iVillage

The East seldom mentions the individual birth chart. It’s primary interest is in the dynamics of the lunation cycle itself, which it divides and analyzes in great detail in order to make use of the opportunities it offers for day-to-day decision making. In other words, in the east, the lunar cycle is used as a means to determine the kind of activity appropriate for each successive lunar day—and there are thirty of them. This amounts to a form of electional astrology.

In the West, electional astrology is thought of as a means to pick an appropriate time in the future for a particular ceremony or happening, like a wedding. Eastern astrology, too, uses electional astrology in this manner, but more often it uses electional astrology as a guide to day-to-day personal living and practice. Rather than concern itself with what lunar type a given phase of the Moon might produce (birth chart), oriental astrology asks what the current lunar phase is good for. What kind of action is auspicious (or not) today? In India and Tibet, it is the lunation cycle rather than the yearly Sun or solar cycle that is the primary indicator used for planning activities and for personal guidance. In other words, in the East they live by and follow the cycle of the Moon on a day-to-day basis, just as we do the Sun here in the West.