You've probably read many articles about astrology on the internet and some forecasts and predictions based on which part of the year you were born in. So if you're Libra, you have some great success coming in to your work life in the next year. Or if you're Aquarius, your love life is going to change and you will meet that special someone next summer.

If you're like me, you probably wonder how come the fate of about 1/12th of the people in the world is the same. And if you look closely enough, the predictions share some characteristics and the forecasts for two or more signs have some common elements, which means that more than 1/12th of the people in the world will have the same fate.

Also, what does being born in a certain part of the year have to do with your fate or your nature? Are planets that influential in our lives, and is astrology really a science?

Here I am going to try to shed some light on the real deal with astrology and explain some theories so you know for yourself what's going on - and what to make of what you read.
First of all, let us understand some basic concepts. These are the same as what you know from astronomy - the science of celestial objects - with a few exceptions. There is a solar system, in which there is a Sun around which planets revolve. The Earth is one of the planets. Since we all live on the Earth, astrology takes the earth as the reference point and works with the positions of the other celestial objects with respect to the Earth.

So, if you've ever seen your astrological chart, you've seen how the planets are plotted in a circle (or square). The center of this circle is the Earth - where you are. Logically speaking, the Sun then can be plotted on this circle relative to the Earth, and so can all the other objects of interest, of which the Moon is also one. So far we are still in the territory of astronomy, plotting the positions of celestial objects with respect to the position of the Earth at a given time, and as seen from a given place on the Earth.

An exception with astrology - the celestial objects, including the Sun and the Moon, are usually also referred to as "planets" for brevity. Just nomenclature. Some astrologers still use "the planets and the Sun and the Moon", but some keep it short at "the planets", implicitly referring to Sun and Moon as well. We will use the shorter version here.

OK, so getting back to how it works. When you are born, the location of the planets are calculated and plotted in a circle or other diagram with respect to the Earth. Based on the locations of each planet and relative positions between planets, certain characteristics are determined to be present in your nature or fate.

How are the locations of the planets related to your nature or fate? There are a few theories:

Theory that planets have influence on humans
For the longest time it has been believed that planets have a certain influence on humans and other living organisms, and by being present in a certain location they are able to affect the lives of all of us. As a result, their motions or relative positions change the patterns in our lives or characters.

Theory that planets are only an indicator
While the above theory is believed by many, I personally find this theory more acceptable that planets are an indicator only and not the cause or influencer. A good analogy was made by famous astrologer Robert Hand: imagine a child standing at a train station watching trains come and go by at the various platforms. Then he looks up to find a digital timetable that lists all trains and their times of arrival. He observes that whenever the timetable says that a certain train is going to come at a certain time, that train does come at that time. Looking at how the timetable correctly matches the trains' coming and going, he naively starts believing that it is the schedule that makes the trains come and go. When the schedule says train 100 will arrive at 11:00, train 100 gets some sort of signal and it gets there at 11:00.
Obviously, we know there is more to this that the child didn't think - that both the schedule and the train are controlled by a common controller, and the schedule is only an messenger of the controller for the public. The relationship between the schedule and the train is not that of influencer-influencee, but that of peer influencees.

A similar theory can be understood for planets and us. The cosmos is controlled by a controller. Some call the controller fate, some call God, and some call destiny. While some believe that the cosmos is like a clock where different parts run together in synchronicity. By looking a certain wheel and where it currently is, you could tell the position of another wheel at another place in the clock because they all run together, connected. Astrologers who subscribe to this theory have observed that the motion and location of the planets can be used to identify what is happening in the clock of the universe, and "if this wheel is in this position, the other wheel must be in so-and-so position, because the last time this wheel was in this position (along with these other wheels), the state of the clock was so-and-so."

I believe the second theory makes the process more logical and scientific, although the underlying facts have still only be obtained from observation.

I'll cover more on the planets in an upcoming blog, which will help you understand how much to believe (or not) the forecasts based on only your Sun sign (Libra, Aquarius, etc.). In nutshell, though, there are ten "planets" in astrology, the Sun being one of them. Albeit the most influencial for most people, it is still one of them, and the other nine count significantly.