Introduction to Astrology + Resources

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(This is an introduction to astrology / compilation of resources I originally wrote up for an online magick community. I cleaned it up a bit and I'm re-posting it here. I'm far from an expert on astrology, intermediate at best, but I thought this might be helpful for those who want a starting point)

Starting points for learning astrology

https://www.astro.com/cgi/genchart.cgi

Astro.com pretty much has the best online birth chart generator (as well as many other resources). Here's a recommended layout.


You'll need your exact time of birth and location of birth to get the most complete birth chart; if you were born in the US, your birth certificate will have it. If you're unable to get your exact time of birth, you can try to contact a professional astrologer to go through a process called "chart rectification" to find it, but this is relatively difficult and costs money. If you aren't willing to do that, then you may want to try one of the other systems of learning the archetypal mind instead, which are just as valid.

Part 1. Learn what the 12 Houses mean
https://astrostyle.com/learn-astrology/t...ac-houses/

Part 2. Familiarize yourself with the symbols and their corresponding energies / archetypes



There are many interpretations of what each of the celestial bodies and signs mean, and no single interpretation of it will do it justice. Each meaning is also generalized and unique to the individual experiencing it. The House and Sign that a symbol is under also changes its meaning.

It's best to just look up general interpretations of each one and then come to your own conclusion about how its energy affects your life. For example, if you have Mars in the 2nd House (material possessions), the masculine, dominant, and aggressive energy is likely a driving subconscious and / or conscious force in how you approach money and material goods. If you have Venus in the 7th House (partnerships and relationships) then Venus's feminine and attractive energy is likely to manifest in your relationships and so on.

If you're having trouble figuring out how this type of energy could manifest in specific life events, you could look up "Mars in 2nd House," and then read a bunch of examples of what Mars in 2nd House means in detail. There's a lot of people who have come up with very detailed interpretations of all these placements, but not all of them agree. It's on the individual to piece together what applies to their life and what doesn't.

Another way to look at it is to read about the myths connected to the planetary entity, and see how those metaphors play into the area of your life that connects to the House it's in.

The actual possible combinations of these are endless and they completely change based on which house and sign the celestial body is located in, as well as the aspects.



I circled some of the info here to give an example of how this plays out. This is a random birth chart I generated. This person would have their Saturn in the 10th House in Aries.

10th House governs career. Saturn corresponds to maturity, authority, and the trials that come with adulthood. The small r next to the Saturn indicates that it was in retrograde when this person was born, so this person would be required to balance the more difficult energies of Saturn to a greater degree than usual. Aries is considered a passionate and outspoken sign. All of these factors would come together to generate part of the blueprint for this person's life path.

Part 3. Learn Ascendant, Descendant, Midheaven, and Imum Coeli

These are AC, DC, MC, and IC on your chart respectively. The signs they're located in give important information, which this blog helps explain.

https://esoterismblog.wordpress.com/2015...he-angles/

Part 4. Learn the Aspects

https://labyrinthos.co/blogs/astrology-h...tal-charts

The relationships between celestial bodies will also greatly affect what each one means, and how they work together or work against each other. The aspects are ultimately needed to piece together the puzzle of how a natal chart works as a whole.



You can look at the lines on the actual chart to read aspects, but sometimes that gets messy. The charts that Astro.com generates come with tables that help you pinpoint what all the aspects are. I'm not going to go over all of these because it'd be too complex for an example, but these are all the Saturn aspects for this particular chart.

For the ones going left to right, you would look to the celestial bodies matching Saturn's row from the top of the chart (circled in blue).

For the ones going top to bottom, you would look to the celestial bodies matching Saturn's column from the right side of the chart (also circled in blue).

Then you would look at the actual aspect, and piece together the meaning of the aspect, the two celestial bodies it joins, and the houses and sign they're in to get the full picture.

Further reading:

Planetary dignities: http://www.stellardays.com/Basics/Dignities.aspx
Transits: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/transit...al-planets
Progressions: https://horoscopes.lovetoknow.com/about-...-beginners
Introduction to Astrology by William Lilly (One of the most notable works on traditional astrology, which differs significantly from modern astrology. This is outside of my depth, but I'm posting it because it's renowned and also in the public domain. Sharing a few different editions of it for good measure.):
https://astrolibrary.org/ebooks/lilly-in...rology.pdf
https://www.sacred-texts.com/astro/aia/index.htm
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Christian_Astrology
Q'uo on Sidereal vs Topical Zodiac: https://www.llresearch.org/transcripts/i..._0207.aspx
(I recommend searching the llresearch.org transcripts for "astrology" in general)