ASTROLOGICAL GLOSSARY OF TERMS

If I had to name a favorite book, I'd have to say "the dictionary." I absolutely Love to read the dictionary, a thesaurus, indexes and yes, a really Good glossary.

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For that reason I put a glossary here for you to look up astrologic and astronomic words to help you along your spiritual progression path. I'll be tweaking and simplifying some of these definitions as I find the time in order to aid in your understanding.

To read more about aspects in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Badly Aspected/Placed: a planetary affliction, sign placement in detriment or fall, or weak house placement.

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Benefic(s): Venus and Jupiter. To read more about Venus and Jupiter in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Biquintile: an aspect of 144° or 2/5th of the circle (see "quintile").

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Biseptile: an aspect of 102.86° or 2/7th of the circle (see "septile").

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Cadent: said of the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth houses. These houses immediately precede the four angles in a chart, and planets in them are subtler in their expression than in angular houses. Planets in cadent houses are often indicative of mental energy, act in the background, and have an effect on one’s thinking. To read more about the houses in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Cardinal: those signs beginning each season, Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. This quadruplicity denotes force manifesting in matter, activity, creativity, crisis, directness, speed and assertion. Planets in different Cardinal signs are often square or opposed, and thus inharmoniously related. To read more about the Cardinal Signs in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Celestial Sphere: an imaginary sphere of the heavens on the surface of which all celestial bodies appear to be located; once thought by the ancients to be an actual, crystalline physical sphere.

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Cerberus: a three-headed dog with a snake’s tail and snakeheads protruding from his back, one of the offspring of Typhoeus and Echidna, guarding the only gate into hell. Orpheus was one of the few living mortals to get past Cerberus by charming it to sleep with song during his attempt to rescue Eurydice from death. Hercules’ last labor was bringing Cerberus from the underworld and showing him to King Eurystheus.

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Chart: a picture centered around a circle representing the local sky at the time and place in question that astrologers then interpret. The circle is divided into 12 parts in two independent ways: one called the signs, the other the houses. The planets are interpreted by the house they fall in, the sign they occupy, their angular relationships to each other, and their pattern as a whole. To see a picture of the twelve houses including rising sign in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Chiron: a solar system object with the characteristics of both a comet and an asteroid. Discovered in October 1977, Chiron is peculiar because it has a coma - a cloud of water, carbon dioxide and other gases sublimed from its nucleus indicating it is a cometary body – yet is also 75 to 100 miles in diameter, more than 50,000 times the size of a normal comet. This size is characteristic of a large asteroid, which it was first thought to be. Its unusually elliptical orbit from just inside Saturn’s orbit to approximately that of Uranus’ is also unstable over millions of years, indicating that, in astronomical terms, it hasn’t been there very long. This is supported by the fact that Chiron’s coma is still active, yet the super-volatiles (its coma) sublimating from its surface would have completely vaporized in a few million years at its current orbit’s position.

Dozens of bodies have since been discovered with similar orbits and properties. In recognition of their dual comet/asteroid nature they have been designated Centaurs, the mythological Greek race that was half man, half horse. They are hypothesized to be escaped Kuiper belt objects because gravitational perturbations from Jupiter and Saturn would occasionally force Kuiper belt objects into Neptune-crossing orbits that could evolve into orbits like the Centaur’s. The similarity in size between Chiron and other Kuiper belt objects also makes it a likely source. Although asteroids are in this size range too, Chiron’s coma rules out an asteroidal origin.

Chiron, the mythological being, was renowned for his goodness and wisdom. Whereas the other centaurs were rowdy party animals given even to looting and rape, he dedicated himself to the study of medicine, music, astrology and the martial arts. A renowned teacher counting Achilles and Hercules among his many students, he taught the latter how to make the poison-tipped arrows assuring victory in battle. There are many versions of this story, but either he accidentally dropped a poisoned arrow on his own foot, or Hercules accidentally shot him during a fight over some other centaurs’ wine. In either case he became violently ill, but being immortal, was unable to die. He then retreated to his cave to heal himself, and in so doing created the healing arts. Ironically and despite this great achievement, his wound never healed. Chiron, living daily in great pain, elected finally to meet Zeus’ condition and be the immortal to die in Prometheus’ place. (To punish Prometheus for stealing fire and giving it to the mortals, Zeus had chained him to a rock where vultures forever ate his liver.) Chiron may be the centaur in the constellation Centaurus.

