Okay, time to get down to the actual science of astrology and its main components. What follows is just a brief explanation of how these main components come together and is in no way an attempt to go into these components in any great depth. That will come in time.

Astrology is basically composed of three things. There is the what, the how and the where. In addition to this there is also the when, but that is more the result of the three components than the actual components themselves.

The “what” of astrology are the planets and our sun. Each planet represents a different influence in our lives. For example, Mars controls how we interact with others in regard to our battles with them. Life is one big battle and Mars has a great influence on our strength and ability to handle these battles. Each planet affects a different part of our personality.

The “how” of astrology are our signs. Certainly, when you go to a bar somebody is sure to ask you what your sign is. You’ll probably reply, “Scorpio” or whatever it may be without giving it much thought. But the signs, which are the “how” of astrology, reveal your needs, wants and desires. They also tell a lot about the type of person you are. For example, a Scorpio may be a real hot head and supposedly very oversexed, while a Taurus is considered to be stubborn. These are of course stereotypes but there is a lot of truth to them even though each person is much more complex than just his sign. These complexities are caused by the various positions of each planet at the time of the person’s birth.

The “where” of astrology is each person’s house. A house is where certain characteristics of each of us lives. We all have certain aspects of our lives such as our love life, work life, social life, etc. Each house contains one or more of these aspects. Depending on which planet is in which house determines how much influence that house has over your life. For example, some people have a planet in their house of love and romance that makes them natural lovers and very attractive to other people. Others will have planets in that house that make it very difficult for them to even get a date. » Read more: Astrology – The Main Components

So where did astrology come from? It had to start somewhere. The origins may or may not surprise you but they are certainly fascinating as in its early beginnings many people felt that the battle between astrology and “real” science would destroy one or the other, with astrology being the likely victim. Interestingly, it didn’t work out quite that way.

Long before there was ever such a thing as physics, chemistry, biology or any of those horrible subjects you cringed at having to take in high school, there was, believe it or not, astrology. Technically, this was the very first science, though there are those who would argue that it isn’t a science at all but just a lot of hocus-pocus.

Astrology goes back to about 2900 BC. During this time, the Sumerians built temples in the form of pyramids. They did this to observe the stars and planets. Some say that it is even possible that Astrology goes back even farther than this but there is little evidence to support this theory.

It wasn’t until about 2000 BC that the magi of Mesopotamia believed that there were indeed no accidents. He believed that everything in the universe including people, objects and all events, was connected. Not only did these magi, or priests study the stars but they also looked for omens in weather patterns. They would predict future events from the internal organs of many animals and even listened to the words of trees, dogs, cats and insects to hear what they had to say.

The main use of astrology, however, was to study the relationship between the position of the Earth and other bodies in the heavens such as planets, stars and even meteors and asteroids. They believed beyond any doubt that the position of each object in the universe has an effect on every person and even on our planet. It should be pointed out that with astrology, our Earth has no effect on these bodies themselves. This may or may not be true. Nobody knows for certain.

Because astrology was the first science, it was the first science taught in universities and continued to be taught all the way up until the 1600s. During this time the so called “rational” sciences began to take over and astrology was looked at as more of a myth. Ironically, however, almost all astrology professors were college educated with degrees in various fields, mostly in psychology or counseling.

In spite of this education, especially today, » Read more: Astrology – A Little Background