ASTROLOGY - 1.1 - Introduction

From the days human beings started to read and write, Astrology has played its part in the affairs of mankind predominantly, and its popularity persists even today. “Astrology” means 'knowledge of the stars". It is a by-product the subject now called astronomy. As such, astrology served in forecasting coming events. It is a Small wonder that people believed themselves to be controlled by the signs of the heavens when the courses of the stars and planets could be calculated to accurately.

New civilizations inherited astrology from the old. With it, the scope of the ancient science was extended. Birthstones were associated with the group of stars forming the signs of the zodiac. Metals were identified with planets; gold with the sun; silver with the moon and mercury, because of its elusive quality, with its namesake, Mercury. Everything mundane was interpreted astrologically.

Therefore, all sciences owe much to astrology. When they branched out on their own, astrology was not discredited; it merely returned to its original purpose, that of determining the shape of things to come. It is an interesting fact that when Tycho Brahe, the great astronomer of his time, sighted the comet of 1577 and classed it for what it was, he did not even guess at the year when it would next appear.

Instead, he used the comet as the basis of an astrological calculation from which he predicted that a prince to be born in Finland would become a great Swedish king and would invade Germany, meeting his death in the year 1632. That astrological forecast was fulfilled by the career of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. But astronomers haven't yet found out if Tycho's comet did come back ever.

However, skeptics insist that predictions of latter-day astrology depend mostly on coincidence or guesswork, as did some of the early findings of astronomy. At least, the abstruse calculations of astrology are of little interest to the public. People want to know what their birth signs and planetary influences may mean to them, if anything. Often, they would like to check those findings for themselves. That can be easily done.