Glossary

The sign rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth, which is why it's often called the rising sign. It changes about every two hours, so you need a birth time to find it; the free chart shows it only when you enter one. The 1st house begins there.

An angle between two points in a chart, which astrology reads as a connection between them. The conjunction, sextile, square, trine, quincunx, and opposition are six kinds of aspect. Each has a set angle, and the orb says how close the two points come to it.

A map of the sky at the exact minute and place someone was born, drawn as a wheel. It shows where each planet was, which sign it was in, and which house it fell in.

A small body discovered in 1977 that orbits the Sun between Saturn and Uranus. Modern astrologers read Chiron as a sore spot in the chart, and as the place where you learn to care for yourself and for others.

Two points in conjunction sit at about the same place in the zodiac: an angle of 0°, or close to it. The orb is how far they are from that exact angle.

The line where a house begins. People also use the word for a birth on the day the Sun changed sign, as in “born on the cusp.” In that case, only the exact time and place of birth can settle which sign the Sun was in.

Traditional astrology's way of telling whether a planet is strong or weak in the sign it's in. In its own sign, a planet is in domicile; in the opposite sign, it's in detriment. Exaltation is another sign where it's strong, and fall is the sign across from that, where it's weak.

A New Moon or a Full Moon that falls close enough to the lunar nodes for the Sun, Earth, and Moon to line up. At a New Moon it's a solar eclipse; at a Full Moon, a lunar one.

Astrology sorts the signs into four elements: fire, earth, air, and water. Each sign belongs to one, and each element has three signs. The distribution of planets among the elements shows what a chart has plenty of and what it has little of.

A table of where the planets are, day by day. This site doesn't copy its positions from one: it calculates them itself and checks them against the figures from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

One of the two days a year, in March and in September, when the Sun crosses the celestial equator (Earth's equator, extended out into the sky) and day and night are about the same length everywhere. The March equinox is 0° Aries, where the tropical zodiac begins.

The 12 sections of the chart, each standing for an area of life. Where they fall depends on the time and place of birth, so a birth an hour later, or in another city, shifts them.

Not a planet or anything physical, but a point: the place in the Moon's orbit farthest from Earth. This site uses the mean Lilith, worked out from the Moon's average orbit, so another site that shows the “true” Lilith can put it in a different sign. Astrologers started using Lilith in the 20th century, and modern astrology reads it as what you won't give in on: the things you refuse to negotiate, and the frustration or pushback that comes when there's no place for them.

Two points where the Moon's path through the sky crosses the Sun's, called the North Node and the South Node. They always sit opposite each other in the chart, and eclipses happen near them.

The degree of the zodiac crossing the meridian at the moment of birth. The meridian is the line through the top of the sky, where the Sun stands at solar noon. The Midheaven marks the start of the 10th house, and like the Ascendant, it depends on the birth time.

Every sign has one of three modes: cardinal, fixed, or mutable. Cardinal signs begin where the seasons turn, at the equinoxes and solstices. Fixed signs hold steady, and mutable signs adapt. There are four signs in each mode.

The Moon's phase is its angle from the Sun, as seen from Earth. At New Moon the two are together, at 0°; the Moon then passes the First Quarter, reaches Full Moon at 180°, and comes back through the Last Quarter to the next New Moon. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days.

Two points 180° apart, facing each other across the chart. That's as far apart as two points can get. The orb is how far they are from that exact angle.

How far an aspect is from its exact angle, measured in degrees. A square with an orb of 0° is right on 90°, and the bigger the orb, the looser the aspect.

The house system this site uses. It divides the sky by the time each degree of the zodiac takes to rise and then climb to its highest point. It's named after Placidus de Titis, a 17th-century monk. Near the poles, where some degrees never rise, the system can't draw the houses at all.

At 150°, two points sit just 30° short of an opposition, where they'd face each other across the chart. That angle is the quincunx; you'll also see it called an inconjunct.

The chart of the moment halfway between two people's births, seen from the point halfway between their birthplaces. It's a real sky, one that actually happened, and it stands for the relationship itself. Astrologers also call it the Davison chart.

Seen from Earth, a planet sometimes seems to move backward through the zodiac for a while. It happens when Earth, moving around the Sun, passes the planet, or the planet passes Earth. The planet itself never changes course; it only looks that way from here.

The planet linked to a sign: Mars to Aries, Venus to Taurus, and so on around the zodiac. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, discovered after the telescope was invented, are the modern rulers of Aquarius, Pisces, and Scorpio. Those signs keep their traditional rulers too: Saturn for Aquarius, Jupiter for Pisces, and Mars for Scorpio.

When Saturn comes back to the place it held at birth, which happens about every 29 and a half years: around the ages of 29, 59, and 88. In astrology, it's a time of taking stock. The Saturn return page works out when each one falls, from your birth date alone.

An aspect of 60° between two points, a sixth of the full circle. With 30° to a sign, that usually puts them two signs apart, like Taurus and Cancer.

One of the 12 equal sections of the zodiac, each 30° wide, running in order from Aries to Pisces. Every planet in a chart sits in one of them, and each sign has an element, a mode, and a ruler.

Once a year, close to your birthday, the Sun returns to the exact spot it was in when you were born. The solar return is the chart for that moment, which doesn't always fall on your birthday itself.

The day the Sun reaches its farthest point north or south of the celestial equator, which happens twice a year: in June and in December. The June solstice is 0° Cancer, and the December one is 0° Capricorn. Together with the equinoxes, the solstices mark where the four cardinal signs begin.

A right angle between two points, 90° apart: a quarter turn around the wheel, like the corner of a square.

A planet's station is the stretch of days when it seems to stand still, as it turns retrograde, or turns direct and starts moving forward again. Every retrograde period begins and ends with one. Like the backward motion itself, the pause is only how things look from Earth.

The sign the Sun was in when you were born, and what people mean when they say “my sign.” It's only one part of the chart, though: the Moon and the other planets each have a sign too, and so does the Ascendant.

Two people's charts compared, planet by planet. Synastry looks at how each person's planets connect with the other's, and which of the other person's houses those planets fall in.

Where a planet is now, or on any other date, read against the birth chart: the house it's passing through and the aspects it makes to the planets as they were at birth.

Two points 120° apart, a third of the way around the wheel. That's four signs apart, which usually means two signs of the same element.

The zodiac counted from the March equinox: 0° Aries is where the Sun stands at that equinox, and the other signs follow in order from there. Most Western astrology uses it, and so does this site.

Once the Moon has made its last exact aspect to the Sun or a planet before leaving a sign, it's void of course until it enters the next one. That can last a few minutes or more than a day.