Astrology has been a very important part of my Healing and Self-Awareness journey. It can be intimidating for those just getting started, since it is a very complex system with many different practices and techniques. If this is you, this post will give you some foundational information to get you started. I also recommend getting a good Astrology app, setting it up correctly, and getting familiar with your own chart. Then, as time goes on, you can pay attention to the events in your life and different transits and how they make you feel. Learning Astrology happens not just through learning concepts, but through experiencing them and noticing patterns in your life and in the world around you.
If you do not know your accurate birth time and location, I recommend looking into Chart Rectification services. Astrologers can estimate your rising sign using events in your life. You need an accurate birth time/location, because this sets up your entire chart. You may believe all placements in your chart are about you, but this isn't necessarily the case. The only placement that represents you, and only you, is your rising sign/ascendant. Since this changes every couple of hours, accuracy is important. Also, determining whether or not you have a day or night chart is significant as it influences the condition of different planets in your chart. Once you know your rising sign, you can look to the placement of its ruler to determine your life's direction. Your rising sign and its ruler influence your appearance and personality as well. You may not relate to your Sun sign for reasons such as: it isn't in your first house, it isn't aspected the ascendant/ruler of the ascendant, it isn't the ruler of your ascendant (Leo Rising), etc. If all you know is Sun sign/Psychology-based pop Astrology, you have a lot of exciting things to learn and explore!
When you're entering your birth information/setting up a new Astrology app, you'll need to choose a House Calculation System. Most apps/websites are set to Placedus by default. I don't recommend this system for multiple reasons, but the most important reason for this post is that it will make learning Astrology more complicated, especially if you are blind/visually impaired. Unlike quadrant house systems, using Whole Sign means that each sign has its own house. Your 1st house is the house that contains your Ascendant, which is a free-floating point instead of bisecting your rising sign at the ascendant. In quadrant systems, if your rising sign is at 15º of a sign, that marker begins your chart, degrees 0-14 are in the 12th house, and the 1st house is made up of both your rising sign and the following sign. This throws off the entire chart, and makes everything more confusing, especially if you cannot see charts. Additionally, this is not the system used in traditional/ancient Astrology for Natal Charts. I recommend learning traditional concepts first, and then layering on modern interpretations later as you see fit. This means using traditional rulerships. The outer planets are primarily generational and don't rule over any signs.
Traditional Rulerships:
- Moon: Cancer
- Sun: Leo
- Mercury: Gemini, Virgo
- Venus: Libra, Taurus
- Mars: Aries, Scorpio
- Jupiter: Pisces, Sagittarius
- Saturn: Capricorn, Aquarius
The next thing you need to know is the house topics. These are areas of life which will be activated at different times, based on the condition of the planets in that sign, the ruler of the planet and transits through that sign/aspecting that sign, and can be understood through different timing techniques. If you have heard the 1st house is Aries, the 2nd house is Taurus, etc, this is inaccurate. While connecting the signs with the houses may help people understand house topics, these are not actually related. Additionally, there is debate about which topics belong in which houses, with modern Astrologers often putting Sex in the house traditionally associated with death, for example. Here is some information about the Houses to get you started.
House Topics:
- 1st House: Self, personality, appearance, life direction.
- 2nd House: Earned Income, Possessions, money spent on survival, food
- 3rd House: Siblings, close friends, Routine, short-distance travel, daily spiritual practice, communication, early education
- 4th House: Home and Family (especially parents), Roots, traditions, land
- 5th House: Fun, Creativity, Pleasure, Sex, Romance, Children, spending for fun.
- 6th House: Physical health, Accidents, Work where there is a power imbalance (either you're above others or their over you), Pets
- 7th House: Marriage, Contracts, Open Enemies, One on One Relationships/Partnerships
- 8th House: Death, Taxes, Other People's Money.
