Astrology Talk

Okay guys.  Ready for the next step?

Now that you know your 12 directions and the numbers that correspond to them, we can address another set of numbers that do actually appear in the chart.

To understand what comes next, let’s pose a question. How do we know that Saturn, for example, winds up in someone’s first house (East direction)? What if I told you that later that day, someone else will have Saturn in their 11th house or 10th house? This is due to the diurnal (daily motion) of the heavens and all the planets and constellations. We see the Sun rise and move up towards the South and then set in the West, go under the horizon so we can’t see it anymore and then the next morning it is back in the East rising again. It is a clockwise direction.

Actually, the rotation of the constellations, planets etc. is really due to the earth rotating on its axis from West to East making it look like the heavenly bodies are rotating around us. Astrology is a geocentric point of view. We are on planet Earth and we see ourselves as the center of everything (what a surprise!).

There is another important motion to consider which is called proper motion. The planets are all located in one of the twelve solar zodiacal constellations (Aries, Taurus etc.). The wheel of the zodiac is 360 degrees (a circle). There are 12 signs of the zodiac so each one is 30 degrees (for the math challenged 30x12=360). Each planet moves at its own speed and will go from 0° to 30° of a sign and then move into the next sign and so on until it completes its trip around the entire circle of the zodiac. For the Sun, that takes a year. For a planet like Saturn it takes almost 30 years! Luckily, we have computers to tell us at any moment in time where each planet is located - in which sign.

Let’s return to the idea that we are looking up at the sky through a huge window divided into those window panes that we now know map the 4 cardinal directions and the intermediary directions - a total of 12 directions. We also know that there are 12 signs in the zodiac. Hmmmmm. Could that be significant?

What are the 12 signs of the zodiac? Here is a list of them. Each sign of the zodiac is abbreviated by being assigned a number. That number ALWAYS refers to that particular sign. The planet in parenthesis is the owner or ruler of that sign:

Aries 1 (Mars)
Taurus 2 (Venus)
Gemini 3 (Mercury
Cancer 4 (Moon)
Leo 5 (Sun)
Virgo 6 (Mercury
Libra 7 (Venus)
Scorpio 8 (Mars)
Sagittarius 9 (Jupiter)
Capricorn 10 (Saturn)
Aquarius 11 (Saturn)
Pisces 12 (Jupiter)


If we were super good astronomers looking through each of those window panes, we would be able to see the stars of each of the solar signs in its own direction for the time of the birth or event we were interested in charting. Which sign is in which house (direction) depends on what time of day it is. Remember, diurnal motion means the signs etc. are in constant motion rotating around us from East to West. That means if a sign like Taurus is on the Eastern horizon at a person’s birth (first house) and someone else is born that same day a few hours later, the stars of Taurus would no longer on the eastern horizon. Depending on how much time had elapsed, it could be the second person had the sign of Leo on the eastern horizon. We would say person 1 is a Taurus rising - the stars of Taurus were coming up over the eastern horizon (= first house) at the time he/she was born. Person 2 would be a Leo rising. Later that same day close to noon, the stars of Leo would be visible on the eastern horizon and therefore that person is a Leo rising.

Once we know what solar sign is on the eastern horizon, the other signs can be filled in easily. The convention is if Leo is on the eastern horizon (first house), then the next sign which is Virgo will be where we have learned the second house is. Then the sign of Libra will be on the 3rd house and the sign of Scorpio on the 4th house. The sign of Sagittarius would be the 5th house, the sign of Capricorn the 6th house, the sign of Aquarius the 7th, the sign of Pisces the 8th, Aries the 9th, Taurus the 10th, Gemini the 11th and Cancer the 12th. That completes the zodiac when we start from Leo.

How would we see that in a chart? The first house (where Saturn is in the sample chart I gave) would have a little number 5 visible which tells us that the stars of Leo were visible on the eastern horizon at the time of the birth. The second house would have the number 6 corresponding to Virgo. The 3rd house would have the number 7 corresponding to Libra etc. etc.

Then it is a matter of looking up what sign each planet was moving through that day and putting them in the appropriate house.

