Horoscopes have a long and complicated history and they are a result of long practice and studying astrology and divination. It could be said that most are quite simplistic (consider those in the country’s red tops, for instance) and won’t do much in helping you understand your character or your fate.
However, there are also those that go into great detail, all with the aim of helping you understand certain patterns in your life, and how to both embrace and avoid them where possible. Though astrology has been around since the ancient Greeks, it’s always been an inclusive practice, with modern day horoscope websites happily rubbing shoulders with more traditional means of accessing the wisdom, such as through dedicated, in-person astrologers.
If you’re new to this ancient tradition and keen to get a grounding on the topic, then you’ve come to the right place. Here are your questions answered on the basics of astrology.
What’s A Birth Chart and Why It’s Important?
A birth chart is the basis of a personal horoscope. It’s the most important reading an astrologer can provide for you since it covers all the basic features of a horoscope depending on when and where you were born.
Those are the most important information you need to provide to your astrologer and based on it you’ll get to know about your signs, houses, and planets. These form the basis of the practice and reading how they affect each other can, in the eyes of astrology, reveal a lot about a person.
So, What Are The Sun And Moon Signs I’ve Seen Mentioned Before?
The most basic principle of astrology is the Zodiac signs under which a person is born, based on their date of birth. There are sun and moon signs depending on where the sun and moon have been at the time of your birth. The sun sign is the one sign that everyone is familiar with, one of the 12 zodiac signs, which include Libra, Aquarius, Sagittarius and more.
The moon signs are based on the position of the moon at the time of your birth and they are associated with a person’s inner, intimate and spiritual qualities that are often hidden from the world.
What About The Rising Signs? Are They Important, Too?
The rising signs are based on which constellation was rising on the east at the time you were born. It’s an essential part of reading since it speaks to the public and the open side of your personality. It governs the side of your personality that you want to show and present to the world, according to astrology theory.
How Do Planets Affect Your Chart?
According to astrologers, planets move through the Zodiac signs as they rotate around the sun. As they move through your Zodiac signs, they affect you based on their unique qualities. The planets move at different speeds and their effect depends on that speed.
The planets that stay within a sign the shortest have the most direct and immediate effect. Those that move slowly and stay within a certain sign for years also have an effect but it’s a more complex one and it takes a longer time for it to show. Not to worry; the best websites for horoscopes will feature advice taking into account this complexity.
Do We Have Our Own Personal Planets?
Yes, we do. Personal planets are those that have the shortest revolution and that affects those in which sign they are the most. These planets have the most visible and noticeable impact as they are going through your sign and this goes for all three types of signs during different times of the year.
Astrology posits that mercury will affect how you communicate and how you express yourself, venus will affect your love life in the broadest of terms since it’s the planet that’s associated with love, and mars will affect how you take action and how proactive you are.
Could You Tell Me More About Transpersonal Planets?
Since you asked so nicely, transpersonal planets aren’t thought to affect your personality, but your relationship with society and your public image in general. These are the planets that stay within your sign for a year or two. There are two of them and their effects aren’t limited to these subjects. Instead, they interact with the effects of the personal planets.
It’s believed that Jupiter has a bearing on your attitude towards luck and faith, with the planet also affecting how you look at personal growth, whilst Saturn is charged with influencing how you take on obligations and how you deal with commitment. As you may notice these features may affect both your personal and public life.
I’ve Noticed You Haven’t Mentioned The Generational Planets Yet?
Hold your horses, we were just getting to them! The planets that stay with your sign for the longest of time are the ones that will affect your attitude towards long-term and generational issues. Those are the planets that take between seven and 15 years to pass through your Zodiac sign.
Uranus (we see you sniggering at the back) will affect how you view your generation and what its revolutionary role is. Neptune will govern how your generation views its boundaries and how far it’s willing to go to push them, and Pluto is all about tradition in general and therefore, it affects the relationship between your generation and the tradition it comes into.
How About Houses?
Hey, you knew more about horoscopes than you previously let on! But for the uninitiated, houses are another key feature of horoscopes and one that brings additional complexity and nuance to the reading. They divide the Zodiac signs as wedges on the chart, with signs ruling particular houses based on their position and planets move through them as well.
The Bottom Line
As you may have realised by this stage, the complexity of horoscopes comes from trying to place meaning on the interaction of these elements; there are no simple and straightforward answers as to how a person will react based on their sign and their governing planet, and this is what makes astrology so interesting. We hope you agree!
Or, if you’d rather adopt a more proactive approach to taking control of your life, then check out our tips on doing just that here.