In ancient times, thousands of years ago, people noticed that in the sky the stars or planets seemed to be moving against a background of clusters of other, smaller stars (constellations). After careful study they also observed that events on earth appeared to coincide with the locations of the planets.
Some planets seemed to be associated with expansion and beneficial events occurring and yet others appeared to coincide more with hard work and difficulty. One planet brought harmony while another may have brought disharmony and tenseness - even war.
Gradually, over many, many years, they began to correlate the different planets with several qualities, events and happenings in their life, so they decided to give the five visible and larger planets various names: MERCURY, VENUS, MARS, JUPITER and SATURN. They also noticed that the effects of the planets appeared to also be modified or influenced by the part of the sky that they were seen against. There appeared to be 12 major sectors or divisions of activity and influence and they eventually gave names to each of these areas of the zodiac (the path that the planets seemed to follow through the heavens)
ARIES, TAURUS, GEMINI, CANCER, LEO, VIRGO, LIBRA, SCORPIO, SAGITTARIUS, CAPRICORN,
AQUARIUS and PISCES.
So you can see that astrology is simply a science of observation and correlation and no psychic powers are necessary to learn it and practice it. Intuition is helpful and some people will tend to rely on this gift but it is not vital to the astrologer, particularly whilst learning the skills.
There are many types and branches of astrology, but we are only going to concern ourselves with personal astrological charts, as I believe that until we truly understand ourselves we can’t give ourselves to another. We all understand and have experience of the fact that sometimes we act rationally and at others we are dictated to by our emotions, desires, moods, hates and loves. It is through this fascinating subject that we can begin to see the major influences of the planets and how they affect each person differently. The source of the energy is the same but our internal receiver picks up the signals and reacts in a unique way. So, we are sometimes flexible and at others stubborn and this all serves to make us complicated and different and these particular traits can be seen clearly from our ‘map of life’ (our horoscope or natal chart).
I now ask you to fix into your mind our solar system. At the very centre is the SUN and around it revolve all the other major planets (those listed above). plus three more ‘outer’ planets - URANUS, NEPTUNE and PLUTO .The nearest is the planet MERCURY, then a little further away is VENUS, then the EARTH, (Orbited by the MOON), with MARS, JUPITER, SATURN, URANUS, NEPTUNE and PLUTO beyond. They are all moving anti-clockwise around the SUN, all at varying speeds.
At the precise moment of our birth (our first breath), if we can imagine that the sky ‘freezes’ and we are presented with a frozen moment of time, it is as if the heavens are photographed and that picture is our horoscope, the map of our unique spiritual journey this time round. That is how the horoscope is formed.
