Archive for November 22nd, 2007

ASTROLOGY

ASTROLOGY It is a name given to the knowledge of positions of Celestial bodies and the inference according to the understanding to give information about a person’s traits and many a times future predictions. Numerous traditions and applications employing astrological concepts have arisen since its earliest recorded beginnings in the 2nd millennium BC. It has played a role in the shaping of culture, early astronomy, and other disciplines throughout history. The origins of much of the astrological doctrine and method that would later develop in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East are found among the ancient Babylonians and their system of celestial omens that began to be compiled around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. This system of celestial omens later spread either directly or indirectly through the Babylonians and Assyrians to other areas such as India, China, and Greece where it merged with pre-existing indigenous forms of 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. The main traditions used by modern astrologers are: (A) Indian astrology (B) Western astrology (C) Chinese astrology. Indian 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, Indian 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 Indian astrology it remains of paramount importance. Another difference between the two traditions is the Indian use of 27 (or 28) nakshatras or lunar mansions, which have been used in Indian astrology since Vedic times. In Chinese astrology a quite different tradition has evolved. By contrast to Western and Indian astrology, the twelve signs of the zodiac do not divide the [...]