The word astrology comes from the early Latin word astrologia, which derives from the Greek word ἀστρολογία. When we break the latter down, we see ἄστρον – astron, or ‘star’ – and λογία – logia, or ‘study of’. So astrology is ‘the study of the stars’.
For millennia, astrologers have studied the movement of the planets around the Sun and against the backdrop of the fixed stars – as well as the movement of the Moon around the Earth – and have interpreted the interplay between the planets and our Earth. Astrology is therefore an investigation into how the positions and movements of the Sun, Moon, planets and fixed stars correlate with what’s happening on Earth, and in our lives.
But do these heavenly cycles and cosmic events cause the events in our world, or do they merely reflect them? That’s the million-dollar question. What I can tell you is that the so-called father of astrology, a possibly mythical figure called Hermes Trismegistus, is credited with summing up the idea of how astrology ‘works’, in a text known as the Emerald Tablet, with these words:
The first organized system of astrology was created in the 2nd millennium BCE by the Babylonian culture in Mesopotamia (a region in southwestern Asia where the world’s earliest civilization developed). The Babylonians drew on their observations of the skies to create omens that were mainly used to predict the weather and political events.
But it has been argued that astrology may have begun much earlier than this: while humans were still living in caves. Markings on bones and on cave walls in France and elsewhere show that the Moon’s cycles were being noted as early as 25,000 years ago. Early humans needed to understand nature and Earth’s cycles in order to survive and thrive in time with the changing seasons. Following the lunar cycles made that a little bit easier to achieve.
Over thousands of years, legends and theories grew up around astrology. First, ordinary people, and then astrologers, started to ask questions about what they were seeing in the skies, such as: ‘What’s the overall theme of the events that occur on Earth when we see Venus near Jupiter?’, ‘What happens here when we see Mars opposite Saturn?’, and ‘What about the New Moon and the Full Moon? Do different things happen at these times?’ The observations and interpretations made about these celestial events were tested and retested and found to be accurate.
In the earliest days of stargazing, all aspects of human life were believed to have a correspondence in one of the seven ‘classical planets’ – the Sun, the Moon, and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. However, when the planets that modern astrologers now use – Uranus, Neptune and Pluto – were discovered, and incorporated into the existing astrological system, some of the planetary meanings shifted; for example, glamour moved from Venus to Neptune, and drugs from Mars to Neptune.
Acceptance by astrologers of the meanings and interpretations attributed to the modern planets was a slow process. Even today there are some working astrologers who refuse to use Uranus, Neptune and Pluto in their chart calculations and interpretations. However, the astrologers who do use them are now in agreement about their meanings, along with those of the classical planets. In this book, I’m using the modern system and including Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, not least because I believe that astrology evolves.
When studying the stars, astrologers essentially note the movement of the Sun, Moon and planets around the zodiac – an imaginary band in the sky around which the Sun passes in its apparent path across the Earth’s sky. The zodiac is divided into 12 equal sections that are known by the names of the astrological signs: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. For each planetary placement – for example, when Venus moves through Gemini or Cancer or Leo – astrologers make different interpretations.
Because of the way the Earth wobbles on its axis, there’s a shift in how we see the stars (a phenomenon known as the precession of the equinoxes). That means the constellations move one degree every 71.6 years, so the zodiac signs no longer correspond to the actual constellations. The signs are symbolic, but this is the system used by astrologers, and it works.
All the planets move around the Sun in one direction, taking varying lengths of time to complete an orbit. As they move about the 360 degrees of our skies, they make angles to each other; these angles – which are known as ‘aspects’ – are arguably the crux of astrology. You’ll learn all about the significance of aspects in Chapter 8.
As an aside, although we often think of our solar system as a globe, it actually resembles a flat disc: this stylized illustration gives you an idea of what it looks like:
Figure 1: The solar system
No one really knows how astrology works. As I’ve explained, modern astrology emerged out of an ancient awareness that we’re a microcosm of the universe, and I believe astrology works because we’re all connected to all life everywhere. Everything is connected. The microcosm is in the macrocosm. Everything affects everything. Hermes Trismegistus’s notion of As above, so below is central to astrology and reflects this idea.
We can think of the stars as a great cosmic ‘clock’. For example, Saturn is traditionally interpreted as the sombre planet of the zodiac, so when the Saturn alarm bell rings on the great cosmic clock (in other words, when Saturn makes an angle, or aspect, to another planet), it’s time to get serious. Mercury is the chatty planet of communications, among other things, so when the Mercury alarm bell rings, it’s time to start communicating.
Essentially, astrology is mysterious. You could call it a secret of the heavens. You could call it a gift of knowledge, God/Goddess or the universe.
There are quite a few different types of astrology, but these are the two main branches:
Natal astrology – this is the study of the positions of the planets at the time of a person’s birth. An astrologer draws up a circular ‘map’ of the sky at that precise moment, and this is called a birth chart or horoscope.
The astrologer then uses the horoscope to deduce the talents and challenges that individual will face in his or her lifetime. Essentially, natal astrology helps us to know and understand ourselves.
Predictive astrology – after a person is born, the planets obviously continue to change position. As they continue to move around the skies (which is called a transit), an astrologer will calculate how they move around that individual’s birth chart and what angles they make to the other planets there. Using this information, they make predictions.
When I started to study astrology seriously, I was more interested in predictions than anything else. I thought, somewhat dismissively, that I already knew and understood myself. Today though, I value natal and predictive astrology equally, as both are so revelatory.
As well as these two main forms of astrology, there’s also mundane astrology (the study of the effects of the astrological cycles on nations), electional astrology (in which an astrologer works out the best time for a person to do something, or not do something), horary astrology (where a chart is cast to answer a specific question), medical and psychological astrology, and more.
In this book, we’ll be looking at natal astrology, which could also be called ‘horoscopic astrology’ or ‘judicial astrology’ as it interprets the horoscope – the astrological chart cast for a person’s exact time, place and date of birth – but we’ll also take a brief look at predictive astrology in the final chapter.
The main aim of this book is to help you understand and interpret your birth chart. So, what is a birth chart, exactly? To an astrologer, it’s a map of your life.
On a practical level, it’s an astrological chart that provides a snapshot of the planets at the moment you were born, set for the place where you were born. So imagine that, just as you were emerging from your mother’s womb, someone went into a garden, lay down on their back and gazed up at the sky. Imagine they could see the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto and then drew a circle and plotted in the points in the sky where these planets were located.
Right there is your birth chart, your natal horoscope. The exact planetary placements in that chart will not be repeated for 26,000 years. Your birth chart shows you where your opportunities and challenges in life lie; it shows you what your most likely options are in the future, based on what’s going on for you right now.
Once you’re able to decode your birth chart – a skill that you’ll learn, step by step, as you work your way through this book – you’ll effectively have a map of your life. And to your friends’ and lovers’ lives too; and if you have them, to your children’s lives.
On the following page is the chart for Hay House’s illustrious (Libran) founder, Louise Hay. By the time you finish this book, you should be able to decode her chart. Don’t look now, but we have decoded the basics for you.
Name: Louise Hay
Birth Date: Oct.08,1926 00:30:00
Time Zone: PST
Location: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
(Produced by http://www.allstarastrologers.com)