Chiron, the wounded healer, symbolizes those who find the strength through suffering to help others avoid the pain they themselves have had to undergo. We are often directed and made wise by own painful childhood experiences. Some astrologers believe that Chiron’s house and sign show where we have been deeply wounded, and may hold the key to our own healing. Chiron teaches us that our wounds contain a gift, and that the process of healing oneself is a journey back to greater wholeness and integrity: the gift of who we truly are. To see what "Chiron" looks like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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COBE: The COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite was developed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to measure the diffuse infrared and microwave radiation from the early Universe after the Big Bang. Launched in 1989 it carried three instruments, a Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS) to compare the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation with an ideal absorber and emitter of radiation ("blackbody"), a Differential Microwave Radiometer (DMR) to sensitively map the cosmic radiation, and a Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) to search for the cosmic infrared background radiation. Each COBE instrument yielded a major cosmological discovery:

FIRAS - The cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectrum is that of a nearly perfect blackbody with a temperature of 2.725° ± 0.002° K. This means that the temperature of outer space is less than 3 degrees above absolute zero in every direction we can see, almost without variation. This observation matches the predictions of the hot Big Bang theory extraordinarily well, and indicates that nearly all of the radiant energy of the Universe was released within the first year after the Big Bang.

DMR - The CMB was found to have intrinsic "anisotropy" (differences dependent upon the direction or place of measurement) for the first time, at a level of a part in 100,000. These tiny variations in the intensity of the CMB over the sky show how matter and energy was distributed when the Universe was still very young. Later, through a process still poorly understood, the early structures seen by DMR developed into galaxies, galaxy clusters, and the large-scale structure that we see in the Universe today.

DIRBE - Infrared absolute sky brightness maps were obtained to carry out a search for the cosmic infrared background (CIB). The CIB represents a "core sample" of the Universe: the cumulative emissions of stars and galaxies dating back to the epoch when these objects first began to form. The COBE CIB measurements constrain models of the cosmological history of star formation and the buildup over time of dust and elements heavier than hydrogen, including those of which living organisms are composed. Dust has played an important role in star formation throughout much of cosmic history.

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Comet: a small, fragile, irregularly shaped body composed of ices (water and frozen gases) and dust that was not incorporated into a planet when the solar system was formed. Comets have highly elliptical orbits bringing them very close to the Sun and deep into space, often well beyond the Pluto’s orbit. Only visible near the Sun, comets are thought to reside in the Kuiper belt or the Oort cloud. Most of a comet’s ice and gas is dissipated after a few hundred passes near the Sun. The remaining rocky object appears to be so like an asteroid that as many as half of the near-Earth asteroids may be "dead" comets.

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Conjunct: said of two planets (or a planet and an angle) that are less than 8° apart; denotes power or intensity. Most astrologers agree on the 8° orb. To what conjunct looks like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Conjunction: the state of being conjunct. To what a conjunction looks like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Constellation: any group of stars in a pattern thought to resemble a deity or object after which it was named. The Sun, Moon and planets all appear to move through only 12 constellations (the zodiac) due to their all lying in the ecliptic plane.

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Contraparallel: the aspect between two planets that are the same angular distance north and south of the celestial equator (the Earth’s equator projected onto the celestial sphere) and on opposite sides of it; orb 1°. Two planets with opposite "declinations" are said to be in contraparallel; see "declination" and "parallel." This aspect is said to act like the conjunction when two planets have the same declination and are on the same side of the celestial equator (in parallel), and like the opposition when two planets have the same declination and are on opposite sides of the celestial equator (in contraparallel).

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Cosmic Cross: see "Grand Cross." To what a Grand Cross looks like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Culminate: a celestial object is said to "culminate" when it crosses the local meridian. It is not at the zenith when it culminates unless that part of the ecliptic also happens to be at the zenith.

