r/beginnerastrology

hi evb,i sorta wanna get more into astrology and horoscopes so if there's any good suggestions do let me know ty

I wonder what do people use here and why?

I just recently found out about Sidereal and it intrigued me.

Has anyone made experiences with it?

What is your opinion on it?

I read online interpretation and got so confused. One told me im shy. One told me im bold. Then what’s correct?

I actually have both placement, Venus in scorpio in 8th house.

But whenever I read online interpretation of them they sound exactly the same to me, that Venus in 8th house loves intensely and deeply, just as Venus in scorpio. Then what’s the difference between them?

I’m starting to get the hang of astrology and birth charts in general, but I have no idea where to start on Horary/predictive astrology specifically. It’s so confusing, and everybody recommends the same books (which I can’t buy.)

Does anyone have any articles or videos that may help?

I certainly know there’s good and bad ways of expressing a natal chart placement.

But I have Mars in Aquarius in 12th house. I’m gay and I hate myself and struggle a lot with being gay, and I use drug and is addicted to drugs as a way of escaping the pain of being gay and people’s hatred.

I wonder if my Mars in Aquarius in 12th symbolizes something about this. It makes sense to me as sexuality (Mars) that are eccentric and different (Aquarius) being hidden, cant accept, not dealed with, put into a closet (12th house)

is my instinct wrong? Is what state i am right now a result of bad way to handle Mars in aquarius in 12th house?

I used to honestly think astrology was bullshit and just a fun thing but the more I look into it, the more I realise how eerily accurate it all is.
I am a Pisces sun, Scorpio moon, I’m not sure my rising but i recently found out I have an Aquarius north node and a Leo south node. This is all so accurate especially the Scorpio. I’ve always been a very emotional person and I’ve always cried over the smallest things. I like being alone unless it’s a select few people who I love intensely and other than that i am always in my own head and pretty much daydreamed my entire way though school and barely passed.
On the other hand my boyfriend is an Aries, which is so true for him he is quick to get angry but he’s also very hardworking, he works long hours as a builder and is saving to start his own buisness. He is a cancer moon and I just found out he’s Pisces north node and Virgo south node which I’m shocked to find out as he’s always said he acts more like a Virgo than a cancer before we knew what these nodes are.
Now the synastry here is amazing to me that his north node which is suposed to be some kind of lesson if I’m right is my sun sign Pisces, and without him even knowing astrology he said he feels like a Virgo and I found out it’s his south node which is something from your past life, i don’t know maybe I’m overthinking it like I think deep into things alot. I’m wondering how we both reach our node things, and what other people think about this dynamic is it a coincidence or can it be a good thing, I’m also wondering how you reach an Aquarius nn bc from my understanding it’s about toughening up when my other signs are both water signs and that’s damn near impossible for me lol, and I’m wondering why we have to reach this node thing when aren’t we the way we are for a reason why do we have to change?

While I understand if a planet conjuncts an angle, it's really strong, but I don't understand why it's strong. What's the reason for it being stronger than other placement?

Some people said it's because they govern four main important areas of life. I'm not convinced, because what thing people considered important depends on the person being asked. If for a person, career doesn't matter much but maybe charity like if they have a bunch of stuffs in Pisces in 12th house, who are we to say a planet in 10th house or conjunct the MC is stronger because it's more important for them.

For example, I have my Moon conjunct the DC at 2 degree of orbs. What's the difference if it's only somewhere in the 7th vs actually conjunct the DC? The interpretation is that Moon in 7th is I'm nurturing in relationships, so if I have Moon conjunct DC I'm just more nurturing than if it's just somewhere in 7th house? It does not make sense to me, can someone explain for me the important of angularity?

What are y’all’s takes on true vs mean for the nodes? I’ve seen several sources saying it doesn’t matter, but what about charts that change from 0 or 29 degrees in one sign to the other with another calculation?

And for the advice “take what resonates” that almost always makes sense but what if the person in question is feeling very lost or unsure as to what would resonate with them?

What do y’all use and have you found ones more accurate than the other? For those in similar positions do you feel like both apply or is it more clearly one option?

