The Difference between Western and Chinese Astrology

Horoscopes have been part of people’s everyday life. In our daily periodicals, a portion has been designated for it so that people can view their forecasts for the day. Some people start their day by checking what their horoscope tell them as a guide for their daily life activities. Some check their horoscopes to help them decide about certain matters that put them in a quandary. Some check them out of curiosity, which at times get them hooked if the prediction becomes true a couple of times, or they ignore if it is really far from their reality. For whatever reasons people check their horoscopes, the zodiac signs have always been and will always be here to stay.

There are two sets of horoscopes in existence and those are the Chinese and the Western. Some people get confused about what both horoscopes are all about while some subscribe and staunchly believe each one. Both horoscopes tell of predictions about people’s future, but are there any differences in what they say? How do both horoscopes find about what will happen to people’s daily or future lives?

A horoscope is a map of space and time, a reading of a chart which explains the relationships between the moon, the sun, the planets, and a particular space on earth, at an exact time. Both Western and Chinese astrology are interested about how heavenly bodies move and what the relationship of those movements are in people’s lives. However, they had different ways of interpreting those movements because they have different methods in tracking the planets through the night sky.

The Westerns use the ecliptic, or the imaginary line in the sky traced by the sun, as their reference in observing stellar positions. The Chinese, on the other hand, find reference from the celestial north pole and the celestial equator in locating the positions of the heavenly bodies. As a result, Western astrology bases their readings of the chart on the ecliptic or the zodiac, while the Chinese rely more on the lunar zodiac. Thus, the Chinese find stars and constellations to be more important.

Chinese astrology states that a person’s destiny is determined by the positions of the planets, the sun, moon, and comets during the person’s birth. The person’s horoscope sign is determined by the year of birth and the symbol is assigned from the 12 animals from their Star Sign.

Because fate is already determined in the Chinese astrology, their forecasts are usually focused on working on how to “cure” or change of a person. Western astrology’s forecasts are more about a person’s internal psychology, thus its twelve signs are said to represent the twelve basic personality types or characteristic mode of expressions. The said signs area assigned based on a person’s date of birth.

Some astrologers use Western astrology to predict people’s compatibility in love. Two people are compatible when their horoscope signs belong to the same element, which may be fire, water, air, or earth. There is also the use of sun and moon signs. Both sun and moon signs are compared then the sun sign is compared with the moon sign and the other way around. There should have at least 2 matches in the 4 comparisons to say that two people are compatible.

 

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