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Astrology 101
Ten lessons from the building blocks of every chart to timing, patterns, and the Saturn return.
The Building Blocks
The four components every natal chart is built from. Learn these and the rest of astrology is mostly a matter of combining them.
01
The Planets
Ten bodies, ten psychological functions. Each planet governs a different part of who you are, from the Sun's core identity to Pluto's transformations.
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The Signs
The twelve zodiac signs describe how planetary energy operates, its style, mode, and quality. The same planet in different signs behaves entirely differently.
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The Houses
The twelve houses divide the chart into life domains: career, relationships, money, home, identity. A planet's house shows where its energy plays out.
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The Aspects
Aspects are the angular relationships between planets. A conjunction fuses two energies; a square creates friction; a trine flows. Aspects are where the chart comes alive.
Read lessonReading the Chart
How the pieces assemble into a chart you can actually read, anchored by the rising sign and the axes that orient everything else.
05
The Natal Chart
What the birth chart wheel is, how the four layers combine, and how to begin reading your own chart from the Ascendant outward.
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The Rising Sign
The Ascendant is the zodiac sign on the eastern horizon at your birth. It shapes your instinctive manner, appearance, and the lens through which your whole chart is filtered.
Read lesson07
The Lunar Nodes
The North and South Nodes form an axis in your chart. The South Node describes familiar patterns; the North Node points toward your direction of growth.
Read lessonTiming and Patterns
How a fixed chart meets a moving sky, and the larger shapes that give a chart its character.
08
Transits
Transits are the ongoing movements of planets through the sky and how they interact with your fixed natal chart. They are the reason astrology speaks to timing.
Read lesson09
The Saturn Return
At approximately age 29, Saturn returns to its natal position for the first time. It is the most discussed transit in astrology and one of the most significant turning points in adult life.
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Chart Patterns
When three or more planets align geometrically, they form a stellium, T-square, grand trine, yod, or kite. Each pattern carries its own concentrated meaning.
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