The Link Between Navajo Astrology and Astronomy
For the Diné, or Navajo people, the night sky has traditionally been understood as far more than a collection of distant astronomical objects. Stars, the Sun, the Moon and the wider cosmos form part of an interconnected system involving the natural world, seasonal cycles, stories, ceremonies and principles for living.
This makes the relationship between what we might call Navajo astrology and astronomy particularly interesting. The distinction familiar in Western culture , astronomy as a science and astrology as a symbolic system , does not map neatly onto traditional Diné knowledge. Researchers more commonly use terms such as Diné ethnoastronomy or cultural astronomy to describe this body of knowledge.
Observing the Same Sky, Understanding It Differently
The stars observed by Diné astronomers are, of course, the same physical stars studied by modern astronomy. Many traditional Diné constellations can therefore be located within regions of the sky familiar to Western observers, while carrying completely different names, boundaries and meanings.
Nancy C. Maryboy and David Begay's Sharing the Skies: Navajo Astronomy, catalogued by the Smithsonian Institution, documents Diné interpretations of numerous recognisable celestial features. These include:
- Dilyéhé, associated with the Pleiades;
- Átsé Ets'ózí, associated with Orion;
- Átsé Etsoh and Gah Hahat'ee, formed from stars within the Western constellation Scorpius;
- Yikáísdáhá, the Milky Way;
- Jo'hanaa'éí, the Sun; and
- Tł'éhonaa'éí, the Moon.
Yet these are not simply alternative labels for Western constellations. The groupings themselves can differ, and their importance lies within a wider Diné understanding of relationships and cosmic order.
Náhookos and the Northern Sky
A particularly important region is Náhookos, centred on the northern sky. Maryboy and Begay's work describes related constellations including Náhookos Bi'ká', associated with Ursa Major, Náhookos Bi'áád, associated with Cassiopeia, and Náhookos Biko', Polaris.
This illustrates an important difference between cultural astronomy systems. Western astronomy divided the celestial sphere into 88 officially recognised constellations. Diné constellations developed independently and organise familiar stars according to a different cultural framework.
Neither changes where the stars physically are. What changes is the pattern humans perceive within them.
The Sky as a Calendar
Diné astronomical knowledge also has an observational and practical dimension. The movements of celestial objects provide recurring markers of time and season.
The documented Diné astronomical system includes both solar and lunar observation and a traditional calendar alongside knowledge of constellations. The changing positions and visibility of stars through the year create a celestial rhythm that can be related to seasonal activity.
This is astronomy in a very literal sense: careful observation of predictable celestial cycles.
But the interpretation of those cycles extends beyond measurement. In traditional Diné thought, celestial knowledge forms part of a wider understanding of how human life fits within the natural order. The National Park Service describes the connection between Diné people and the sky as an intimate one encompassing cosmology as well as constellations.
Is It Really 'Navajo Astrology'?
This is where terminology becomes important.
Calling the tradition "Navajo astrology" can suggest a Native American equivalent of Western natal astrology: birth charts, zodiac signs and planetary aspects determining personality or forecasting future events. That is not an accurate way to characterise traditional Diné astronomy.
Traditional knowledge certainly gives celestial phenomena meaning beyond their physical properties, and the stars can be connected with stories, spiritual teachings and guidance about how people should live. The Smithsonian's work on cultural astronomy notes more broadly that Indigenous traditions may use the night sky for timekeeping, guidance and teachings about human life.
But these systems developed within their own cultural and spiritual context. They should not simply be translated into Western astrological terminology.
For anyone interested in astrology, that distinction makes Diné astronomy more interesting rather than less. It demonstrates that humans have repeatedly looked at objectively observable celestial cycles and developed profoundly different systems of meaning around them.
Where Astronomy and Meaning Meet
Modern astronomy can tell us what the Pleiades are: a young open star cluster approximately 440 light-years from Earth. It can describe Polaris as a multiple-star system and explain why it currently appears close to the north celestial pole.
Those facts do not tell us what those objects mean to a culture.
Diné astronomy operates in that additional dimension. Physical observation, place, story, season and human behaviour belong to an interconnected picture rather than being divided into completely separate subjects.
The Indigenous Education Institute, which has worked extensively to preserve and teach Navajo astronomy, describes its approach as bringing Navajo, Greek and modern space-science worldviews into conversation without treating them as though they are identical.
That is perhaps the most useful way to approach the subject.
Astronomy describes the physical sky with extraordinary precision. Cultural traditions help us understand the many ways human beings have experienced that sky. Astrology occupies another territory again, exploring perceived symbolic relationships between celestial events and earthly life.
At Wilfred Hazelwood Astrology, the Diné tradition offers a valuable reminder that Western astrology represents only one historical attempt to find meaning in the heavens. Long before modern telescopes or astronomical software, cultures across the world were watching the same stars , but they were not necessarily seeing the same sky.
