The journal · Technique
Chart mechanics
The technical layer: dignities, house strength, calculated points and the conventions that change the answer.
14 articles.
Antiscia and contra-antiscia in traditional astrology
Points mirrored across the solstice axis, a real traditional technique most software ignores.
2 min read
Asteroids in astrology: Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta
Discovered in the 1800s, ignored for 170 years, then assigned meanings in the 1970s.
2 min read
Chart shapes: bowl, bucket, locomotive, splash
Seven named distributions, and a scheme where most charts fit two of them at once.
2 min read
Decans: the 36 subdivisions behind your sign
Thirty-six faces, two rulership schemes, and an origin older than the zodiac.
2 min read
Essential dignities: domicile, exaltation, detriment, fall
A scoring system for how comfortably a planet sits, and the backbone of traditional judgement.
2 min read
Angular, succedent, cadent: house strength explained
Twelve houses in three groups of four, the oldest way of judging how loudly a planet speaks.
2 min read
Intercepted signs: when a whole sign hides in a house
A real feature of some house systems, and absent from others.
2 min read
Out of bounds Moon: why some people feel different
A real astronomical condition, measured in declination, not longitude.
2 min read
Part of Fortune: the point nobody talks about
The oldest of the Arabic parts, and the one most calculators compute incorrectly.
2 min read
How to find your rising sign without a birth time
You find the time. Here's where it's written down, and what to do if it truly isn't.
10 min read
Astrological aspects: conjunctions, squares, trines and oppositions
Placements describe the pieces. Aspects describe the arguments between them, which is where a chart stops being a list.
9 min read
House systems compared: whole sign, Placidus and equal houses
The same birth, the same software, a different house system, and your Sun changes house. This is astrology's most consequential unresolved argument.
9 min read
The planets in astrology: what each one represents
In astrology the planets are the active agents of a chart.
9 min read
The 12 houses of astrology, explained in order
Signs describe how something behaves. Houses decide where in a life it happens, and one of those is personal to the minute.
9 min read
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