Western Astrology

Our previous article talked about Indian Astrology and explained how it works. Now, we will focus on Western astrology that is widely prevalent in western countries. Its origin is traced to great ancient culture of Mesopotamia. It is said to be originated there and later on spread to other parts of the world. Egypt played a great role in development of western astrology. From Egypt, it moved to the historical land of Greece and there is witnessed the incorporation of new concepts.

Ptolemy was a Greek astrologer and astronomer and he is credited with introducing western astrological tradition. He wrote a book named ‘Tetrabiblos’ which contained foundations of the western astrological tradition. His theory took time of birth of a person in consideration and derived horoscope. Western astrology works on a different pattern than our own Indian astrology. According to them, different times witness different position of the cosmic bodies and that affects how our lives pan out.

Later on, western astrology moved to Middle-East and Arab and Persian scholars helped in reviving and refining western astrology and sent it to Europe. Astrology played a major role in European society. In medieval Europe, no function or policy announcement was performed without consulting astrologers. Western astrology is made up of twelve signs and further subdivided into four basic elements, Fire, Earth, Air and Water. The twelve zodiac signs represent twelve basic personality types.

Indian Astrology

Astrology is a very interesting subject. People from all over the world take help of astrology to figure out things in their lives. Astrology is a very ancient system. It has evolved and flourished over the years. If we talk about Indian astrology, it is also known as Jyotish or Jyotish astrology, Vedic astrology and Hindu astrology. The essence of astrology is to analyze the movements of the celestial bodies along with the divisions of time dependent. The Hindu Vedic religion had provision of several disciplines. One of the disciplines ‘Vedanga’ includes Indian Jyotish astrology as one of its six branches. Indian astrology is quite different from western astrology in terms of principles.

Unlike western astrology, jyotish does not rely heavily on tropical zodiac. However, it does use a bit of it for predicting the course of nature. Present since ancient times, Indian astrology has originated from spiritual customs of India. Jyotish shastra uses elements of karma and planet movements. It empowers with reality and knowledge. It uses subjects like mathematics, architecture, medical and military applications. According to Hindu scriptures, planets are also known as grahas. These grahas are known to affect a person’s life in a major way. The jyotish helps in understanding how movements of planets affect a person’s life. It also teaches ways to get rid of those hardships. Indian astrology uses 12 signs. These signs are also known as rashi. Once the reasons of problems are found out, religious ceremonies are performed to alleviate the problems.