Astrology glossary
The terms our reports use, defined in plain language and grounded in the same classical sources the calculations follow. Each entry links to the article that goes deeper, and to the tool where you can see the term in your own chart.
Reading a chart
- Sectthe division of a chart into day or night, decided by whether the Sun is above or below the hori
- Combustcombust when it sits within about eight degrees of the Sun, close enough that classical astrolog
- Cazimia planet within about seventeen minutes of arc of the Sun's exact degree, which classical astrol
- Under the beamsunder the beams when it is roughly eight to seventeen degrees from the Sun, too close to be easi
- Decana ten-degree third of a zodiac sign, giving thirty six in all, each with a sub-ruler that tints
- Ascendantthe zodiac degree climbing over the eastern horizon at the moment of birth, and it begins the fi
- Midheaventhe highest point the ecliptic reaches at the moment of birth, and it marks the direction of car
- Aspecta specific angle between two planets, and the five classical ones are the conjunction, sextile,
- Orbthe tolerance around an exact aspect, the number of degrees within which two planets still count
- Stelliuma cluster of three or more planets in one sign or one house, which concentrates a chart's weight
- Lunar nodesThe lunar nodes are the two points where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic, always opposite
- House systema method for dividing the chart into twelve houses, and the common ones disagree because they di
- ElementThe four elements, fire, earth, air and water, group the twelve signs into four triplicities and
- Conjunctiontwo bodies at the same degree of the zodiac, the aspect of fusion, in which each planet takes on
- Oppositiontwo bodies 180 degrees apart, facing each other across the chart, the aspect of confrontation an
- Trinetwo bodies 120 degrees apart, in signs of the same element, and it is the easiest of the five ma
- Squaretwo bodies 90 degrees apart, in signs of the same modality but incompatible elements, and it is
- Sextiletwo bodies 60 degrees apart, in compatible elements, and it is the aspect of opportunity: a coop
- Applying and separatingapplying when the faster planet is still moving toward exactness and separating once it has pass
- Cuspthe boundary line of a house, the degree at which one of the twelve divisions begins, and by ext
- Birth charta map of the sky as it stood from your birthplace at the moment you were born, showing the plane
- Whole sign housesthe oldest and simplest of the house systems.
- Placidusa time-based house system that divides the hours it takes a degree to rise from the horizon to t
- Modalitythe way a sign moves, and there are three: cardinal signs begin, fixed signs hold, and mutable s
- Chart rulerthe planet that rules the sign on the Ascendant, and classical astrology treats it as the signif
- Vertexthe point where the ecliptic meets the prime vertical in the west, a calculated angle some astro
- Aspect patterna configuration of three or more planets whose aspects close into a shape, such as a grand trine
- Chart shapeA chart shape describes how the ten planets are distributed around the wheel as a whole, in the
Dignity and condition
- Essential dignityhow well a planet is placed by sign, measured on a fixed classical scale of five tiers: domicile
- Domicilethe sign a planet rules, where it acts most freely and where classical astrology considers it st
- Exaltationa sign where a planet is honoured rather than at home, giving it a high but borrowed dignity: th
- Detriment and fallthe sign opposite a planet's domicile and fall is the sign opposite its exaltation; both describ
- Triplicitydignity by element: each of the four elements has rulers who lend a planet moderate support anyw
- Term (bound)an unequal division of a sign, usually five per sign, each ruled by one of the five non-luminary
- Facethe ten-degree division of a sign in the dignity scheme, ruled in the Chaldean order, and it is
- PeregrineA peregrine planet holds none of the five essential dignities in the sign it occupies, so it has
- Almutenthe planet with the most weighted dignity there, counted across domicile, exaltation, triplicity
- Mutual receptionTwo planets are in mutual reception when each occupies a sign the other rules, an exchange that
- Benefic and maleficjoined to.
- Planetary joythe house a planet is said to rejoice in, an early Hellenistic scheme giving each of the seven a
- Oriental and occidentaloriental when it rises before the Sun and occidental when it sets after it, a distinction classi
- Besiegementa planet bracketed between the two malefics or the two benefics with no ray of the opposite kind
Timing
- Retrograderetrograde when it appears to move backwards through the zodiac from Earth, an effect of the two
- Ephemerisa table of planetary positions for each day, traditionally listing where every body stood at the
- Transitthe aspect a planet in the sky right now makes to a position in a birth chart, and it is the mai
- Void-of-course Moonvoid of course when it will make no further major aspect before leaving its current sign, a wind
- Planetary hourone of twelve unequal divisions of daylight or of night, each ruled by a planet in the Chaldean
- Solar returnthe chart cast for the moment the Sun comes back to its exact natal degree each year, read as a
- Annual profectionAnnual profection advances the Ascendant one whole sign for each year of life, so the house it r
- Firdariaa Persian time-lord system that divides a life into fixed planetary periods in a set order, each
- Zodiacal releasinga Hellenistic time-lord technique that unfolds periods from a Lot, usually Spirit for career and
- Secondary progressionSecondary progression moves the chart forward one day for each year of life, so the sky on your
- Solar arc directionSolar arc direction moves every point in the chart forward by the same amount the Sun has progre
- Stationthe moment a planet appears to stop before changing direction, either turning retrograde or turn
- Eclipsea New or Full Moon that falls close enough to a lunar node for the three bodies to line up, so a
- Lunationa New or Full Moon, the two points where the Moon meets or opposes the Sun, and the lunation cyc
- Electional astrologyElectional astrology chooses the moment to begin something, reading a future chart forward inste
- Via Combustathe belt from about 15 degrees of Libra to about 15 degrees of Scorpio, which classical astrolog
Two charts
Classical medical astrology
- Hylegthe chart's giver of life, the body chosen by rule from a short list of candidates, which classi
- Alcochodenthe planet that rules the hyleg's position, read in classical medical astrology as the one that
- Temperamentthe classical reading of a chart's balance of hot, cold, wet and dry, expressed as one of the fo
Technique
- AntisciaAntiscia are points mirrored across the solstice axis, so two degrees that share the same day le
- Part of Fortunea calculated point measured from the Ascendant by the distance between the Sun and Moon, and it
- Dispositorthe ruler of the sign it sits in, so a Mars in Cancer is disposited by the Moon, and following t
- Horary astrologyHorary astrology answers a specific question from a chart cast for the moment the astrologer und
- Fixed starone of the stars proper, called fixed because it holds its place in the constellations while the
- Hermetic lota calculated point derived by measuring the arc between two planets and projecting it from the A
- Prenatal lunationthe New or Full Moon immediately before a birth, treated by Hellenistic astrology as a significa
- Declinationa body's distance north or south of the celestial equator, the second coordinate that zodiacal l
- Lunar mansionone of twenty-eight divisions of the Moon's monthly path, each roughly the distance it travels i