Western traditional approaches
Hellenistic, medieval, and Renaissance approaches differ, but often emphasize the seven visible classical bodies, traditional rulerships, houses, aspects, and techniques for assessing planetary condition. Contemporary practitioners reconstruct and adapt these methods in different ways.
Modern Western approaches
Many modern approaches emphasize psychological themes, personal development, and the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Some use modern rulerships or a wider range of aspects. Modern astrology is not one standardized method, and practitioners often combine techniques.
Jyotisha and Indian traditions
Jyotisha encompasses diverse Indian astrological traditions. Many approaches use a sidereal zodiac, lunar mansions called nakshatras, and timing systems known as dashas. These methods should be studied within their own framework rather than reduced to Western chart labels with a shifted zodiac.
Chinese astrological traditions
Chinese systems include methods based on calendrical cycles, the twelve earthly branches, ten heavenly stems, and five phases. A year-animal label is only a small introduction. Four Pillars methods use more birth information and should not be represented as a direct equivalent of a Western Sun sign.
Different questions, different methods
Natal astrology interprets a birth chart; electional astrology considers proposed times for an activity; horary astrology interprets a question chart; mundane astrology concerns collective affairs. These categories do not imply that their predictions are scientifically established.
Study with context
Learn the vocabulary, assumptions, and calculation rules of a tradition before mixing techniques. Respect cultural context and acknowledge disagreement. This site’s computational tools use a stated tropical framework; descriptions of other traditions are introductory, not substitutes for specialist study.
This guide describes symbolic conventions and traditions. Astrological interpretations are not scientifically established predictions about personality or events. Our sources and editorial approach.