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Astrology has been done on Earth for centuries, based on the position of the planets with respect to the constellations.

Has anyone given thought to what astrology (whether you believe in it or not) would be like on Mars? Earth would be like any other planet (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn), and there would be two moons to contend with.

From a very limited knowledge of astrology, the location and time of a person's birth, and the current location and time, plus where the planets are in the sky at those points has some predictive capacity.

Personality traits, for example, might be discerned from the location of the planets (knowing exact place and time of birth on Earth). Astrology, from my understanding, is subjective, but perhaps someone with a better knowledge of the topic might be able to help.

Looking up the influence of Mars on an Earthbound astrology chart turns up things like,

"Mars is associated with passion and sex drive" and "Mars symbolizes raw energy, action, and self-assertion,"

and with Venus:

"Venus has dual rulership over Libra and Taurus. As a result, Venus represents two main areas of our life: love and money,"

It isn't clear how those were figured out. If Mars is colonized, people might bring traditions from Earth, and astrology might be one of them. So, at one point, people might ask "What is the influence of Earth in your astrological sign?"

If astrology was to evolve by indigenous beings, it might look completely different (see @Anton-Sherwood's answer), but how would humans adapt Earthly astrology to Mars?

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    $\begingroup$ An interesting question, but it's entirely subjective. Who knows how I would treat it if I believed in astrology? Who knows how a well-versed astrologer would treat it? The answer depends entirely on who you ask. $\endgroup$
    – controlgroup
    Commented Jun 29 at 17:44
  • $\begingroup$ What's the specific problem to solve here? Perhaps look at what astrology does (what need does it fulfill, how does it do that), look at the form of astrology (symbolic representation of people's traits), then edit your question to clarify what you're after. $\endgroup$
    – Escaped dental patient.
    Commented Jun 29 at 17:45
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    $\begingroup$ vtc as opinion-based. $\endgroup$
    – John Dallman
    Commented Jun 29 at 19:13
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    $\begingroup$ This would be a really excellent set of questions if it were divided into smaller more focused queries. E.g., recent human colonists vs old colonies vs indigenous sophonts. $\endgroup$
    – elemtilas
    Commented Jun 29 at 23:11
  • $\begingroup$ The examples and interpretations you give are from geocentric Western astrology, but there are other astrological traditions and methods that might be easier to adapt, like heliocentric. $\endgroup$
    – Yeslek71
    Commented Jun 29 at 23:21

2 Answers 2

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The roots of astrology are very, very old; probably older than written language. A book I read on the subject suggested that some of it may go back to before people had a good calendar to track when to plant and harvest, or a very clear concept of seasons. (From our perspective, that seems silly, but remember that while what is identifiably spring, summer, fall, and winter, though progressing in order, are individually never of an exact length, and even if you count days or lunar cycles, your calendar will keep drifting off target because the year is not an exact whole number of days or lunar months.)

Middle Eastern astrology falsely generalized that since certain constellations and other celestial phenomena caused seasonal cycles (or seemed to), and human lives and communities also followed cycles, then the stars could also control our lives. (Or so some 19th century anthropologist asserted.) Echoes of such ancient ideas of heavenly influence, from cultures around the world, are still discernable in modern astrology.

But in a sense, none of that matters for how astrology would be practiced on other worlds, except for direct copying from Earth astrology. Astrology on other worlds would be warmed-over old symbology, or shallow, new, generally very thin and obvious symbology, kind of like new age pagan religions (and probably often closely tied to new age pagan religions).

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Mars has nearly the same orbital plane and therefore the same constellations along it; but Martians would not invent the month, and thus would not divide the ecliptic into twelve or twenty significant units. (Mars might have a five-day ‘week’ originating in a ceremony at the rising of Deimos.) So Martian astrologers, like Chinese, would emphasize smaller asterisms and not organize them into ‘signs’.

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