Temple of Denderah Zodiac.
Astrology involves the attempt to use knowledge of the positions of celestial bodies in order to understanding human existence on Earth. Today, astrology is often classified as a pseudoscience because conventional sciences such as astronomy and biology have not found objective evidence for causal links between the positions of distant astronomical objects and human behavior. Astrologers attempt to correlate the positions of celestial bodies at the time of the birth with people's personality traits, important events in their lives, or even physical characteristics.
There are some astrologers who try to put astrology on sound scientific grounds, and so some elements of the astrological community can be viewed as a protoscience. This was much more common in the past, before astronomy became an established science. Many early astronomers such as Tycho Brahe were interested in attempts to justify astrology in scientific terms.
Zodiac
The Zodiac is a set of constellations in the ring of the Sun's apparent path through the star field. Divisions of the zodiac correspond to astrological birth signs. There are distinct zodiacs in Western astrology, Vedic astrology and Chinese astrology.
The table below gives dates for when the sun enters each sign. (The table does not display correctly in some versions of Internet Explorer. Switch to Firefox.)
| Sign | Symbol | Astrological Dates | Astronomical Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tropical | Sidereal | |||
| Aries | ram, ♈ | March 21 - April 19 | April 14 - May 14 | April 19 - May 13 |
| Taurus | bull, ♉ | April 20 - May 2 | May 15 - June 14 | May 14 - June 19 |
| Gemini | twins, ♊ | May 21 - June 20 | June 15 - July 16 | June 20 - July 20 |
| Cancer | crab, ♋ | June 21 - July 22 | July 17 - August 16 | July 21 - August 9 |
| Leo | lion, ♌ | July 23 - August 23 | August 17 - September 16 | August 10 - September 15 |
| Virgo | virgin, ♍ | August 23 - September 22 | September 17 - October 17 | September 16 - October 30 |
| Libra | scale, ♎ | September 23 - October 22 | October 18 - November 16 | October 31 - November 22 |
| Scorpio | scorpion, ♏ | October 23 - November 21 | November 17 - December 15 | November 23 - November 29 |
| Ophiuchus | snake wrestler | November 30 - December 17 | ||
| Sagittarius | archer, ♐ | November 22 - December 21 | December 16 - January 14 | December 18 - January 18 |
| Capricornus | goat, ♑ | December 22 - January 19 | January 15 - February 12 | January 19 - February 15 |
| Aquarius | water, ♒ | January 20 - February 18 | February 13 - March 14 | February 16 - March 11 |
| Pisces | fish, ♓ | February 19 - March 20 | March 15 - April 13 | March 12 - April 18 |
See also
Ouside looking in
- Wikipedia article on the Zodiac
- Wikipedia article on the Astrology
- Russian astrologist sues NASA for Deep Impact test.
Inside looking out
- Is astrology a science? "...astrology, like art, literature, psychoanalysis, philosophy and theology, is worthwhile, although, strictly speaking, it is not science."
Webring
The Zodiac Webring is for anyone who was born with a zodiac sign.
Return to the Astrology WebRing links page.
| |||||