Placidus vs Whole Sign: How do you choose?
Hi! I’m studying astrology. I started with modern astrology and have more recently been exploring Hellenistic astrology because I wanted to understand more about the traditional astrology from which modern astrology developed.

I’ve noticed that astrologers seem to have very different approaches to house systems. Some use Placidus, some use Whole Sign, while others use a blend of both.
I’d love to hear your take: Which house system do you use, and why?

And if you use both, in what circumstances would you choose Whole Sign over Placidus, or vice versa?

For example, would your approach differ depending on whether you’re doing:

a natal chart reading

synastry / composite chart reading

a transit reading

a year-ahead reading

Would love to hear your thoughts and how you’ve arrived at your preferred approach! Thanks!

i came to horary a bit sideways and i still consider myself early in it, but i wanted to write up why it clicked for me, in case its useful to anyone here who been doing natal charts for a while and sometimes wish the answers felt less open ended.

the basic idea is almost startling simple. you have an actual question. not "what is my purpose" but something concrete, will i get the job, is the lost ring in the house, should i take the deal. the moment you (or the astrologer) really understand the question, you cast a chart for that exact moment and place, not for anyone birth. the chart is read like a snapshot of the question itself. then you give a house and a ruling planet to each party or thing involved, the querent (you, usually 1st house) and the quesited (the other person or the thing, house depend on the topic), and the relation between those two rulers in the chart is basically the answer.

What i like about it as a beginner, coming from natal work:

natal astrology is huge and permanent. you reading a whole life, or a whole personality, from one chart, and its very easy to feel like you either right about everything or nothing, because there rarely a clean way to check. horary is the opposite. the question is specific, the chart is disposable (you cast a new one each time), and often you actually find out the answer in real life within days or weeks. that feedback loop is, for me, what make the rules of astrology feel like rules you can really test yourself against, instead of vibes you hoping land.

it also more rule bound than most modern astrology, which i found reassuring more than restrictive. lilly's Christian Astrology (1647) is still the standard reference, and its genuinely a rulebook: is the aspect applying or separating, is the planet dignified or in its fall, is the moon void of course, is a third planet interfering. you not inventing the interpretation from nothing each time, you applying a method, and that gave me something concrete to actually study instead of just a feeling to develop.

2 real worked examples, from charts i study:

first one, a marriage question. a woman ask if she gonna marry a particular gentleman, after she already push the match away once before. on the chart her ruler and his ruler werent making a direct aspect at all, nothing there. but a faster planet had already separate from one of them and was applying to the other, carrying the connection between the two like a messenger. that's called translation of light, and lilly read the chart as favorable because of it.

https://preview.redd.it/u9puhzrvgtjh1.png?width=714&format=png&auto=webp&s=0cc4f3a52eaddb1e65c72a98bfb1f1be88fd53b4

Second one is more blunt. the question was if the querent would ever have children at all. the significators were applying to each other, looked promising on the surface, but a third planet cut into the aspect before it could complete, which is called a prohibition. lilly read this one as firmly unfavorable, and it wasnt subtle once you know to look for it.

https://preview.redd.it/bfbu9lg4htjh1.png?width=722&format=png&auto=webp&s=2339604cdd48fd400064376b6711c640a4099a10

what i like about writing them side by side like this is it show the same basic mechanic (a third planet getting involve) can go two totally different ways, one revive a dead looking chart, the other one kill a promising one.

the catch, and i say this as someone still working through it : the rules arent hard to write down, but they genuinely hard to apply well. judging dignity, spotting a void of course moon, telling a real applying aspect from a near miss, all of that take real practice, and i dont think there a shortcut around just doing a lot of charts and getting things wrong first. im still at that stage myself.

if any of this resonate and you been circling horary without quite starting, i'd say the barrier to entry is lower than it look, you mostly need a chart for a specific moment and a copy of lilly (or a modern horary textbook working from the same method) to check your reasoning against. happy to talk through any of the mechanics above if useful, and if anyone here is further along than me, i'd love to hear what click for you.

