When astrologers, such as me, prepare horoscopes, we utilize a zodiac wheel, which looks like a circle divided into 12 sections to represent each astrological sign, as well as the 12 houses and planets. It’s essentially a representation of the sun’s passage across the sky. The zodiac wheel also influences your birth chart.
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What is the zodiac wheel and how does it work?
Around the wheel, the Zodiac signs flow counter-clockwise. The natural wheel is depicted in this illustration, with the Zodiac signs beginning with Aries at the Ascendant. Every chart starts at a different Zodiac degree and works its way around the wheel.
What is the origin of the zodiac wheel?
If you’ve ever looked at your birth chart, you’ve probably seen a picture of a zodiac wheel with twelve sections. You probably simply scrolled down to a list version of your placements because all the glyphs and aspect lines are bewildering. The zodiac wheel, on the other hand, is the actual birth chart! It’s where you’ll get all the juicy details. The 12 astrological houses, each representing a distinct aspect of your life, are represented by those 12 portions of the chart.
Your house is assigned to you depending on the precise time and location of your birth. House systems were devised in modern times to split the zodiac on the horizon line from east to west, metaphorically portraying the sun’s journey through the sky each day. On the zodiac wheel, your rising sign is always on the left-hand side. It signifies the eastern horizon, or, to put it another way, the location where the sun rises each morning. The rising sign always falls in the first house, no matter what house system you’re using (or, the house of the self). The houses are then recognized by turning the wheel counterclockwise from the second to the twelfth dwelling.
Consider a birth chart in the same way you would a tarot spread. The houses, like the card positions, give the deck its shape. The content is determined by the moment of your birth and the planets and signs that fall within each house. The houses provide context for the planets and signs, allowing for interpretation.
Is the zodiac a sphere or a circle?
The zodiac (circle of animals) is the oldest known celestial coordinate system, with origins in ancient Babylon around 5000 BC. Until the development of telescopes necessitated a more exact system, it remained the primary means of describing points in the sky.
In the year 2021, which planet is retrograde?
Mercury is one of the fastest-moving planets in the solar system, with an orbit that takes only 88 days to complete one round. The above-mentioned aspects of a native’s life are affected by Mercury Retrograde in 2021. With the retro Mercury, all of these realms of reality whirl.
How do the houses of the zodiac work?
When it comes to astrology, it turns out that knowing your zodiac (or sun) sign is only the beginning. When it comes to deciphering your personal chart, planets, transits, elements, sun *and* moon signs, and houses all come into play, and it’s all very complex. Each house is controlled by a corresponding sign, and the entire zodiac wheel is made up of 12 signs, 12 houses, and 10 planets. Your birth chart is determined by the signs and houses in which the planets were at the time, place, and date of your birth. The zodiac signs and houses are both based on the Earth’s 24-hour revolution around its axis, but the zodiac is based on the sun’s yearly rotation around the Earth, while the houses are based on the Earth’s yearly rotation around its axis. The rising sign in the east becomes your first house at the moment of your birth.
What is astrology’s oldest form?
The earliest organized system of astrology is Babylonian astrology, which dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. Although there is speculation that some type of astrology originated during the Sumerian period in the third millennium BC, individual references to ancient celestial omens dated to this period are not regarded sufficient evidence to indicate an integrated system of astrology. Scholarly celestial divination is generally said to have started with late Old Babylonian literature (c. 1800 BC) and continued through the Middle Babylonian and Middle Assyrian periods (c. 1200 BC).
The use of omen-based astrology was widespread by the 16th century BC, as indicated by the creation of the Enuma Anu Enlil, a comprehensive reference work. It included 70 cuneiform tablets with 7,000 heavenly omens on them. Texts from this period also mention an oral tradition, the origins and content of which are unknown. Prior to the 7th century BC, practitioners’ understanding of astronomy was fairly poor, and Babylonian astrology was essentially prosaic, preoccupied with the prediction of weather and political concerns. Astrological symbols were most likely used as a yearly almanac of listed activities to remind a community to do things that were appropriate for the season or weather (such as symbols representing times for harvesting, gathering shell-fish, fishing by net or line, sowing crops, collecting or managing water reserves, hunting, and seasonal tasks critical in ensuring the survival of children and young animals for the larger group). Their mathematical skills had advanced to the point where they could anticipate future planetary placements with considerable accuracy by the 4th century, at which point elaborate ephemerides began to appear.
Babylonian astrology arose from the practice of divination.
The oldest known detailed writings of Babylonian divination are a collection of 32 tablets with inscribed liver models originating from around 1875 BC, and these show the same interpretational framework as celestial omen analysis.
The blemishes and marks on the sacrificial animal’s liver were seen as symbolic signs from the gods, delivering messages to the king.
The gods were also thought to appear as heavenly pictures of the planets or stars with which they were linked. As a result, evil celestial omens associated with a particular planet were interpreted as signs of the god that planet represented being dissatisfied or disturbed. Attempts were made to satisfy the god and discover workable means for the deity’s expression to be realized without causing considerable harm to the king and his nation. An astronomical report to King Esarhaddon about a lunar eclipse in January 673 BC demonstrates how the ritualistic use of substitute kings, or substitute events, combined an unwavering belief in magic and omens with a purely mechanical view that the astrological event must have some kind of natural correlate:
… A flood will occur at the start of the year, causing the dikes to be breached. The monarch, my lord, should write to me when the Moon has made the eclipse. As a stand-in for the monarch, I’ll cut through a dike in the middle of the night in Babylonia. No one will be aware of it.
In her 1995 book Mesopotamian Astrology, Ulla Koch-Westenholz argues that this ambivalence between a theistic and a mechanical worldview defines the Babylonian concept of celestial divination as one that, despite its heavy reliance on magic, is free of the implications of targeted punishment for the purpose of revenge, and thus “shares some of the defining traits of modern science: it is objective and value-free, it operates according to known rules, and its data are consi
The most important distinction between ancient Babylonian astrology and other divinatory disciplines, according to Koch-Westenholz, was that the former was originally solely concerned with mundane astrology, was geographically oriented and specifically applied to countries, cities, and nations, and was almost entirely concerned with the welfare of the state and the king as the nation’s governing head.
As a result, mundane astrology is considered one of the oldest branches of astrology. The techniques and practice of natal astrology were only developed after the gradual rise of horoscopic astrology in the 6th century BC.
What can you learn from an astrology chart?
According to Belgrave, a well-made chart can reveal information about “you, your family, the life you were born into, and what your soul is striving to heal and/or achieve in this lifetime.”
What exactly is the purpose of a birth chart?
Your placements in signs, planets, asteroids, and other celestial bodies are determined by your birth chart. We were all born with a mystical chart that astrologically defines who we are. A Birth Chart reveals who we are at our core, calculating the astrological aspects and sensitive angles of that beautiful time in our lives: our birth.
