The Tarot cards have been around since at least the Middle Ages if not longer, and were used mostly for fortune telling.

Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life; the past, present and future of a person's life.

The Tarot is a pack of seventy-eight cards.

There are four suits - The Wands, The Cups, The Swords, and The Disks/Coins.

Within each suit, there are ten numbered cards from 1 to 10 and four court cards - the Princess, the Prince, the Queen and the Knight.

Astrology deals with the study of the movement and relative positions of celestial bodies interpreted as having an influence on human affairs and the natural world.

What are celestial bodies?

Single units like planets, stars, etc. are called celestial bodies.

Which celestial bodies are studied in astrology?

The 'planets' of the solar system, and the 'fixed stars' appear to have an influence on human affairs and the natural world, and are studied in astrology.

What are planets? What are fixed stars?

Our Environment

We live on planet Earth.

The Earth is a part of the solar system.

The Solar System consists of the Sun and the objects that orbit it, either directly or indirectly.

Our Solar system is part of a galaxy called the Milky Way.

A Galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust and dark matter.

The Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies in the Universe.

A Universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy.

A universe may be part of a multiverse, a hypothetical group of multiple universes which comprise everything that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, information and the physical laws and constants that describe them.

Multiverse (?) >>> Universe >>> Galaxies >>> Solar System >>> Earth

The Solar System

The Sun is at the center of the solar system.

There are eight planets which are the largest objects that orbit the sun directly.

Four smaller planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, form the inner system.

Four giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, form the outer system.

The asteroid belt lies between the inner and outer systems.

The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy, bringing the planets, asteroids, comets and other objects along with it.

The Ecliptic

The plane on which the Earth moves around the Sun is called the Ecliptic.

Most planets in our Solar System orbit the Sun on or near this orbital plane.

When we track the Sun's motion around the sky, it appears to follow the ecliptic because the Earth follows the ecliptic.

The ecliptic is an apparent path followed by the Sun.

Since the planets orbit in the same plane as Earth, they follow the ecliptic too.

That is why we can predict where the planets will appear in the sky at any one time.

The Constellations

There is a narrow band of stars along the ecliptic that naturally group themselves into constellations.

A constellation is a group of stars forming a recognizable pattern.

There are twelve constellations disposed at approximately equal distances.

They surround the Earth like a giant sphere.

These constellations are named Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.

The Sun is very, very far from the constellations.

The Planets

In astrology, bodies which, having no light of themselves, reflect the light of the Sun and are observed to wander, are called 'planets'.

The Sun and the Moon are considered planets in all astrological matters.

The Fixed Stars

Objects outside the Solar System move so slowly in the sky that the change in their relative positions is nearly imperceptible.

In astrology, these objects can be considered to be 'fixed' for many purposes.

What is astrology?

Suppose that we are on a shooting range and we see a flash, hear a shot followed by the waving of a flag at a distance. There is no reason whatever to suppose any connection between these events.

However, suppose we see the same thing happen about 80/100 times, we may say that in all probability there is some causal connection.

Although it may not be possible to find out the connection, it is fair to draw certain practical deductions if the same thing happened more than 1000 times.

Someone may be justified in predicting that the waving of the flag would follow the flash and the shooting sound.

Similarly, the effect that planets have when they are in certain positions has been studied over long ages.

Certain predictions may be made with regards to the events that follow such arrangements of the planets.

Another example:

Would it be possible for an astrologer to tell whether the air will be warmer or wetter at a given point in time?

If an astrologer knows accurately:

• The movement of all the stars, the sun, and the moon

• The natures of these bodies, their potentially effective qualities (such as sun's heating and moon's moistening)

• The distinctive mark of the quality resulting from the combination of all the factors (by scientifically studying all collected data and by successful conjecture)

he may be able to accurately tell on each given occasion the characteristics of the air from the relations of the phenomena at the time.

This is the basis of astrology.