The full art of astrology involves a number of different essential components. It requires the time and place an event took place, which is most commonly the birth of a person. At the time of this event, Astrology then looks at the position of The Planets in the sky, the Signs, the Houses, and the Aspects (or Links) between the planets.
The first component used by Astrology is The Planets. There are ten commonly accepted planetary bodies in
all, with some new ones still being debated by astrologers. The Earth is also a fundamental part of Astrology.
In Astrological thought the planets are not there by coincidence or through pure chance but are there according to the fundamental design and meaning of the universe. Each planetary body represents a particular energy in the world; indeed some would call this an Angelic force. This is backed up by many years of observation, literature, Mythology and indeed words in common use in our language.
For example Mars was always known as the God of war and strength and battle. People would invoke this God to inspire them to victory. The red color of the planet epitomized energy and sexuality and drive. We derive words like martial from it, which carries the association of war, discipline and a military order. Mercury on the other hand in Roman mythology was known as the communicator and trickster because he could move so much faster than everyone else.. Mercury was the messenger of the Gods often depicted with wings on his feet. The metal is used for telling the temperature since it is so quick and receptive to change. It is an enormous planet with many orbiting moons, much like a king or queen with its many subjects. It was always deemed in mythology as an expansive, charismatic, positive, lucky force. Indeed many times the earth has been saved from meteors, by Jupiter drawing them in and absorbing them on to its surface.
According to Astrology it is to do with where in the Zodiac the planets are to be found at the time of our birth. This brings us to the second of the areas used in the Art of astrology - The Signs.
The Planets move along a set path along the night sky with the stars as a distant background, since the stars are much further away than the planets. These groups of stars along the path the planets travel are composed of twelve equally sized sets of stars known as signs of the zodiac. The signs beginning from late March are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. They approximately although not exactly correspond with the named constellations in the sky. The Zodiac is the backdrop or canvas on which the planets are to be seen. For example Mars could have lay in the constellation of Aries at the time of someone's birth. Essentially this means that looking at Mars from the point of view of the earth, the backdrop of stars behind Mars would be those of the Aries part of the Zodiac. Similarly each of the planets would have a backdrop of stars to them at the time of someone's birth and each planet could lie in any one of the 12 Zodiacal signs. Conventional astrology just deals with which constellation the Sun lies in at your time of birth. I.e She's a Leo would mean the Sun at the time of her birth lay in front of the constellation of Leo. Although we wouldn't advise looking to see!
The final area of astrology we shall mention are the connections between the planets. Certain planets are seen as connected with one another if the place they are found at is within a specified angle of another planet when the chart is drawn up as a circle. There are various possible connections between the planets such as a conjunction (next to each other), a trine (120 degrees from each other), a square (90 degrees from each other) and an opposition (180 degrees from each other). These are all symbolic numbers since the circle of 360 degrees is divided by one, two, three or four parts. The conjunction and Trine (the circle divisible by one and three) are considered easy and the Opposition and Square (the circle divisible by two and four) more difficult.
A conjunction of two planets would mean the two energies would express themselves in harmony and indivisible from each other. For example a person with Mars conjunct Mercury would have their personal energy inherently connected to their communicative abilities. They may well have a quick and witty tongue. A square of the same two planets would mean the planetary energies are connected but in a more challenging manner which would involve some kind of tension, perhaps the individual would have a very sharp and critical tongue. This is something they would need to work on during their lives.
