Astro School: Lesson 5. The Planets and the Signs
In the previous lessons, you've learnt that there are ten planets and twelve signs of the Zodiac. You know their symbols and you are somewhat familiar with their symbolic meanings. You also know that the planets travel along the Zodiac, and at a certain moment in time, say, when a person is born, the planets occupy specific positions in the Zodiac. A snapshot of the planets' positions against the Zodiac, as well as in relation to the local horizon in the place of birth, makes the basis of the person's horoscope (also known as his or her natal chart).
After the horoscope is calculated, we can apply the rules of astrology, plus our own knowledge and experience, to try and understand the person's potential, talents, strengths and weaknesses. Today, we'll begin the study of the rules that will help us to extract a meaning from the horoscope.
Each person has in his or her horoscope all the ten planets and all the twelve signs of the Zodiac. What makes the difference between different horoscopes is that the planets occupy different positions in different signs, and also the Zodiac is positioned differently relative to the local horizon.
Today, we are going to concentrate on the positions of the planets in the signs of the Zodiac, what information they can give us. First of all, we need to learn the two important classifications of the Signs of the Zodiac: the Elements and the Qualities.
The Elements
Philosophical and esoteric traditions teach us that everything in the material world is made of the four Elements: Fire, Air, Water and Earth. Each Sign of the Zodiac belongs to one of the four Elements (it is very important to remember this classification):
- The Signs of Fire: Aries, Leo and Sagittarius.
- The Signs of Air: Libra, Aquarius, Gemini.
- The Signs of Water: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces.
- The Signs of Earth: Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo.
Each Element has certain important qualities, and the three signs that belong to that Element share its qualities in a certain way, although each of them provides a unique manifestation of the Element's qualities.
Very briefly, Fire's important attributes are energy, activity, enthusiasm, idealism.
Air is predominantly about communication, information and connectedness.
The main qualities of Water are emotionality, mysteriousness, synthesis and a strong interest towards the hidden side of life.
Earth is mainly practical, pragmatic and materialistic.
All this sounds a little bit too theoretical so far but as we've said, astrology is an applied philosophy. So the distance from theory to practice shouldn't be too long, and now we are going to prove that.