Astrology is a tool used to delve deeper into understanding yourself and others. Learning about your birth chart is a way to reveal the complex layers or colors of your personality. Your chart is like a fingerprint; a blueprint of the soul. The planets you were born under influence your potential gifts and challenges. Think of them as archetypes.
Since the planets are continuously moving, energies are always shifting. Astrologers monitor Transits (planetary positions in relation to each other) to see how those energies are affected and being changed. It's like reading an astrological weather report. We always have free will, however, when looking at the impact of transits on our birth charts astrology can provide insights on how individual areas of our lives are being affected.
Astrology has been traced back to at least the 2nd millenium BCE where it was used to interpret celestial phenomena as divine communications and to predict seasonal shifts. Various forms of astrology can be found all over the world. Many cultures such as the Hindus, Chinese, and Maya have calendars or systems for predicting events based on celestial observations. One of the oldest astrological systems still in use dates back to 19th-17th century BCE Mesopotamia spreading to ancient Greece, Rome, and The Arab world until eventually it arrived in Central and Western Europe.
After 332 BCE Hellenistic astrology combined Babylonian and Egyptian Decanic astrology to create horoscopic astrology– the astrology of today, based on the signs of the zodiac.