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Cusp: the beginning or clockwise border of a house or sign. The cusp of a house or a sign is thought to be its strongest area. To what the twelve houses look like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Dark Side: those few degrees before a house in which a planet in the previous house makes its influence felt: up to 6° - 8° before an "Angle," and 1° - 2° before a minor house cusp.

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Decanate: three sequential 10-degree sections of all signs: the first 10° of any sign is said to be of the nature of the sign itself; the second 10° decanate is of the nature of the next sign of the same element; and the third has the nature of the remaining sign of that element.

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Declination: in the equatorial coordinate system, the angle that an object is above or below the Earth’s equator projected on the celestial sphere. This coordinate corresponds to latitude on the Earth. The other coordinate in this system is called "Right Ascension."

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Degree: units of angular measure into which a circle or arc can be subdivided for purposes of measuring. A sign is 1/12th of a 360° circle, or 30°.

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Descendant: The intersection of the ecliptic with the western horizon where planets set or descend; the beginning of the Seventh house. The Descendant in our chart is our experience of others and the world as not-self; lost aspects of our self that we experience through - or look for in - others, and with which we are least identified. To see where the Descendant is in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Detriment: a planet is said to be in its detriment in the sign opposite the one it rules. Here a planet's power is blocked, its full expression hindered, or it has difficulty expressing its positive or optimistic side (in a sign so uncongenial to its nature). The Sun is in its detriment in Aquarius, the Moon in Capricorn, Mercury in Sagittarius or Pisces, Venus in Aries or Scorpio, Mars in Libra or Taurus, Jupiter in Gemini, Saturn in Cancer, Uranus in Leo, Neptune in Virgo, and Pluto in Taurus.

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Dignified: said of a planet in a sign it rules. Here it most freely, naturally and powerfully expresses its energy; and, if a personal planet, is a dominant force in the whole chart.

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Direct: the apparent forward/clockwise motion of a planet against the background stars as seen from the Earth, as opposed to apparent backward ("Retrograde") motion of that same planet seen from the Earth.

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Earth: one of the four elements (earth, air, fire and water) by which the signs and the houses are categorized. In general, the element of earth represents matter, material affairs, and al things practical. For its application in the signs and houses, see below. To read more about the earth element in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Earth (house): the second, sixth and tenth houses; those houses having the same ordinal numbers as the three earth signs. To see what the earth houses look like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Earth (sign): The practical, material, physical and solid element exemplified by the earth signs Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn. In a physical solid - the counterpart of the astrological element earth - the bonding energy holding the constituent atoms together is stronger than the atom’s vibrational energy. This is what makes a solid a solid and gives it a fixed geometry. See "plasma" for an explanation of temperature, absolute zero, and the four states of matter. To read more about the earth sun signs in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Ecliptic (Plane): the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, hence the apparent path of the Sun around the Earth. All of the planets’ orbital planes are inclined less than 3.4° to the ecliptic plane (except Mercury’s at 7° and Pluto’s at 17°). The ecliptic differs from the zodiac in that the former is a plane that has no "thickness" (or "celestial latitude," measured along great circles running perpendicular to the ecliptic and through the ecliptic pole), whereas the zodiac is a band of 12 constellations centered on the ecliptic but also extending north and south of it by 10 - 15°. The Earth’s polar axis is inclined 23.5° to the ecliptic (see page 64), which gives rise to the seasons.

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Equinoxes (see Precession): Twice a year a line drawn from the Sun to the Earth falls on the Earth’s equator. Experienced on Earth as the moment the Sun crosses the equator, on that day all over the Earth day and night are of equal length. Hence the Latin equinox (equal night). In spring this moment, around March 21st, is called the vernal equinox,‘. It defines 0° of the sign Aries and marks the beginning of the astrological year and the annual cycle of light and dark. From its low at the winter solstice š, the light force waxes through the vernal equinox ‘ to its maximum at the summer solstice ". Thence it wanes through its balance point at the autumnal equinox — back to its nadir at the winter solstice š.

