Is Astrology Real?

Astrology has attained a status of pseudoscience, a divination system that studies the movements and relative position of celestial objects and their supposed influence on human affairs.

The Western astrology is one of the oldest astrological systems and one can trace its roots to the 17^th century BCE Mesopotamia, from which it spread to Greece, Rome, Arab and Western Europe. Since then astrology has survived through the course of time, while some things changed, others remained constant. Contemporary Western astrology is often associated with the system of horoscopes that explains an aspect of a person’s personality and predict significant events in their lives based on the positions of celestial objects. Along with the anomalous course of history, astrology has experienced, some tend to believe it while some do not. The intellectual sympathy of astrology fell apart during the Age of Enlightenment, an age of intellectual and philosophical movements.

Scientists have completely discarded astrology claiming that it has no explanatory answers describing its working. After a controlled study, they seem to have found no validity and says that it deals with just the probability, having no proposed mechanism that it follows. Forasmuch psychologists have seen a phenomenon of confirmation bias and a tendency of Barnum effect i.e., the tendency of an individual to give high accuracy rating to a description of their personality that supposedly tailored specifically for them.

While some seem to reject it, others believe and have faith in astrology. In a deeper analysis psychologists have found out that it gives people a sense of hope and strength to deal through their daily breakdowns. In a Ted talk, Virginia Rosenberg explains astrology as a tool of finding your inner self. She talks about how she used astrology as a tool for her social change and how she feels an innate connection with it, which led her all the way in attaining her set of goals. There are several courses, which provides a qualification in astrology. For those who find it amusing and believes it to be an innate part of their life can explore more into it.

Lately, astrology has lead people blindly believing into it and give rise to certain superstitions. While it gives hope to people, it has also acquired a shape of fear for some people overshadowing the constructive aspect of their personality. While believing or denying something is completely in the hands of the bearer, one should always remember to not overstep the limits.