Astrology 101

You look up to see the stars, a cycling pattern bound to amaze

You are the one cycling, round and round in a rotating orbital

The positioning of the picture painted above your beautiful head is everything

It is a map not of prediction, but of spiritual analysis

A daily guideline to follow and to look forward to

Magic is ignited when all negativity is stripped to the pure form of life

And when looking for life’s origin we look nowhere but the stars.

Astrology has been a bit of a craze over the years brought to us by horoscopes in magazines and the “What Celeb Will You Marry Based Off Your Zodiac Sign” Buzzfeed quizzes, but most people have no idea what any of that means. The end of 2017/beginning of 2018 was when my interests in astrology started to pick up and it is not because I believed it per se, but rather that it gave me a higher force to relate my life to. In times when I felt lost, reading my horoscope every morning helped me to set a focus for the day and I would reread this at the end of the night to reflect on my personal experiences throughout the day, relating them to the overall “prediction.” This daily ritual allowed for self-reflection which helped me grow mentally/spiritually and I became much more self-aware than ever, all contributing to who I am today.

If you have ever read your horoscope you have probably come across terms that mean next to nothing to you and that is how I used to be before my hours research I have done. There are many more things to learn about the astrological world than I mention in here, but it is a start so consider it as a "beginners handbook."

The duality of a sign is the direction of their energies and they can be facing either of two ways. They can be described as masculine/feminine (not to be confused with gender roles), outward/inward, yang/yin, extroverted/introverted, or assertive/passive, which is what I will be referring to them as. Assertive signs are your Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, and Aquarius friends who tend to assert themselves into the situation and get what they want out of the act because they direct their energies outward. Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces are passive signs who gravitate more towards keeping their opinions to themselves due to their inward directed energies fueling their less direct behavior.

Modality is a term that holds a lot of power, the three modalities represent how the signs’ interact with the world around them. Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn are Cardinal signs, meaning they are dynamic and enterprising which builds into leadership qualities. Fixed signs are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. Their modality is the source of their stubborn and determined outlooks which differs from Mutable signs like Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces who are easy going and can work with what they are given.

There are four Elements astrological signs are categorized under and these are more well known, as they often do coincide with the zodiac symbol (animal) as well as the signs’ colors. Air, Earth, Fire, and Water are the four basic personality traits that are the signs’ archetypes. Air signs are social butterflies that carry a lot of intellect with them and are represented by Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. Taurus’, Virgos, and Capricorns are the hardworking and sensual members of the earth signs who are often seen as the “go-getters” of the elements. Fire signs are the enthusiastic, brave, and passionate people included in Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius. Now comes water signs, my favorite element group (this is 100% a bias opinion considering I am none other than I Pisces), and its intuitive, emotion, and artistic senses rest among the Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio signs.

Each sign gives off a certain energy, in which I have been describing through the new terminology above, their Ruling Planet is what their energies match and the signs harness their planet’s energy. It is important to know your ruling planet because they do harness the same energy and it adds a dimension to your sign.

Back a few months ago I wrote down all 12 signs in my bullet journal which included the date range, symbol/glyph, duality, modality, element, ruling planet, and color scheme. I was just going to write them back down individually but this post has been repetitive enough with the explaining of every sign so instead, I will just insert the pictures below (plus I made them pretty and perfect for display).

The world of astrology is a journey and it takes a lot to learn the insides and outs, most of which I have no idea about and hope to continue researching and maybe even documenting in a future post. I do not even necessarily believe in astrology, but I find it intriguing and as said in the beginning, it has helped me become more self-aware as well as understand the inner workings between people.

As always, thank you for reading!

-Emma Claire