The "signs" are 12 equal divisions of the interval between successive vernal equinoxes that slowly move* relative to the fixed stars. "Tropical" astrologers believe that the 12 signs are interpretively significant. "Sidereal" astrologers believe that the fixed groups of stars (constellations) from which the signs originally took their names are interpretively significant. *Since the Earth is not a perfect sphere (see "oblateness"), the Sun and Moon pull on it unevenly.

This non-uniform pull or force causes the Earth’s spin axis to wobble or "precess" in space, the way a top’s axis pulled on by gravity circles the vertical as it slows down. Thus the Earth’s equator and its line of intersection with the ecliptic precess as well. Since this line of intersection is the line of the equinoxes, we get the "precession of the equinoxes." This wobble takes 25,788 years to complete one cycle, or 2150 (25,788÷12) years/sign. A "great age" takes its name from the group of stars (constellation) through which the vernal equinox is currently precessing. Thus the Age of Pisces lasted from about the birth of Christ to the mid-20th century, and the Age of Aquarius will last from the mid-20th century until about 4100 AD.

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Exact: said of an aspect whose orb is 0°. For example, a trine of 123° has an orb of 3°, whereas a trine of 120° is exact. Aspects are rarely exact, but rather approach being exact as their limiting, strongest, or most compelling condition. To read more about aspects in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Exalted: said of a planet in its strongest, most creative sign placement: the sign of its Exaltation. Here it can express its energy in its highest, most positive form. The Sun is Exalted in Aries, the Moon in Taurus, Mercury in Aquarius, Venus in Pisces, Mars in Capricorn, Jupiter in Cancer, and Saturn in Libra. Exaltation is not particularly significant for the outer planets.

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Fall: said of a planet in the sign opposite to its Exaltation; the weakest and least favorable placement for a planet, resulting in a restriction of its nature and an inability to express its positive or optimistic qualities. This is personally significant only for Moon in Scorpio, Mercury in Leo, Venus in Virgo, Mars in Cancer; and, to a lesser extent, Jupiter in Capricorn and Saturn in Aries.

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Feminine (Yin): receptive water or earth qualities or signs. Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces are the feminine, Yin signs. To read more about the elements of water and earth in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Finger Of Fate ("Yod"): see "Finger of God" below. To see what the Finger of Fate or "Yod" in a Natal Chart looks like, Click here!

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Finger of God ("Yod"): A triangular aspect structure with one planet at the vertex of the triangle in quincunx to two other planets in sextile to each other. The whole structure points to the planet at the apex: a special task in life beneficial to one’s evolution. Thought to be a fateful, constant, and relatively unchanging condition. To see what the Finger of God or "Yod" in a Natal Chart looks like, Click here!

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Fire: one of the four elements (earth, air, fire and water) by which the signs and houses are categorized. The element of fire represents energy, enthusiasm, inspiration, and the spirit. For its application in the signs and houses, see below. To read more about the fire element in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Fire house: the first, fifth, and ninth houses; those houses that have the same ordinal numbers as the three fire signs. Isabelle Hickey called the fire house trinity the "Trinity of Life," with the first house being the house of the body, the fifth the house of the soul, and the ninth the house of the spirit. These houses partake in the qualities of the fire signs, particularly if their occupants are trined or all linked in a Grand Trine. To read more about the houses in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Fire sign: The element representing inspiration, energy, enthusiasm, being forceful, impulsive, and joie de vivre - exemplified by the fire signs Aries, Leo and Sagittarius. The physical equivalent of the astrological element fire is plasma, a gas that has lost some or all of its electrons by being heated or electrically excited. All stars are composed of plasma. The four states of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma) differ only in the relative degree at which their atoms vibrate. See "plasma" for an explanation of temperature, absolute zero, and the four states of matter. To read more about Aries, Leo or Sagittarius in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Fixed: the second or middle sign of a season, denoting will, power, stability, and stubborn or inflexible energy. Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. To read more about a fixed sign in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Geocentric: "earth-centered:" the model of the solar system before Copernicus and still used by many astrologers as a basis for interpretation.

