Although there are still many detractors, the world of astrology never ceases to fascinate. Astrological studies attempt to reveal how the stars and zodiac signs of our birth chart influence our life, determining the main characteristics of each person’s personality, as well as interests and affinities in love.
Today we will discover in more detail the meaning behind the symbols of the zodiac signs, which already partially explain some qualities of their natives.
Astrology, from the Greek discovery, believes that the positions and movements of celestial bodies with respect to the Earth affect human events and that the changing of the seasons influences cultivation.
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What Is Astrology
What does astrology consist of? Astrology, contrary to what one might think, is not a real science, but only a set of studies that does not belong to the scientific group precisely because it has no basis on which to base itself. However astrology is a technique that is fundamentally based on the position of the Celestial Bodies in the sky.
Through astrology it is possible to establish a horoscope, and to give the zodiacal signs characteristics of the human being. Each of us has a zodiac sign that distinguishes him. Astrology, through the study of signs and planets, tries to “predict the future” and to give particular characteristics to people born in a specific period of the year, linking these people to very specific zodiac signs (planets), each with its personalities.
Since the birth of astrology, which dates back to the Babylonian period, around 1700 BC, astrology has taken into consideration the movement of the planets, the sun and the various stars.
Astrology and its concept
Astrology has a very specific philosophy: according to scholars of this field, the movement of the planets and stars, as well as their exact position at the moment of a person’s birth, represent important points that determine some factors relating to the unborn child. According to astrology, in fact, the position of a planet is fundamental both for the type of character of that person and for his destiny: this, in fact, is already written at the moment of birth and is determined by the alignment of the various planets and stars.
For this reason, a person is sometimes defined as lunatic or with other terms that, in most of the times, have references precisely to the type of planet or star or other element that is found in a particular type of position and that, of consequently, it will affect, in a positive or negative way, the behavior of that person.
The central point of astrology
Astrology also has a central point which turns out to be completely different from the scientific knowledge that everyone is aware of. If, according to science, the Sun remains immobile and the Earth and all the other planets rotate around it, in astrology the concept turns out to be completely opposite. According to this set of studies, in fact, it is the Earth itself that is the focal point of the Universe: all the planets and the Sun, including the stars, revolve around our planet, which remains immobile at the center of the solar system.
Origins of astrology
The origins of astrology are very ancient, the first form of this study of the planets and celestial bodies is already found in primitive peoples, astrology, where the main astral reference points were the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Sirius and constellations such as the two Chariots, Orion and the Pleiades. The most important ancient civilizations have devoted much attention to celestial phenomena, creating their own astrology.
Chinese astrology, which developed parallel to Western astrology in the 11th century BC, but which is based on the lunisolar calendar and closely related to Chinese philosophy. In India astrology is one of the six Vedanga disciplines, defined as the “science of light” and called Jyotish (flame).
Astrology in antiquity
But what was it used for at the origins of astrology in the periods in which it was discovered and used by ancient populations? It was mainly exploited for the cycle of the seasons and cultivation: by observing the stars, which moved slowly and created the theory of the immobile Earth and moving stars, as well as the movement of the Sun, the ancient populations were able to understand when it was time to plant certain crops and when it was the right time for other types.
But this is only one of the facets of astrology in ancient times: it was also exploited to understand what influence planets and stars could have on Earth and above all on a person’s life. Thanks to a vast series of mathematical calculations, the first astrologers created some symbols that reflected the energy that was emanating from some celestial bodies.
These others are none other than the zodiac signs, which were created in that precise period and were handed down from generation to generation. Each symbol contained a particular meaning and it was assumed that those born during a certain period, and especially under that sign, had the same behavior as other people born in the same period.
The term Babylonian astronomy refers to the theories and methods developed in Mesopotamia (the “land between the rivers” Tigris and Euphrates, located in the south of present-day Iraq), in particular by the following peoples: Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Chaldeans. Their advanced astronomical knowledge subsequently influenced the scientific culture of Egyptians, Indians and Greeks. And indeed Mesopotamian astronomy represents the first phase of Western astronomy.
Astrology during the present era
Many people use it simply to be able to make predictions about their future, or the horoscope, but this set of studies has a purpose that is more precise and above all able to solve some small inner problem of a person. In fact, it is enough to think that, thanks to astrology, a person is able to discover his limits and gifts and to greatly enhance his inner being.
