Wednesday, July 28, 2010

What is Astrology?

Astrology is the study of correlations of space events with behavior on earth, particularly correlations which cannot be explained by gravitation, appeal, 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 outer space event, or any two planets appearing in the same place in the sky is a space event. The space 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 engage 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 prospect. 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 state that the Moon's location affects the tides of the ocean, as an example of an astrological pressure, 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 discordant as well. Today, doubt about astrology is as strong as ever, and there are many good reasons for this. Astrology has its roots in prehistoric times when less scientific methods were employed and false notion 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 rightful 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 unnoticed.

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.
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