Click on a link you're interested in below:
- "What's your sign?"
- Planets
- The twelve signs
- Houses
- Other important points
- Putting it all together
- Aspects
- Astrology and compatibility
- Astrology and the future
- Evolutionary Astrology
- Recommended
- Astrology Articles
"What's
your sign?"
Your "sign", which is
usually referring to your "sun sign", is the astrological sign the sun
was traveling through when you were born. The sun moves around through the signs in a
circle in the sky, the zodiac wheel, remaining in each about 1
month. If your sign is Leo, for example, you were born while the sun was
in the sign of Leo in the sky.
But your sun sign is not the only sign that describes you. The other heavenly bodies were also somewhere important in the sky when you were born. Many people only know their sun sign because it is a prominent and important placement in a natal chart, but by no means does it stand on its own.
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Planets
The planets studied in basic astrology are the planets in our solar system, excluding the earth. These are:
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Earth
is excluded because it is our view point. Each planet has an individual meaning of its own. For
instance, Mercury is associated with intelligence, communication,
thought. Mars is associated with motivation and action. Uranus is
associated with the unexpected and our sense of individualism. The planets are the basic force, they tell us 'what'.
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The twelve signs
The twelve signs are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. The signs represent different characteristics, adjectives. Aries represents boldness, courage, pioneering spirit, enthusiasm. Libra represents balance, fair-mindedness, and relatedness. Scorpio represents depth, psychological understanding, the pursuit of personal, deep truths. The signs tell us 'why' and 'how'.
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Houses
There are twelve houses, generally just referred to by number. Houses define the areas of life. If a planet is in a certain house, the planet's qualities affect and shape that area of life. The 9th house represents the pursuit of knowledge in its highest sense, and the shaping of our beliefs and philosophies. The 2nd house represents what we value, including what we value in ourselves. The 4th house represents our roots, our foundation, both psychologically and often physically (childhood home, family, etc.). The houses tell us 'where'.
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Other important points The rising sign, also known as the ascendant, is the edge or 'cusp' of the first house in your chart. It is the sign that was rising on the zodiac wheel in the east when you were born. Basically, it is the dawn of your chart, and it represents how you 'dawn' on people - your basic persona, how you represent yourself to the general public and to the world each day. The nodes of the moon, north and south node, are important but invisible points in the sky (meaning they are not represented as a planetary body, just like the ascendant). They are the points where the moon crosses the sun's ecliptical path. They are a fundamental part in astrology, and a very significant point for me and the type of astrology I do. They determine where you are going and where you've been. This can be interpreted as in this life or in your past lives, depending on your beliefs. They are general life goals and history, and give us a goal and point out the end in our path - like a personal north star.
Putting
it all together Aspects Astrology and compatibility
Synastry is actually the term used to refer to chart comparison (comparing one chart against another chart), but it has come to be known as the technique of overlying one chart's planets onto another chart, and seeing where those planets fall into the other chart's houses. It also includes comparing how each chart's planets interact, where they touch and spark each other through aspects. This technique is invaluable for understanding how each person triggers the other, what each of you can learn from the other and teach the other, and what areas of life will be lit up by each of you, for good and/or ill.
The Composite method is done by taking two charts and making one new chart from the joining of the two. This is commonly done by midpoints. Midpoints are basically where you take, for example, Mars in one person's chart, and Mars in another person's chart, and find out what the middle point of the two of them would be. If Mars #1 is in early Libra and Mars #2 is in early Pisces, then the composite Mars would be somewhere in late Sagittarius. The Composite chart represents the relationship as an entity itself and the chart can tell us about the life of that relationship.
Astrology and the future The term transit, in astrology, is referring to planets in the sky right now and how they are influencing us currently. I use the slower moving planets, Jupiter through Pluto, for analysis in transit readings, because the slower moving transits are slow enough that we can notice their effects on our lives, whereas the transiting moon may only have a noticeable effect on us for 3 hours. Transiting planets affect us by showing us the timing of lessons we may be learning and what we need to focus on during that time in order to make that experience as effective as possible for ourselves. Transiting Jupiter, for instance, is teaching us faith and encouraging us to take more risks in the area of our life it is touching.
