Plants and Planets: Key Astrology Terms You Should Know
It’s Erin from TBH Magic back again to talk plants and planets.
SILLY ME for just realizing that while I speak astrology fluently...you might not! So with Mercury Retrograde upon us next week, I thought now would be the perfect time to ensure you understand some of the most common Astrology terms.
Plants and Planets: Key Astrology Terms You Should Know
Birth Chart: Everyone has a birth chart. Whether you know about it or not is a totally different story, but I’ve got a reading for that! Your birth chart is a map of the sky from the exact moment you were born.
Conjunction: You might have heard this term before in your middle school English class! But in Astrology, a conjunction is when two or more planets sit in the same sign and house.
Cusp: You might hear someone say they’re “on the cusp” if they have a birthday between the 20th-23rd of any given month. These are the typical dates that planets change signs, so some Astrologers will say these individuals have characters of both signs their birthday falls between.
Elements: The astrological elements are an integral element of the zodiac. I utilized them in this post as well as this one. There are four elements in astrology:
Fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius)
Earth (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn)
Air (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius)
Water (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces)
Each of the elements have their own strengths and weaknesses.
Full Moon: Cancer season will be upon us shortly, so there’s plenty of moon content to come, but in the meantime, it’s helpful to know during any given month! Full moons are, of course, when the moon is at its fullest point. In the astrology world, that means that you’ve reached a culmination. Something is coming to fruition and has reached its full expanse. Because of that “full” feeling, it’s a great time to release anything that is no longer serving you.
House: The astrological houses are not something you learn about in the horoscope section of your favorite magazine, it’s more advanced Astrology. Simply put, when you are born, Astrologer’s can look at the sky divided up into twelve different sections. I love to describe them as pizza slices! While the planets control what is happening, the houses are where.
New Moon: The new moon is when the sky is dark. There is no moon to be found from us on Earth, because a new cycle is beginning and the moon is between the earth and the sun, with its illuminated side facing away from us. The new moon is a great time to focus on what you want to manifest over the coming month.
Planets: Of course you were taught about the planets in our solar system in elementary school, but they take on a whole new meaning in Astrology! Here’s a simple guide to the main entities in a birth chart and the areas they rule:
Sun: your ego, how you want to shine in the world, your vitality, your father
Moon: your emotions, your instinct, your feelings, your mother
Mercury: your communication styles
Venus: what you love and value
Mars: your attitude towards sex and aggression/ fight or flight
Jupiter: your luck and willingness to take chances
Saturn: where you experience constriction and tough lessons
Uranus: the unexpected twists and turns of your life
Neptune: your relationship with spirituality
Pluto: your relationship with death, rebirth, and transformation
Retrograde: A “Retrograde” occurs when a planet appears to be spinning backwards in the sky. Planets do not go backwards in their orbit in reality! But when it appears that they are, the functions they rule also seem to go backwards. In the infamous Mercury Retrograde, for example, Mercury rules communication, so all types of communication can be trickier to navigate during a retrograde period. When Venus is Retrograde, relationships have a harder time, and so forth.
Square: A square is a tense astrological configuration that occurs when two, or more, celestial bodies are 90 degrees apart from one another. It can create friction in the areas of your life that the planets squaring each other rule.
Trine: A trine is a favorable aspect in an astrological chart. It occurs when two, or more, celestial bodies are 120 degrees apart from one another. This is a very happy energy to have in a chart, where the areas of your life that the planets rule will experience free flowing energy between one another.
“What’s Your Sign?”: When someone asks: “What’s your sign?” They are referring to your astrological sun sign. That can be determined by the month and day you were born. Nothing else needed! You will fall into one of twelve Astrological sun signs.
As a reminder, mark your calendars for the last three Thursdays of every month for more plants and planets blog posts, and in the meantime connect with me here with any questions or comments. I would love to hear any suggestions you have for future posts!