My problems are transits most of them I don't feel at all. I only use very tight orb (like 1 grade) and still most stuff don't effect me at all!

I just read a blog where there was a list of life altering aspects, well I have to wait for another ten to twenty years before anything big is supposed to happen...

prog. chart is totally useless. nothing ever happen with that.

This year was supposed to be a big year in many ways and ½ is already gone and nothing has happened (I want my money back).

Earlier this year I thought I had the transits figured and I was waiting this big bang. (I guess one day I will learn to accept that I'm not a big bang person!)

All the signs were suppose to be there and nothing happened!

It was relief but then again I believe in another transit when I see results not before!!

Also house systems throw me..  equal v. placidus -who is right?

mmarianna the way you explain things is brilliantly easy. are you a teacher? you could be:)

tipi i think you sound emotionally very stable, lol. do you notice a difference with inner(personal) or outer planets? or is this the same, across the board? i'm curious if you ever get fed up with astrology...you're 'i want my money back' comment made me laugh!

About reading a chart: this is the way I work -- I have to have paper and pencil. And I begin in this simple way. I write everything down. Sun in blah blah blah. Moon in blah blah blah. Like taking notes on the chart. What element is it, etc....is it fixed/cardinal/mutable...

Then I do aspects by hand one-by-one, starting with sun. Again, making lists, writing it all down. And as I write, take notes, a picture forms and I get ideas/instincts/images--

I know the computer can tell me the aspects but it's not the same as figuring it out.

If I don't write while I do this, it looks horribly overwhelming. I also only like really clear charts, hate those colored lines they use to show aspects.

I'm saying all this partly in response to Shell. Because this is one way to do it. Of course I'm sure there are as many methods as there are people.

I can look at a chart and come up with "something" -- but it won't get me to a deeper place.

Maybe this is my virgo moon that likes the writing and the lists -- but breaking it down this way, piece by piece.

Then I build it back up and see the whole. Well, my version of it anyway--

1) Yep, house systems. Because I've noticed whole-sign houses work with specific techniques, but then I follow my transits with Placidus and they seem perfectly active that way. I've yet to closely follow Koch or Equal. And then there are astrologers doing horaries with Regiomontanus and whole-sign! With horary, that's going to potentially change the entire answer.

2) Tropical vs. Sidereal, in terms of signs. Because the meanings of the signs more or less stay the same in both systems, but that means for example, that during the recent Venus retrograde the Western astrologers were writing all about qualities of impulsiveness, etc. being prominent during this time (Aries), while the Vedic ones were talking about spiritual and selfless qualities (Pisces). I can wrap my mind around using a whole system within its own context, but not so much these individual transits. 

thank youuu:))) woww!!!!

Actually I really want to be a teacher :)  I just finished my art degree! Its been few months that I am volunteering as an art teacher for children aged 7-10:) Its a way to get experience in teaching and im happy to do it! I love kids too much :)

I think I don't really understand the Gemini-Sagittarius polarity.  I get Virgo vs. Pisces "serve or suffer", I get Libra vs. Aries "us" vs. "me", I get Taurus vs. Scorpio, sort of "body" vs. "soul" , I definitely feel Cancer vs. Capricorn maybe because I have this on the AC-DC, and I guess I even get Leo vs. Aquarius as sort of individual vs. group.    I can give you keywords for Gemini and Sagittarius, but I can't FEEL this polarity.  It feels like Gemini is a baby version of Sadge.  I haven't yet grokked on an intuitive level what the essence of that opposition is.  Maybe I resist it because it seems like Gemini comes out looking so bad in comparison somehow, and as a Libra I don't think that's fair.  

I think a very good reason why I can't access this consciously is because I HAVE the opposition - Gemini Moon in 12th opposite Neptune in Sagittarius.  That's a good reason to have no conscious hold on this whatsoever, right? 

Jessica see if reading the following article helps

"Gemini suggests the first encounter with an equal, the awareness of another (a loved one or perhaps a rival), and the first conscious experience of being separate, experienced early in the familial environs. The pain of Gemini is borne from a severed connection to an ancient memory of being whole"

Could the Gemini-Sagittarius polarity be:

Geminis like surface information. Surface information can be false or truthful. A Gemini's desk of information is scattered. The info is all there, but with Sagittarius, the Sag puts the scattered information into a big picture (like a puzzle) and throws away all the false info and leaves the information that is true.

Hence, Sagittarius is the sign of 'universal truth'. Scorpios are personal truths.

Mutable signs are the intellects of the zodiac.

Gemini gets random, scattered info, Virgos organizes and anaylzes them (but they don't know which info is false or true yet), Sagittarius is the archaeologist that travels the world to find proof for truth. Sags put the puzzle together, and this is why their theme is 'I see', but seeing and knowing is different than understanding.

