The curiosity to know about our future is there in all human beings. Many times, almost all of us get entrapped in the situations and circumstances in our lives, where we start thinking about an unseen force working for or against our wishes, upon which we have no control of ours. Also, since time immemorial, human beings have tried to observe and understand this unseen force called Destiny or Luck, so that we can better prepare ourselves for what future holds for us. In this effort to know our future many systems have evolved in different parts of the world thousands of years before including Vedic Astrology, Chinese Astrology and Western Astrology. Each system has its own history behind it where many of the great personalities of the early millenniums, have contributed from what they have learned and observed over the years. In our topic Vedic Astrology Vs Western Astrology we are talking about Hindu astrology and western astrology mainly because many of the terminologies and strategies used in these two systems are so similar, making people to ask frequently the differences between these two. The similarities between two systems are
- There are 12 signs of zodiac of 30 degrees each, in both systems with classical rulership assigned to Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. Though after the discovery of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, they are also the part of western astrology.
- Both systems take Aspects and Conjunctions of planets into account.
- Both systems consider Transits of planets and their influence on the person whose horoscope is being analyzed.
- Other concepts of mutual friendship and enmity among planets are also similar.
Major differences between two systems are
- Sun signs carry more weightage in western astrology while Ascendant and Moon signs are more important in vedic astrology.
- Vedic astrology uses Moon sign and 27 lunar mansions (star constellations called Nakshatra) along with 12 signs of zodiac to analyze horoscope compatibility between couples while there is no such concept of lunar mansions in western astrology.
- In vedic astrology lunar mansions are used to calculate main time periods and sub periods (called Dasha and Bhukti) along with transits of planets that helps in time framing certain events in life while western astrology is more dependent on transits for predicting events as lunar mansions are not part of western astrology.
- Most importantly, western astrology uses tropical zodiacs which are movable while vedic astrology uses sidereal zodiac which are fixed.
As a result of sidereal zodiac, hindu astrology or vedic astrology applies a correction of few degrees (23 -24 degrees presently) to the position of Sun, Moon, planets and houses which is based on actual observed wobbly motion of the Earth while revolving around its axis. This correction is called Ayanamsha and it continues to change at the rate of approximately 1 degree every 72 years because of scientific phenomena called precession of equinoxes. Because of this difference of 23 degrees, western horoscope chart shows planets 23 degrees ahead of the position to that in vedic horoscope chart. This means if Sun is at 15 degrees in Aries at a particular moment in western chart, it would be in Pisces somewhere at 22 degrees in vedic chart.
In conclusion, though vedic astrology and western astrology, both uses many common terminologies and strategies but the way these two systems are approached and implemented from the very foundation is different. This basic difference between these two systems makes it completely irrelevant to compare with each other.