Someday the scientists will catch up with the esoteric knowledge. They'll discover "Hey, when Mercury is in this chunk of the sky and going backwards from its typical path from our view (i.e. retrograde), it seems that its electric field polarizes in a different fashion, and the magnetic field spins a certain way that interacts with our ionosphere. And thus it comes down to us and engages our frontal lobe in such-and-such way, which precipitates a greater statistical chance of erroneous judgement in this-and-this test..." and so forth. Or however it goes.

The point of reference always comes down to harmonics. The ratios of planets and angles. That's why it doesn't matter whether there are 12 or 13 zodiac signs, as people who like to operate in theory rather than effective practice may counter. Planets in certain areas of the sky simply "perform" better than in others. Mars operates best in Aries and Scorpio. It naturally expresses its assertiveness and energy in the most positive way in these signs. Your personal levels of aggression, how you handle challenging work and effort, and your level of sustained power and action (to name a few) in life will be directly influenced by Mars' sign and location at the time of your birth. Mars doesn't "make you" have impulsive reactions. It *is* your impulsive reaction. The beauty is learning to understand your tendencies and ameliorate your negative traits with thoughtful contemplation and experience.

With some practice in reviewing general traits of each planet's keywords and zodiac sign meanings, you'll be on your way to a better understanding of yourself, your tendencies, and those of friends around you.

This is all based on astrophysics, planetary harmonics, resonance, and waveforms. It affects every human being regardless of mental orientation or belief system. Astrology, in fact, is what inspired civilizations for many thousands of years to take such an interest in the stars, the motions of the planets, and the patterns in the sky. Just think about the importance of watching the stars many thousands of years ago. With no light pollution, no massive smog pollution, the stars were a much greater source of inspiration because they simply were more commonly given attention. Over time, when events happened to people, and stars were poisitioned in certain sections of the sky, repeatable results of individuals' lives or communities' destinies were correlated. Tracking the phases of the moon and the corresponding moon signs to behavior also were noted.

Academic knowledge today is great, there is no doubt. But as a whole, our world has given very short shrift to ancient wisdom. For instance, were you aware of a intricate piece of equipment known as The Antikythera Mechanism that was used to calculate complicated celestial movement? At the very least, this device is 2000 years old. It has a very involved set of gears, dials and highly complex devices. It also shows that a heliocentric model of the solar system was more than a passing thought to people much earlier than typically assumed. It also had an eclipse cycle calculator, timed the Olympic games, and tracked the tropical years and lunar months.

Do you really think astrology, as practiced in the proper full form, has survived for many, many thousands of years just because it's a fun little novelty with which to pass the time? Of course not. It has tremendous utility as a predictive tool, as a behavioral analysis guide, as a planning timer, and much more.