In Pure Spirit

For open minds

  • Brains
  • Peculiar
  • Beliefs
  • Places
  • Meanings
  • Gaia
  • About

The difference between astronomy and astrology

December 13, 2008 by Andrew Leave a Comment

Zodiac clock in San Marco, Venice
Image by GameWyrd via Flickr

It’s not uncommon for people unfamiliar with either astronomy or astrology to confuse the two terms.

Astronomy

Astronomy is a science. It is the study of the stars, planets and celestial entities such as comets, galaxies and occurrences outside the Earth’s atmosphere such as solar flares and cosmic radiation.

The origin of the word is Greek; astron means ‘star’ and nomos means ’law’.
In the historic past astrology was considered a legitimate discipline of astronomy but the two today are very distinct.

Astrology

The origin of the word astrology is very similar to astronomy. The Greek components are astron which means ‘star’ and logia which means ‘the study of’.

Astrology is the study of celestial bodies and it is astrology which uses the Zodiac to identify personality traits and as a divination technique.

There are more than one form of astrology; Western astrology tends to use the tropical zodiac and is different from Vedic astrology which uses sidereal zodiac.  Chinese astrology is different from both the Vedic and Western traditions.

In Pure Spirit

Which do you think came first? Astronomy or astrology? Do we need to keep the two completely separate or is there an overlap?

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Meanings Tagged With: divination, zodiac

Join the conversation Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search

Trending

The meaning of itches and their omens
Idatedaghost.com
The meanings of the days of the week
10 types of spirits that could be haunting your home

Join us

Join us

In Pure Spirit via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,009 other subscribers.

Disclosure

This blog discusses ideas and causes. Urban myth, science and faith combine here. So do editorials and technology; In Pure Spirit uses affiliate marketing and some links might earn us money. You can read more about that here.

Policies

  • Contact us
  • Privacy
  • How we earn money
  • Writing about belief

Member of The Internet Defence League

Copyright © 2021 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
You must accept three things before you explore the site;
🍪 We use cookies and you control them with your browser. 🍪
💰 Some links may earn us an affiliate commission. 💰
😇 You will treat yourself to one extra positive thought today. 😇

I accept all threePrivacy policy