Western Astrology Glossary

Your core identity and what energises you. The sign your Sun is in is your familiar "star sign", but it is only one piece of the chart.

Your inner, emotional self: what you need to feel safe and how you react instinctively. Needs an accurate birth time to place precisely.

The sign rising on the eastern horizon at your birth. It shapes how you meet the world and first come across. Needs your birth time and place.

The first sign. Cardinal fire ruled by Mars: bold, direct and quick to start things.

Fixed earth ruled by Venus: steady, sensual and loyal, loves comfort and security.

Mutable air ruled by Mercury: curious, quick and communicative, forever connecting ideas.

Cardinal water ruled by the Moon: nurturing, protective and tied to home and feeling.

Fixed fire ruled by the Sun: warm, confident and generous, here to create and shine.

Mutable earth ruled by Mercury: practical, precise and helpful, notices the details.

Cardinal air ruled by Venus: fair, charming and relational, seeks balance and harmony.

Fixed water ruled by Pluto (traditionally Mars): intense, deep and transformative.

Mutable fire ruled by Jupiter: adventurous, optimistic and freedom-loving.

Cardinal earth ruled by Saturn: ambitious, disciplined and patient, plays the long game.

Fixed air ruled by Uranus (traditionally Saturn): independent, inventive and humane.

Mutable water ruled by Neptune (traditionally Jupiter): dreamy, empathic and imaginative.

Aries, Leo, Sagittarius. Energy, drive and enthusiasm. Acts first.

Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn. Practical, grounded and focused on the real and useful.

Gemini, Libra, Aquarius. Mental and social: ideas, connection and communication.

Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces. Feeling, intuition and emotional depth.

Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn. The starters. They begin each season and like to initiate.

Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius. The stabilisers. They sustain and hold their ground.

Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces. The adapters. They close each season and adjust to change.

The fire and air signs. An active, outward, expressive polarity.

The earth and water signs. A receptive, inward, absorbing polarity.

How you think and communicate: speech, logic and learning.

What you value, how you love, and your sense of beauty and pleasure.

Drive, action and desire: how you pursue what you want and handle conflict.

Growth, luck and meaning: where you expand and seek the bigger picture.

Discipline, limits and time: where you work hard and build lasting structure.

Change, invention and independence: where you break from the norm.

Dreams, imagination and the unseen: where boundaries dissolve.

Power and transformation: where you go deep and are reborn.

The Sun and Moon, the two brightest lights of the chart and the most personal points.

The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars: fast-moving bodies that shape your individual personality.

Jupiter and Saturn: they bridge the personal and the generational, shaping how you grow and mature.

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto: slow-moving and generational, marking deep collective shifts.

A point of growth and the unfamiliar: the direction the chart invites you to develop toward.

The point opposite the North Node: familiar, comfortable strengths you already carry.

The wounded healer: where you feel a deep hurt and, in time, learn to heal it in yourself and others.

A point linked to raw instinct, independence and the parts of you that refuse to be tamed.

A calculated point blending Sun, Moon and Ascendant, read as a place of ease and wellbeing.

A sensitive point often tied to fated meetings and turning points.

The point opposite the Ascendant. It describes partnership and what you seek in others.

The highest point of the chart. It relates to career, reputation and public life.

The lowest point, opposite the Midheaven. It relates to home, roots and private life.

The four turning points of the chart (ASC, DSC, MC, IC). Planets near them are especially strong.

Twelve sections of the chart, set by your birth time and place. Signs show how you are; houses show where it plays out.

The starting edge of a house or sign. A planet near a cusp sits between two areas of life.

Self, identity, body and how you come across.

Money, possessions, values and self-worth.

Communication, learning, siblings and short trips.

Home, family, roots and your private base.

Creativity, romance, play and children.

Work, routine, health and service.

Partnership, marriage and close one-to-one relationships.

Shared resources, intimacy, transformation and the taboo.

Travel, higher learning, beliefs and the big picture.

Career, status, reputation and your public role.

Friends, networks, community and hopes.

The unconscious, rest, retreat and what is hidden.

The system Astro Logyic uses: each house is exactly one sign, starting from your Rising sign. Simple and beginner-friendly.

