What is rationale behind Astrology?

This is one of the most interesting questions that all of us must have thought about at least once. In fact this puzzle is also true about many ancient sciences and techniques and it is applicable to ancient sciences like Ayurveda or any other herbal medicinal therapy, yoga and of course astrology. While wondering about how people knew usefulness of almost every plant, I found a theory in some ancient text long ago and even though I don’t remember the reference, it worked for me most of the times.

                The theory is very simple “The way it is in nature that same way it will contribute to the nature” Let me give you some well-known examples of this. In yoga the postures or Asanas are created and named based on some animals. To name a few are Markatasan (monkey posture), Makarasan(Crocodile posture) and Marjarasan(Cat posture). Some others postures are inspired from trees for example Tadasan(Tad tree posture) and Vrukshasan(tree posture). Some of the pranayams (breathing techniques) are also based on same principle, for example Bhramari Pranayam (A black bee that makes hissing sound). Also some of the yoga mudras (hand postures) are inspired from birds and animals for example Garuda Mudra (Eagle hand posture).

                You will see this also in Ayurveda for example use of castor oil. Castor tree grows on any barren land and it is considered to be very effective for hair growth (on any headJ).  Another example could be of lotus roots. Lotus roots are inside water or mud throughout and still they don’t get spoiled. Lotus is considered to be very effective on urinary diseases.

Vaastu principles are also based on this theory. A simple example is to have Kitchen to Aagneya or south east. Cooking is related to fire. Interestingly the name Agneya has come from same theory. Agneya(Direction of fire) is said as sun(one who gives heat to the earth) is always southern to countries like India on the tropic of cancer. It is important to think if the effects of Agneya are same across the globe and I am not planning to discuss it here.

                I can tell you so many such examples from yoga and Ayurveda and you yourself will find many more yourself. You might have already recalled a few that you have used in the past. Interesting question is how this is applicable to astrology?  And now let’s get to that question.

If you feel above principle, it is analogy based and the same is True with astrology.  Planets signify things analogical to them. For example Sun signify heat or fire as it has highest temperature in the solar system. Moon signifies water as it has lot of impact on sea water the largest water store on earth.

What is interesting to learn is how did they stretch the analogy to develop such an evolved science and I don’t have much clues about it right now. You can apply similar analogy to all the planets and verify their astrological characteristics and you will be amazed with the correlation.