In the sample chart I gave, that would mean Saturn was transiting through the constellation of Leo on the day this person was born and is therefore in the first house if Leo was the rising sign. There is no planet in the constellation of Virgo (second house). Rahu is in the third house in Libra. No planet in Scorpio which is the 4th house. The fifth house would be Sagittarius and would hold Sun and Venus. The 6th house is Capricorn and Mercury would have been moving through Capricorn that day. No planet in Aquarius (7th house) or Pisces (8th) house. Ketu is in the 9th and would be in Aries. Nothing in the 10th in Taurus. Jupiter would be in the 11th in Gemini and Mars and the Moon would be in the 12th in Cancer.



What tends to confuse people more than anything else is mixing up the signs and the houses.
Remember what we started with - the 12 directions. Those are the houses and the house numbers are
NOT going to appear in the chart. They are a given that people who work with this system simply
learn. You all did that right off the bat.

Once that is out of the way and we realize that the numbers we see are NOT the house numbers but
the ones representing the signs of the zodiac, we can avoid confusion. Every sign is going to be in one
of the 12 directions.

The chart gets completed when the planets are slotted into the house that holds the sign they were
transiting through that day.

Now here is your assignment to see if you really understood this. What if the rising sign was not Leo
but was Sagittarius. What houses would each planet be in then? What if it was Gemini rising?

No worries. Take your time

OK Guys  

Got a feeling my instructions were not clear. 

Let me try again and get your started.  Assuming all the planets stay in the same signs as they are in the sample chart I gave you (i.e. Saturn stays in Leo, Jupiter stays in Gemini etc.) If the RISING sign changes to Sagittarius (the number 9 for Sagittarius is on the Eastern horizon and you number around counter clockwise starting with 9 as the first house) which house would each planet now be located in.  Remember in this example, the planets are not changing their signs but those signs will be in different houses (directions) because now the rising sign is different. Then do the same thing starting with Gemini rising.

If this becomes too confusing, I will do it for you all and then give you another one to do on your own.  

Spot on in your answers.  Good job.  Keep them to yourself for the time being!  To answer your other questions, some neoVedic astrologers use Uranus, Neptune and Pluto but traditional ones do not.  Rahu and Ketu (north and south nodes of the Moon) take up many of those meanings and I will deal with them later.  All five of the true planets (the ones that orbit the Sun) have rulership of two constellations.  Sun and Moon have only one so we account for all 12 of the solar signs.  Saturn is the ruler of Capricorn and Aquarius in the Western System as well.   Hope that answers the questions in your PM.  I posted them as they are general questions that others may also have.  Thanks for joining the thread.

I'm here but gotta tackle this earlier in the day..trying tomorrow..

Well things seem to have ground to a halt.  I was hoping when the whirlwind settled down we might have more interest but it's fine.  

Below is another chart to practice on.  Those that did the exercise did well but most of you needed a couple of go rounds but let's see how it settled.

What I want you to do with this chart is to list what sign is on each of the twelve houses and then to say where each planet "lives" i.e. in what house # (direction) is it located.

The new part is to list what houses each of the planets own.  To do this, you will need this list that I posted earlier:

In this list, the signs of the zodiac are represented by a number.  You already know that.   That number ALWAYS refers to that particular sign - not to a house. 

Aries 1 (Mars)
Taurus 2 (Venus)
Gemini 3 (Mercury
Cancer 4 (Moon)
Leo 5 (Sun)
Virgo 6 (Mercury
Libra 7 (Venus)
Scorpio 8 (Mars)
Sagittarius 9 (Jupiter)
Capricorn 10 (Saturn)
Aquarius 11 (Saturn)
Pisces 12 (Jupiter)

The planets in parenthesis are the rulers or owners of that sign.  To give you a head start, notice that in the new chart, Virgo, the 6th sign of the zodiac is the rising sign (on the Eastern Horizon, house 1)  Virgo is owned by Mercury so Mercury rules (or is the lord or the landlord) of the first house.  Rahu and Ketu (haven't explained them yet) don't own any houses.

We will get to putting this together as soon as we can all navigate these set up principles.  I promise that sometime soon, this will be worth it.