- 9th House: Astrology, Divination, Spirituality, Religion, Law, Long-Distance Travel, Other Cultures, Higher Education
- 10th House: Public Reputation, Career
- 11th House: Groups, Networks, Friends
- 12th House: Isolation, Endings, Mental Health/Illness, Institutionalization, Hidden Enemies, The Unknown
Planetary Joys:
- 1st House: Mercury
- 3rd House: Moon
- 5th House: Venus
- 6th House: Mars
- 9th House: Sun
- 11th House: Jupiter
- 12th House: Saturn
If you know the significations of the planets, you may see how the planetary joys are related to the house topics. This can help you begin to connect these concepts. The last thing I want to help you understand about the Houses is that not all of them have equal energy available to them, and some of them are more challenging than others. The 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th houses are the angular houses and have the most energy available to them. The 6th, 8th, and 12th Houses are the most difficult houses. This is important to understand when making sense of previous events, and you'll be able to see that when challenging placements are activated, life tends to be more difficult. When more positive placements are activated by benefics, life tends to be a little easier. Of course, nothing is happening in a vacuum, everything is going to be a mixed bag at all times. You will always have positive transits at the same time as more challenging transits, but you will be able to connect your struggles with placements in your chart and aspects from transiting planets. When you get the hang of this, it's really cool/helpful.
Once you know your rising sign, you can pay attention to the transits of its ruler, such as when it is hitting one of the angles in your chart (Asc/1st House, Dsc/7th House, MC/10th House, IC/4th House). For example, I am a Cancer Rising, so I really feel the moon as it activates different parts of my chart. This is especially true when the moon is in Cancer, Libra, Capricorn, or Aries, or when the moon is New or Full. However, I definitely notice it when it hits other points as well. This is why you just have to get to know your chart and pay attention to how different transits make you feel.
Another thing the Moon speaks to in my chart is my life direction. It is in my 4th house, which links my 1st and 4th house topics together. Additionally, the ruler of my 4th house is in the 12th house. What this has meant for me is that Home and Family are very important to me. I live more of a quiet, isolated life. I also feel very different than my parents, my world view is entirely different and that has always been very isolating. The same can be said for my siblings, since the ruler of my 3rd house is also in my 12th house. Additionally, the South Node is in my 3rd house indicating loss, and I have childhood trauma associated with siblings. I was also isolated from my siblings, due to my visual impairment since I was forced to attend a different public school for k-5th grade and then attended a school for the blind for 6-12 grade. My South Node, my Mars, and my Lot of Fortune were also activated at the time of my brother's death, which happened during a 12th house Profection year.
Annual Profections is my favorite timing technique, because it helps you understand which areas of life will be the main focus during any given year. You can determine which Profection year you're in by simply counting around the chart wheel starting at age 0 (from birth to 1 year old). So, I know, for example, that ages 11, 23, and 35 were all 12th House Profection years, and that topics involving the 3rd, 4th, 11th, and 12th houses would be relevant during those years.
When I was 11, I started attending a residential school for the blind (12th house, isolation, institutionalization), further isolating me from my siblings (3rd house) and Home and Parents (4th House). This gave me, however, a new sense of community and belonging I'd never had before (11th House).
When I turned 23, I'd just completed an 11th House Profection Year, which was also activating my 4th and 12th Houses. I was living in Raleigh with a friend, and we often had friends (11th house) over to our apartment (4th house). One of these friends was an 11th House friend I'd met in college a few years prior. We began dating in April (a couple of months before my birthday/the start of my 12th House Profection Year). He practically lived at my apartment, I paid for his gaming subscription, and bought him cigarettes and Mountain Dew constantly. I did this even though I was struggling myself. His internet and electricity got cut off, because he either couldn't or didn't prioritize paying it, so he mostly stayed with me and my roommate and I fed him. Our relationship was going okay, for the most part, until after my birthday. Before my birthday, he was more interested in his gaming than he was in me, would primarily be affectionate after drinking, and maintained an opposite sleep schedule to mine. So, maybe not great, but the bar was on the floor. All he had to do was step over it. After my birthday, however, he completely stopped communicating with me at all, disappeared to his parents' house for weeks, then returned only to break up with me and project his mental health issues onto me. After this, I went home to heal, and ultimately decided I wanted to go back to college after realizing the reason for my dropping out a couple of years prior no longer presented a threat. In January, I started back at college, was isolated from both my friend at our apartment and my family once again, but I felt good... until my brother died in February. So, just by looking at Profection Years, without additional information from transiting planets, you can see how different areas of my life were being activated.
