Astrology Series 1

Astrology is a science which deals with movement of heavenly bodies and how they affect individual beings. Now before starting with components in astrology, we will begin with knowing about our zodiac. The zodiac is divided into 12 signs divided equally. The entire zodiac is 360 degrees in total and each of them constitutes 30 degrees.

Since we have 12 signs, each sign is allotted a specific owner; the owners of these signs are the planets in our solar system. Traditionally in Vedic astrology there are only 7 seven planets but in the later stages nodes of the moon were also added as planets (Rahu and Ketu)

The list of the planets that are commonly used in the Vedic astrology for analysis purposes are as below

1. Sun
2. Moon
3. Mercury
4. Venus
5. Mars
6. Jupiter
7. Saturn
8. Rahu
9. Ketu

So as said earlier each of the sign has a planet as a Owner and below table gives you the list of signs and their owner (Sanskrit names are also given). The Zodiac starts with Aries as the first sign, followed by Taurus and so on.

Sagittarius/Dhanus Jupiter/Guru 12th Sign	Aries/Mesha Mars/Kuja 1st Sign of Zodiac	Taurus/Vrushabha Venus/Sukra 2nd sign	Gemini/Mithuna Mercury/Budha 3rd Sign
Aquarius/Kumbha Sarurn/sani 11th Sign			Cancer/Kataka Moon/Chandra 4th Sign
Capricorn/Makara Saturn/Sani 10th Sign			Leo/Simha Sun/Surya 5th Sign
Sagittarius/Dhanus Jupiter/Guru 9th Sign	Scorpio/Vrishchika Mars/Kuja 8th sign	Libra/Thula Venus/Sukra 7th sign	Virgo/Kanya Mercury/Budha 6th Sign

So from the above table we can now understand the structure of Zodiac. So the point of knowing about the zodiac is that each planets mentioned above list are placed in a specific sign. Since they placed in a sign they exhibit certain effects, this is what is analyzed in astrology. So for example if Sun is placed in Gemini, the sign where he is placed will be the first sign of reference for that planet. So Gemini will be the first sign for Sun, Cancer the second and so on. Finally for Sun Taurus will be the 12^th sign. This logic hold good for all planets and reference points.