Astrology, in plain English

Ascendant

The ascendant is the more technical name for your rising sign: the zodiac degree rising on the eastern horizon at your exact birth time and place. It marks the start of your first house and sets the layout of your chart's twelve houses, which is why an accurate birth time changes it fast.

Aspect

An aspect is the angle between two planets in your chart, measured in degrees along the zodiac circle. Certain angles, like 90 or 120 degrees, are treated as meaningful because they describe how the two planets' themes interact, easily, with friction, or somewhere in between.

Big three

Your big three are your sun sign, moon sign, and rising sign, the three placements most people mean when they ask what's your sign. Together they sketch a fast, surprisingly accurate outline: sun is who you're becoming, moon is how you feel privately, rising is your first impression.

Birth time

Birth time is the exact clock time you were born, and it matters more than most people expect. It's the piece of information that determines your rising sign and house placements, since the sky rotates a full 360 degrees every 24 hours, about one degree every four minutes.

Cardinal

Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) sit at the start of each season and are associated with initiating: starting projects, relationships, and new directions. They're the modality most comfortable making the first move, even if follow-through isn't always their strongest suit.

Chaldean order

The Chaldean order is the traditional sequence of the seven classical planets ranked by apparent speed from Earth: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. It's the backbone of older timing systems like planetary hours, and its logic predates modern astronomy by centuries.

Chiron

Chiron is a small celestial body, technically a centaur, treated in modern astrology as a planet-like point representing a core wound and the healing or wisdom that comes from working through it. Its placement describes where you've felt pain, and where you can eventually help others because of it.

Compatibility

Compatibility, in astrology, refers to how well two people's charts interact, usually assessed through synastry, comparing sun, moon, rising, and Venus/Mars placements between two people. It's a description of dynamics and tendencies, not a verdict on whether a relationship will work.

Conjunction

A conjunction happens when two planets sit at, or very near, the same degree of the zodiac, roughly 0 degrees apart. It's read as a blending aspect: the two planets' themes merge and amplify each other rather than compete, for better or worse depending on which planets are involved.

Crescent

A crescent moon is a thin sliver of illumination, occurring just after a new moon (waxing crescent) or just before the next one (waning crescent). It marks the earliest stage of a moon cycle building, or the final stage of one winding down.

Cusp

A cusp is the exact dividing line between two houses, or, in everyday use, the dividing line between two zodiac signs on your birthday. Being born on the cusp usually means your birthday falls within a day or two of a sign change, close enough that an exact birth time settles which side you're on.

Descendant

The descendant sits directly opposite your ascendant, on the western horizon at your birth moment, and marks the start of your seventh house, the house of partnerships. If your ascendant describes how you show up, the descendant describes what you're drawn to in other people.

Element

Element refers to one of four groups every zodiac sign belongs to: fire, earth, air, or water. Fire signs run on action and instinct, earth on practicality, air on ideas and communication, water on feeling. It's one of the fastest ways to compare two signs' basic temperament.

Ephemeris

An ephemeris is a table, or today, a piece of software, that lists the exact position of the sun, moon, and planets for any given date and time. It's the actual data astrologers and astronomers both rely on to calculate a birth chart, based on real orbital mechanics, not guesswork.

Fixed

Fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) sit in the middle of each season and are associated with stability and follow-through, holding a direction once it's set, sometimes to the point of stubbornness. They're the modality that finishes what cardinal signs start.

Full moon

A full moon is the point in the lunar cycle when the Earth sits between the sun and moon, so the moon's entire visible face is lit. It marks the peak of a lunar cycle, associated with culmination, visibility, and things coming to a head, emotionally and otherwise.

Gibbous

A gibbous moon is more than half illuminated but not yet, or no longer, full, occurring just before a full moon (waxing gibbous) or just after one (waning gibbous). It marks a moon cycle nearing its peak, or just past it.

House

A house is one of twelve slices of your birth chart, each covering a different area of life: money, communication, home, romance, career, and so on. While a planet's sign describes how it acts, the house it falls in describes where in your life that behavior tends to show up.

IC

The IC, short for Imum Coeli, sits directly opposite the midheaven at the lowest point of the chart, marking the start of your fourth house. It represents home, family, and your private foundation, the roots you come from rather than the reputation you build.

Ingress

An ingress is simply the moment a planet moves from one zodiac sign into the next, crossing the boundary line. The sun's ingress into Aries marks the spring equinox and the start of that sign's season, and any planet's ingress can shift the tone of its influence.

Luminaries

The luminaries are the sun and moon, grouped together because, unlike the actual planets, they're the two bodies that visibly light the sky from Earth. In a chart reading they're usually discussed first, since your sun and moon sign carry more weight than any single planet placement.

Midheaven

The midheaven, also written MC, is the highest point the sky reaches directly above you at your birth moment, marking the start of your tenth house. It's associated with public reputation and career direction, as opposed to the private inner life your IC describes.

Modality

Modality, also called quality, is one of three groups every zodiac sign belongs to based on where it falls in its season: cardinal, fixed, or mutable. It describes how a sign handles change, starting something new, holding steady, or adapting, independent of its element.

