Planets are the actors. Signs are the costumes. Houses are the stage.
- Aspect
- The relationship between two planets, based on the angle between them. How they talk to each other, whether easily or with friction (i.e. a trine between your Sun and Moon means those two parts of you tend to get along).
- Astrocartography
- Your birth chart projected onto an actual map of the world, showing where each planet's energy is strongest depending on where you're standing. The reason certain cities can feel like main character energy and others fall flat (i.e. standing near your Venus line might make a place feel more romantic or beautiful to you, wherever that line happens to fall).
- Benefic
- A planet traditionally considered to bring ease, luck, or support wherever it shows up in your chart. Venus and Jupiter are the classic benefics.
- Birth Chart
- A snapshot of the sky, taken the exact moment and place you were born. Every planet frozen in place, exactly where it sat overhead.
- Chart Ruler
- The planet that rules your rising sign. Often described as the chart's director, quietly setting the tone for the whole production (i.e. if you're a Scorpio rising, Pluto is your chart ruler).
- Essential Dignities
- A system for measuring how comfortable a planet is in the sign it's sitting in, almost like judging how well an actor fits their costume. The four you'll hear most: Domicile (home turf, the sign a planet rules), Exaltation (honored guest, a sign where it's especially celebrated), Detriment (the sign opposite its home turf, where it feels a little lost), and Fall (the sign opposite its exaltation, where it struggles most).
- House
- One of twelve areas of life in a birth chart. Houses describe where the action happens (i.e. your 9th house is the part of your chart tied to travel, philosophy, and the search for meaning).
- House System
- The method used to divide the 360° circle of your chart into twelve houses. There are more than 20 different house systems, and they don't all draw the lines the same way, which is part of why two astrologers can read the same birth details and land on slightly different placements.
- Malefic
- A planet traditionally considered to bring friction, challenge, or intensity wherever it shows up in your chart. Mars and Saturn are the classic malefics.
- Natal
- Belonging to your birth chart specifically. The placements fixed the moment you were born (i.e. when someone mentions your natal Venus, they mean where Venus was sitting at the exact moment you were born).
- 9th House
- The house of travel, philosophy, and the search for meaning. The one this whole brand is built around.
- Planet
- A celestial body in your chart, each one ruling a different part of your personality and life, from the Sun (your core identity) to Pluto (transformation and power).
- Planetary Joy
- The house a planet is traditionally said to feel most at home in, where its natural energy gets to stretch out the most.
- Retrograde
- When a planet appears to move backward through the sky from our view here on Earth (an optical illusion of orbital speed, not an actual reversal). Traditionally tied to review, delay, or turning inward.
- Rising Sign / Ascendant
- The sign rising on the eastern horizon the moment you were born. Your first impression, your outward approach to the world.
- Sidereal
- You may have seen this term floating around and thought, “a whole different chart to learn?! ” Kind of, yes. Sidereal astrology measures the signs against where the constellations sit today, while this site uses the tropical zodiac, which follows the seasons. The two are now about 24 degrees apart, so many placements slide back a sign. My Sag stellium? Scorpio in sidereal. It’s the system Vedic astrology uses.
- Sign
- The zodiac sign a planet was sitting in when you were born. It shapes how that planet's energy actually shows up, its style, its flavor.
- 3rd House
- The house of everyday movement, communication, and short trips close to home.
- Transit
- Where a planet is moving through the sky right now. Transits show what the current sky is doing in relation to your natal chart (i.e. Mercury retrograde is a transit, it's happening in the sky overhead right now, no matter where Mercury sits in your own natal chart).