Hi! I’m sorry if this is a dumb or inappropriate question, but I’ve been trying to find a clear answer to this and Google keeps giving me completely different explanations, so I’d really rather hear from people who actually practice or study astrology.

My friend is an astrologer and she’s gotten me interested in astrology, but lately I’ve started questioning whether she’s presenting it accurately. She is very adamant that everything in a birth chart is basically “set in stone” and that certain things in your chart are inevitable and cannot really be changed or avoided.

She has a list of astrology observations that she uses and has gone through a bunch of them with me. Some of the things she’s told me have genuinely freaked me out because they don’t resonate with me at all, and she insists that I’m basically just refusing to accept what my chart says about me.

She has also made some pretty specific claims about my romantic and sexual life (which is one of the main reasons as to why I’m so uncomfortable and having so much anxiety around this question). One of the things she told me is actually a hard boundary for me and something I absolutely do not want, but she kept telling me that it’s “in my chart” and that I need to accept that it’s something I’ll eventually want or experience. She’s also a very sexual person herself, so I’m starting to wonder if some of her interpretations are influenced by her own personality or beliefs rather than astrology itself. She’s the type to peer-pressure or call you boring, vanilla, etc for not doing certain things.

I’m especially uncomfortable with the idea that a birth chart could supposedly override my own feelings, choices, boundaries, or free will. If I know that something is a hard boundary for me and I have no desire to do it, can astrology really override that and say that I’ll eventually want it or experience it?

TL;DR / So my question is: Is astrology actually considered deterministic/set in stone?

I'm really interested in learning more about Astrology & I hear about the Astrology podcast being an amazing resource. However I really struggle with podcasts & the format in general, is it possible to only read the transcripts on their website or would I miss out by not listening to the podcast proper?

We know the common description of the Moon square Mercury aspect as like the Emotions vs Logic, Mind vs. Heart, that a person constantly struggles between what he thinks and what he feels. But my problem with this is that I have Moon in Virgo square Mercury, as far as I know when the Moon in Virgo, emotion itself is already approached by using logic and filtered through analyzing and rational mind, that my Moon in already very Mercury-like. My Moon already likes it when there's analyzing and thinking, how would a Moon square Mercury make it suddenly hate thinking rationally or using the mind?

I'm not claiming this to be a good idea. But I don't really see my chart reflecting me or my life no matter which type of astrology (modern vs hellenistic) I use. I don't know my birth time so the ascendant I was given in my calculator was calculated based on what the planets where doing midday. But the more I researched, the more I found myself relating more to a completely different ascendant. Even with my physique, it just made more sense that I was that ascendant.

I went from aquarious to saggitarious ascendant and my chart instantly read clearer to me.

Now that being said, there are probably a lot of cons or caveats to what I'm doing. I'm not aware of everything in astrology I've barely scratched the surface but, this is a little experiment I've decided to do and so far as I'm interpreting my chart, things seem to check out.

Is this a valid way of narrowing down your chart for people who don't know what time they were born?

When a conjunction happens and both planets are positioned in different houses, how do I interpret them?

The aspect in question is a natal Saturn-pluto conjunction. Saturn is in Scorpio 10th house at 3⁰15 degrees. Pluto is in Libra 9th house at 29⁰19 degrees. I'm using placidus system.

firstly, please be patient and kind. i am not trying to diss astrology, I wanna know more.

so i did a researched online on days of the week and their planetary correspondences. what i discovered was how ancient understanding of space was very deficient (like calling sun moon planets along with real planets), arbitrary associations (the Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon sequence based on perceived speeds) and no real influence of associated planets on those specific days. as far as I understand, if the same thing had to be made today, it would look wildly different. also retrograde being nothing more than a misunderstanding too.

correct me if im wrong but how do people actually believe in this to learn and explore and entire system based on such misinformation? more importantly, why not rework it to make it make sense? like a weekly calendar with the real list of planets?

genuinely interested in learning!

I'm trying to find out what to make of this Taurus Midheaven, 1 degree. What does having a first degree, mid heaven mean? In case anyone's curious, my north node is Capricorn fifth house as well. I know people tend to read those side by side.