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Grand Cross: four planets in square aspect, including 2 oppositions (a complete fourth harmonic syndrome). This is an intense and often stressful structure needing a focus for it’s considerable energy into specific purposes and constructive action. Usually a grand cross occurs all in one quadruplicity: if in Cardinal signs, the outlet for the energy is action; in Fixed signs, the outlet is emotional and/or surrendering self-will; in Mutable signs, being able to see all sides leads to indecisiveness and diffusion of energy: an adjustment in thinking habits is necessary. To see what a Grand Cross looks like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Grand Trine: three planets each in trine to the other two; a complete third harmonic syndrome; perfect equilibrium and balance denoting great talent, ease or harmony, usually all in one element (earth, air, fire, or water); often a static, passive, inert structure not promoting the growth that confronting the problems of the hard aspects does - for this reason the ancients used to think of the Grand Trine as evil or malefic. To see what a Grand Trine looks like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Gyroscope: invented in 1852 by the French experimental physicist Leon Foucault (1819-1868) as part of a two-pronged investigation of the rotation of the earth. The better-known demonstration of the Foucault pendulum showed that the plane of rotation of a freely swinging pendulum rotated with a period that depends on the latitude of its location. His gyroscope was a rapidly rotating disk with a heavy rim, mounted in low-friction gimbals. As the earth rotated beneath the gyroscope, it would maintain its orientation in space. This proved to be hard to do in practice because frictional forces brought the system to rest before the effect could be observed.

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Hard (aspect): the opposition, square, semisquare, and sesquiquadrate; denotes intensification and change, or dynamic instability. To see what aspects look like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Harmonic: If an aspect is expressed as a fraction of 360°, the denominator of that fraction is the harmonic number of the aspect. Each of the following aspects is followed by its harmonic number: opposition-2, trine-3, square-4, sextile-6, septile-7, semisquare-8, sesquiquadrate-8, semisextile-12, quincunx-12.

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Harmonic Syndrome: three or more planets mutually in an aspect pattern of the same harmonic, like the grand Trine, the T-square, the Grand Cross, the Yod, the Grand Hexagram, or five planets each in septile to each other. To see what a Grand Trine looks like in a Natal Chart, Click here! To see what a T-Square looks like in a Natal Chart, Click here! To see what a Grand Cross looks like in a Natal Chart, Click here! To see what a Yod looks like in a Natal Chart, Click here! I do not yet have a Grand Hexagram posted on this website.

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Heavy Planet: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. To read more about planetary glyphs in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Heliocentric: the revolutionary, sun-centered model of the universe proposed by Copernicus in 1543.

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Heliopause: The boundary marking the end of the Sun’s influence and separating our solar system from interstellar space, where the expanding solar wind from our Sun eventually runs into the solar winds of other stars (the interstellar medium). It is thought to be about 10 billion miles - three time Pluto’s distance - from the Sun.

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Heliosphere: the magnetic bubble of hot plasma around the Sun caused by the solar wind’s expansion out into space. The heliosphere meets the interstellar medium at the heliopause.

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Higher Octave: the relationships of the three outer planets to the three inner planets: Uranus (lightning-fast intuition) is the higher octave of Mercury (rational thought); Neptune (divine compassion) is the higher octave of Venus (personal love); and Pluto (evolution, transformation) is the higher octave of Mars (libido and ego drive). To read more about planetary glyphs in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Hipparchus of Rhodes: (190 - 120 BC) was probably the inventor of trigonometry, the first person to suggest that the earth rotated on its axis, the first to obtain a measurement of the earth’s diameter, calculated the distance to the Moon (between 59 and 67 earth radii, 60 earth radii is correct), calculated the length of the year to within 6.5 minutes, discovered the precession of the equinoxes (46" of arc compared to the modern 50.26", and much better than the 36" that Ptolemy obtained 300 years later), was the first known person to appreciate the vast distance to the stars, created a star catalogue of about 850 stars, and introduced the division of the circle into 360 degrees into Greece.

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House Ruler: see "Ruler (house)."

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House (System): any of over 9 different systems of dividing the ecliptic into 12 interpretive sections, or houses, named after the monks and others who developed them, namely Placidus, Koch, Ptolemy, Porphyry, Campanus, Regiomontanus, Alcabitius, Morinus and Zariel. Due to an historic serendipity in its publishing, Placidus is the most popular. House systems either divide up the ecliptic, divide up the quadrants between the angles, or divide up the time. I use the Placidus House System when calculating charts.

