♄ Going Deeper: Intermediate Astrology

The next layer — rulership, the finer aspects, forecasting, relationship charts, and the specialist branches.

Listen to the whole course All 37 lessons back-to-back, in my own voice — press play and browse the list as you listen.

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Everything that assumes you can already read a chart. Dignity and rulership, the aspects beyond the big five, the timing techniques astrologers actually forecast with, the charts that describe a relationship rather than a person, and the specialist branches — horary, electional, mundane, medical and financial — plus the adjacent traditions that sit alongside Western astrology.

The lessons

1. House systems in depth: what they divide, and where they break Two thousand years of arguing about how to cut up the sky, all twenty-one systems drawn on one chart with where each came from, why the quadrant systems fail above the Arctic circle, and how to choose by technique rather than habit.
2. Decans: the three faces of every sign Each sign quietly splits into three ten-degree decans, each flavoured by another sign of the same element — why an early Leo differs from a late one.
3. Your chart ruler: the planet running the show Find your rising sign, ask which planet rules it, and you've found your chart ruler — the captain of the whole chart, and the best single place for a beginner to start.
4. Dignity and debility: when a planet is at home (and when it's not) Astrologers ask not just which sign a planet is in, but whether it's comfortable there — domicile, exaltation, detriment and fall. And why 'debility is not doom'.
5. Reception: when one planet is a gracious host What reception means — a planet sitting in a sign another planet rules, so the second 'receives' the first like a host welcoming a guest — and why mutual reception can rescue an otherwise difficult chart.
6. The minor aspects: the chart's quieter voices Beyond the big five: the semisextile, semisquare, sesquiquadrate, quincunx and quintile — smaller angles that add subtle shading, and what each one represents.
7. Stelliums and chart patterns: when planets team up When three or more planets link up they form a shape — stelliums, Grand Trines, T-squares, Kites, Yods and the rarer figures. How the bigger shapes are built from smaller ones, and when to fold them together.
8. Midpoints: the meeting place between two planets The exact halfway point between two planets is a sensitive spot where their energies blend — and when a third planet lands on it, you get a 'midpoint picture'. An advanced, precise tool.
9. Declinations and parallels: astrology's other dimension Beyond the flat zodiac: a planet's north/south position (declination). Two planets at the same declination are 'parallel' — a hidden conjunction — plus contra-parallels and out-of-bounds planets.
10. Antiscia: a planet's mirror across the solstice A quiet traditional technique: every planet has a shadow twin mirrored across the Cancer–Capricorn solstice axis. Two planets on each other's mirror share a hidden bond — plus the equinox mirror, contra-antiscia.
11. Harmonics: the vibrations of numbers in a chart Every aspect is just a number dividing the circle — so what if you tuned the whole chart to one number? The harmonic chart, what each number means (5=creativity, 7=inspiration, 9=joy), and Addey's system.
12. Void of course: when a planet runs out of things to do What 'void of course' means — when a planet (the Moon most famously) makes no more aspects before it leaves its sign — and why it matters for timing, questions and birth charts.
13. Translation and collection of light: the go-between that seals the deal When two planets don't quite connect, a third can carry the light between them (translation) or gather both their light (collection) — the classic way a question still comes together through a helper.
14. Retrograde planets in your birth chart: energy turned inward A planet retrograde at your birth isn't weakened — its energy is turned inward. What natal Mercury, Venus or Mars retrograde feels like, and why the outer planets barely count.
15. Stations and shadow periods: a retrograde's most charged moments The station — when a planet seems to stop before turning — is the intense heart of a retrograde, and the pre- and post-shadow are its run-up and wind-down: the fuller shape of the cycle beyond 'Mercury is retrograde'.
16. Progressions: the slow inner clock Astrology's other timing method, alongside transits: a day for a year, gently evolving your own chart. Transits are the outer weather; progressions are you slowly growing up.
17. Solar return charts: your chart for the year ahead Each year the Sun returns to its exact natal degree — cast a chart for that moment and you get a preview of your coming year. A popular forecasting tool, read as tone not fate.
18. Solar arc directions: the whole chart, a degree a year The third timing method: slide the entire birth chart forward by the Sun's arc — about one degree per year — so even the slow, deep planets get their moment. A degree ≈ a year.
