What is astrology? According to some encyclopedic sources astrology is a system in which knowledge of the apparent positions of celestial bodies is used to understand human potential, and to try to predict some trends in future. Obviously, scientists hate it. However, on the other hand, probably the scientists are the biggest enemy of science itself, where unbiased approach to a problem solution seems to be the fundamental factor. It seems that in modern science the unbiased approach is sacrificed on altar of scientific fashion and money.
Most probably astrology is something between science and art. It belongs in someway to science, since deals in some way with astrobiology. We cannot deny, that celestial bodies have influence on our life - for instance Sun. On the other side it is closely related to archetypes of humankind or some areas of human being, which are difficult or impossible to be taken under classical scientific examination. The very base of astrology is obvious fact that we are part of Universe, and that our birth and life is not totally accidental. We try to find some relations between apparent positions of celestial bodies and our life. However the nature of influence of the bodies is not gravitational. What is more important is which aspects and which archetypes are related to the celestial bodies, and what are possible correlation between them at the moment and place of our birth. The serious astrology has nothing to do with newspaper astrology, which is a kind of shallow entertainment.
And now - just a little about technical stuff. There are several kinds of horoscope charts, but probably the most common is natal chart, which shows position of celestial bodies as seen from the birthplace at the time of birth. The time of birth is EXACTLY the time of the first breath. It is not what physician will write in documents. Astrologer is interested only in the moment of the first breath. The life span is between the first and the last breath, and it seems to be logical. Sometimes physicians write the proper time, but mostly - not. Why? Because they don't care. For them +10 or -10 minutes makes no difference, however for an astrologer it can be, and many times - it is big difference. If you miss 1 minute for train, you can be 1 hour later in your work - since maybe the next train will be in about one hour. So, time factor is essential not only in astrology. With the place the consideration is not so serious, since it is easy to find exact geographical coordinates needed to cast the natal chart.
The next common kind of chart is synastry chart, cast for man and woman which are about to be married, for example. In synastry chart we compare relative positions of celestial bodies taken from the two natal charts. It is not so easy process, since first the natal charts have to be analyzed.
The last widely used technique in astrology is called "transits". There we compare positions of celestial bodies in relation to their fixed positions in natal chart, for some period of time in future. Roughly, monthly, we have hundreds of transits, however only some of them are effective. And since the thing is about future, many people are curious what can happen. That is nothing strange, since we all want to be always young and rich. From astrological point of view, for transits forecast to be valuable, we need exact time of the birth, down to 1 minute, if possible.
What is really worth to point is the fact, that not only the position of Sun in the sky during the birth is important. The great importance is attached as well to - maybe the main player on the natal chart - the ruler of the rising zodiac sign.
So, is our future fixed and impossible to change? Not, our future is not rigidly fixed. It is in, as if, constant liquid state. We can change many things, but sometimes it is not so easy. In the rain you can have dry hairs if you use an umbrella. During sunshine it is easy to have dry hairs, but during rainy weather the same is possible as well, however much more difficult. The same thing we can say about astrology. There are some trends in human behaviour, some moods, some changes in character, which - like a wave - take us into future. Will the wave be stronger than we? This is the problem. We CAN overcome or avoid the coming obstacles, but in some periods it can be more difficult, sometimes very difficult. Or, on the other hand, there are periods, when our possibilities are much higher and we can use them to form our future.
What seems to be fixed in astrology, is the fixed potential visible in natal chart. We come to this world with some fixed possibilities. And sometimes parents send a child (potential artist) to medical schools to be, lets say, surgeon. And maybe the child will become a surgeon, but in free times will be learning playing piano, for instance. Many times people are not
aware of the possibilities they have, of this inborn potential. Looking at several days old child it is impossible to say something sensible about potential of the small citizen using scientific approach, but it is possible from the astrological point of view, but nobody says that it is easy.
There is nothing like "bad" natal chart. We have "positive" and "negative" aspects (relative positions) in the chart. But a person with many "positive" aspect can become so dim-witted like a chicken. And opposite - a person with "negative" aspects can be motivated to higher effort, which can develop his/her possibilities and open new areas for self-realization. Astrology helps to find our initial potential and understand how we could improve quality of our life and our relations with other people.