This is a glossary of modern and ancient astrological terms that I’m compiling for use in this blog and in other projects. It is by no means meant to be exhaustive or even to contain completely adequate definitions, but I just want to have something since much of the terminology I use is foreign to both modern and traditional astrologers, as well as to lay people - or “Muggles“, as my friend Nick Dagan Best is fond of calling them. There is an extensive glossary of Hellenistic astrological terms over at my friend Curt Manwaring’s site that I used as a guide for constructing the basis of this glossary, so credits go to him for that.

• Affliction: This is a general term that is used to describe the condition of a planet that is not doing very well in a chart, usually because it is harshly aspected through a square or opposition by one of the malefics, or perhaps because it is poorly placed by sign or ruled by a malefic planet that is in one of the bad houses.
• Apotelesma: The Greek word for astrological influence which literally means “outcomes”.
• Arabic part: The term often used in modern times to refer to a sensitive point in the sky usually derived from 2 planets and the ascendant. The most common is the so-called ‘Part of Fortune’. The original Greek term for this concept was kleros, which means ‘lot’. See the entries below on ‘Lot’ and ‘Lot of Fortune’. I never use the term ‘Arabic part’ at this point because it is a total misnomer since the Lots were invented durig the Hellenistic period long before the advent of Arabic astrology proper.
• Ascendant: The degree of a sign of the zodiac or the sign itself which is rising over the horizon in the east at a given moment in time. The ascendant is determined by the intersection with the eastern horizontal plane with the ecliptic in the tropical zodiac. In Hellenistic astrology the ascendant marks the sign which becomes the 1st whole sign house. It provides significations for the life, body, breath and appearance of the native.
• Aspect: Generally, a geometrical relation between two planets by sign or by degree which implies some sort of connection or exchange between them. The original Greek term carried connotations related to the planets looking or seeing one another. If two planets were in aspect with one another then they were able to see each other and say something about the affairs of the other. If they were not configured by one of the 5 aspects (conjunction, sextile, square, trine, & opposition) then they literally could not see one another. Aspects can be by sign, for example the Sun anywhere in Aries would be trine to Mars in Leo, or they can be by degree, for example Jupiter at 15 Cancer would be sextile to Mercury at 15 Virgo.
• Aversion: A term used to indicate a lack of acknowledgment between zodiac signs or planets in signs of the zodiac based on the lack of aspect between them. When two planets are not in signs which are configured by one of the 5 aspects (conjunction, sextile, square, trine & opposition) they are said to be in ‘aversion’ to one another. The signs of aversion correspond to the so-called ’semi-sextile’ and ‘inconjunct’ in modern times. Some Hellenistic astrologers thought aversion to be canceled or mitigated by like-engirding, equal power, or commanding and obeying relationships. For instance Leo is in aversion to: Virgo, Capricorn, Pisces and Cancer. However, Cancer is like-engirding which may allow Leo to “have dealings” with planets in Cancer. Aversion is the most unfavorable of circumstances according to Hellenistic astrologers, due to an inability for the planets involved to function. At least with squares and oppositions they can “see” each other to be able to work out differences. Planets that are in aversion to one another share a 2nd, 6th, 8th or 12th house relationship relative to one another, and these four houses are traditionally considered to be negative partially for this reason.
• Benefic: A planet that is naturally inclined to be beneficial, constructive and conducive to the life of the native or to events in general. The lesser benefic is Venus and the greater benefic is Jupiter.
• Bound: One of the dignities also known as terms (from the Latin - terminus). The bounds are unequal divisions of the signs, usually into five parts, each of which is ruled by one of the five visible planets (the Sun and the Moon are excluded in the so-called Egyptian set of bounds. The bounds are thought of as delimiting a certain circumstance within a certain confine of life. The original Greek term was horia, which is sometimes translated as confines.
• Cadent: The cadent houses are the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th. Hellenistic astrologers refer to these houses as ‘declines’. They are thought to be the least efficacious or energetic houses since they are sloping away from the angles.
• Cardinal: The signs of the quadruplicity: Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. The cardinal signs are associated with the beginning of the seasons, and thus they pertain to things which start and stop abruptly. The cardinal quality is also characterized by action, and planets in cardinal signs push us to get things done but are often lacking in the stamina to carry the job through to completion.
• Cazimi: Arabic term meaning, “in the heart of the Sun”. Technically, this means that a planet has to be either directly in front of the Sun’s disk or behind it, by plus/minus 15′ arc. A very rare condition, and a powerful dignity according to Arabic sources.
