ASTROLOGY BASICS

Here are a few astrology basics to help you navigate classes or readings.

If you listen for the interpretations, and don’t worry too much about the astrology terminology itself, it will be easier to follow.

(In the Year Ahead workshop, we’ll be tracking the movement of the outer planets through the sky. Most don’t move much at all, so they’ll be in one or maybe two “houses” — or areas of life — throughout the year.)

This tells you where growth, lessons, and transformation are emphasized. This helps you to set your intentions to be in alignment with the natural action of the time period.

HOUSES

Houses represent a tangible area of life, and also the part of your psyche that is aligned with these aspects of life. We see the reasoning behind this when we remember that thought creates reality, so the sign ruling a house will be the way we imagine this area of life to be, and through beliefs, we create this very same reality.

The 1st House starts at 9 o'clock on the wheel, and the houses are numbered counter-clockwise, from 1 to 12. Each house is ‘ruled’ by the sign on the cusp, so the planet ruling that sign (planet, sign, house) is a critical indicator of how that house’s needs get met.

If there is a planet in that house, there is more energy in that part of life for you to deal with, whether it is a challenging or more beneficial energy. An empty house simply means the focus isn't so strong in that area in this life, yet there will still be transits through the house and activities of life in that area.

Most psychological/western/evolutionary astrologers use a “Quadrant” house system where the houses are uneven in size. Traditional and Hellenistic astrologers usually use Whole Sign house system, where each house begins at 0 degrees and goes to 30 degrees.

In most “quadrant” house systems, the houses may be about 30 degrees in size (think of degrees like house numbers in street addresses), but may range from 15 to 45 degrees, with two signs in a house. Sometimes in these systems, you will have 2 houses ruled by one sign, and then two houses where a sign is in the middle and doesn’t have a “cusp” line. For example, Gemini on the 4th house cusp, then the whole sign of Cancer, then a little bit of Leo, and then Leo rules the 5th house. This can be confusing in the beginning of astrological learning, and it doesn’t matter too much for beginning purposes…except to:

1 — Know that the sign on the cusp line - the edge of the house, is the most important of the two or three signs in a house

2 — We will also look at the whole sign chart for the technique of Profections - understanding the house of focus each year, and the ruling planet for that house

KEYWORDS FOR EACH HOUSE

Personal Houses (1 - 4)

1st - mask, persona, ‘drive’ into life, first impressions with people we don't know well, physical looks and the physical body, vitality, birth experience, appearance (the way we dress/hair, etc.) surface expressions, initiation and beginnings, the way we might be impulsive, self-identity, the way others perceive us and the way we wish to be perceived. Steven Forrest calls this the "stained glass window through which others see the other planets and signs."


2nd - money, possessions (moveable things - so not your house), things you value, talents that create worth or wealth, sense of self worth, attitude toward money, potential for keeping money, investments, Cars are a good example of the style of the house showing through a possession.


3rd - communication & mental activities such as thinking, reading and writing, data, neighbors, neighborhood or immediate environment, siblings, elementary school & early education (before college), short trips, connection to local area, gossip & details, messages.


4th - home, family, deep emotional foundation, ancestral karma, mother or nurturing parent, roots, family upbringing, land, endings, relationship with your parents. 

Social Houses (5 - 8)

5th - children, creative expression, romance/sex, and the pursuit of pleasure, joy, gambling/speculation/risk taking, playful friends, fun, pets as children, love affairs, sports, drama, teenage time.


6th - work & service, servants, unequal power balance in relationships, co-workers, pets/small animals, illness/health regime, mentorship, diet & nutrition, volunteering (11th house rules non-profits), caretaking, daily structure of life. This house relates to the quality of your work ethic and the way you perform tasks, rather than the career itself.  Personal hygiene, such as tooth cleaning or visiting the dentist.


7th - marriage and partnership -- although all committed relationships are contained within this house, plus people in general. Open enemies, divorce, lawsuits, relationship issues, and contracts between self and others (document contracts are connected to 3rd house). This house relates to the meaning of equal relationships, trust in relationships, and overall your projection of ‘others’ that must ultimately be integrated into a sense of your own personal qualities.


8th - intimate partnerships, shared resources (and your partner's resources), death, transformation, transformative sex, taxes, finances, inheritances & wills, bankruptcy, financial losses, alimony, occult, psychology & psychiatry, shamanism, spirit mediumship, taboos.

Transpersonal/Outer Houses (9 - 12)

9th - religions, beliefs & philosophies, travel and international affairs, religion, higher learning & education, higher levels of teaching, marketing & advertising, books & publishing, laws, ethics, morals, foreign countries, coaching, ceremonies & rituals, dreams & visions, making meaning of data (3rd)


10th - career, status & reputation (how you are seen by those who don't know you personally), the public, government, prestige, recognition, achievements, duty, authority figures, and bosses. This is the career you are ultimately known for (versus “occupation” for the 6th house). Father energy, or the parent who gets you ready for the world.