Now, to drive this point home even further, let's talk about what happened when I was 35. Similar to the previous cycle, at the end of an 11th House Profection Year, in April, I met someone (this time it was someone new, on social media, 11th house). I would hang out with him and his friend group (11th house). In April, we began dating. Like the previous guy, he was also in crisis, unhappy in his living situation. We met each other for the first time in May, and everything seemed to go well. However, it turns out he was masking heavily, and I was also subconsciously projecting all of my hopes and dreams onto him. He is a Cancer Rising, and since the Moon reflects light, we reflect back to others whatever it is they expect to see. I let him move in a couple of weeks before my birthday, and things, while immediately different, were mostly just uncomfortable until after my birthday. At the time, I just thought more time was needed for adjustment, but in all actuality, we were just completely incompatible. Like the previous guy, he preferred to spend his time on the computer, maintained a completely different sleep schedule than mine, and became much less affectionate once he was living in my home. Once I turned 35, things immediately took a drastic turn for the worse. There were pretty extreme communication difficulties, he was bothered by my anxiety and sensory issues, didn't like how I was approaching learning about mental health, was embarrassed by my views and interests and wanted to hide those aspects from his friends, relied on friends to determine how he felt and for advice on how he should approach our relationship, etc. Ultimately, things ended a month after the 12th House Profection Year began. I felt ejected from the friend group (11th house), my mental health was not great (12th house), my daily routine was changing (3rd house), and my living situation was changing (4th house). He didn't leave until 2 months later, which made letting go extremely difficult. However, once he was gone, healing happened rapidly. My life had no stability. A close friend (3rd house) was forced to move away, and the collapse of this relationship and what I'd hoped would be a stable future took away all the daily support I relied on. I struggled at first to take basic care of myself, but my close friends, even from afar, stepped in and helped me out. I spent much of the rest of that 12th House Profection Year processing what happened, learning new things about myself, and developing new systems that worked for me. In early April, I lost a close friend, and the grief of that has been similar to the grief of losing my brother the previous 12th House Profection Year.
What I love about these 12th House Profection Year examples is that they are strikingly similar, even though there are differences. The pattern can be clearly seen, and the only thing that links these 2 time periods is Astrology. The guys didn't know each other, aren't from the same place, I lived in different locations and was at different points in my life, etc. I lost two people, but one physically died and was a male family member, whereas the other simply cut me off and was a close female friend. Although they are different, they are still both 3rd House losses, which is the location of my South Node.
You can see clear patterns in my 1st House Profection Years as well. I have Jupiter in the 11th House (its joy) ruled by Venus which is retrograde in the 12th house; but it is also conjunct Mercury (which although retrograde is in its own sign of Gemini). I feel like Jupiter brings people into my life through the 11th house who may or may not have the best intentions (ruled by Venus in the 12th house) and this impacts my living situation and life stability (4th House), but with Mercury co-present in the 12th House, I have the tools necessary to overcome mental health struggles that come as a result. I am able to transform and grow from that experience, and I am rewarded with something better to start a new cycle by the time the 1st House Profection Year begins.
In April, a couple of months before my 1st House Profection year (36-years-old) began, a close friend, who would become my current partner, showed up and made my life so much better, starting a new cycle! Not only does this mirror the previous 1st House Profection Year, but I feel that he is my gift from Jupiter. I experienced a Jupiter return around the time of my 12th House Profection Year. All the qualities I wanted to see in the previous partner are present in my current partner. That feeling of luck and abundance, and my dreams coming true wasn't imagined. Life just had to break me down first so I could really know myself, what I need, and properly connect with the right person.
Similarly, shortly before I turned 24 (1st house), I met someone who would become my best friend. We dated, but things ended during a 3rd House Profection Year (activating my South Node/Lot of Eros). However, we remained friends and are still 3rd House friends to this day. I lost my brother, but gained a close friend to walk through life with.
Additionally, during my 3rd House Profection Year, I moved into my house after living with my mom for a brief time (short-distance travel, new routine), began dating and lost another partner (South Node/Lot of Eros), lost a pet (South Node), lost my ex as a friend for a brief time, made some new close friends, etc. During my 4th House Profection Year, my friend moved in with me, giving me more stability. These are just very brief examples using only the Profection Years themselves. When you integrate transits as well, the patterns become even more pronounced and intricate. I love it so much!
With that said, I hope this overview of some basic information about Astrology and how to read patterns is helpful! Let me know if there are any questions, and I will try to write more. Thanks for reading! 💙