Astrology - What's Your Sign?

We now get into the meat of astrology. As was mentioned in a previous instalment, it is almost unavoidable that you're going to walk into a bar or go to a party and somebody is going to ask you, "What's your sign?" Most people know their sign even if they don't know anything about astrology. But just in case you don't, we're going to do a brief overview of each sign, the birth date range of each and general characteristics associated with each sign.

The first sign is Aries the ram. People born between March 21 and April 20 are Aries. Aries people have very strong personalities and are usually natural born leaders. They are very straightforward, which means they can be very blunt. An Aries is the kind of person you want to have as a friend as they will fight to the death to defend your honor.

The second sign is Taurus the bull. People born between April 20 and May 21 are Taurians. These people are very sensible, dependable and sensual. A Taurus likes security and stability. When they fall in love, they stay in love. They are also very stubborn, so don't even think of winning an argument with one.

The third sign is Gemini the twins. People born between May 21 and June 22 are Geminis. Geminis are very fickle. Some say they have split personalities. Geminis usually have so many relationships that they can't keep track of them all. Geminis are very charming and charismatic people.

The fourth sign is Cancer the crab. People born between June 22 and July 23 are Cancers. Cancers are very emotional people. They'll cry at Verizon wireless commercials. They also very loving, caring and great parents. They are certainly the most maternal sign. But don't hurt them or you better be prepared to leave the solar system.

The fifth sign is Leo the lion. People born between July 23 and August 22 are Leos. Leos are the life of the party. They're always cracking jokes and are very entertaining. They are also very proud and brave. They are great leaders, just like an Aries. They can be downright ruthless with their enemies but because of bad memories, are quick to forgive.

The sixth sign is Virgo the virgin. People born between August 22 and September 22 are Virgos. Virgos are the most difficult people to read. They can totally fool you. They have very lively minds that are always thinking. They will change their ways to suit the situation. They are probably the most versatile sign, adaptable to most anything.

The seventh sign is Libra the scales. People born between September 22 and October 23 are Libras. Libras demand justice and balance in life. They have very high principals and are always ready to discuss them. Libras go on to make very good lawyers.

The eighth sign is Scorpio the scorpion. People born between October 23 and November 22 are Scorpios. Scorpios are said to be the sexiest people on Earth. They are also very creative and have the worst tempers. Scorpios can be making love to you one minute and tearing your head off the next. Beware of their stinger.

The ninth sign is Sagittarius the archer. People born between November 22 and December 22 are Sagittarians. People born under this sign are very independent and need their freedom. They never get tired of a change in scenery. Their lack of commitment can drive the other signs crazy.

The tenth sign is Capricorn the goat. People born between December 22 and January 21 are Capricorns. The people need structure and organization in their lives. They are very responsible and ambitious. They strive to be at the top of the food chain. They'll step on anyone or anything that gets in their way.

The eleventh sign is Aquarius the water bearer. People born between January 21 and February 19 are Aquarians. These people are idealistic, inventive and very original. They seek to bring all people on Earth together to live in harmony. When the day comes that we have world peace, it will have been an Aquarian responsible for it happening.

The twelfth and last sign is Pisces the fish. People born between February 19 and March 21 are Pisceans. Pisces people are very compassionate and romantic. If you need a sympathetic ear to bend, Pisces are your best bests. They can, however, be very lazy and over talkative. A Pisces can quickly drive you crazy with their little quirks.

Now that you have a basic overview of each sign, next it's time to dive into the next step. How to do an astrological chart.

Astrology - Your Astrological Chart

Okay, we're finally ready to dive headlong into the meat of astrology, the astrological chart itself. This is where the foundation of your astrological influences is laid out. A trained astrologer can look at your astrological chart and tell a lot about you just from a glance. By going into depth he can tell even more. So, the questions that need to be answered are, what is an astrological chart, what's on it and how to you make one for a person?

To answer those questions in real depth would take a book in itself. For the purposes of this article we're going to just give you the basics. You can then do further study on your own if you really want to dive into creating and reading your own astrological chart.

