Okay, where do I start with learning basic Astrology?
So, you’re curious about astrology, are you??? Well, I think that’s marvelous! As you can tell by my previous blogs, I’m a big fan of the subject. If you really want to more deeply understand your chart, I recommend studying and reading, or getting it professionally interpreted; however, I’ve found that I gained greater healing and understanding since I wanted to do my own research into delving into these topics. Astrology is a very large and complex field of studies, and it takes time to really gather and synthesize this information; however, I’ve created this blog post as a basic primer to help those of you who are new to astrology. I wanted to offer you some way to more easily understand some of these core concepts.
To start off, lets define some key terms:
Astrological Sign—a configuration of the stars that reflects a specific symbol or shape that is often associated with a mythological story, event, place, or being. These signs tap into powerful Archetypal forces and the tides of the unconscious Collective memories of mankind. The 12 western astrological signs are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. These signs are listed in astrological order.
Element—a force, energy or inherent power in nature that is expressed as fire, earth, air, and water.
Modality—the way that an elemental energy is expressed. There are three types: cardinal, fixed, and mutable.
Astrological House—the sky is divided into twelve sections, and each section is called a house. Each house has a specific association of energies, ideas, and forces. Each house is also directly associated with an astrological sign, element and modality.
Natal Astrological Chart—it is a chart that tracks the location of where the celestial bodies were located at the time and date of your birth. In the Placidus House system, it appears as a large circle cut into twelve sections. For the rest of this blog, I will only be discussing the placidus house system.
Current Astrological Chart—a chart that depicts the position of the heavenly bodies as they currently appear in the sky. The current alignment of the heavenly bodies can be interpreted with your natal chart to give additional insight and understanding to the current forces affecting you.
Before continuing, I highly recommend getting your own natal chart. These concepts can be difficult to understand without having an actual example in front of you. You can visit my favorite astrological website, astrodienst.com, to create your free natal chart by following this link.
Each of the twelve astrological signs are associated with a specific element—fire, earth, air, and water. Aries is associated with fire. Taurus is associated with earth. Gemini is associated with air, and Cancer is associated with water. This cycle of fire, earth, air, and water repeats across all the twelve signs with Pisces being the last sign and also of the element of water.
The four elements have three distinct modalities—cardinal, fixed, and mutable. Cardinal signs always begin the season. They are initiatory, the beginners and starters of many things. Cardinal is the power to begin new phases and start new projects. Fixed signs are the second sign in the season. They are unwavering and steadfast, not prone to bending under pressure or easily changing a plotted course. Fixed signs are like the immovable object that once set upon their course will not be distracted or turned elsewhere. I’ve often thought of Fixed signs as the pillars that hold up our world. Mutable signs are the last sign in the season. They are flexible, more reflective of the world around them and prone to great changeability. They are the mirrors that show us what we have created in each season of our lives.
Each astrological house is associated with a specific astrological sign. The first house is associated with Aries. The second house is associated with Taurus. The third house is associated with Gemini. I think you get the point. Depending on your specific date, time, and location of birth, your personal chart may show that the houses may not be in the traditional sign it is associated with.
For example, I know someone whose first house is aligned or “in the sign” of Virgo. This means the First House—the House of Aries, which is Cardinal Fire—is occupied by the energy and forces of Virgo. If the chart shows any planets in that house, such as Venus, then you would say, “Venus is in the First House, in Virgo,” in this example. If your first house was in Libra and you had the planet Mercury there, you could also say, “Mercury is in Libra in the First House.” Then I would understand that the planet Mercury is aligning itself to Libra’s energy, which is being projected through the prism of the First House, which is the House of Aries.
I have a metaphor that I like to use to describe this concept. Imagine the astrological houses, those twelve parts of the wheel, as rooms in a Hotel—Hotel You. You’ve got the Aries Suite, the Taurus Suite, the Gemini Suite, so on and so forth. Depending on date, time, and location of birth, the guests who are occupying each room may vary. If you’ve run your astrological chart, take a close look at the symbols that located around the outside of the wheel. These glyphs reflect the astrological symbol that each house is in.
Now in regards to the natal astrological chart, the planets are plotted across these houses based on their location at your birth. Each planet has its own symbol and associations. The most commonly tracked and plotted ones are listed below.
Sun
Moon
Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Chiron
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Astrologers can also track additional comets and asteroids, and there are calculated points on a chart that are also very important and influential to the overall understanding of one’s chart. Each planet has their own archetypal forces and associations, and I will cover each of them in future blogs. I hope this information helps when it comes to starting the process to learning astrology, and if you want to get some more guidance and insight, March and McEvers have an excellent series for learning astrology basics. I’m not the biggest fan of keyword only understanding, and I would highly advise that you dig in more deeply as you cover the subjects. Also, Steven Forrest and Jeffrey Wolf-Green are astrologers who write in an easy to digest manner.
With Grace and Warmth,
Melanie, Sacred Star Mystic