Astrology 101...YES There Is An Actual Science! Part I

A few weeks back I decided to take a course in the basics of astrology at a really awesome bookstore in Huntington, LI called I Am Books . I immediately found the instructor Mark Zablocki, a member of the National Council for Geocosmic Research and Math professor at Briarcliff College, mesmorizing to listen to and learn from.

I went with an open mind and have always found the idea of horoscopes fun. I never took too much stock in them though. Truth is that I signed up for the class after reading a blog post from the guy I recently dumped, thinking that it could be something we could share and bond over since he seemed open to the science of astrology. Even on our first date he brought up astrology and opened his new iPhone and logged onto the internet pulling out a site he liked, reading about our astrological signs, Gemini and Taurus. For those of you reading that already know a lot about astrological signs, you can continue your groaning upon learning our signs and seeing the crash of this relationship before I did. And I'll even give you another juicy fact with us...my rising sign is Taurus and his is Gemini.

This class has been given in three sessions, 2 Saturdays for each session. There is one more Saturday left and apparently a make up session for all us sorry sacks who missed one class.

I thought it would be interesting to impart what I have learned with all my readers. Afterall, if there is a science to understanding the personalities of others why not at least be open to learning it and using it as a tool to help connect, understand and hopefully relate to other people?

I need to start with the disclaimer that there are those who study this science which is also an art, for 10 years or more. I will have have studied for 12 hours upon finishing this last class.

With that said...

There are many astrological charts that can be done. We studied our Natal charts. However no matter what type of chart you are looking at you will need to know that:

All the signs in the zodiac are compossed of an element, modality and polarity.
The elements are: Fire, Earth, Air, & Water.
The modalities are: Cardinal, Fixed, & Mutable.
The polarities are: Yin(female) & Yang(male).

There are houses in the zodiac. What falls into each of the houses will show where certain issues, & traits will be evident for you.

In order to begin the interpretation process you need to know what each sign's element are. But even before that let's look at what makes up each element.

Fire: heat, consuming, destructive, growth, encompassment, danger, gives light.
It goes through and around obstacles. It is about controlling and wanting to be in control. It will encompass as much as it can to grow higher and higher.

Earth: grounded, fixed, immovable, life-supporting, unyielding, regenerative, brings life, life-giving, sensuality, resists (I am here, you are there, who cares), provides a foundation, source point, most perminent

Air: transparent, life-supportive, moveable, formless, essential, about learning & information exchange, looks for connections to everything, touches everything, wants to penetrate everything, establish connections, doesn't resist anything, if you make something air tight you will get sick from the air

Water: emotion, reflects tie to emotion, formless, takes the shape of the container, evaporates, seeks to go down to the lowest level- like emotion that runs deep and can't be seen, life source, needs something to give it form, can be destructive, can accumulate in one place and create destruction like a flood, you can ignore it but you cannot get away from it.

Aries: Fire
Taurus: Earth
Gemini: Air (airiest of all signs)
Cancer: Water
Leo: Fire
Virgo: Earth
Libra: Air
Scorpio: Water
Sagittarius: Fire
Capricorn: Earth
Aquarius: Air
Pisces: Water