An astrological chart is derived from some basic information about your birth. In order to create one, what is needed is your exact date of birth including the exact time. For example, December 12, 1982, at 7:15 PM. Also what is needed is the exact latitude and longitude coordinates of the place where you were born. You're probably wondering, why do we need all this info? The reason is simple. The planets are constantly moving every second of every day. Plus, the relationship of where you are to each planet changes based on where on Earth you are at the time of your birth. That's why somebody born on April 5, 1987, at 8:10 AM will have a different astrological chart from somebody born on the exact same date and time if they are born in Germany and the other person is born in Alaska.

The actual technical skill required to put together an astrological chart is mind boggling. However, with computer technology, you can now simply input the information into a program and have your whole chart of when you were born spit out for you. That is about 90% of the battle itself. The rest of the battle is simply interpreting the chart.

An astrological chart contains an enormous amount of information. While all of it is important, some of it is more important than other parts in that the majority of the information derived from the chart comes from these few pieces.

The main thing your chart is going to tell you is what planets were in what houses at the time of your birth. This is important because each planet has a specific influence on certain aspects of your personality depending on which planet it is and what house it occupies. If you've taken a basic science course in school then you know that the 9 planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto as well as our own Earth. The Earth however is not included in the chart because it is the planets that affect the Earth and not the other way around. So since you know what the planets are, you then need to know what the houses are to know what influences the planets affect.

There are 12 houses, Identity, Spirituality, Community, Ethics and Career, Beliefs, Transformation, Relationships, Work and Service, Creativity, Home and Family, Knowledge and Self Worth. Each of these houses has control over a variety of what you might call sub houses or categories. For example, relationships come in all sizes such as friends, business and relatives. A house is more complex that just its general description.

To simplify the whole process, your chart is read by figuring out which planet is in which house at your birth and thus determining what the major influences are in your life. From the chart we get your sun sign, which is your main sign and a number of other pieces of information. The main pieces give the basic characteristics of your personality and influences. The minor pieces go into more detail, which we will do in future articles.

Astrology - Do's And Don'ts

As with anything, there are ethical considerations when doing astrological readings. There are certain things that you should always do and then there are certain things that you should never do under any circumstance. We'll cover the most important of these do's and don'ts in this article.

One of the things you should always do when doing an astrological reading for someone is make them feel comfortable. Wherever your setting, make it as homey as possible. You don't want to dress it up with fancy occult items. Don't wear a turban or anything that makes you look like a psychic. Those are the things that give astrologers a bad name. You want to wear regular clothes and look like a regular person. This will give you a lot more credibility.

When doing a reading, be sociable, but remember that the reason the person is there is for a reading and not for a coffee klatch. Most likely they are paying by the hour so you want to get right to business after you greet your customer.

While doing a reading, there are going to be a number of terms and things that the person you are reading for may not understand and they may have quite a few questions. Even if these questions seem silly or common sense, answer them as best as you can and always with a smile on your face. Remember, they are paying you for your services and as with any other service related industry, you want to be courteous.

When telling a person something about their future, explain to them where this information is coming from. For example, if you tell somebody that they are about to have challenges at their job or in their career path and this is because of 2 planets that are square to each other, then tell them this. Take the time to explain why you have come up with what you have. This will give your reading more credibility.

On the other hand, you don't want to bog the person down with every little detail of how you arrived at each little thing. There are a number of small details for every astrological reading. To dwell on minutiae would turn a two hour reading into four hours. Only point out the parts that are very important and explain those in detail so the person understands not only what is going on, but what to watch out for, such as two planets coming into trine with each other, so they will know when tensions will begin to ease.

The one thing you should never do when performing an astrological reading is predict death. Even though you may be sure you see death coming, this is one thing you just don't do. It is okay to warn somebody that you see a dangerous situation ahead and warn them that they should be careful, say, when traveling. But never tell them you see them getting killed in a plane crash. This is one of the biggest don'ts, not only in astrology, but for all of the mystical sciences.

Astrology - A Simple Reading

Because astrological readings can be a chapter in a book alone, for the purposes of this article we're going to do a very simple and stripped down reading. However, this will give you a good foundation for really getting into depth when doing your own reading.

The first thing you have to do is get the subject's birth info. We need the date, time and place of birth. For the purposes of this reading, we'll just pull some info out of thin air. Let's take April 15, 1984, at 8:00 AM in the town of Newark, New Jersey.

We take this information and throw it into our favorite astrological computer program. For this example we'll use Astro123, which is actually a shareware program with some very powerful features.

