Beyond the Astrology of Sun Signs
(Sun signs are normally the first introduction to Astrology anybody gets in today’s world. This article is an effort to analyze the merits and demerits of Sun Sign based astrology. It also explores Moon Sign and Ascendant based astrology and its utility in comparison to sun sign Astrology. It defines the fundamentals behind the working of various reference points such as Sun sign, Moon sign and Ascendant and describes the circumstances under which each of these works best.)
Sun signs are normally the first introduction to Astrology anybody gets in today’s world. We have grown up reading those newspaper columns and have identified with the Sun sign we are born in. It seems like a fashionable thing to analyze the character of others based on their birth dates and even make relationship judgments based on the compatibility of sun signs. Some even go to the extent of choosing friends based on their birth dates. Sun sign based predictions appearing in various newspaper columns, TV shows and other media have a massive fan following of their own. Hence it is a very relevant to question the very basics of Sun Sign based Astrology. On one hand there are people who swear by the utility of such sun sign columns, and even derive their daily action plan and guidance from such columns; while others ridicule such claims as pure superstitions wrapped in the garb of psychological manipulations. This article is an effort to analyze the merits and demerits of Sun Sign based astrology. It also explores into other reference points and their comparison with Sun signs.
Placement of Sun is the reference point in Sun sign astrology. The biggest reason for the popularity of this astrology is that the motion of sun through the various zodiac signs is almost totally predetermined in terms of dates. Since birth day is the only data required to categorize the position of sun, hence it is a very easy for masses to delve into such astrology. In fact, this is the only Astrology, which is easy to work at the mass level and hence easy to commercialize. Other reference points such as the Moon sign and Ascendants can not be calculated by any of such fixed parameters. Moon changes through a zodiac sign in an average 2.25 days, but its speed is not fixed. Hence there are no fixed formulas for the calculation of Moon sign and one has to refer to the ephemeris. However, since traditionally the people are named based on their positioning of Moon (the moon nakshatra), hence there are many people who are aware of the Moon sign (Popularly referred as Rashi). Such people have often discovered that predictions based on Moon sign are more accurate than that of Sun sign. Calculation of Ascendant is even more complex, as not only it changes almost every two hours, but it also depends on the longitude of the place of birth. Since only those keenly interested in astrology are aware of their Ascendant, Ascendant based astrology is quite limited in terms of popularity amongst masses in spite of its very high accuracy.
Now let us understand the basic difference among these three reference points. Sun is the indicator of our outer personality. It shows purpose and determination of our ego, which we declare to the world and hence forms the basis of our relationship with the outer world. Hence any prediction based on sun sign mostly deals with what we show off to others or the way people perceive about us. But the trouble for the human being is that what he shows off to others in not really what he really wants. There is not much force in declarations of his intentions and mostly his actions differ from what he portrays to the world. Sun sign based astrology mostly deals with the issues related with expression of outer personality and how we will deal with others. That’s why this astrology mostly focuses on character based issues and no wonders that what you find in such predictions is basically very general stuff served to you in a clever language of which you can hardly make any definitive sense.
Moon indicates our inner urges and desires. It shows the motives of our sub conscious and hence indicates the reality behind our actions, as opposed to Sun, which indicates what we display to others as our motives. Naturally, Moon sign has much more power then Sun sign for most of the people, especially in society like India where people are more feeling oriented in comparison to the Intellectual orientation of the Western society. Hence the Moon based astrology, which considers the Moon as the reference point, is more accurate and it can even describe the events as opposed to the character based general readings derived from Sun sign astrology. To further understand the power of Moon let us consider few facts. Scientists say that 95% of our mind is sub conscious and unconscious, while only 5% is the conscious. Hypnosis works by reprogramming subconscious by way of suggestions, as the power of sub conscious mind is much more than that of conscious. Since our sub conscious is the storehouse of all the memories and experiences, Moon indicates the karmic repercussions of the past lives, while the Sun indicates the learning of current life. Hence Moon based astrology works much better than the Sun sign astrology. Since whatever is stored in sub conscious will definitely manifest, hence Moon based astrology is much more successful in prediction of events. Since the Christianity denies the existence of past lives, Moon has not been considered so important in Western Astrology (Please have a look at the article - Astrological Methods for the Influences of Past, Present and Future Lives)
Ascendant indicates the longing of the soul or the evolution path it has chosen in this life (Please have a look at the article- Astrology: The Indicator of Soul’s Journey). All the memories stored in the Moon and the Ego represented by Sun are the lower manifestations of the Soul. Since longing of the soul supersedes both the memories and ego, Ascendant as a reference point gains more importance than the Sun and the Moon. Purpose of the current life is chosen by soul and it designs the circumstances in tune with that, making the Ascendant based astrology as much more definitive. However one must note that our past Karma and Ego, are very often an obstacle to the fulfillment of soul’s purpose. As the awareness of the person grows, he starts to live in tune with its soul and the hold of Past Karma and Ego starts to get loose. In such cases the events predicted by way of Ascendant become very swift and accurate. However, even if we consider that only a very small fraction of population live in higher awareness and hence their karma and ego resists the natural path of the soul, it should be clear to us that finally it is the urge of the soul which supersedes the manifest and unmanifest mind. Hence Ascendant based astrology is far more accurate indication of our lives.
Another important fact to note is that whatever reference point we use, it is not sufficient to describe our life with certainty, as at the most it divides the whole population of the world into 12 segments. We know from our own experience that no such division exists. The reason is very simple. There is a lot of information in form of planetary placements, progressions, Dasha, divisional charts etc, which needs to be analyzed in relation to the reference points before making any predictions. Hence although readers can adopt the pointers from such general predictions, but they should be beware of treating them as certainties, as these do not take into account the details of their individual horoscopes.
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