Introduction to the Basics
This course is designed for someone who has little to no background in the astrology. The overall goals for this course are to help you
- Gain some understanding of the history of astrology as practiced in the West.
- Understand how an astrological chart is related to the astronomy of the sky and planets.
- Learn about the core symbolism used in an astrological chart: the planets, signs, houses, and aspects
- Start to understand how this information is used to interpret an astrological chart
In our regular classes, instead of a division by topic area as you see in this class, you will have a division for each of the 10 weeks of class. In addition, there will be a Discussion forum and possibly an assignment or quiz in each of those weeks. Students will also meet on a regular basis in an online conference, where the instructor can share his or her screen and the students can ask questions, talk about the week's objectives, and interpret charts.
In this section, we will briefly cover the basic meanings for the Sun, Moon, the 5 visible planets as well as Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
The signs modify the interpretation of the planets based on three primary characteristics: polarity (masculine/feminine), element (fire, earth, air and water) and mode or quality of action (cardinal, fixed and mutable).
The houses represent areas of life and are used to specify where or in what areas the planetary meaning and interactions are expressed.
The fourth ingredient in understanding a chart is the aspects. Aspects come from the angular relationship between planetary points on the zodiac. They help indicate whether the relationships between points is easy or stressful.