Rising signs, houses, planets in retrograde… What does any of it mean?

You meet up with friends to gossip about the person you met when you went on a date during the weekend.

You go over the inevitable: what they look like, where they’re from, if they bought your drinks. And increasingly in these kinds of conversations, the topic of their astrological sign comes up.

From being told that you don’t get along with your boss because they’re a Virgo and you’re an Aries, to the world seemingly crashing down as Mercury goes retrograde, astrology has slowly been taking over mainstream conversation and culture. There are gold rings for constellation alignments, newspaper columns on the best lipstick for your zodiac, and endless astrology meme accounts.

Welcome to the age of astrology.

But like many things, astrology is far more complex than it seems

From the minute you were born, the precise location of the planets in the sky can supposedly influence everything from your outward personality to the kinds of people you gravitate towards. For example: maybe the sun was positioned in Virgo when you were born but the moon was in Capricorn. This could make you quite self conscious of your outward appearance (Virgo) but practical in how you go about addressing it (Capricorn).

However, while the planets and stars supposedly may influence us, they don’t take away the free will of our lives. Vix, also known as the New Age Hipster, specialises in tarot and astrology. She told Voice of London: “I don’t let the planets dictate my every move, but I do like to know what’s going on up there so I can make the most empowering choices for my life.”

 

November 16th to December 6th we are in mercury retrograde.

squabbles
car issues
communication problems
relationship issues
body issues
headaches
watch those exes

and much more

you have been warned #Astrology #MercuryRetrograde

— VK NUMEROLOGY (@DCnumerology) November 4, 2018

 

If that doesn’t make any sense, don’t worry: we’ve created the first part in a two-part series of infograph cheat sheets to get you started.

Astrology is the math of the stars, and before you can start learning the answers, you need to figure out the components of the equation.

 

Featured image: Courtesy of Anastasia Dulgier via Unsplash

Words and infograph: Taylor Paatalo | Subbing: Shruti Tangirala