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I.C. or Imum Coeli: "Imum Coeli" or "lowest heaven"; the fourth house cusp. The most intimate and personal point in the chart: one’s innermost feelings, roots, and internal sense of one’s self. To see what "Imum Coeli" looks like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Inconjunct: originally applied to both the semisextile (30°) and the quincunx (150°) by Ptolemy and other Greeks; now refers to the quincunx only. To see what the "Inconjunct" looks like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Inharmonious(ly): an aspect or sign detracting from or blocking the energy of the planet in question.

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Inner (Planet): Mercury, Venus, or Mars. To see what the planets look like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Intercepted: said of a sign falling within a house and not on a house cusp. In that condition, that sign’s ruler doesn’t rule any house.

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Interstellar: referring to the space between the stars. The expanding solar wind from our Sun eventually runs into the solar winds of other stars at a boundary marking the end of the Sun’s influence (and separating our solar system from interstellar space) known as the "heliopause." Thought to be about 10 billion miles - three time Pluto’s distance - from the Sun, the heliopause may soon be reached by the Voyagers 1 and 2 launched back in 1977. The Oort cloud may also mark the physical end of our solar system and the beginning of interstellar space.

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Kelvin: the absolute scale of temperature, which begins at the point at which there is no atomic or molecular motion known as "absolute zero." This is 459° below 0 on the Fahrenheit scale, and is the definition of 0° on the Kelvin scale. See "plasma" for an explanation of temperature, absolute zero, and the four states of matter.

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Kuiper Belt: a disk-shaped region of many small icy bodies extending from just beyond Neptune’s orbit to about three times further out from the Sun. It’s estimated to contain more than 35,000 objects greater than 60 miles in diameter (several hundred times the number of similar-sized objects in the asteroid belt), and as many as 100 million comets 12 or so miles across. Pluto is thought to be a Kuiper belt object and not a true planet because of its small size and the extreme inclination and ellipticity of its orbit.

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Lights, The: the Sun and the Moon. To read more about the Sun and Moon glyphs in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Light Year: the distance light travels in one year; at the speed of 186,282 miles/second, this amounts to a distance of 5.88 trillion miles. Notice that a light year is a unit of distance, not of time. The nearest star is 4.4 light years away, and our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a spiral of 200 billion stars that is 10,000 light years thick at its central bulge and 100,000 light years in diameter. The nearest galaxy to us, the Andromeda galaxy, is 2.3 million light years away, and the entire Universe is thought to be about 27.4 billion light years in diameter.

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Magnitude: numbers assigned to heavenly bodies indicating their relative brightness: the smaller the number, the brighter the object. Thus the brightest star, Sirius, with a magnitude of -1.44, is brighter than a star of magnitude 0, which in turn is brighter than a star of magnitude 1, etc. The faintest object the human eye can see is magnitude 6, about the brightness of the planet Uranus.

The Hubble Space Telescope can see some faint galaxies as dim as the 30th magnitude, 4 billion times fainter than the faintest object the human eye can see. In general, objects are 2.512 times brighter than objects one magnitude less. Thus, a first magnitude star is 2.5x2.5.x2.5x2.5x2.5 = 100 times brighter than a star of magnitude 6. Venus, the brightest object in the sky other than the Sun or Moon, has a magnitude of -4.4. The full Moon’s magnitude is -12.7, and the Sun’s magnitude is -26.75.

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Major Aspect: the conjunction, opposition, trine, square and sextile aspects; those aspects having angular separations of 360° divided by 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6, that is, with harmonic numbers of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6. To see what the aspects look like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Malefic(s): (now archaic) Mars and Saturn. To read more about Mars and Saturn in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Masculine (Yang): assertive fire or air qualities; Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius. To read more about the elements of fire and air in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Mass: An object's weight (not its mass) is a measure of how much the planet Earth pulls on that object. Hold an object in your hand. You can feel the Earth pulling it. But that feel of weight is a result of an interaction between the Earth and the object. Newton established that all bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that increases as mass of the bodies increases. Thus an object's weight depends on two things: how much stuff is in the object itself, and much stuff is in the object pulling on it, in this case, the Earth. It follows that an object's weight is greater in the gravitational field of the Sun, and less in the gravitational field of the moon.

