Planets in astrology
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Planets in astrology have a meaning different from the astronomical understanding of what a planet is. Before the age of telescopes, the night sky was thought to consist of two very similar components: fixed stars, which remained motionless in relation to each other, and "wandering stars" (Template:Lang-grc), which moved relative to the fixed stars over the course of the year.
To the Ancient Greeks who learned from the Babylonians, the earliest astronomers, this group consisted of the five planets visible to the naked eye and excluded Earth. Although strictly, the term planet applied only to those five objects, the term was latterly broadened, particularly in the Middle Ages, to include the Sun and the Moon (sometimes referred to as "Lights",<ref>Hone (1978), p.22</ref>) making a total of seven planets. Astrologers retain this definition today.
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