19. Eclipses: super-charged new and full Moons An eclipse is just a new or full Moon happening right on the lunar nodes — the most powerful lunations of all. Turning points and eclipse seasons, read as climate, not catastrophe.
20. Lilith and Chiron: the wild one, and the wounded healer Two beloved modern points beyond the planets — Black Moon Lilith (the wild, untamed self you were told to hide) and Chiron (the wounded healer: your deepest hurt, and your gift for helping others through it).
21. The asteroids: four goddesses in your chart Beyond the ten planets: Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta — the asteroids that fill in nurture, wisdom, commitment and devotion. An optional layer of fine detail.
22. Fixed stars: the ancient lights behind the zodiac The actual stars of the night sky — Regulus, Aldebaran, Spica, Algol — and what it means when a planet sits right on one. An old, optional, starlit layer.
23. Synastry: what happens when two charts meet Lay two birth charts over each other and read the aspects between one person's planets and the other's — the astrology of relationships. A dynamic, not a destiny.
24. Composite and Davison charts: the relationship's own chart Beyond synastry: give the relationship its OWN chart. The composite (the midpoint average of two charts) and the Davison (a real chart for the midpoint in time and place). The couple as a third thing.
25. Horary astrology: asking the sky a question Question astrology: cast a chart for the exact moment a question is asked and read the answer from it. Significators, the Moon, applying vs separating, radicality — and William Lilly. A thoughtful mirror, not a yes/no oracle.
26. Electional astrology: choosing the right moment to begin The active cousin of horary: look forward and pick an auspicious moment to START something. The waxing, non-void Moon, strengthening the ruler of the matter, benefics on the angles — a fair wind, not a guarantee.
27. Planetary hours and the almanac: astrology's daily timing Astrology's practical daily side: the seven planets ruling the hours in Chaldean order (and why the weekdays carry their names), how to pick a fitting hour, and the almanac/ephemeris that keeps the sky's diary.
28. Mundane astrology: the sky over the whole world Astrology's oldest, outward-facing branch — reading nations, cycles and the mood of an age rather than a person. The key terms (ingresses, great conjunctions, outer-planet cycles), Barbault's cyclic index, and how buildings and cities get charts of their own — including what happens when a place changes its use. And no, 'mundane' doesn't mean boring.
29. Medical astrology: the body written in the chart History and symbolism, NOT medicine (see a doctor for anything real): the 'zodiac man' mapping signs to body parts head-to-toe, the humours, the 6th house, and the decumbiture chart for the moment illness began.
30. Financial astrology: the sky and the markets A speculative, controversial branch (NOT financial advice): the big Jupiter–Saturn economic cycles and Barbault's index, plus the bolder market-timing tradition (Gann, the ISBA) and the 2nd/8th houses. A fascinating study, a terrible strategy.
31. Market weather: turning the whole sky into a single line How financial astrologers boil dozens of planetary angles down to one wavy 'weather' curve — the Bradley siderograph and Barbault's cycle index — and why to read them with a healthy pinch of salt.
32. The long rhythms: planetary cycles and the economy Jupiter and Saturn meet every twenty years, and mundane astrologers have watched that beat for centuries. A plain-English tour of the long cycles — and how lightly to hold them.
33. Draconic charts: the soul's chart behind the birth chart Re-zero the whole zodiac to your north node (the 'dragon') and every planet shifts sign while the aspects stay — a 'soul chart' read for deeper purpose, and compared to the natal to see where soul and self align.
34. Ayurvedic astrology: doshas, nakshatras and the sidereal sky How India's Jyotish tradition reads constitution from the chart — NOT medicine: the sidereal zodiac, the three doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) and their planets, the 27 nakshatras, and the tradition's gems, colours and tastes.
35. The Human Design tradition — and the embodied energy chart A modern synthesis, held lightly: two chart moments (birth and ~88 days before), 64 gates from the I Ching around the zodiac wheel, nine energy centres and their channels, and five Types each with a Strategy and an Authority — plus the thing we think nobody else does, running the same trait calculation on both moments and reading the gap between them.
36. The I Ching: the Book of Changes, in plain English What the world's oldest oracle actually is, how a consultation works, and why the question you ask matters more than anything else.
37. I Ching readings here — and how they fit alongside the charts Which kind of consultation to reach for, how the I Ching differs from tarot and from a forecast, and the genuine historical threads tying it to astrology.