What is the Difference Between Astronomy and Astrology?
What is the relationship between astronomy and astrology?
Astronomy is the study of the universe and the properties outside Earth’s atmosphere. Astronomers study the positions and properties of celestial objects. And Astrology studies how these positions and properties affect people on Earth.
Astronomy is the foundation for which astrology could operate. The primary goal of astronomy is to understand the physics relation of the universe.
Astrologers use this astronomical calculation for the positions of celestial bodies. Vedic Astrologers believe that the position of the stars and planets determines an individual’s future. Astronomers study the actual stars and planets.
Astrology was widely practiced in Vedic cultures and is considered important in philosophy. Astronomy and Astrology are divided into two separate fields of science and superstition. Today, Astronomy is called a real science, whereas Astrology is a superstition. Astrology impacts human affairs.
Both Astrology and Astronomy have their own disciplines as follows:
Types of Astrology
- Interrogatory Astrology – It prefers predictions about a person’s objectives.
- Mundane Astrology –It makes predictions about national affairs, economies, and wars.
- Natal Astrology – It makes predictions and analyses based on the date of birth of a person.
Types of Astronomy
- Astrometry involves the positions of celestial bodies.
- Astrophysics applies the laws of physics and chemistry to explain the birth, life, and death of celestial bodies.
- Cosmology studies the origin and evolution of the universe.
- Galactic astronomy- studies the Milky Way galaxy and all its contents.
Is Astrology older than Astronomy?
Astrology is much older than astronomy. Astrology was practiced during the ancient Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations.
Astronomy has been around for several hundred years. In a sense, astrology is the root from which astronomy grew.
Astrology is a pseudo-science that shows that the positions of the heavenly bodies effects on lives of human beings. Since ancient age, astronomy and astrology were the same.
People studied the movements of the planets and they use this movement information to predict the wars time, natural disasters, the rise and fall of kings, and other matters of the kingdom. However, around the time of Scientists Galileo and Isaac Newton astronomers came to realize that astrology was just a jazz thing.
From that time, astronomers started using physics to understand what goes on in the universe. But still, some people believed in astrology. Nowadays, Astrologers use professional software to tell the positions of the planets around the earth.
How does Astrology work on Astronomy?
Star Maps
Astrology works with the help of one of the most important tools of Astronomy called “Star Maps”. It is a representation of the stars in the sky which is based on established patterns so that it can create an accurate map for any date given. These star maps are used by astrologers to write down predictions for ones according to his/her zodiac sign.
Zodiac Constellations
A constellation is a recognized pattern of stars in the night sky. The word is from the Latin constellacio, meaning a set of stars. These constellations represent Animals, Objects, Mythological heroes. With every new moon, the sun appears against a different constellation. There are 88 official constellations. The zodiac is defined by the earth’s annual path around the sun. Therefore, zodiac signs are called our “sun” signs.
Our Zodiac signs represent constellations that have the same names as Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. Astrologers study the sun’s position against these constellations and tell us the impact on our behaviors and actions predications.
Hence astrology and astronomy are just linked with each other based on various theories and observations. It concludes that astronomy is a science that explains actual information about celestial bodies in-universe. And Astrology takes the help of astronomy to explain the impact of astronomy on human beings.
Since ancient times, astrology and astronomy were the same because human beings used to look at stars on dark nights and used to fear some things like they used to search for answers to start or work on any event. For Examples:
- If Mars is moving backward, then people with a related horoscope are going to have a tough time.
- Used to wait for a new moon to start a new product or start a business because a new moon brings a fresh start.
Read More:
Conclusion
Astronomy and astrology are both important. They each have their own importance in our society, traditions, and cultures.
They both still share some common goals as they are concerned with understanding the past, the present, and the future. By researching it we can easily about what could happen in the future and can take necessary precautions before.
Astronomy has a scientific approach that “From where we came?” and Astrology provides philosophical answers like “From here, where would we like to go in future, about our birth and death?”
