Thread by @UnlockAstrology

If I ever went to the dark side and became a full-on skeptic (and this has happened with a few astrologers actually), among the first things I would attack are people's attachment to signs (what I call signology) and houses. They are THE shakiest aspects of astrology.

Zodiac signs are interesting and fun, but the real protein in astrology rests with the dynamics of the planets and stars themselves. In fact, what many don't know is that much of the significations for the signs come from the planets that rule them, their modality, and...

connection with the turns of the Sun's motion along its ecliptic. Learn more about the significations of the planets and, wait for it, the aspects they make in charts.

There are whole forms of astrology like Vibrational astrology, as @clarissadolphin and @AstrologyDavidC, practices that don't focus so much on signs or houses at all. Similarly true with Symmetrical astrology (cosmobiology) and Magi Astrology.

Cuz change your zodiac from sidereal to tropical (or vice-versa) and you'll likely have different placements for your planets in particular signs. Change your house system, and you'll likely change the placements of those planets by house.

But a Saturn-Sun square will remain the same regardless of any change (unless you switch to a heliocentric system). A friend earlier was confused by the perfectionism that they and their mother shared. They were looking for clues with signs.

But both mother and child have a Sun-Neptune square, a penchant toward idealism and looking for perfect conditions. They want to live the dream. Staying too focused on signs CAN BECOME A DISTRACTION.

That doesn't mean houses or signs are useless. It's just a matter of priority. For instance, I just made blueberry pancakes, one of my newest favorite things to do in the morning. Now, downing that with hot apple cider. Yumm....Here's the thing...

I might be able to make blueberry pancakes without the peanut oil I like to put in it or can use less milk. Can use a vegan substitute for eggs. But I can't make them without blueberries and pancake flour. You must know what's essential.

You can do good astrology with valuable insights without ONCE referring to a sign. But you can't do that without paying attention to aspects between planets. I think we've come to make too much of a big deal of planets in signs and then in houses.

Being reserved in speech might have more to do with your Mercury square to Saturn than Pluto being in your 3rd house. Be careful of the tendency in your analysis to make ONE thing the whole of your chart's story. It's likely not.

In fact, what I teach is that a chart will often highlight even three or more factors that say a similar theme or issue. That's definitely an indicator that an issue or factor is true and manifest in someone's life.

With the popularity of social media, we've gotten more into Zodiac memes and think that we can properly know and understand the signs through those memes. Let's push on that a little.

Pisces, for example, are said to be "out to lunch" and prone to addiction. But let me ask you, why is that? What about the sign, using planets and its modality as a mutable Water sign makes that true? That's where students usually flounder.

Of course, if you take the modern view that Neptune rules Pisces, then you'll take the nebulousness of Neptune as what it lends to the sign by its putative rulership. But does that often hold up? Many, many Pisceans are incredibly sharp, cunning and cutting even.

Of course, there are ALWAYS other factors, if we're going to consider a whole chart why this might be so. Yeah, maybe they have Aries in their chart or Aquarius. Blah, blah, blah. But we're just talking one sign at a time, right?

Perhaps if we consider Pisces' traditional ruler, it becomes clear, compounded by the sign's modality and element. In his "night" home, Jupiter is more about exploring more emotional/inner worlds and appreciating changeability and fluidity.

But that doesn't mean that there is a complete lack of attention to the outer world. In fact, there may be a way when a Pisces, like an actual creature of the sea, like a whale or shark, is drawn toward pulling something down into its world from outside itself.

Of course, there are some Pisceans who get lost in their own sauce, but many like Albert Einstein or Steve Jobs who seek to merge (a mutable trait) what's in the visible world with what's invisible. (The deeper lesson of the two fish.)

This is something that we often see with the myths of Jupiter/Zeus as well. In Sagittarius, Jupiter's day home, he focuses more on the outer/external world and must learn to explore those inner worlds as well.

Regardless, what you see here is that the real story of the sign is more about the real journey of the planet Jupiter between its assertive or external sensibilities and receptive or internal sensibilities. This is true for all of the planets except the Sun & Moon.

And that's because the Sun and Moon were considered the lights and the Royals of Heaven. They are the principal dynamic of assertive and receptive after which all other traditional planets pattern themselves.

This dynamic of assertive and receptive also replicates itself in the forms of astrology that don't emphasize signs like Vibrational astrology. Similar sensibility exists with soft (receptive) and hard (assertive) aspects as well.

Again, less the emphasis on signology and what astrology really highlights--a dynamic. Okay, this is a long thread and I'm gonna finish my cider and continue the rest of my morning. Cheers!