Astrology Basics
The astrology chart shows the 12 signs of the zodiac and planets as they move through it. The number of degrees two planets are apart determines their aspect and these relations are shown in the centre of the circle.
Signs of the Zodiac
Planets
Aspects
Lunar Nodes
The other glyphs on the chart represent the lunar nodes and the points in the lunar orbit where the moon is furthest away and closest to earth.
Retrogrades
As the earth and planets move around the sun, sometimes they can appear to be moving backwards through the sky, this is called a retrograde. When planets are in retrograde it can be considered as representative of a problem coming up or looking backwards at things that have happened previously when the planet was in the area of the zodiac that it is moving back into.
Effects
The influence of planets can be affected by what sign they are in. Each sign has a planet that is its ruler, where that planet has its strongest influence, and a planet that is in detriment. As the outer planets have been discovered in modern times they have replaced the rulers of Scorpio, Aquarius and Pisces. The traditional rulers are represented by the transparent glyphs.
Houses
If you turn on houses you can see where the horizon is, represented by Asc for the ascendent and Dsc for the descendent. These are dependent on the location co-ordinates. There are various different house systems, but the most common are the whole sign house system and the Placidus system. The sign that the ascendent is in or below the ascendent marks the 1st house and there are 12 houses that each represent a different area of life.
With the combination of a planet, the sign it's in and the house that it's in, it can be understood as representing what is happening (the planet), how it's doing it (the sign), and what area of life it's showing up in (the house). For example Mars (action) in Capricorn (ambition) in the 10th house (career) could represent ambitious action to do with work and legacy.
When you compare 2 charts, the planets on the first chart (for example, your birth chart) are fixed and represented by the transparent glyphs (like ghosts of where they were) and you can see where the transiting planets are in relation to them, and also what houses they are moving into relative to your birth chart.
Planetary Cycles
When two planets are conjunct (zero degrees apart from each other), they begin a new planetary cycle; the sign that they make their conjunction in will determine some of the themes for that cycle. They will move through each of the aspects - sextile, square, trine and opposition, and then the same in reverse, trine, square sextile and conjunction.
The outer planets move more slowly, so their planetary cycles are much longer. The less frequently the planets conjunct, the more of an impact their aspects will have, and the effects will be longer lasting. Similarly, the outer planets changing signs is much more significant than the inner planets changing signs.