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The word Zodiac literally means animals and refers to the patterns or
configurations of creatures as seen in the twinkling stars at night. The
Zodiac belt is the great circle around which our luminescent Sun
apparently moves month by month throughout the year, transceiving the
energy of those different constellational signs and thereby transmitting
the celestial radiations to our Earth.
Astrology is the study of correlations of celestial events with
behavior on earth, particularly correlations which cannot be explained
by gravitation, magnetism, or other forces that are well-established in
physics or other sciences.
A "celestial event" is any event in the sky. For example, the Sun
rising is a celestial event, or any two planets appearing in the same
place in the sky is a celestial event. The celestial event can involve
any celestial body, whether it be the Sun, Moon, a planet, an asteroid,
comet, star, black hole, quasar, or other celestial object.
The celestial event may also not involve any physical body at all, such
as when, for example, the Moon's North Node (as we shall find out
later, the Moon's North Node is not a physical object) is on the eastern
horizon. The eastern horizon is, of course, simply where the sky meets
the horizon of the earth in the easterly direction, and therefore is
also not a physical body like a planet or star.
Some people mention that the Moon's position affects the tides of the
ocean, as an example of an astrological influence, but the correlation
of ocean tides with the Moon's position can be explained by gravitation
so it is not really astrological in that the rules used by astrologers
generally cannot be explained by gravitation or other forces known in
the sciences.
Astrology has been used by virtually every advanced civilization for
thousands of years, but it has almost always been very controversial as
well. Today, skepticism about astrology is as strong as ever, and there
are many good reasons for this. Astrology has its roots in ancient times
when less scientific methods were employed and superstition was rampant
in many of these civilizations.
The only exposure that many people have had to astrology is the sun
sign columns in the newspaper or a glamorous psychic astrologer on
television. Thus, it is hardly surprising that astrology is generally
not accepted as a legitimate and valid field of inquiry by academia.
Resistance to astrology in academia is strong. The Kepler program and
other fine work being done in the field of astrology today will
hopefully open the eyes of many people to a valuable tool that is being
overlooked.
Some people confuse astrology with astronomy. Astronomy is the science
that studies celestial phenomena physically. All objects in the sky are
studied in terms of their constitution, position, history, etc.
Astronomy, of course, is a science and no one disputes its validity.
Astrology goes a step beyond astronomy by making correlations of
celestial phenomena with events on earth, and these correlations are not
of a nature that can be easily explained by traditional scientific
concepts.
Astrology is highly controversial, and currently (as of 1998; this may
change in the near future) an accredited college degree is not available
in astrology, which exemplifies the fact that astrology is currently
not well-received in most academic circles.
Note that no one has proven how astrology works. There are many
different views on how or why astrology might work, but there is not
single conclusive answer that has been demonstrated to the satisfaction
of all astrologers. Astrology is the study of the correlation between
celestial phenomena and behavior on earth but why should this
correlation exist?
There are many possible answers and I will not go into those now. Note
that the lack of a clear explanation of why the correlation should
exist, or the fact that the existence of such a correlation seems absurd
to many scientists and non-scientists alike, does not in itself make
astrology unscientific. Scientists can analyze correlations and perfect
their ability to predict based on these correlations without knowing why
the correlation exists. Experts in scientific methodology emphasize
that science ultimately is about making observations and theories help
us understand the observations.
The ability to predict that an apple will fall to the ground if dropped
is a scientifically verifiable statement and it does not require the
theory of gravitation to make it more scientific. However, the theory of
gravitation allows us to understand not only why the apple falls to the
ground, but also a myriad other phenomena such as why planets revolve
around the Sun and the Moon revolves around the Earth. The power of a
scientific theory is that it expands our ability to make predictions
about other phenomena, but the lack of good theories does not make a
replicable experiment less scientific.
Broadly speaking, the 12 signs of the Zodiac can be divided into both
masculine and feminine, positive and negative, or, active and passive.
The masculine signs are Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius and
Aquarius, whereas the feminine signs are Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio,
Capricorn and Pisces. If you are unsure about your sign, click here to
find out.
The Quaternaries are three in number - this means that the 12 signs of
the Zodiac are divided into three categories of four signs each. They
are called the Cardinal signs, the Fixed signs and the Mutable signs.
The Cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn which are the signs of dynamic change, movement and great vitality.
The Fixed signs are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius and relate to
stability, earthiness and fixity. The determination of the Fixed signs
expresses itself in the form of great willpower.
The Mutable signs cover Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces which are
the adaptable and interchangeable signs capable of molding and
modifying circumstances and conditions in life.
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