Astrology 101

I’m sure most of you have heard of your Sun sign, but do you really even know what that means? What about your Moon, or your Rising? What about Mars, Venus, and the rest of the planets? Most people who read their horoscope really don’t understand the depth and complexity of astrology, and so it’s no wonder a horoscope, designed to be extremely vague that only follows your Sun sign (in which millions of people also share), pushes a lot of people away from truly believing in astrology. Once you really delve into astrology, only then can you see just how complex it truly is, from house placements, to synastry, and much more.

So what is your sun sign? What does it mean? According to Western Astrology, at the time, day, and year you were born, the sun was in a very specific astrological constellation, as seen and viewed from earth. Astrological charts have earth in the center. There are also degrees involved. Think of an astrological wheel as exactly that, a wheel, a circle. A circle has a total of 360 degrees, and so therefore, an astrological chart will be divided by the 12 astrological signs. This means, each sign encompasses 30 degrees. So while you may have your Sun sign in Scorpio, such as I do, your Sun placement might be very close to Libra by 1 degree, or very close to Sagittarius by 1 degree also, which means that you will probably take on the energies of those signs as well.

Without getting too far into detail, I want to elaborate on what the Sun represents in terms of your personality. The sun is masculine. The sun is the way in which we show ourselves to the world, the way we present ourselves. Your sun sign shows a broad definition of how you show yourself to others, and how you perceive this world. It is the starting point that describes who you are, but it is not the depth of who you represent, which is why a person’s sun sign alone does not give enough information to delve deeply into who you are.

So, those horoscopes so many of us like to read really only scratch the surface of what you may be experiencing that day. To get a true in-depth sense of what you might experience on a specific day, checking out the transiting planets with your natal birth chart is much more accurate. For those extremely new to astrology, focus on learning the most basic signs: Sun, Moon, Rising, Venus, and Mars.