This is due to the simple fact that, thanks to the study of the constellations and planets as well as the reading of the horoscope, a person is able to find his ideal path to take, the one without negative consequences and above all able to make him obtain certain results and successes. Astrology also serves to understand who a person really is and to have a level of self-esteem capable of improving one’s life in a simple but at the same time immediate way.
Astrology is a science: the truth about astrology
Astrology is always present in our life. From the horoscope at the bottom of newspapers and magazines, to television astrologers, the influence of astrology in our society is very strong. And, according to the opinion of astrologers and horoscopes, the influence exerted by the stars on our lives is even more significant and pregnant, dictating the characteristics of the personality, professional and sentimental life, successes and failures from the moment of birth.
On average, however, there is some confusion about what is meant by astrology, an area that is often confused with other related ones such as astronomy. So let’s try to clarify and understand what astrology really is, what it deals with and if it has scientific value.
What astrology studies and what it does
Specifically, astrology studies the movement of celestial bodies and deduces the influence they can have on people to create horoscopes. Horoscopes are divinatory acts performed by an astrology expert, called an astrologer, with whom he announces what will happen in a certain more or less close period of a person’s life based on his date of birth and the crossing of the stars at the time of his coming into the world.
What is astrology: does it have scientific value?
To cut the bull’s-eye, we can briefly say that astrology is no longer a recognized science nowadays, but there is some confusion due to the nomenclature used. Until 1600, in fact, astrology was considered not only an official science, but the most important of the sciences, and was concerned with studying the stars and celestial bodies with a geocentric perspective that placed the Earth at the center of the Solar System.
With the Copernican revolution and the discovery that the Earth revolves around the Sun and not vice versa, the perspective of the studies on the stars has changed, modern astronomy has developed into which many of the studies and discoveries of the astrology of the past, and astrology began to detach itself from the scientific community by maintaining a geocentric approach. Today astrology is considered a pseudocience, but this does not mean that it has no value or reliable foundations.
Astrology does not have official science recognition, but is based on a long series of complex ancient traditions and millenary popular beliefs collected by many populations over the centuries, and some of its results are empirically proven and verified.
Difference between astrology and astronomy
Astronomy is an official science that studies the nature of celestial bodies, their origin, their movements, and all the phenomena that concern them. Astrology, as we have seen, is instead a science of the occult that makes predictions about the future of people based on astronomical measurements of the stars.
Astronomy has developed since the 17th century, when the centrality of the Sun in the Solar System was discovered and traditional astrology, which until then had moved hand in hand with scientific study, suffered a strong block. due to the revolution of the astral reference system. Now astronomy and astrology are two very distinct things, one deals with studying stars and planets with the latest technologies and analytical methods based on physics and mathematics.
History and birth of astrology
The study of the stars, celestial bodies and astral phenomena has always attracted the interest of people, since ancient times. All the most important and advanced ancient societies have given great space to the study of the stars, their positions and their movements. Each ancient civilization has developed its own astrology, making its own astrological analyzes and giving life to its own native interpretations and traditions, which then over the centuries, with progress and intercultural exchange, have amalgamated and differentiated, leading to distinguish three great gills: Western astrology, Chinese astrology and Indian astrology.
Astrology and the Maya
The Maya carefully observed the planets and were able to predict with extreme precision the motions and the beginning of the rainy season, fundamental for their agricultural economy. With the study of the stars they managed to identify the four cardinal points, creating a calendar for religious celebrations and for the survival of their economy. Their temples all had 365 steps, one for each day of the year, and they built their cities following the cycle of the planets and the seasons. The priests, believed to be soothsayers, made every child’s horoscope.
Babylonians and Egyptians
Babylonian astrology and the Egyptian are the ancestors of contemporary Western astrology, which is based on creating horoscopes, in which it makes a prediction basing on the position of celestial bodies in our solar system. Greeks and Egyptians associated the deities with celestial bodies, giving names to some constellations and planets as we still know them today, but only from 1500 onwards it was possible to discover and add the constellations of the southern hemisphere which until now had remained hidden.
