Ever since its inception, astrology has been used to study the movement of the planets and their effect upon the Earth and those who dwell on it. To many people, it is a superstition or pseudoscience. To others, it is a map for their lives. To many more, including myself, it is an interesting method of learning about ourselves and others. Those who fall into this latter category don't live their lives according to the stars, they don't plan important events to align with planetary influences. But they do understand that there is something to the whole thing.

Of course the skeptics will laugh. That is certainly their right. But I would point them towards the work of people like Michel Gauquelin, Suitbert Ertel and Arno Müller. Gauquelin was a French mathematician whose studies of the planet Mars in the natal charts of athletes, physicians and writers showed a correlation of that planet to their professions. Recently, Ertel and Müller have replicated these studies. You can read more here if you are so inclined.

Barack Obama's natal chart (the positions of the planets at the time of his birth) and interpretation are offered in the spirit of curiosity, not as fact.

In my last entry, I described the difference between the Tropical and Siereal Zodiac Systems in Astrology. (I adhere to Sidereal Hellenic and Roman methods of astrology and augury, by the way).

In this installment of my journal, I will tell you all about the forgotten thirteenth sign of the Zodiac: Ophiuchus

If you'd like to learn more about Traditional Greco-Roman Astrology or the constellation and zodia Ophiuchus, read on across the break!

The astrology that I practise is very different from probably all of the astrology that you have ever known.  

     This also means that when I read modern astrology, I am often confused and confounded by what I see...  I see astrology as telling mortals on Earth what is going on in the Divine or Numinous realms (like Olympus or Hades).  The stars tell us what the Gods are doing, so that we may order our lives accordingly and live in harmony with them - this is called Orthopraxy, and is the basis of Hellenic and Roman Paganism.

For the first in a series of just what the heck Traditional Hellenic and Roman Astrology and Augury is, read on across the break!