Astrology
Astronomy is not to be confused with astrology, the belief system which claims that human affairs are correlated with the positions of celestial objects.
Although the two fields share a common origin they are now entirely distinct.[1]
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Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world. In the West, astrology most often consists of a system of horoscopes that claim to predict aspects of an individual's personality or life history based on the positions of the sun, moon, and other planetary objects at the time of their birth. Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the Indians, Chinese, and Mayans developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations.
Among Indo-European peoples, astrology has been dated to the third millennium BCE, with roots in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications.[1] Through most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition. It was accepted in political and academic contexts, and its concepts were built into other studies, such as astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, andmedicine.[2] At the end of the 17th century, new scientific concepts in astronomy (such asheliocentrism) began to damage the credibility of astrology, and subsequent controlled studies failed to confirm its predictive value. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing. Astrology saw a popular revival in the 19th and 20th centuries as part of a general revival of spiritualism and later New Age philosophy, and through the influence of mass media such as newspaper horoscopes.[3]
While astrology may bear a superficial resemblance to science, it is a pseudosciencebecause it makes little attempt to develop solutions to its problems, shows no concern for the evaluation of competing theories, and is selective in considering confirmations and dis-confirmations.[4][5]
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The word astrology comes from the early Latin word astrologia,[6] deriving from the Greek noun ἀστρολογία, 'account of the stars'. Astrologia later passed into meaning 'star-divination' with astronomia used for the scientific term.[7]
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Historically, the word star referred also to planets and any luminous celestial object.[8] This is seen inBabylonian astrology where cuneiform depictions for the determinative MUL (star) present a symbol of stars alongside planetary and other stellar references to indicate deified objects which reside in the heavens
.[a] The word planet (based on the Greek verb πλανάω planaō 'to wander/stray'), was introduced by the
Greeks as a reference to how seven notable 'stars' were seen to 'wander' through others which remained static in their relationship to each other, with the distinction noted by the terms ἀστέρες ἀπλανεῖςasteres aplaneis ‘fixed stars’, and ἀστέρες πλανῆται asteres planetai, ‘wandering stars’.[9] Initially, texts such as Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos referred to the planets as 'the star of Saturn', 'the star of Jupiter', etc., rather than simply 'Saturn' or 'Jupiter',[10] but the names became simplified as the word planet assumed astronomical formality over time.[11]
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The seven Classical planets are the permanent celestial bodies that move relative to the fixed stars and were visible to the ancients: the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn.
This remained the standard definition of the word 'planet' until the Copernican revolution, when it was recognized that the Earth was a planet, and that the Sun and Moon were not equivalent to the others.
Although the modern IAU definition of planet does not include the Sun or Moon, astrology retains this historical definition, with the addition of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.[b]