Persians and Arabs
During the High Middle Ages the Persians and Arabs further developed astrology and astronomy with the introduction of the astrolabe. An instrument that made it possible to locate and calculate the position of celestial bodies, also able to determine the local time by knowing the latitude and vice versa, for many centuries it was the main navigation tool.
Astrology and astronomy have been closely related to each other for a very long time, but after the introduction of the scientific method they slowly separated. Today astrology is considered by the scientific and religious communities as a pseudoscience based on ancient superstitions and forms of divination. Astrology studies the light of the stars and how it is able to influence nature and its cycles (cycle of day and night and the four seasons). The motion of the stars affects the climate, nature, the life cycle and therefore our life, in the year, in the month, in the week and in the day.
Western astrology
Western astrology had its basis in Babylonian astrology, which then continued and came to us through the Egyptians and Arabs, marginally intersecting with Mayan and other Central American astrology. Indian astrology, also called Vedic, is also derived from Babylonian astrology, which however evolved in a different way when it was incorporated in India, and here it is still strongly diffused with different characters than in the West.
Chinese astrology
Chinese astrology, on the other hand, has markedly different characters from those of Western astrology, with entirely different zodiacs, constellations and time divisions. The original roots of astrology, however, date back even before the development of these great ancient societies, because we have evidence in cave paintings and primordial artifacts that even primitive peoples had a concept of astrology and tried to study the stars in some form, obviously less advanced and mature compared to that of the great successive civilizations which made use of more sophisticated mathematical reasoning.
The symbols of the zodiac signs
The technical and precise name of the astrological symbols is that of glyphs. In ancient times, this word identified any written sign, which had the function of a letter or a figurative image. In astrology, on the other hand, glyphs are the symbols of each zodiac sign and of the planets.
They are represented through a stylized drawing, thanks to the use of lines, circles, curves and other strokes. In fact, each glyph does not concretely represent the sign of the Zodiac it indicates, but has an intrinsic meaning: knowing them means knowing the main features of the twelve signs and everything that revolves around them.
Aries
All those born between March 21 and April 20 are of the sign of Aries. It is part of the signs of the Fire Zodiac and is the first house of the Horoscope, indicating the phase of childhood. It is directly influenced by Mars , planet energy and resourcefulness.
The Aries symbol is made with a single line, circular in shape towards the two ends. This characteristic represents the return on itself, that is the individualism that these natives present in different situations. Furthermore, the two curves reveal an oscillation between the past and the momentum towards the future. Looking at the glyph, you can immediately recognize the stylized drawing of a ram or a goat leading a flock. Like all other “horned” signs, this one too is endowed with indisputable stubbornness, innovative capacity, courage and impulsiveness.
Taurus
Those who come into the world between April 21 and May 20 are born of the sign of Taurus. It is the first of the zodiac signs of Earth and, being in the second house of the Horoscope, it is the emblem of that phase in which the child begins to discover the world around him. Its planet is Venus, an emblem of love and beauty.
Taurus is one of the astrological symbols formed by two dashes. The first is that of a circle, then surmounted by an open cup. The circle represents the closure of Taurus with respect to many situations in the outside world: it is a fairly conservative sign that seeks stability, dedicated to family and personal values and also characterized by a certain silence and a cold facade. The cup at the top, on the other hand, indicates the other face of the Bull, that is, that stimulus and drive for action that pushes him stubbornly towards the most important and difficult to achieve goals.
Gemini
Gemini are those born between May 21st and June 21st. It is a zodiac sign of Air and symbolizes adolescence. It is directly influenced by Mercury, the planet of intelligence and cunning.
The Gemini glyph sees two parallel curved horizontal lines connected to each other by two vertical strokes. The vertical hatches have as their meaning the capacity for action and affirmation on two different lines, typical of the sign. The horizontal ones, on the other hand, indicate the past and the momentum towards the future. This symbol represents the thirst for knowledge and the innate curiosity of the natives, as well as their inconstancy and unpredictability. Historically, the Gemini symbol depicted the Dioscuri brothers, Castor and Pollux.
Cancer
Who is the Cancer sign is born from June 22 to 22 July. It is the first of the three signs of the water zodiac and represents the fourth house of the horoscope, or youth. It is influenced by the Moon, the planet of femininity and sensitivity.
