The Use of Astrology - Observing a Cyclical Relationship System

Astrology is not useless. It is unscientific and you must certainly not be using it to try to "predict" anything or determine who your next lover is, because it's just as useful at those things as a dog is at flying an airplane (maybe even less so). But astrology presents a model that is useful that I call "cyclical relationship systems". The system is cyclical because it can be rotated around like the arms of a clock. It's relationship because its focused on relationships between other signs, and it's a system because it is automated and consistent, and can be written into an algorithm.

The basics 12 signs of the western zodiac most people are probably already familiar with - Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Libra, Virgo, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. Some people may know some traits about these characters, but do you know how these traits are derived? They aren't random - in fact, their traits, and their relationships (in the most basic crude sense) are very structured. The following is extremely simplified from actual astrology, but its purpose of demonstrating relationships is still useful for the following demonstration.

First, the 12 signs are sorted into 4 groups by "element" - Fire, Earth, Air and Water. These 4 groups have 3 signs in them each, and form a triangle around the zodiac. These 3 have a relationship with each other - in that they share an element. In the zodiac, this is usually interpreted as being highest level of compatibility. These are often called "triangles".


Caption: Illustration of triangles in astrology. These triangles are: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius; Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn; Gemini, Libra, Aquarius; Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces.

Not only this, but the elements are sorted even further - Air and Fire are considered moving elements, while Earth and Water are considered stationary elements. What does this mean? Well, this means that the two groups of elements share another relationship with each other - similar to how a deck of cards has 4 suits, but spades and clubs share the same colour, and hearts and diamonds share the same colour. This relationship helps describe relationships between 3 signs and 3 other signs. In astrology, this is usually considered "highly compatible". Those who do not share this category usually are considered "less" compatible.

There is one exception out of these three "highly compatible" relationships, which is the sign's opposite. This is another relationship, determined by the the sign 6 signs away. The sign's opposite will always be the other element in that group - so if, say, you're Aries, which is fire, your opposite would be air - which it is, in Libra.

Further, there is yet another set of relationships.

There exists three "directionals" in the primary zodiac. These directions are called "Cardinal", "Fixed" and "Mutable". These directions also have their own personalities as well, and the opposite sign will always have the same "directional" as the initial sign. The other two signs are considered "incompatible" and have elements of the other type. These are called "squares". In astrology, excluding the opposite, squares usually have bitter relationships.


Caption: Demonstration of "Squares" in astrology. Square signs are - Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn; Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius; Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces.

Another relationship exists between the signs next to the base sign. For Aries, this would be Pisces and Taurus. This relationship iirc doesn't have a special name, but it's usually considered a neutral relationship.

Finally, the relationships defined by 5 spaces from the base sign are usually considered neutral-negative.

The zodiac has the following relationships:
Element: 4 signs apart are related.
Directional: 3 signs apart are related.
Element Property: 2 signs apart are related.
Opposite: 6 signs apart are related.
Adjacent: 1 sign apart are related.
Far-away: 5 sign apart are related.

In some systems, there is even an "internal/external" system applied to half of the zodiac, adding even another relation.

Astrology has even more "circles" that rotate - there are 12 Houses that rotate opposite to the zodiac.

So one might ask - how are the individual personalities of the zodiac formed? They are formed by compounding all of the relationships together to produce a unique personality. By defining each personality as a compounding of all the individual values in each relationship, one is able to produce a completely unique personality based on several values that circle around the zodiac at various, even intervals. This produces a 12-unit system with unique values but with various relations between them, very easily defined.

A simple example regarding only element and directional aspect: Fire is an element of passion, anger and energy. The three directional states - Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable have different properties though. Mixing and matching these gets the basic properties of Aries, Leo and Sagittarius respectively.

This is a large number of relationships in a relatively simple system that defines a much more complicated possibility. It's easy to build an astrology based model, and the number of relationships that can be drawn from it are extremely useful. In addition, the model works on ticks, which means that it can be seeded with a base tick (in astrology, this base tick is the time in which you were born).

One of the most useful things about an astrology-based model of cyclical systems is that each part is built to have many relationships with other parts, but each has an equal amount of relationships. This is extremely useful in certain applications. For example, in game design, this means that, by developing a "type chart" similar to Pokemon around an astrology model, that you will never have an element that is too powerful or too weak (as long as their individual stats are balanced, of course!).

Not only this, but with multiple astrology-based models with the same basic traits, but operating on separate ticks (similar to how astrology has various planets), you can produce even more variety, with the complexity of more elaborate systems.

Imagine building an astrology based class in, say, Java or C++. You instantiate this into 3 objects that govern various parts of a character's personality in a game. By having them operate on separate ticks, it is much less likely that a character will develop with the same three "signs" for their personality traits. You can even emulate houses by having the tick direction travel in reverse. You can seed such a system with, for example, the system time, to produce a value that is unlikely to be repeated with the number. You could even produce random number generators this way.

Astrology may be useless in its common sense, but its model is extremely elegant and permits for a relational system that is simple to produce, equal, and can be replicated many times with small differences to produce extremely varied and unique results. Understanding the mathematical relationships between a 12-sign rotational system is extremely useful.

"Astrology may be useless in its common sense"

How awesome that you can find so much use out of its model. Though it's interesting to then tarnish its common application. While I don't go reading horoscopes or anything, I think psychics, astrology, etc all have quite a use.

It gives people perspective.

Think about it. A woman reads that their coworkers will be giving them something special today. She dresses nicely, and is more aware of her coworkers that day. She might even notice things about them too, which she likely wouldn't have on the autopilot sleepiness full-time employees often find themselves. She was more aware about something different.

It might not predict the next lover, but she might notice someone that would've been just another stranger otherwise. Those little moments could change the tide of her life.

I used to viciously criticize astrology, The Secret, and I'm still adverse about the super-preachy self-help section. By now, I've realized that the tools people use to navigate a hazy and complicated life are exactly that: a set of tools. They'll tweak and tinker. They'll fail. They'll learn to let go. They'll try again. Cyclical.

Just because it isn't useful to you, doesn't mean it isn't useful.

As for the model, quite an elaborate explanation. I'll keep chewing on it. :D Thanks for diving deep!

I dunno, in of itself it just kind of comes off like general ambiguous advice. If it makes people's lives better, then that's great, but you could apply any of the horoscopes to your day to improve your life by assuming that. In of themselves their original purpose could be occupied by almost any other system, since it has no true predictive power to differentiate itself from other forms of advice.

If it makes one's life better, then I suppose that's a "use", but in that sense there are many other things that could serve a similar purpose, such as using Meyer's-Briggs personality archetypes to plan how you should react to certain things. It's "use" in this sense is not unique.