Astrology in plain language

Aspects

Aspects between planets

An aspect is the angular distance between two chart points, measured in degrees along the ecliptic; whether that angle is "significant" and what it "means" are separate, traditional layers on top of a plain measurement.

Natal chart

What is a natal chart?

A natal chart is a diagram of where the Sun, Moon, planets, and the horizon and meridian stood, from a specific place on Earth, at the exact moment you were born.

Place

What is astrocartography?

Astrocartography plots, onto a world map, the lines along which a planet was rising, setting, or culminating at your exact birth moment — a real spherical-geometry projection carrying a traditional, non-scientific interpretive layer.

Houses

Astrological houses

The twelve houses divide a chart by your local horizon and meridian, not by the zodiac; which house a planet falls in depends on your birth time and place, and traditionally marks an area of life.

Methodology

Calculation vs. interpretation: what astrology can and cannot claim

Every technical fact in a chart (a position, a sign, an aspect) is a reproducible astronomical calculation; every meaning attached to it is a symbolic, traditional narrative that has not been supported in controlled scientific testing.

Moon

Phases of the Moon

A Moon phase is the angle between the Sun and Moon as seen from Earth, which determines how much of the Moon's sunlit half is visible; the full cycle averages about 29.53 days.

Planets

Planets in the natal chart

In a chart, "planets" means the Sun, Moon, and the traditional planets — each one's ecliptic position is a calculated fact; what each one "represents" is a separate, traditional layer of meaning.

Signs

Zodiac signs

The twelve zodiac signs are equal 30-degree divisions of the ecliptic, the Sun's apparent yearly path; which sign a planet falls in is a calculation, the traits attached to each sign are a symbolic tradition.

Time

Exact vs. unknown birth time

Birth time changes a chart's Ascendant, Midheaven, and house cusps faster than any other input — about one degree every four minutes — so an approximate or unknown time honestly limits what a chart can show.