Newton realized that all objects have an intrinsic property that doesn't depend on the planet pulling on the object, a property that stays the same whether or not the object is on the Sun, the Moon, or on the Earth. This intrinsic property of any body, independent of where it is in the universe, is called the body's mass. And a body's mass can be obtained by taking its weight -- which depends on how much a particular "planet" is pulling on it to make it "heavy" -- and dividing its weight by the strength of the particular planet's pull on it.

Now Newton discovered that the Earth pulls on (or accelerates) all objects with the same amount of force. This is the gist of his apocryphal falling apple experience. If you were to drop 1 pound of feathers and a 1-pound lead ball from the same height in a vacuum, they would both hit the ground at the same time. Why "in a vacuum?" Because air resistance would impede the falling feathers more than the falling lead ball -- but they are both being pulled on (or accelerated by) the Earth with one pound of force, which is experienced on the Earth as their weight.

Since the Earth's pull is a constant for all bodies, it can be easily calculated. It is 32 feet/9.8 meters per second per second. The "per second per second" is because acceleration is a change in velocity, so the Earth's pull increases a falling body's velocity 32 feet per second every second. Thus the Earth's constant pull on all objects can be divided out of the weight of any object. And when you divide an object's weight by the pull of the body in whose gravitational field you're measuring its weight (like the Earth's pull), you're left with its "mass" (the units of which are "slugs" in the English system).

Thus a body's mass is independent of the planet in whose gravitational field you're weighing it. So although its weight differs on Mercury, the Sun, the Moon and Jupiter, its mass remains constant on all those bodies. Mass is the amount of stuff a body has in it, not how hard a particular body or planet is pulling on that stuff -- which is its weight.

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MC (Medium Coeli): Latin for "middle of the sky"; the intersection of the local meridian with the ecliptic; the Midheaven, or tenth house cusp. To see where the Medium Coeli a.k.a. Midheaven is in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Meridian: any circle with its center at the Earth’s center passing through the observer’s zenith and the North or South Pole. The meridian is that "vertical circle" passing through the center of the Earth and perpendicular to the horizon (the definition of a vertical circle) that also passes through the north and south points on the horizon. The Meridian is also perpendicular to the Prime Vertical, the vertical circle passing through the east and west points on the horizon. The horizon and Meridian planes quarter the local sky and form the 12 houses when trisected by planes perpendicular to the Prime Vertical and passing through the horizon’s north - south line (see diagram on page 117). All local meridians intersect the ecliptic at the tenth and fourth house cusps. The 24 Standard Time Meridians are each 15° apart, and define the time within the irregularly shaped Time Zones around each of them.

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Midheaven: The midheaven is the ecliptic degree most directly overhead: the intersection of the local meridian with the ecliptic above the horizon. The highest point in the local sky on the planet’s path, it is also known as the tenth house cusp, or the Medium Coeli (MC). It is one’s point of maximum externalization: the social world most distant from intimate, personal life. It is what we need to do with our life in order to grow. To see where the Medium Coeli a.k.a. Midheaven is in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Minor Aspect: the semisquare, quincunx, semisextile, sesquiquadrate, quintile, biquintile, septile, biseptile, triseptile, novile and decile. To see what the aspects look like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Minor house(s): the second, third, fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, eleventh and twelfth houses; any house other than the angular houses. To see what the houses look like in a Natal Chart, Click here!

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Minute (‘): the 60 equal divisions of a degree of arc. In a chart, the digits before the little sign symbol accompany the planetary glyphs show the position of each planet in the sign by degrees. The digits after the little sign symbol refine that position to 60ths of a degree, or minutes of arc.

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Mutual Reception: the condition where two planets are each located in a sign ruled by the other. This is a beneficial condition, lending harmony and stability to each, and compensates for the detrimental signification otherwise occurring if either or both planets are in its detriment or fall.

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Mutable: the third and last sign in each season, associated with flexibility and versatility. Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces. A lot of Mu