The Zodiac
The cycle of life is never ending, but we mark the beginning at the spring equinox with the sign Aries ♈, located on the left side of the circle just below the horizontal line. Next, below Aries, is Taurus ♉, then Gemini ♊.
The Planets
With glyphs, names, associations and
approximate cycles:
☉ Sun Spirit 1 year
The flame of life- when we die, it goes out
☽ Moon Soul 28 days
The river of life- when we die, it is released from the body
⊕ Earth Cross of Existence 24 hours
We can only be in one place at a time
☿ Mercury Mind 3 months
Earth and sun rising up through the river of life
Soul ruling over spirit and existence
♀ Venus Plant 7 months
Earth rising up through the light of the sun
Spirit ruling over existence
♂ Mars Animal 23 months
The light of the sun rising up through earth
Existence ruling over spirit
♃ Jupiter Faith 12 years
Existence rising up through the river of life
Soul ruling over existence
♄ Saturn Tradition 29 years
The river of life rising up through existence
Existence ruling over the soul
♅ Uranus Revolution 84 years
The sun’s light rising up through souls divided in existence
♆ Neptune Social Movement 165 years
Existence rising up through souls united
♇ Pluto Exile 248 years
Existence rising up through souls united in spirit
Mechanics of the Chart
The
chart has an inner stationary wheel divided into twelve parts, called
houses, and an outer wheel (bottom figure) which rotates clockwise
around the inner wheel once every 24 hours.
The outer revolving circle is the zodiac.
The
twelve signs of the zodiac cross the ascendent every 24 hours
Every
time we see the ecliptic make one complete revolution from east to west (about
24 hours), we see the sun step one degree in the opposing direction.
(There are 360°
in the zodiac; twelve signs of 30°each.) We are looking up at the southern sky instead of down at the earth, so, unlike road maps, east is on the
left and west on the right: the Sun rises on the left side of the
horizon, ascends through houses 12-10 to the mid heaven at noon, and sets on the
right side of the chart (west) in the evening.
Think of
all the planets as being attached to the outer wheel (zodiac) as it rotates
around the inner wheel of houses.
In the hand drawn chart above, 4°♋45’ is coming up on the eastern horizon and the Sun is at 25°♒58’ in the 8th
house. If I had made the post 4 hours later, the Sun would have been
about to set (followed by Neptune, the Moon and Venus). When I did
publish the post at 1:44pm, Pluto was setting.
Pluto
has been in Capricorn since 2009 and will not cross into Aquarius until
2023; it's a very distant object that takes a long time to orbit the
sun.
A 5:44 publishing time would have put 24°♌43’ rising, and Mars, instead of being in the first house, would have been above the horizon in the last house.
In the four hours after I published my first post, Mars rose, Mercury set, the Sun advanced to two minutes behind Neptune, and the Moon went from 3°♓09’ to 5°♓07’ and overtook Venus.
* * * * * * *
The Zodiac with
Elements, Modes, Rulerships and Exaltations
This is the
basic wheel of the zodiac with the planet symbols shown in their signs of
rulership and exaltation. Planets are in
detriment when in the sign opposite their sign of rulership and they are in
their fall when opposite their sign of exaltation. For a list showing planets in detriment and
fall as well as rulership and exaltation go to this link: Rulerships andExaltations
Fixed Houses
The fixed
houses refer to the order in which sections of the zodiac become visible on the
Eastern horizon. The Houses page has more about fixed houses and houses in general.