The secondary progression technique is based on the common symbolism of a 'day for a year.' This means that a day's worth of literal movement in real life represents a year of movement in secondary progression techniques. For instance, the Sun moves about a degree a day, literally. In a progressed chart, the Sun would have moved about 30 degrees by the time we were 30 years old. This technique is primarily used with the faster moving planets, such as the Sun-Mars (and the angles such as the Ascendant). The Progressed moon, for instance, can tell us where the focus of our heart is during a 2-1/2 year period.
Evolutionary Astrology *These ideas are my interpretation of statements made by the creators of Evolutionary Astrology, Steven Forrest and Jeffrey Wolfe Green, seen here: Evolutionary Astrology Principles
This has been a very brief overview of some of the components of astrology and its uses. There is a great deal more information available. Below I have just included some fun and some useful links and book suggestions if you'd like to study further.
If you're looking to study further, I would recommend checking out The Inner Sky by Steven Forrest as the best astrology book I have read. It is a great place to start. Here are some good authors: Astrology Articles:
There are other important points in astrology that aren't planets, but that act somewhat like them in our interpretation of them. Not everyone agrees on what to look at and what is inconsequential, but there are some that are pretty universally agreed upon as essential, and they are the ones I use in my practice. I will illuminate a couple of them - the rising sign (ascendant) and the nodes of the moon.
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The signs, planets and houses come together to make
an individual person: you. Each have their own qualities that mix to
make a unique blend. For instance, we know Mars represents action and motivation. That is the 'what'. Then if we take Mars and put it in Libra, we can answer the question 'how?' and 'why?'. We can see that we have someone that is motivated to create harmony and fairness, and is motivated to interact with others ('relatedness'). If we take Mars in Libra and we put it in the 'where' of the 9th house, we may see a person that has made a personal philosophy surrounding the ideals of harmony and fairness, someone who pursues these ideas and lives by them. We can do the same thing with each of the different combinations of planets, signs, and houses and start to weave a more complex picture that make up a person, not just the flat sun sign explanations we see in our daily horoscopes.
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An aspect is the
relation between the location of two (or more) planets. If any two
planets are on the opposite sides of the sky, they are in Opposition. If
they are in the same place, it is called a Conjunction, and so on. These interactions between planets have an effect on how the planets express themselves, and how easily they work together in us, or whether they point to our internal conflicts.
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Astrology can be used as a tool for understanding ourselves, and is also a great tool for how to understand others, their motivations, their points of view. This is basically what we are all trying to do when we are in a relationship (romantic, friendship, any...), is come together in some kind of harmony with each other and meet each other somewhere in the middle. Understanding the other person and their effect on you (as well as your effect on them) is very helpful in increasing the satisfaction that can be gained in your relationships, and that's exactly what a compatibility reading can do.
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One of the favorite uses for astrology has seemed to be analyzing the future. When should I get married? When will I have kids? When will I get my big break? While these are questions we all wonder about, astrology doesn't dictate our future. We have free will and can choose to do what we please. But the study of the planets and their positions in the sky NOW as compared to our own personal natal chart (where the planets were when we were born) can tell us about where we are in our lives developmentally, perhaps what we are learning right now, what we are struggling with, and ideas on how to use those energies wisely.
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Evolutionary Astrology is a term that is being used to describe techniques that go deeper than just description of personality or the timing and predicting of events. Evolutionary Astrology* follows the following basic ideas:
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Kepler College was recently founded as the only authorized astrological college in the country to offer a legal degree in astrology.
This site has a lot of useful readings and information, and it's best asset is it's very accurate chart calculation tool.
Dena and I met while studying under the same teacher, Steven Forrest. We share similar evolutionary astrology views and practices. If you're in the
Portland area, Dena provides thorough readings from the evolutionary perspective. See her website for articles, reading types, and rates.
Natanya and I spent many evenings together reading tarot for each other out of standard and non-standard decks. Natanya has a gift for the mah jongg oracle, especially, and uses it to read for clients in an intuitive and practical manner.
Below are some select articles on learning astrology.
All About Pluto
All About Saturn
All About the Sun
All About the Moon
All About the Ascendant (Rising)
The Nodes of the Moon
All About Virgo
All About Libra
All About Cancer
All About Leo
All About the Angles
The Four Elements
Questions the Planets Ask Us
All About Polarities
New! Our Biggest Fears