• Circumambulation: A form of progression known as primary directions. Usually used within the contect of length of life treatments in Hellenistic astrology.
• Conjunct: When two planets come together at the same place in the sky they are said to be ‘conjunct’. This can occur simply by two planets being in the same sign, or, as it is more commonly defined when the planets are within a certain range of degrees from one another. For the Moon this is generally 13 degrees, and for other planets 3 degrees on either side. This is usually considered to be one of the 5 main ‘aspects’ in western astrology.
• Debility: A general hindrance placed upon a planet due to its unfavorable position. A planet may be debilitated by being placed in a bad place in the zodiac, in a bad house, or by being aspected adversely be the malefic planets.
• Depression: When a planet is opposite to the sign of its exaltation. Depression is another name for ‘fall’. One of the essential debilities. The depressions of the planets are: Sun in Libra; Moon in Scorpio; Mercury in Pisces; Venus in Virgo; Mars in Cancer; Jupiter in Capricorn; Saturn in Aries.
• Dignity: The essential strength of a planet in a given location. A planet is in dignity when it is in it’s own house, exaltation, trigon, bound, and, less commonly, phase or configuration (aspect). Face was added later as another dignity, although this seems dubious. Reception and/or mutual reception strongly affects essential dignities for better or worse depending on the circumstances. Mutual reception by domicile or perhaps exaltation are the only two that I really consider.
• Direct: Either a) To move a planet or point forward as in a progression. OR b) a planet that is transiting forward in motion, as opposed to backwards or ‘retrograde’.
• Dispositor: The planet that rules another planet, usually because the latter planet is placed in the former’s sign. For example: Mars in Capricorn; the dispositor of Mars is Saturn, because Saturn is the domicile lord of Capricorn.
• Diurnal: Pertaining to the day time. Used in referring to the ’sect’ of a chart: i.e. either diurnal or nocturnal. If someone is born during the day time when the Sun is above the horizon then they have a diurnal chart. If they are born at night then they have a nocturnal chart.
• Domicile: A zodiac sign where the planet is most comfortable and therefore has authority. In Hellenistic astrology the signs of the zodiac are thought to be the homes or dwelling places of the seven classical planets. For example, Leo is the domicile of the Sun, Cancer is the domicile of the Moon, etc. This is the most important dignity according to Hellenistic, Medieval and later sources, although in the Hellenistic tradition each type of dignity has its own specific function and purpose rather than simply indicating strength.
• Eclipse: The movement of a heavenly body such as the Moon or the earth in the way of the Sun’s rays blocking light from reaching the earth or the Moon. Usually refers to a special case of occultation involving the the Sun and Moon.
• Exaltation: Each of the seven visible planets is said to be exalted in a specific sign of the zodiac where it has its significations raised up or augmented for the better because the significations of the domicile lord of the sign are complimentary to the planet that has its exaltation there. The signs of exaltation are as follows: the Sun in Aries; the Moon in Taurus; Mercury in Virgo; Venus in Pisces; Mars in Capricorn; Jupiter in Cancer; Saturn in Libra. There are also specific degrees of exaltation within these signs. The sign opposite to a planets exaltation is said to be the sign of its ‘dejection’ or ‘fall’.
• Fall: A debility of a planet based upon its being opposite to its own exaltation. The term means figuratively a depression or hole in the ground where something drops out of sight. The significations of the domicile lord of this sign are thought to be inhibiting to the planet that has its ‘fall’ there. Also see ‘depression’.
• Falling amiss: A planet is usually said to ‘fall amiss’ when it is in one of the unfavorable houses that are not connected to the 1st (i.e. the 2nd, 6th, 8th and 12th).
• Fixed: The signs of the ‘fixed’ quadruplicity, i.e. Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. The fixed signs are associated with the middle of the seasons, and thus they pertain to things which are taken up and carried through to completion. The fixed quality is often characterized as stability, which sometimes becomes rigid and resistant to change.
• Horoskopos: The Greek word for the ascendant, meaning “hour marker”.
• House: One of the 12 places derived from the ascendant which provide information on different topics in a natives life, i.e. siblings, parents, children, etc. In Hellenistic astrology whole sign houses were used to assign topics, while the quadrant style forms of house division were used to determine planetary activity. See entry on whole sign houses.
