How Accurate is Astrology? (Answered!)
Astrology, which combines astronomy and philosophy, uses astronomical phenomena like the positions and alignments of the sun, moon, and planets to explain human personality traits.
Even though there is little to no scientific evidence that astrology accurately predicts personality traits or events in people’s lives, astrology is impressively accurate when interpretations are spot-on and the message is understood correctly.
Interpretation needs to be spot-on because astrology predictions are only an astrologer’s subjective interpretation of the complex elements of a birth chart. So, inaccurate predictions reflect on the astrologer and not on astrology.
The message needs to be adequately understood because astrology predictions are guides to show you where to direct effort to achieve the desired change. So, when the right choices are made, astrology is accurate.
However, while many people believe in Astrology, many people do not. Believers hold that you can use astrology to predict human behavior, while skeptics hold that there is no relation whatsoever.
Given these opposing views, when should you trust astrology, what are clever ways to use astrology, and what should you consider before drawing conclusions based on Astrology?
Read on to find the answers to these questions.
When should you trust astrology?
You should trust astrology when:
- Details used in creating birth chart are correct
- The astrologer is highly experienced in interpreting birth charts
- Predictions are given as guides
When the details used in creating a Birth Chart are correct
The prediction of an astrologer is simply decoding your birth chart.
So, if any of the details used in creating your birth chart are not accurate, then any predictions made off it are not for you and should not be trusted.
To improve astrology’s accuracy, have your birth details at hand, especially the time of birth.
When the Astrologer is highly experienced in Interpreting birth charts
An astrologer’s prediction is just their interpretation of the positions of the heavenly bodies as captured in the birth chart, so if the astrologer lacks experience, your readings may be misleading.
First, the astrologer considers a ton of information contained in the birth chart (such as planets, their zodiac signs and houses, planetary combinations, aspects, and conjunctions).
Secondly, any interpretation given is highly subjective.
Thus, the accuracy of the prediction is directly related to the experience of the astrologer.
In this regard, inaccurate predictions reflect on the accuracy of the astrologer and not on astrology.
So, except you can bank on the astrologer’s experience in interpreting birth charts, you may want to hold back a little when it comes to trusting astrology.
When predictions are given as guides
The predictions of an astrologer should engage you in thinking and taking action.
They should come out as guides to make you understand where to put more effort to achieve the desired change and not to find out about things that are predestined to occur.
A mature astrologer will help you understand that cosmic energy only creates circumstances and that how you respond to these circumstances will have a say on actual events.
So, trust astrology when astrologers’ predictions are made as guides, letting you know that you can choose the action to take and that your desired action will affect the outcome of events.
5 Clever ways to use astrology
The use of astrology has changed dramatically and is still changing.
Until the 17th century, astrology was used mainly to make predictions of seasonal shifts and other things such as the fate of harvest and the outcomes of wars.
However, in recent times, the focus of astrology has shifted to gaining insight into personality traits, future destinies, and love lives.
Some clever ways to use astrology today include:
1. To gain a better understanding of your personality
Astrology will help reveal your characteristics, including “silent characteristics” that you may not have given thought to.
With this, you will have a clearer understanding of why you do the things you do.
2. To gain emotional maturation
You may be subconsciously suppressing certain aspects of your personality. An astrology consultation will bring this up, and coming to terms with this will help you manage things better.
3. To gain a better understanding of the personalities of others
Astrology can also open up the personalities of others to you, and as you understand them, you can better adapt and avoid issues relating to personality conflicts.
For example, it may frustrate you that your partner is overly emotional and does not handle things the way you do.
However, knowing that you are Libra (who typically are not expressive of their emotions) and that your partner is Cancerian (who freely expresses their feelings) will help you empathize with her better.
4. To identify your strengths and weaknesses
Astrology can help you identify where you will shine best if your efforts are appropriately directed.
For example, fancy starting a blog or a talk show program but are unsure whether to enter the family or relationship niche.
A simple horoscope check may find that your Mercury is in the 7th house, which is the Partnership.
This shows you that you are more likely to excel in talking about marriages, relationships, or making agreements and contracts.
With astrology having shone light on where your strengths are, you can then make the call.
5. Determine the best time to take a specific action
You can also use astrology to determine whether a particular time is conducive to the success of a course.
For example, because people experience retrograde as disruptive, it may not be wise to get a tattoo when an astrological chart shows Venus (the planet representing love and beauty) in retrograde.
Things to consider to make a decision or draw a conclusion based on Astrology
Before making decisions based on astrology, there are two crucial things you should consider, (i) how to interpret astrology’s message and (ii) your intuition.
Consider how interpretations are made
In simple terms, astrology predictions are drawn from how the planets function, how these are affected by the zodiac, and the house (or area of life) this impacts most.
That is: Planet + Sign + House = Interpretation.
Planets’ specific function
For simplicity, astrological planets symbolize a part of our personality.
So, a reference to your Mercury or your Mars simply refers to the personality trait that Mercury or Mars represents (communication and physical energy, respectively).
How planets operate in relation to their sign
How you express the personality traits that a planet represents depends on the planet’s zodiac sign.
Thus, while Mercury is associated with communication, a Mercury in Virgo (a sign associated with being methodical) will be detail-oriented when communicating. A Mercury in Cancer (a sign associated with being emotional) will be more vibrant when speaking.
The houses your planets occupy
A house is simply the part of your birth chart where a planet is, and it gives insight into what areas of your life are most impacted by the personality trait symbolized by that planet.
For example: if a Mercury in Cancer – the emotional communicator – is in the fourth house (the house of Home and Family), it will be all about family and memories; but if in the seventh house (the house of partnership), it will be all about marriage and relationships.
Such deep insight into how personality traits impact specific areas of your life can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Ascendant/ Rising Sign
The ascendant (also known as the rising sign) is the zodiac sign rising on the eastern horizon when you were born.
The ascendant is very important to your birth chart because it determines the placement of planets in houses. The ascendant also represents the outward person or the image of yourself that you show the world.
The Sun and Moon Sign
These are significant parts of your astrological profile.
Your sun sign is the position of the sun when you were born, while the moon sign is the position of the moon when you were born.
The sun sign represents how the world sees you, but your moon sign defines your emotional personality and governs your mood and emotional responses.
Consider that intuition plays a significant role in astrology
Though astrology uses certain concepts, it relies heavily on intuition. In interpreting your birth chart, the astrologer will depend on his/ her gut feelings to suggest courses of action while remaining true to underlying principles.
For example, suppose you are considering what course to take in college. In that case, an astrologer may feel that you should study to be a doctor after seeing that your chart has your Saturn conjunct or opposite the Ascendant.
This impression will be because those positions and alignments figure in charts of most doctors.
So, when making a decision based on astrology, you should consider dropping the level of your rational thinking and letting your intuition have its say.
Conclusion
Astrology combines astronomy and philosophy and uses positions and alignments of astronomical objects at birth to provide insight into the person’s life. It can be very accurate if the birth charts decoded are accurate and if the decoding is accurate.
Thus, “inaccurate predictions” with which astrology has been flogged over time owe primarily to decoding birth charts made with incorrect data or using inexperienced astrologers unable to interpret birth charts correctly.
You can use astrology to understand yourself and others better, gain emotional maturation, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and know the best times to take specific actions.
However, before making a decision based on astrology, it is recommended to understand how astrology interpretations are obtained, and that intuition plays a significant role in astrology.
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