Weighing in the Elements in a horoscope

3/28/2010
WEIGHING IN THE ELEMENTS IN A HOROSCOPE
It is now time for us astrology students to begin to erect a chart of a horoscope wheel assuming that you now can identify the symbols with the planets and the signs.
If you have been following along and studying the handouts with the keywords or anywhere else one can find what the symbols are pictured as and you also have a beginning knowledge of three keywords for each of the planets, signs and houses so we can look together at a horoscope and identify these planetary symbols in the chart and the signs.
To do this one will need to have his or her chart made or constructed. If you do not have one already made up go on-line to www. Astro data bank and where it says, to create a birth chart put in the necessary information for your print out. What you will need is your birth time, date of birth and place of birth. Just follow the prompts and before you know you will see your chart on-line.
Now, before we continue, I want to say that I believe in astrology from an intuitive or spiritual perspective but before we can study astrology on an intuitive or soul centered level we must know the fundamentals and we must be able to analyze the chart so that we can see where everything is at and what is it for in a horoscope.
It is the same as we learned in school with our English study, what, who, where, how and why. What factor in a chart is energy potential or the type of energy that is you or the one you are studying? The planets can be called the what of the chart. The Romans and the Greeks in order to relate to these energies defined them as Gods in human form. The planets represent powers or the energy which is your ability to do.
Signs are the personalities and show the self expression how the planets express themselves, the signs are the how; Example: Venus is the planet of love and peace and Mars is the planet of war and aggression they are opposite each other. If Venus is in its opposite sign Aries it will soften the aggressive or assertive sign of Aries unless there are weak aspects called angles it may make the Venus energy to be more insensitive . The opposite attract one another and in astrology it is not just the sun sign that is important but the opposite sign of the sun is also crucial in chart interpretation. Astrology is always about relationship and balancing the energies, too much of one energy or too little of another can cause an imbalance.
To reiterate, planets are people and signs are how these people express themselves and are the personality or the persona of the person, behavior attitude and the way the planet gives expression in the chart.
This point brings us to weighing the chart which is very important. It is not enough just to know where the planets are which is always in one of the houses and in one of the signs. One way to communicate or to identify this concept of planets in signs and houses is to think or say for example; Mars in Aries in the first house. You always start off with the planet and then the sign and house. Planets rule the signs not the signs rule the planets or the houses. It is more powerful to some astrologers to say planet in the house.
The house position is where the energy of the planet is given expression such as the fourth house is the house of the home where you grew up and under what conditions, Mars in the fourth house says the environment was probably full of drive and action, ambitious maybe fighting of some kind, arguments.
One cannot say what a planet is doing in a house unless one can see how this planet relates not only to the house position but the whole chart meaning any angles or aspects with other planets or points in the chart.
So what does all this mean? Let us start with the weighing of a chart. The first weighing in is the elements. In astrology there are four elements; fire, air, water and earth, the planets that are in the chart are found to be in one of these elements unless it is on the cusp and that means it share two elements.
The way one weighs the chart is by giving a value for each of the planets and the rising sign or the ascendant which is at 0 degrees Aries on the eastern side or the left side of the chart on the horizon.
Sun and the Moon is given two points, they are the luminaries and have a greater influence then all the planets except for the asc. Give the planets one point. Start with the element of Fire and look for any planets in fire signs, Aries, Leo or Sagittarius. Count how many planets are in fire and make a note of it in your note book. Five or more planets in an element are considered strong and so the fire expression or the characteristics of the element of fire will have a strong influence.
Zero to 2 planets in an element is considered weak and will not have as strong an effect as the nature of the element would have.
Keywords for fire:
Positive: assertive, inspirational, enthusiastic, ambitious, confident, loving, strong, optimistic, faithful, open-minded.
Negative: aggressive, selfish, impatient, domineering, insensitive, willful, righteous, fanatic, grandiose.
Remember these are just a few keywords for each element and as your knowledge broadens so will your keywords. Add as many as you like to your astrology keyword dictionary. Learn to use the keywords when you are speaking in astrological terms. A suggestion as a way to develop your keywords for elements is look at the signs in their element in the order they go around the Zodiac.
Keywords for air:
Positive: communication, ideas, thinking, relating, objectivity, judgment, diplomatic, original, altruistic, idealistic, friendly.
Negative: dualistic, fickle, unrealistic, indecisive, comparing, people pleaser, revolutionary, stubborn, rebellious.
Keywords for water:
Positive: caring, supportive, sensitive, determined, sympathetic, resolute, compassionate, redeeming, self-sacrificing.
Negative: needy, insecure, victim, vindictive, cold, overly-protective, martyr, escapist, paranoid.
Keywords for earth:
Positive: stable, practical, productive, skillful, problem solver, worker, responsible, realistic, logical,
Negative: stubborn, possessive, self-indulgent, critical, fastidious, narrow-minded, callous, pessimistic
Weakest element: 0 to 1 planet in element: This is where one lacks an element. These are people who have a need to over compensate for what they appear to lack.
Fire: pessimistic, apathetic, dis-engaging, depressed, unmotivated, lacks inspiration.
Air: subjective, unsociable, isolated, introverted, introspective, and simple-minded.
Water: insensitive, controlled, insulated, apathetic, impersonal, insecure, and unresponsive.
Earth: impractical, unrealistic, irresponsible, valueless, non-ambitious, unstable, compulsive.
This is a brief run down on weighing in the elements of a chart and as you can see the elements have to do with shaping the personality. Remember fire is spirit, air is mental, water is emotional and earth is physical or material.
The next beginner’s intermediate lesson is on weighing the modes or how the personality behaves. There are three modes that we will cover in the next lesson, cardinal, fixed and mutable.