Astrology

Why Astrology is Important?

Many people turn to astrology for insights into their personality, relationships, and future. It offers a lot of helpful information about their emotions, strengths, and weaknesses. This astrology information can guide decision-making in various areas of life.

How to Use Astrology in Daily Life?

• Daily or Weekly Horoscopes: Reading your sign’s horoscopes can help you become aware of the potential challenges or opportunities that you might encounter throughout the day.
• Auspicious Timings (Shubh Muhurat): One can use astrology for selecting the best time for important events (like marriages, festivals or important career decisions) using the astrological muhurats. Choosing the shubh muhurat enhances the chances of success.
• Making Life Decisions: Taking guidance from astrology can help with planning, career choices, and managing transitions such as job changes or moving.
• Understanding Yourself a Better Way: One of the best ways to use astrology in modern times is to understand yourself using your birth chart. Analysing your birth chart can give you an idea of your strengths and weaknesses, purposes and potential life path.
• For Personal Growth & Development: Once you understand your personality in-depth, you can use this information for your own personal growth. Astrology details about your life path can help you work better on your life goals and achieve them faster with minimal chances of failure.

Two Major Systems of Astrology

Astrology as a science is known to have two very famous branches: Vedic and Western. Let us understand how these two branches of astrology work:

Vedic Astrology

Vedic astrology (also known as Jyotish) is the ancient and traditional form of astrology from India that originated over 5000 years ago. It uses the sidereal zodiac, a system based on the fixed position of the planets and stars in the sky.

Western Astrology

Western astrology, which originated in Mesopotamia, is the most common form of astrology in the Western world. It uses the tropical zodiac, a system based on the Earth’s seasons. This astrology system focuses a lot on your personality and personal growth.

Note: Apart from Vedic astrology and Western astrology, different systems of astrology are practised across the globe. Some of the major astrology systems are Chinese astrology, Horary astrology, Kabbalistic astrology and so on.

Difference between Vedic Astrology and Western Astrology

Let us look at the difference between Vedic astrology and Western Astrology in detail:

How Does Astrology Work?

The concept of astrology is based on the idea that celestial bodies such as planets and stars can influence life events and foretell the destiny of an individual. Let us look at how does astrology work:

• Astrology systems (Vedic or Western) create a chart (could be a birth or natal chart). It is created using the positions of the planets (e.g., Sun, Mars, Moon, etc.) at the exact moment and location of an individual's birth.
• These natal or birth charts contain astrology information about planets, signs, and houses. Each planet, sign and house represents different life areas.
• Not only this but relationships between planets (aspects) such as conjunctions and transits are also checked to provide depth into the analysis.
• At last, astrologers analyse these charts and provide useful information to the individual regarding their major life aspects such as career, love, finances or overall personality.

Main Branches (Skandas) of Astrology

Astrology or Jyotisha is divided into three major branches: Sidhant, Samhita and Hora. Each branch (skanda) focuses on different aspects of astrology.

• Sidhant/Siddhanta

This branch of astrology is used for making the Indian calendar (Panchang), calculating the auspicious timings and correct festival dates and timings. There are a total of 18 branches of Siddhant in astrology.

• Samhita/Mundane Astrology

Samhita, also called Mundane astrology, focuses on events that affect groups of people and the world as a whole. This branch of astrology is used to predict worldly events such as weather patterns, earthquakes or any major global event.

• Hora/Ganitha

Hora is the most popular branch of astrology. It focuses on individual predictions and interpretations of astrology birth charts to provide insights about their life, future and other life aspects.

Note: The above three branches of astrology cover other branches as well, such as Jatak Shastra, Nadi astrology, Jaimini astrology, etc.

Conclusion

Astrology is an ancient practice that studies how planets and stars can affect our lives. It helps us understand our personalities, relationships, and future possibilities. By analysing your birth chart, you can gain insights for personal growth and making better life decisions.