Western Astrology: Planets, Aspects, Transits and Synastry

Western astrology reads the sky in the tropical zodiac, which is fixed to the seasons: 0° Aries is the March equinox. It interprets the planets by sign and house, the angles between them (aspects), where they are moving now relative to your birth chart (transits), and, for relationships, how two charts interlock (synastry). It descends from the Hellenistic astrology of Roman Egypt.

Planets, signs and houses

A Western birth chart places the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto in the twelve signs and twelve houses. Plutto uses the Placidus house system, the most common in modern Western practice. The sign says how a planet behaves; the house says where in life it acts.

Aspects

Aspects are the angles between planets: the conjunction (0°), sextile (60°), square (90°), trine (120°) and opposition (180°). Trines and sextiles are read as ease; squares and oppositions — the "hard" aspects — as tension that drives change.

Transits and annual profections

Transits compare where the planets are today with where they were at birth: a Saturn return, for example, is Saturn coming back to its natal position around ages 29 and 58. Annual profections are a Hellenistic timing technique that advances the ascendant one sign per year of life, making one planet the "lord of the year".

Synastry and electional astrology

Synastry overlays two birth charts to read how two people meet — whose planets touch whose. Electional astrology works the other way: it looks for a future moment whose chart suits what you want to begin.

What Plutto reads for Western astrology

• The Planets — your chart, planet by planet
• Aspects and Hard Aspects — the angles in your chart
• Transits — what the sky is doing to your chart now
• Profections — the lord of your year
• Temperament — the balance of elements and modes
• Synastry — two charts read together
• Electional — choosing a moment
• Arithmancy — Western numerology

Every reading is computed from your own date, time and place of birth with Swiss Ephemeris, and spoken in your language. Free to start.

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