11th - friends/associations/organizations, hopes and dreams, desires and long term goals, your tribe, the community, income from your business in a business chart, legislation (community interests), membership in groups with whom you feel aligned (9th).


12th - spirituality, karma, subconscious, unconscious mind, Sankalpa (intentional calling), "the house of self-undoing” (traditionally), prisons, mental hospitals and mental illness, retreats, the unseen, hidden enemies, karmic debts, self-deception, escapism & addictions, spiritual realization, yoga & martial arts with a spiritual focus.

PLANETS

In brief, planets represent the part of us that seeks something (or can be a person, or type of event, that shows up in our life):

Primal Triad (3 most important parts of personality in this life):

Sun - personal power, identity, vitality, choice-maker

Moon - security, nurturance, unconditional love

Rising Sign - (not a planet but part of the Primal Triad) - persona, the way we initiate and meet and greet the world

Personal Planets, beyond Sun & Moon luminaries:

Mercury - information, communication

Venus - to attract and stabilize relationships and resources

Mars - to achieve will & desire, to initiate

Social Planets:

Jupiter - to find the meaning of life through higher learning, beliefs, and philosophies, travel

Saturn - achieve mastery and long-term success

Transpersonal Planets:

Uranus - to be authentic, awakened, and free from Saturnian mandates

Neptune - to be egoless, in the Oneness of the cosmos, transcendent creativity

Pluto - to transform wounds of the unconscious into power, integrity, and honesty, to be in alignment with one’s generational agenda

SIGNS

The following sign qualities are listed in order, roughly from a sign’s evolved high state…through typical states of awareness…to lower or dysfunctional expressions. When we hold the vision of the higher states, we have an ideal model of what we’re attempting to accomplish through the best expression of our natural self.

When we consider the karmic expression of the signs, we imagine in prior lives we exemplified the more negative qualities, and so now we are learning more about the healed, integrated versions.

Aries - directs a planet to be alive, active, free, courageous, joyful, brave, consciously self-oriented, independent, competitive, initiating, selfish, angry, resentful, combative, overly competitive, violent.


Taurus - directs a planet to be secure, safe, solid, steady, patient, sustaining, grounded, loyal, pleasure-seeking, greedy, insecure, stubborn, fixed, slothful.


Gemini - directs a planet to be knowledgable, curious, adaptable, improvising, interested, bright, light, communicative, superficial, glib, ignorant.


Cancer - directs a planet to be caring, loving, nurturing, healing, secure, soft, listening, giving, smothering, insecure, needy, controlling, rejected or rejecting.


Leo - directs a planet to be powerful, creative, expressive, benevolent, loyal, playful, dramatic, egotistical, demanding, narcissistic, imperious, shameful.


Virgo - directs a planet to be devotional, skillful, discerning, efficient, effective, of service, humble, perfectionistic, anxious, organized, picky, critical, incompetent, self-sabotaging.


Libra - directs a planet to be peaceful, balanced, fair, harmonious, diplomatic, relational, mediating, seductive, vacillating, negotiating, insincere, ingratiating, disharmonious.


Scorpio - directs a planet to be powerful, integral, transformative, intense, exposing, about death and rebirth, controlling, manipulative, corrupt, rageful, paranoid, shameful, destructive.


Sagittarius - directs a planet to be aligned with truth and meaning, teaching, just, idealistic, hopeful, worldly/international, generous, optimistic, dogmatic, preachy, hopeless.


Capricorn - directs a planet to be masterful, accomplished, achieving, striving, success driven, hardworking, disciplined, goal-oriented, persevering, steady, discouraged, judgmental, blocked, guilty, stuck, depressed, failing.


Aquarius - directs a planet to be awakened, enlightened, humanitarian, authentic, inventive, brilliant, original, innovative, unique, futuristic, unconventional, group-oriented, rebellious, revolutionary, detached, indifferent.


Pisces - directs a planet to be attuned to bliss, oneness, high love, mysticism, transcendent creativity, imagination, compassion, merging, empathy, silliness, naiveté, self-doubtful, dreaminess, fantasy-oriented, martyring, meltdowns, deceitful, illusion, delusion.

RULING PLANETS FOR EACH SIGN

Each of these planets “rules” or supports the sign. The planet and the sign are similar in quality, but not exactly the same. The planet has an action to accomplish a goal, and the sign represents the way it goes about achieving the goal. When a planet is in a sign that it rules, they are in harmony and thus more powerful. When the planet is in a different sign it must accomplish its goal with a different style or vibration.

Sun - Leo

Moon - Cancer

Mercury - Gemini & Virgo

Venus - Taurus & Libra

Mars - Aries & Scorpio (traditional)

Jupiter - Sagittarius & Pisces (traditional)

Saturn - Capricorn & Aquarius (traditional)

Uranus - Aquarius

Neptune - Pisces

Pluto - Scorpio

©Kay Taylor 2023 - We stand on the shoulders of our teachers. I didn’t invent astrology, and honor Steven Forrest, Glenn Perry, and many other key mentors, all of us in the lineage of Dane Rudhyar.