A ‘Cheat Sheet’ Guide to Astrology for the 21st Century

Modern science confirms that the movement of the planets influences Earth. We understand, without questioning, that the sun influences day and night cycles; the moon influences the tides and some biological cycles, and solar storms affect Earth’s magnetic field.

The central tenet of Astrology is that the wider planetary cycles influence human life and behaviour. This remains a more controversial claim in contemporary science, however, there are some reliable astro-physicists, cosmo-biologists, and statisticians who have studied and researched the relationships between planetary cycles and life on Earth.

There is a contemporary scientific framework developing, which closely mirrors the historical origins of Astrology.

In the 17th Century, there was no distinction between science (Astronomy) and Astrology. The study of the celestial movements and the relationship with events on Earth was not disputed. It was only after the scientific revolution that Astrology became a separate subject. Until then, myth, metaphor and symbolism had been used to try to understand scientific concepts.

Astrology developed into a symbolic language that was used to describe patterns, events and behaviours. This method is still used in Astrology today, using archetypes to describe the signs, planets and houses in a classical Astrology chart.

More than just a symbolic language, however, Astrology is also a data science based on celestial observations and pattern recognition. Astrology is one of the only subjects where we have thousands of years’ worth of reliable data points to reference. This enables astrologers to make ‘predictions’ by finding correlations between planetary cycles and significant events.

Any trained astrologer can read a chart, identifying planetary placements and transits, using the symbolic language of astrology to describe personality traits, pinpoint life events and help find meaning and purpose for a client.

It was Carl Jung, widely credited as the founder of depth psychology, who found a link between the planetary cycles and the personality. His work is often referred to by Astrologers, as he gave rise to a non-mechanistic explanation between cosmic patterns and human experiences.

Mundane Astrology focuses on the collective psyche and world events, examining longer planetary cycles and the relationship between the planets and major global events such as wars, political shifts and economic cycles. It seems there are strong correlations, often marking clear and distinct historical periods.

Another theory, the microcosm/ macrocosm analogy, appears in many ancient texts and philosophies. This idea suggests that the cosmic field is reflected in the human body and psyche, and that the workings of the human psyche are reflected back in the cosmos. Our reality, therefore, is a symbiotic relationship between the planetary cycles and life on Earth. It is relational and influential rather than causal.

Science views this idea as a metaphor, but recent discoveries show uncanny similarities between neural networks and cosmic patterns.

There are several contemporary scientific theories which overlap with this and give credibility to Astrological concepts. Astro-physics recognises that the solar system contains frequencies and harmonic relationships between planetary orbits. Some see Astrology as a metaphorical description of these relationships and harmonic structures.  The scientific fields of orbital resonance, astro-physics and cosmo-biology are all relevant to Astrology’s central ideas about cycles and cosmic timing.

Working with solar cycles, planetary resonance and rhythms creates the closest and possibly most credible explanation to a possible cosmic mechanism that affects life on Earth. Astrology is not a science. It is, however, a rich, meaningful, symbolic language which is used to try to understand some of the mysteries of life and the universe.