Do Astrology and Horoscope seem the same to you? If yes, you might be missing something really important, especially about your future predictions.
While reading newspapers and magazines, we all have gone through the horoscope page and read about our zodiacs and predictions for days, months or years. But only a few know that there is a huge difference between Astrology and Horoscope.
In this post, we will find what are the basic concepts of Astrology and horoscope and what is the basic difference between both of them. Let’s take a quick look:
What is Astrology?
Astrology is a pseudoscience that studies the planets, sun, stars and their influence in our daily life. If we look into history we can see that Astrology has been practiced in many countries and has been the prime source of making life predictions. In ancient times, people used to know the importance of Astrology in human life and thus used it for predicting marriage, love and commencement of various events.
According to astrologers, due to the diverse study of Astrology in various cultures, you can find pervasiveness of different types of Astrology in the world such as Vedic Astrology, Chinese Astrology, Horary Astrology, Western Astrology, Election Astrology etc. Out of which the main Astrology reading practices are Vedic Astrology, Chinese Astrology, and Western Astrology. Let’s take a quick glance at all of them.
1. Vedic Astrology:
Also known as Indian Astrology, this type of Astrology is considered as one of the ancient forms prevalent in the Astrology world. This branch of Astrology uses planets, stars and their movements in the houses to predict the native’s life.
2. Chinese Astrology:
This branch of Astrology is mainly evolved in the ancient Han dynasty. Chinese Astrology uses animal signs for the yearly predictions. Besides this, it also believes in yin-yang, Wu Sing teachings and five elements as major sources of predictions.
3. Western Astrology:
Based on Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, western Astrology employs a horoscope chart for predictions. Unlike Indian Astrology, this branch creates the birth chart on the basis of Tropical Zodiac i.e location where the Sun’s orbit around the earth decides the beginning of the 12 Astrology signs.
The modern concept of Astrology that we use and practice in our daily life is mostly inspired by Western Astrology. This Western Astrology concept involves natal or birth chart and predictions based on your birth information. Explaining it, the birth chart is a complete guide about a person’ life that is formed by calculating the positions and movement of planets with respect to the date, place and time of the birth of the native. It is believed to be the best way to know your past, present, future and decide the best course of action accordingly.
What is Horoscope?
Considering the basic definition, Horoscope is a basic chart that includes the predictions based on the sun signs, planets positions, zodiacs, aspects and so on. Derived from the Greek etymology, the word horoscope means “looking at the hour”.
These are short and general forecast that shares the insights into your personality and different aspects of life. By using the Horoscope chart, you may know your daily predictions, love predictions, career readings and many more. In other words, Horoscope is a small astrological chart that calculates the positions of planets with your tropical or sidereal zodiac in order to make future predictions.
Although reading and understanding your horoscope is vast, people visualize horoscope as the readings that they view in newspapers and magazines. However, the readings are based on your Astrology signs, such horoscope predictions only share a rare view of your persona. Thus, to get a deeper understanding of your life, you must always know how to read and analyse your Astrology chart.
Here, is the quick handy table that points out the basic differences between Astrology and Horoscope.
Table 1: Astrology v/s Horoscope
| Astrology | Horoscope | |
| Definition | Astrology is the study of planets, stars and their effects on human lives. With this, you may discover how planets affect your lives and bring twists and turns. | It is a chart or diagram that depicts the planetary positions and reflect their effects on your personality, life and important events on a daily, monthly or yearly basis. |
| Types | Western Astrology, Chinese Astrology, Vedic Astrology, Horary Astrology, Electional Astrology | Natal chart or Birth Chart, Horoscope reading based on zodiacs |
| Base or Ground | Planetary positions, Stars, Astrology Signs, Aspects, Astrology Houses | Astrology Concepts like planets, Astrology signs and so on |
| Genre | PseudoScience | Predictions |
| Use | Can be used to explore personality, life, behavior, effects of planets, etc. | Can be used for predictions for every phase of life- love. career, finance and many more. |
Predicting the future and sharing your personality traits is where you see the real Astrology work. That is why a good astrologer always suggests to take the personalized Astrology readings and generate your horoscope chart or birth chart or natal chart. These charts are the real projection of how your life will be. How planets will affect your life and why some specific events happen?
Astrology is a wide ocean and your horoscope chart is an integral aspect of that ocean through which you may get a lot of life guidance. Using it, you may evaluate the effects of planets, stars and their movements in the astrological houses anytime and explore the infinite possibilities hidden in your future. Verdict With this quick overview, I hope now you can understand the basic concept and won’t confuse Astrology and horoscopes together. Astrology is a science of predicting future and your horoscope- a quick gateway to re-discover life.