A popular time-based house system where houses vary in size. Common in modern Western astrology.

Three groups of houses by strength: angular (1, 4, 7, 10) are strongest, then succedent, then cadent.

The angle between two planets, measured in degrees. Aspects show how two parts of your chart work together or clash.

Roughly 0 degrees apart. The two planets blend and act as one force.

Roughly 60 degrees apart. An easy, supportive link that offers opportunity.

Roughly 90 degrees apart. Friction that creates tension and drive to act.

Roughly 120 degrees apart. A smooth, harmonious flow between the two planets.

Roughly 180 degrees apart. A push-and-pull that asks for balance.

Roughly 150 degrees apart. An awkward angle between signs that share little, asking for adjustment.

How far from exact an aspect can be and still count. Tighter orbs are stronger.

An aspect still forming, as the faster planet moves toward exact. Often felt as building.

An aspect moving past exact, as the faster planet pulls away. Often felt as fading.

Conjunctions, squares and oppositions: tension that drives growth and action.

Sextiles and trines: ease and flow that come naturally.

Three or more planets bunched in one sign or house, concentrating huge focus there.

Three planets each 120 degrees apart, forming a triangle of easy, flowing talent.

Two planets in opposition both squared by a third: a tense, driving pattern.

Four planets in two oppositions and four squares: a demanding, high-energy pattern.

Two planets in sextile both quincunx a third: the finger of fate, a pattern of adjustment.

The planet that rules your Rising sign. It acts as the steward of your whole chart.

How comfortable a planet is in a sign. Strong dignity lets a planet act with ease and power.

A planet in the sign it rules, where it is most at home (for example the Moon in Cancer).

A planet in the sign opposite the one it rules, where it works against its nature.

A sign where a planet is honoured and expresses at its best (for example the Sun in Aries).

The sign opposite where a planet is exalted, where it struggles to express well.

Older labels: Venus and Jupiter as easy benefics, Mars and Saturn as challenging malefics.

Where a planet is in the sky right now compared with your natal chart. The basis of "what is happening for you now".

When a planet appears to move backward from Earth. It does not truly reverse; it marks a more inward expression.

The few weeks, a few times a year, when Mercury appears to move backward. Linked to reviewing, revising and slowing down.

When transiting Saturn returns to its natal spot, around ages 29 and 58. A milestone of growing up and taking responsibility.

A symbolic technique that advances the chart over time to track inner development.

The chart for the moment the Sun returns to its natal position each year, read for the year ahead.

The Moon cycle from new to full and back, often used to time intentions and release.

The Sun and Moon together: a fresh start and a natural time to set intentions.

The Sun and Moon opposite: a peak, a culmination, a time things come to light.

A supercharged new or full Moon near the lunar nodes, often marking turning points.

The stretch when the Moon makes no more aspects before changing sign. Traditionally a poor time to start things.

The study of the birth chart itself: the core of personal astrology.

Comparing two charts to see how two people interact: the astrology of compatibility.

A single chart made from the midpoints of two people, read as the relationship itself.

Answering a specific question from a chart cast for the moment it is asked.

Choosing the best time to begin something by picking favourable astrology.

Astrology of world events, nations and collective trends rather than individuals.

A chart based on the lunar nodes, used to explore the soul or deeper self.

A map of the sky at the exact moment and place you were born. The foundation of everything in astrology.

The band of twelve signs the Sun, Moon and planets travel through across the year.

The zodiac used in Western astrology, measured from the spring equinox. It gives you your familiar Sun sign.

A zodiac tied to the fixed stars, used in Vedic astrology. It slowly drifts from the tropical zodiac.

The planet that governs a sign (for example Mars rules Aries). Its placement colours how that sign behaves.

A ten-degree slice of a sign. Each sign has three decans that add a finer layer of meaning.

Signs are 30 degrees each and the whole zodiac is 360. A planet position is given in degrees within a sign.

A table of planetary positions over time. The raw data behind every chart and transit.

The slow wobble of the Earth over thousands of years that gradually shifts the sky, and why the tropical and sidereal zodiacs differ.