After throwing in our variables, the program spits out an astrological chart for us containing the position of each planet and some analysis to follow.

Reading the chart itself can be a little difficult at first, but with some practice you'll more than get the hang of it.

The first thing we want to look for is the sun sign. In this case, the sun is in Aries so this person is an Aries. As stated in an earlier article people born between March 21 and April 20 are Aries. Aries people have very strong personalities and are usually natural born leaders. They are very straightforward, which means they can be very blunt. An Aries is the kind of person you want to have as a friend as they will fight to the death to defend your honor.

Looking beyond that, we have the following pieces of information. This person's moon is in Scorpio. This indicates that this person is very secretive and tends to brood in silence over the wrongs that people have done to him or her. These wrongs can be real or imagined. It doesn't matter to a person with their moon in Scorpio. Other planets are in other signs but we concentrate on the moon because since it is the body that is closest to the Earth it is the one with the most influence on us.

Then there are the planets as they fall into certain houses. Remember, there are 12 houses and 8 planets plus the sun and moon. How each of these bodies fall into each house affects how we deal with the various aspects of our lives.

For example, this person born on this day has the moon in their 5th house. Taking what we know about each of these we can make some generalizations about this person. The moon is what represents our feminine side. The 5th house is the house of creativity. A person with the moon in their 5th house indicates that emotions may get in the way of creativity. This is not a good thing for someone who dreams of being an artist. Unfortunately, many of histories most tormented artists had the moon in their 5th house at birth. That is why so many ended up as suicides or going mad.

Then we have the aspects that we discussed in an earlier article. These are the things that provide us with the challenges in our lives. One of the strongest aspects in this person's chart is Mars being square to Neptune. In this case it is a perfect square at exactly 90 degrees. Squares are the most challenging of aspects. In this case, Mars square to Neptune indicates a person who fights for the underdog. Many rights activists have Mars square to Neptune. These people are constantly challenged and their lives are never easy when fighting for the rights of others.

Astrology - Aspects

Aspects are where we start to get into the more complex part of astrology. Truthfully, however, if you take the time to really study and understand aspects and apply them to other things in your life, they actually make a lot of sense, at least logically. We're going to cover the five major aspects and try to explain them in a way where they will make sense to you and you'll be able to interpret them correctly when doing your astrological reading.

Aspects basically show how the various planets get along with each other, based on where they are at any one time. Most planets can form aspects to each other, except for Mercury, which is never more than 28 degrees from the sun and Venus, which is never more than 48 degrees from the sun. An aspect is the number of degrees one planet is from another. The smallest degree of difference for the major aspects is 60 degrees with one exception that will be covered.

Conjunctions are the strongest aspects. This is where the two planets involved are in total alignment with each other, or 0 degrees apart. Planets that are in conjunction to each other can either be easy or challenging depending upon the aspects of the other planets. Notice we do not use the terms good or bad as an aspect is neither good nor bad. They are simply challenges in our lives. Some may be challenges that are easy to deal with and some may be very difficult to deal with. In any case, the outcome itself for any aspect can be either good or bad depending on how we deal with it.

Sextiles are aspects where the planets are 60 degrees from each other. These aspects are considered quite favorable. Usually their signs share the same energies which compliment each other. They do require some effort on your part as they are not the easiest of aspects. Usually sextiles are development opportunities. So if you don't take the necessary action to take advantage of them you'll usually miss out on the opportunity.

Squares are aspects where the planets are 90 degrees from each other. These aspects are considered very challenging. The tension of these aspects can provide you dynamic action in your life. Without squares most of us would never do anything with our lives because we wouldn't be motivated by the forces which cause us to take action. Squares are probably the most important aspects for us to have meaningful and interesting lives.

A trine is considered the most favorable aspect. This is where the planets are 120 degrees apart. The signs of a trine usually share the same element and energy. These aspects are usually well developed skills and strengths that most people don't notice because they naturally do them so well. The truth is, too many trines can make you weak and lazy because everything in your life is so easy.

Finally, oppositions, which are planets that are 180 degrees apart, are considered challenging, especially in the areas of growth and achievement. Oppositions also show a need for balancing opposite needs and energies. Examples of this are people who have trouble balancing their career against their home life. This is not always easy to do. A person with many oppositions is usually stressed to the breaking point.