Megan Atwood - Astrology

Your sun signthat is, your horoscope sign that is based on the month and day you were borncan tell you a lot about yourself and the people in your life. But to really dig deep, getting your birth chart done will take your understanding to the next level.

Unfortunately, doing your birth chart yourself would be way too complicated and would take years of studying. Luckily, there are many Internet sites that can help you out. A few things to keep in mind before you do it:

1. Get your parent or guardians permission and help for this. This is not something you should do on your own.
2. Dont share any information online besides your birth information. Any site that requires your last name should not be used.
3. If the site asks for your first name, put in Guest User. Theres no reason for any site to even know your first name.
4. If a site asks you to pay for the chart, dont use it! There are many free sites online where you can get your chart done. Never give out any financial information.
5. Above all, if you or your parent or guardian feel uncomfortable with any site, dont use it.

Once you and your parent or guardian have decided to move forward, and youve found the site you want to use, youll need your birth year, month, day, and time. Give as exact a time as you can; it should be on your birth certificate. Dont forget to include whether its a.m. or p.m. Youll also need to know the city, state, and country where you were born. Once youve put in that information, youll get your full chart or portrait with all your planets and signs.

In this book well be looking at the Western system of astrology. Western astrology uses the positions of planets on the date and time of your birth to create a natal charta chart that tells you aspects of your personality and tendencies. You could also do a chart right now of the planets and positions to find out the influences of the moment. The idea is that planets have a pull on all of usand certain stars, positions, celestial bodies, and aspects influence events and personalities. Youve probably seen your monthly horoscope in magazines, your daily horoscope online, and daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly horoscopes in some of the same places. People seek out astrologers and astrological forecasts not just to help them understand what makes them uniquely themselves, but also to help forecast events and look into ways of living more peacefully with others. Astrology helps you understand yourself and others too!

NON-WESTERN TYPES OF ASTROLOGY

What we in the West know as astrology is not the only game in town, of course! Here are a couple of other systems:

INDIAN/VEDIC ASTROLOGY

Both Western and Vedic astrology use the 12 signs and constellations: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. The difference is in the way each calculates the chart.

CHINESE ASTROLOGY, OR SHENG XIAO

In Chinese astrology, the year of your birth corresponds to a certain animal and the animals traits. There are 12 animals altogether: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. The year starts on the Chinese New Year, and is a 12-year cycle.

CHAPTER 2

ASTROLOGY THROUGH THE AGES: THE HISTORY AND ART OF ASTROLOGY

Astrology is no passing fad. Cave paintings from 15,000 years ago have been discovered that have lunar calendars. These paintings also show constellations. Does that mean Cro-Magnon humans were astrologers? Maybe, maybe not. But whats clear is that the stars meant enough to them to paint them on stone!

Fast-forward a few thousand years, and there is evidence that the Sumerians noted how the stars and the constellations moved, which could point to early astrologyor, ! Until the 1700s astrology and astronomy were treated as the same discipline. But it was around 2,000 years ago that the Chaldean people in the Mideast developed the wheel chart complete with zodiac signs and zodiac houses that we use to this day.

DeWitts 200 Year Calendar and Book of Horoscopes, 1920s

In the 4th century bc, King Alexander the Great conquered the Chaldeans and brought the knowledge of astrology back with him to Ancient Greece. There, the greatest minds of the day in that cultureincluding philosophers Aristotle and Plato and famous mathematician Ptolemyembraced the system. The Romans adopted the astrological system from the Greeks, and the Roman names for the planets and systems are still used today.