The Cancer symbol is made up of two dashes, both curving towards one of the two extremes. According to some, the ideogram would depict the goddess Isis looking at herself in the mirror. The straight lines indicate the opening towards others of the sign, while the rounded parts indicate the necessary return to itself and also the passage between the various moods. Indeed, Cancer stands out for its emotionality and intuition, but also for its frequent mood swings. On the one hand, he loves spending time with family and friends, but cyclically he needs moments for himself in solitude.
Lion
All those born between 23 July and 23 August are of the sign of Leo. It is part of the Fire signs and is located in the fifth house of the Horoscope, thus indicating the stage of maturity of the individual. He is directly influenced by the Sun, an emblem of passion and energy, but also of vanity and arrogance.
Among the various glyphs, that of the Lion is recognized by the circle from which a curved upward line starts which then folds back to the right at the bottom. The meaning of the circle consists in the strong individuality and well-structured ego of these subjects, while the upper hatch symbolizes.
Virgo
Anyone born between August 24th and September 22nd is of the sign of Virgo. He is the second of the Earth signs and his home within the Horoscope represents attention to little everyday things and introspection. Virgo is influenced by Mercury, the planet of intellect and reasoning.
In astrology, its symbol is formed by an arched line, the meaning of which goes back to the goddess Ceres. He points to the Greek goddess with a crown of ears, as she carefully dedicates herself to the harvest, demonstrating precision and attentionto details. In fact, the sign of Virgo is known for its reliability, analytical skills and for the search for perfection, which can often lead to fussiness. She struggles to act guided by instinct and to be romantic in emotional relationships.
Libra
Those born between 23 September and 22 October are from Libra. The second sign of Air Zodiac is the seventh house of the horoscope, the one that relates to marriage and unions. Libra is also ruled by Venus, an emblem of love, measure and beauty.
Among the astrological symbols, this is characterized by a horizontal line with a curved line above it reminiscent of a Greek omega, The first indicates static, while the second symbolizes the momentum between past and future and relationships with others. The fact that the two dashes are equal express fairness, the main quality of the sign. Indeed, Libra suffers from contrasts and always tries to mediate in crisis situations. Furthermore, these natives seek refinement, spiritual balance, economic and intellectual stability.
Scorpio
Those born between October 23 and November 22 are part of the sign of Scorpio. It is a sign of Water and his house expresses the deepest and most unconscious impulses. Scorpios are ruled by Pluto, but they are also heavily influenced by Mars: both of these planets are known to be hot and passionate.
Sagittarius
Those who come into the world from November 23 to December 21 are born of the sign of Sagittarius. The last Fire sign of the Zodiac corresponds to the ninth house of the Horoscope, that is, that of spiritual evolution. The planet that influences him is Jupiter, emblem of success and youth, but also of pride.
Capricorn
All those born between December 22nd to January 19th are of the sign of Capricorn. It is the sign of the Earth which coincides with the tenth house, that is, that of social affirmation and success. The planet that influences Capricorn is Saturn, a symbol of logic and reasoning.
Its glyph is part of the astrological symbols distinguished by a single stroke. It consists of a shape similar to an “e” where there is also an eyelet before the final closure of the hatch. The small circle represents closureand the almost spasmodic control of instincts and emotions, while the lines symbolize dedication to work and a sense of duty. In fact, Capricorn is very stubborn and tied to family traditions and values.
Aquarius
All subjects born from January 20 to February 18 are Aquarius, the last of the zodiac signs of Air. The eleventh house of the horoscope indicates friendships and the planet that influences it is Uranus, emblem of the unexpected and of movement.
To see, of all the astrological symbols, that of Aquarius seems the most intuitive because it recalls the waves of the sea. However, the true meaning of the glyph is that of instability and unpredictability typical of the sign between the spiritual sphere and the material world characteristic of these natives. Indeed, Aquarius are known for their nonconformity, enthusiasm and openness towards others, but also for their inconstancy and, precisely, independence.
Pisces
People born between February 19 and March 20 are Pisces. It is a sign of Water and like the house, is both the mystery of eternity. In modern astrology, Pisces are ruled by Neptune, the planet of intuition and spirituality, which would echo their desire for infinity. The glyph of this sign sees two symmetrical rounded hatches joined by a horizontal line. It indicates two contrasting dimensions, that of spirit and that of matter, which come together in a single individual.