Astrology basics

Astrology

Astrology is an interpretive tradition holding that the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets at a given moment carry symbolic meaning and can be read as a description of character, circumstance or tendency.

Astrologers build their reading from a natal chart — a map of the sky for a specific moment and place — by looking at which signs and houses the planets fall in and the relationships (aspects) between them. It's a symbolic language, not a set of physical laws: astrology doesn't claim planets physically "cause" events on Earth, only that the pattern of the sky and the pattern of earthly affairs can be read as a consistent, repeating symbolism.

Today Western (tropical) astrology is the most widespread tradition; alongside it, Vedic astrology (see Jyotish) uses a different, sidereal frame of reference.