• Hurling rays: Refers to aspects cast backward in the order of the signs, sometimes known in the later tradition as dexter aspects. For example, a planet in Capricorn is said to ‘hurl its ray’ at a planet in Scorpio.
• Ingress: A planets entrance into a sign by transit. For example, when the planet Saturn moves from the sign Leo into the sign Virgo one might say that Saturn is making an ‘ingress’ into Virgo.
• Katarche: Greek word for ‘inception’, ‘commencement’, or ‘beginning’. Sometimes used retrospectively to refer to an inception that has already taken place such as the start of a business, and conversely the term is sometimes used to refer to an election for an inception that has yet to take place. Often erroneously thought to refer to horary or interrogational astrology. This is totally bogus though. Seriously.
• Lights: Astrological reference to the Sun and the Moon. More commonly referred to as the ‘luminaries’.
• Like-engirding: Signs that have the same ruler. For instance; Libra and Taurus are like-engirding because Venus is the domicile lord of both.
• Lord (or lady): Refers to the primary ruler of a sign, usually by domicile. For example, Mars is the lord of Scorpio, while Venus is the lord (or sometimes lady) of Taurus.
• Lot: The term used to refer to a sensitive point in the sky usually derived mathematically from a formula that involves 2 planets and the ascendant. For instance, in a day chart the formula for the ‘Lot’ of Fortune is: the longitude of ascendant + longitude of Moon - longitude of Sun. (This particular formula is reversed for night charts.) This is a direct translation of the Greek term kleros which literally means ‘lot’, as in a ‘lottery’ or when someone draws or casts ‘lots’ or, more commonly in modern times, dice. The original Greek term carries this chance character which is not present in the more modern term ‘Part’.
• Malefic: A planet that tends to act in a more destructive manner in a chart, and is often experienced as being more subjectively ‘negative’ in the life of a native or in events in general. Mars is usually known as the ‘lesser malefic’ and Saturn is the ‘greater malefic’.
• Midheaven: The intersection of the meridian with the ecliptic, by modern standards, which is often referred to as the ‘MC’. By Hellenistic standards this refers to the 10th sign from the sign that contains the ascendant. I usually use the 10th whole sign house as the ‘midheaven’ for specific topical analysis, but I also pay attention to where the degree of the MC falls and in which whole sign house it is located.
• Modality: See Quadruplicity.
• Mutable: The mutable signs are Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces. In the tropical zodiac they are associated with the end of each of the seasons and the transitioning phase between the stability of the middle of the season and the change or renewal that occurs at the beginning of each new season. Because of this association with the end of the seasons the mutable signs tend to correlate with things which are constantly in a state of transition. The mutable signs partake in both to the fixed quality in their first half and to the cardinal quality in the second. The mutable quality is also characterized by adaptability and indicates ease in changing circumstances.
• Mutual reception: Usually when two planets are in each other’s signs, or perhaps exaltations. Some medieval authors say that the two planets have to be aspecting one another in order for it to be an actual mutual reception. I don’t necessarily think that they have to be in aspect for there to be a mutual reception, although certainly it makes it stronger or more beneficial.
• Opposition: An aspect based upon 2 planets being in opposite signs or 180 degrees apart, give or take. Thought to be adversarial or very challenging. Often cited as the more difficult of the so-called ‘hard aspects’.
• Profection: This usually refers to a time-lord system called ‘annual profections’ where you are moving or ‘profecting’ some point or planet at the rate of one sign per year (in the case of the annual profection), although the term profection has other applications as well. In monthly profections you are moving 13 signs in 12 months, and in daily profections you are moving at a rate of either 1 sign per day or 1 sign per 2.5 days (depending upon the source). Hellenistic astrologers seemed to regard this more as a symbolic method of counting, although later in the Medieval tradition annual profections profection took on a the quality of a continuous rate of direction, more like a progression.
• Profitable places: From the Greek term chrematistikos, meaning ‘profitable’. Usually refers to a house that aspects the 1st whole sign house by one of the 5 aspects. The ‘profitable’ places are usually the 1st, 11th, 10th, 9th, 7th, 5th, 4th, and 3rd, although not necessarily in that order. These ‘profitable’ houses are places in which a planet can conduct its affairs.
• Progression: The term for moving a planet or point forward in the zodiac by some incremental amount (usually about 1 degree for each year) depending upon the type of progression. Secondary progressions are the most common used in modern times.
