Astrology 101

Let me attempt to give the super basic primer I wish I had when I started practicing. I highly encourage you to read it in the voice of the DNA strand from the original Jurassic Park. (Scroll down for the TL;DR)

When people say something like, “I’m an Aquarius!” what that means is they were born between January 19 to February 18. This is the time of the year when the sun is in the sign of Aquarius. From our perspective the sun, moon, stars, and planets appear to move through the sky, each at their own pace. The sun takes about a year to make a full loop through all 12 zodiac signs. The moon is much faster—it cycles through all 12 signs in about 28 days. And Saturn takes around 29 years to do the same. Your natal chart (aka birth chart) is a 2D representation of what the sky looked like the minute you were born. It shows what sign each planet was in and a bunch of other juicy info. This is what astrologers “read”.

There are 8 planets (the sun and moon are “luminaries”).

Each planet has a plethora of unique meanings that have evolved over hundreds of generations. For example, Venus is associated with relationships, love, harmony etc. In astrological interpretations, sometimes it’s easy to think of planets as verbs. E.g. Venus loves, Venus unifies, Venus sweetens… Jupiter gives, Jupiter teaches, Jupiter expands…

There are 12 signs.

Like planets, each sign has many meanings (aka significations). For example, Virgo is associated with being detail-oriented, organized, humble etc. Sometimes it’s easy to think of signs as adverbs, or how a planet expresses itself when it does its thing. For example, a Venus in Virgo might show love through daily, thoughtful acts of service (in a Virgo-like way), whereas a Venus in Leo might drop a banner over the freeway that says, “TRANS IS BEAUTIFUL” because Leo is quite different than Virgo.

The ascendent

Finally, we need to talk about the Ascendent (aka the rising sign). This is arguably the most influential thing in your chart! Imagine the chart below rotating clockwise and imagine a horizontal line superimposed in the middle to represent the horizon. The rising sign is the sign that was rising over the eastern horizon when you were born. This orients the entire chart and defines where all the planets and signs “land”. In the chart below, the ascendent (middle left highlighted in white) is in the sign of Capricorn, so Libra is at the top. If the rising sign was, Aquarius (the sign below it Capricorn represented by two Charlie Brown stripe-y lines) then Libra would be tilted over to the right, and Scorpio (the symbol to the left of Libra) would be in that top dog position.

Astrological chart with symbols for planets in blue, signs in red, and houses in yellow. Marked with labels for 'Your ascendent,' 'The 2nd house,' and specific planetary positions.

Let’s look closer! Planets are represented by symbols in the blue highlights. Venus is that circle with the cross underneath. The signs are the edges of the circle highlighted in red. Libra is—now that I look at it—it looks like a caterpillar on a log.

Dipping our toes in Astrology 102 here…

There are 12 houses (aka places)

These are the 12 wedges. Start from the middle left and you’ll see a #1 in the yellow ring. One could say “My 1st house is Capricorn”. Moving counter clockwise, this person also has a 2nd House Aquarius, Pisces in the 3rd house and so on. Like planets and signs, houses have another bundle of unique meanings. Houses represent realms or topics of your life. For example, the 10th house (at the top of the chart) is related to your public persona, career, purpose, status, legacy etc... Sometimes it’s easy to think of houses as where in your life the planet activates. For example if you have Jupiter (a planet associated with generosity and luck) in the 11th house (a house associated with friends)… this feels like a bunch of comrades happily practicing mutual aid.

TL;DR

  • We perceive planets as moving around the Earth. This doesn’t mean we are the center of the universe -_-

  • Your rising sign — not sun sign — is the most influential placement

  • Planets, signs, and houses have many unique meanings shaped over thousands of years. You too can and should shape your own associations!

  • An elementary way to conceptualize how these all function in the chart are as follows:

    • Planets can be thought of as verbs: “Jupiter teaches…”, “Neptune dreams…”

    • Signs can be thought of as adverbs: “Jupiter teaches practically (Capricorn)”, “Neptune dreams deeply (Scorpio)”

    • Houses can be thought of as where in your life the action takes place: “Jupiter taught practically when I was growing up (4th house).”

Conclusion

Between 2 luminaries, 8 planets, 12 signs, and 12 houses, the permutations for interpretation is expansive—not to mention all the myriad of other placements to discover like aspects, nodes, lots, asteroids... This is why more seasoned astrologers get annoyed when someone who casually peeks Co-Star reduces all this beautiful, nuanced complexity to, “My ex is a Gemini so I don’t trust any Geminis .” Lame! Worst delineation ever!

Philosophically speaking—you are not your chart and the chart is not a reflection of JUST you. It also includes facets out of your control, it can describe a community, your family of origin, the people you are attracted to or who you are uncomfortable around. A Cosmic Solidarity reading aims to help you understand the unique cosmic energy you were born into and how to channel that towards collective solidarity (not just your own insular enlightenment.)