Sags may know, but they don't 'understand'. It's only Pisces who can "understand" God.

Knowing is like learning 1 + 1 equals 2. You know 1+1=2, but you don't know why.

Understanding 1+1+2: You get one object and you add it with another object, then you get 'one more than one object', which we call 2.

Only during the 12th stage of the zodiac can we be close to God.

Thank you, Tam and Toni!   Tam, that article was interesting.  I love Greek mythology, always loved it as a kid.
<!--Session data--><!--Session data-->

Gemini vs Sag makes me think of Grover from Sesame Street.  Near.... clomp, clomp, clomp... Far.  :)  Gemini likes shiny things nearby and Sag likes shiny things that you have to traipse all over the world to see. 

 Apparently I am all Gemini at the moment.  My evil Scorpio twin seems to be on holiday and there are no deep thoughts to be had here in my brain.  

OMG Lupa - thanks for the memory.  Is this why I loved that Grover skit so much?!?!

proximity vs. distance - that's kind of making sense to me.

Neith has a blog post about the Gem/Sag thinger {see how technical I am??).

Was reading trying to learn and they say:

"If Pluto is part of your natal chart's planetary dominants,"  huh?  How does one determine what your dominants are??????  Is there somewhere/someone/some book to read that speaks English until you are ready to jump to astro-speak?

Yeah, I am also hoping someone can define a dominant for us. Does it have anything to do with depositors? Even if the terms are unrelated, I still would like to know how you figure out "rulership" in charts. The concept is often brought up in books and I have no idea what they're talking about! 

On astro.com, I've been trying to figure out how to read these special sign/depositor diagrams.

To find them, go to Free Horoscopes > Extended Chart Selection > Pullen/Astrolog > Sign/depositor graphs. 

Any insight is appreciated. Here is what mine looks like:

 
I can tell that the glyphs in the circles mean that the planet is in either its own sign or house. Umm, that's about all I've got
 

Francetta and Dreams- Ive always wondered this and was going to bring this up when the thread was started, but my pride wouldn't let me. I should know this by now, but I don't ha!

I am unclear about solar return and a progressed chart, are they the same??? The Horary and the Solar Arcs are wayyyy too confusing for my brain to decipher. Oh and I have also been interested in Vedic astrology but I can't make heads or tails of it.

Me too, Bretagne, I'm sorta in that weird space between beginner and intermediate (going by how the books describe the material). It's fun to look up the words on this site http://classiclegendbooks.com/astrology-glossary-01.html But I'm still foggy on how I'm supposed to use them. I'm surprised that "dispositor" (haha, it's being underlined in this text box as if it's spelled wrong. I just realized I've been calling it a "depositor" )  is in there while there's no entry resembling "dominant"

The difference between Solar Returns and Progressed Charts is definitely in there though.

Vedic Astrology: I did a chart on one of the sites before and all I know is that my Moon Sign is Capricorn. If the Moon stands for the same thing as it does in Western astrology... well then, my confusion overwhelms me at that point. I like having an Aquarius Moon!!! ;)

I wonder about something :)

When I read the birth chart of someone....  how do I know which house system is best for them??  We can figure out what best describe ourselves but what about someone we dont know so well..??

Do we choose ONE house system and always use it for everyone ??

Omg, where to begin? Personally I think  some of it seems really useless for me to use & overwhelming to my brain, so I've stored what I like and have left the rest. Not really into astroids, yods, etc. Love transits, progressed, horary, composite charts, natal, aspects, planet, mythology with astrology. Am still learning more of the latter all the time.  Some of it I don't care to know! Ha! L

Hello again Kashmiri, actually I believe I was wrong to have such a closed mind   toward astroids and yods and such. My Mom is a professional astrologer and told me they're (the astroids) really useful tools for correlating the emotions of the moon or something (she was in a hurry, on way 2 party) & that she had met the lady who started it in the 80's don't recall name. So tha'ts the Leo part of me I detest, the closed mindedness @ times. It stinks. It's good to always progress, not regress i guess. I have a lot to learn too!

well, too much information and it is very scary how things actually play out- sometimes i am in shock, smacked- and try and explain to the non-astro people, forget it!!--- i think it is very difficult to visualize and bring trends into a ultra personal level- partly due to the fact that there are so many options- ways situations can play out. For me it is easier to id generational trends, larger global issues- but bring things down to day to day is very very difficult- this is why i read elsa's blog- she is an expert in the daily grind- and this is probably the hardest part of undersatnding- theory into practice- without feeling overwhelmed.

Pluto: I can see it clearly in the scorpio...but I find it hard to connect it to gemini; they are magnetic and they do change..but I do not see the depth, the strenght, the intensity of pluto in the sign