Astronomy or Astrology?

Although Astrology and Astronomy appear very similar by name, they differ very
broadly. Whereas astronomy studies how the universe works, astrology studies deeply its
influence in people’s lives and decisions. Many people still believe they are one only
science, they confuse the names and meanings and mix the astrologer with the astronomer
as if they were a single person. As if the astronomer who studies the behavior of the
universe to make a scientific note would tell the future of somebody, or the influence of the stars at the time of birth.

Throughout history there was not astrologer and astronomer separately, they were often the same person and astrology was not designated as a mere superstition, but as a science were mathematics was used to measure the phenomena that was occurring in the ‘heavens’. They (astrologers) were often called or summoned by kings and nobles to describe the fate of their reigns and their lives; the lives of the astrologers themselves, as well as their fame, was decided by how well their predictions were met or what they predicted. It is said that the Magi themselves were astrologers that had known by the stars the birth of a very important man and king, Jesus Christ. After the renaissance, the occupation of astrologer was separated by the occupation of astronomer. Thus, to know the secrets of the universe and what they depicted, was differentiated from the scientist who studied the physical facts and traits of the planets, stars and galaxies.

As the theosophist H.P Blavatsky would describe, “Astrology is to exact astronomy, what psychology is to exact physiology. In astrology and psychology one has to step beyond the visible world of matter and enter into the domain of transcendent spirit”(1). The astrologer, agreeing with Blavatsky, goes beyond the physical interpretation of the celestial bodies’ phenomena while the astronomer limits himself to mere physical speculation and interpretation. This, however, does not mean that astronomy is less important than astrology because it only concentrates on the physical behavior of the starts. What it means is that the field of study of each discipline, while focusing on the same corps or bodies, is independent of the other, what makes their contrast much more interesting. For example, as we can see that astrology is metaphysical (beyond physical) and astronomy physical, we see the exciting complement they are, while being too different at the same time.

Astrologers today still use mathematics to measure physical features such as time, distance, among others. Nevertheless, they use it to predict or to tell what’s going on with the earth and with us, the human race,. They guide themselves with the popular, hermetic (from the Egyptian hermeticism) maxim. “as above, so below”, meaning that looking at the stars- or “the heavens- it is easy to understand and predict what happens in the world and in people lives. As the XV century astronomer and astrologer Tycho Brahe’s motto Despiciendo Suspicio , in English “by looking down I see upward, as well as the other revealer motto, Suspiciendo Despicio, or “by looking up I see downward” (10). What the astrologer does is to see a meaning behind every event; that meaning is reflected on human lives mirrored by the planets.

Astronomy gives us the false perception that is more scientific than astrology, that astronomy is biased and easy to do. The truth is that astrology is scientifically based for the most part by using mathematics, physics, among others as well as astronomy itself. The difference is brought up by the purpose of them and the way they approach it. I, myself, have had the opportunity to look up at some birth charts, including mine, and discovered a lot of mathematics involved in the making of them. The way degrees are calculated and the exact changes of time from one house to another, as well as the way they use time and space to calculate the behavior of the planets and how they relate to human lives.

The way western astrologers measure the events that are happening, as well as the transit of the planets is very traditionalist and is not very variant. There are books, like the book “Astrology” by numerous authors, that explain with a lot of details how to create a birth chart and how to analyze some degrees between the planets, and so on. For a lot of them, there is an orthodox way of doing astrology, that does not vary except by the interpretation of it, as well as the predictions that are made based on the interpretation. For example, when an astrologer says that a planet is retrograde, it means that seen from the earth, the planets seems to go backwards; however, the way they interpret it may or may not vary (depends on the astrologer). In astronomy, the only way to demonstrate an opinion or a hypothesis is by following the scientific method and not only by a so-called psychic feeling.

As the famous pos-Freudian psychologist Carl Jung said, we are all born in a given time and a given place, and as wines have the qualities of the season, we have those same qualities of the season and the time we are born in. Carl Jung, not only a psychologist but also a very metaphysical man, analyzed the birth charts of different men and women, and analyzing their psyche he could redefine them and discover how similar and accurate this elaborated charts were. Science does not play an important role here but the metaphysical analysis of the astronomical events.

They do differ in lots of things and even astronomers don’t like to be confused with astrologers, because they believe their field is science, and astrology’s is superstition. After all of this, however, we can see that their roots are basically the same and that the way they differ is by their points or purposes and the methodology they use to approach them.