, reading a newspaper prediction, or even getting a computer-generated reading is not the same as actually consulting with an astrologer...it leaves the Art aspect out of the art and science of astrology, completely disregarding YOU...your past and present life circumstances. Free will, remember?

So anyway...we’ve got twelve Signs representing basic archetypes of human personality. ALL TWELVE SIGNS ARE PRESENT in every person, but different signs are emphasized. We have a total of 8 planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, PLUTO), two “luminaries” (Sun and Moon), and a few scattered comets and asteroids, all of which mean something ALL OF WHICH ARE PRESENT in every person’s chart. We divide the chart into twelve houses, each representing a different arena of life and corresponding in large part to the twelve signs of the zodiac.

You take all those components and mix ‘em up based on the time you were born and they tell us about a person’s tendencies. Not what they do, necessarily, but what they’re prone to doing...like the way a person raised eating junk food or watching a lot of TV may be prone to doing the same later in life.

OKAY, GREAT...so that is the basic overview of astrology for those non-astrologers interested in this blog. Comments and questions are appreciated, as they’ll give me a way to sort thing out in my own mind.

OH...and before anyone asks: there doesn’t seem to be any particular SUN SIGN that correlates with a career in professional sports. Pro-sports players can (and have had) the Sun located in all 12 signs of the zodiac in every sport, so far as I have found. Strange, though that there DO appear to be prevalence based on team/sport/region. For example, I was checking the astrology of team’s in the 2006 World Cup and I found some very interesting trends...where one team had many of one particular sign and few of a different sign, for example (perhaps I’ll talk more about the ’06 Cup later, and about team chemistry in a later blog installment. Stay tuned, soccer fans!).