• Quadruplicity: Each sign is associated with one of the three ‘modalities’ or ‘quadriplicities’, which are cardinal, fixed, and mutable. These groups of signs are thought to share similar qualities in the manner in which they bring events to completion. The cardinal signs are: Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. The fixed signs are: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. The mutable signs are: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces. These qualities are derived from the seasons.
• Retrograde: A planet that moves against the order of the signs. Thought to be a sort of debility which indicates reversals with respect to the planet involved. Wikipedia has a great article that explains the astronomy of this phenomena pretty well. Also see my article on the recent Mercury retrograde and how it affected Paris Hilton.
• Ruler: Usually the domicile lord of a sign or a house. For example, the Sun is the ‘ruler’ of Leo. Venus is the ruler of Taurus. Etc. OR, if Scorpio is on the cusp of the 7th house then we would say that Mars is the ‘ruler’ of the 7th house in that chart and thus it has something to say about the topic of marriage and relationships in that person’s chart.
• Sect: Comes from the Greek word hairesis which means ‘division’ or ‘faction’. In this case the division is into two: day and night. The planets of the daytime faction (sect) are the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn, and the planets of the nocturnal sect are the Moon, Venus and Mars. Mercury is of neither sect, although he sides with the diurnal planes when he is a morning star and he sides with the nocturnal planets when he is an evening star.
• Sextile: An aspect ray cast either foreward or backward 60 degrees, or to signs that are separated by one sign in between the two. For example, a planet in Aries is sextile to a planet in Gemini. The sextile is usually thought to be the lesser of the so-called ‘easy aspects’.
• Square: An aspect ray cast either foreward or backward 90 degrees. Signs of the same quadruplicity are also square one another by whole sign aspect. The square is usually thought to be the less difficult of the the so-called ‘hard aspects’.
• Station: A planet that has temporarily stopped moving forward or backwards in zodiacal order and is about to start moving direct or retrograde shortly thereafter. Thus the planet has stopped or ’stationed’ because it appears to be stationary in its position at that time. Such a planet is more intense in effect, like the difference between quickly passing your hand over a flame (when a planet is moving) and just holding your hand over the flame (stationary).
• Superior position: Generally speaking, any planet that is earlier in the order of degrees in the zodiac is said to be in a superior position to a planet that has more degrees. So, a planet in Scorpio would be in a superior position to a planet in Pisces. A planet that is making a ‘right sided aspect’ is synonymous with a planet in superior position. Planets in a superior position are thought to have the upper hand an any planets that they may be aspecting which are in an inferior position. For example Mercury in Libra would be in a superior sextile to Mars in Sagittarius.
• Term(s): See “bound”.
• Thema Mundi: The mythical horoscope for the birth of the world. See my entry on the Thema Mundi here.
• Time-lord: Literal translation of the Greek term chronocrator. Derived from the Greek word chronos, meaning “time”, and crator meaning “lord”, hence: time lord. It is a planet that has governance over an individuals life for a period of time on a given subject. Planets are activated or awakened during specific periods of time when they become time lords.
• Trigon: See “triplicity”.
• Trine: An aspect between 2 planets in signs of the same element, or 120 degrees apart. Thought to be the most positive or beneficial of the so-called ‘easy aspects’.
• Triplicity: The association of four groups of zodiacal signs together under the same element, also known as trigon. The fire triplicity or trigon consists of the signs Aries, Leo and Sagittarius. The earth triplicity consists of the signs Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn. The air triplicity consists of the signs Gemini, Libra and Aquarius. The water triplicity consists of the signs Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. In the Medieval tradition triplicity became one of the ‘essential dignities of the planets’.
• Under the beams: A planet that is obscured by the Sun’s rays so that it cannot be seen. Technically, a planet that is within 15 degrees of the Sun. Planets that are under the beams are considered to be debilitated because their light and significations are blocked out or overpowered by the Sun.
• Whole sign houses: The original form of house division used in Hellenistic astrology, Indian astrology, and early medieval astrology was whole sign houses where the houses coincide with the signs even though each retains its distinct function and purpose. In whole sign houses the ascendant designates the sign which becomes the first whole sign houses, and then the following sign becomes the 2nd house, and the signs after that becomes the 3rd house, and so on. Thus each houses is exactly 30 degrees long, and the cusp of each house is the beginning the sign that each is associated with in a specific chart. For example, if someone has their ascendant anywhere in Aquarius then Aquarius becomes the 1st whole sign house, from 0 to 30 degrees of that sign, regardless of how early or late in the sign the ascendant may be. See my blog entry on whole sign houses for more information.