The way you've described astrology is how it's contemporarily understood although astrologers would say that's the most common misunderstanding that unfortunately gets circulated nowadays. I've heard an interview of one astrologer describe it as such, "It's not that the planets have any physical or psychical effect upon us, it's that their positions can indicate certain archetypal/cyclical patterns that resonate within Nature; just as clocks don't actually cause time, they allow us to gauge it."