Moon sign

Your moon sign is the zodiac sign the moon was in the moment you were born, and it describes your emotional inner life, the reactions and needs you don't always show in public. Where the sun sign is your headline, the moon sign is closer to your private diary.

Mutable

Mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) sit at the end of each season and are associated with adaptability, adjusting as one season shifts into the next. They're the most flexible modality, comfortable with change but sometimes short on follow-through.

Natal chart

A natal chart, also called a birth chart, is a map of exactly where the sun, moon, and every planet sat in the sky the moment you were born, from the location you were born in. It's the foundation everything else builds on: sun, moon, and rising sign all come from this one chart.

New moon

A new moon is the point in the lunar cycle when the moon sits between the Earth and sun and its lit side faces entirely away from us, making it invisible in the sky. It marks the start of a fresh lunar cycle and is widely used for setting new intentions.

North node

The north node marks the general direction your chart suggests you're growing toward, qualities and lessons that feel unfamiliar but ultimately rewarding to develop. It's not a physical body but a calculated point tied to the moon's orbit, and it's read as a compass rather than a fixed placement.

Opposition

An opposition is a 180-degree angle, two planets sitting directly across the zodiac from each other. It represents tension between two competing needs or forces, often experienced as a pull between two people, choices, or parts of yourself that both want attention.

Orb

An orb is the margin of error allowed when measuring an aspect, since two planets are rarely at an exact, perfect angle. A tighter orb, say 1 to 3 degrees off, is read as a stronger, more noticeable aspect, while a wider orb is treated as present but weaker.

Placement

A placement is simply which zodiac sign, and house, a specific planet or point falls into on your chart, for example Venus in Leo or Moon in the fourth house. It's the basic unit astrologers read from, one placement at a time, before combining them into a fuller picture.

Planetary hour

A planetary hour is a system that divides each day and night into twelve unequal hours, each ruled by a different classical planet in a set rotation. It's an older timing technique, used to pick favorable windows for specific activities based on which planet is in charge of that hour.

Retrograde

Retrograde describes a planet that appears to move backward through the zodiac from Earth's point of view, an optical illusion caused by orbital speed differences, not an actual reversal in space. Retrograde periods are read as a time to revisit and review, rather than start something new.

Rising sign

Your rising sign, also called your ascendant, is the zodiac sign coming up over the eastern horizon the moment you were born. It shapes your first impression, your instinctive style, and how you approach new situations, which is why it depends entirely on your exact birth time and location.

Sextile

A sextile is a 60-degree angle between two planets, generally read as an easy, supportive connection. It represents opportunity that takes a small amount of effort to use, less automatic than a trine, but still cooperative rather than tense.

South node

The south node sits directly opposite the north node and represents qualities that already come naturally, a comfort zone that's easy to lean on but not where growth happens. Most readings treat the two nodes as a pair: what to lean away from, and what to lean toward.

Square

A square is a 90-degree angle between two planets, one of the more tense, friction-producing aspects. It's associated with challenge and internal conflict, the kind of pressure that's uncomfortable in the moment but often forces real growth or action.

Sun sign

Your sun sign is the zodiac sign the sun was in on your birthday, and it's the placement everyone already knows even without a chart. It describes your core identity and the general direction you're growing in, more like a headline than the whole story your birth chart tells.

Synastry

Synastry is the practice of comparing two people's birth charts side by side to see how their placements interact, where they align easily and where they create friction. It's the technical term behind most compatibility readings, whether for romantic partners, friends, or family.

Tarot major arcana

The major arcana are the 22 named cards in a tarot deck, from The Fool to The World, that represent big, archetypal life themes rather than everyday events. They're considered the backbone of a tarot deck, carrying more symbolic weight than the numbered minor arcana suits.

Transit

A transit is where a planet sits in the sky today, compared to where it sat in your birth chart. It describes current conditions layered over your permanent chart, like weather over a landscape, and it's the basis for daily horoscopes and forecasting in general.

Trine

A trine is a 120-degree angle between two planets, widely considered the easiest, most naturally flowing aspect. It represents talents and strengths that come without much effort, a gift, though it can also mean those strengths go undeveloped since nothing forces you to work at them.

Void-of-course moon

A void-of-course moon describes a stretch of time after the moon makes its last major aspect in a sign, before it moves into the next one. Traditionally treated as a low-stakes window, not bad, just less decisive, better for routine tasks than for starting something you want to stick.

Waning

Waning describes the moon in the two weeks between full moon and new moon, when its illuminated portion is shrinking night by night. It's associated with releasing, closing out, and clearing space, the moon phase most linked to letting go of what's finished.

Waxing

Waxing describes the moon in the two weeks between new moon and full moon, when its illuminated portion is growing night by night. It's associated with building, starting, and accumulating momentum, the moon phase most linked to setting intentions and moving something forward.

Zodiac

The zodiac is the band of sky, divided into twelve 30-degree signs, that the sun, moon, and planets appear to travel through over the course of a year. Each sign carries its own set of themes, and where a planet sits within that band is the basic building block of any chart.