♄ Going Deeper: Intermediate Astrology

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

Listen to the whole course All 38 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. 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.
2. House systems: why charts carve up the wheel differently Astrologers don't all agree where the houses begin — Placidus, whole-sign and the rest. What stays fixed, why the disagreement exists, and what a beginner should actually do.
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 Part of Fortune: your point of natural ease A calculated point blending your Ascendant, Sun and Moon, marking where wellbeing comes more naturally for you — the most famous of the Arabic Parts.
22. 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.
23. 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.
24. 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.
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. 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.
28. 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.
29. 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.
30. 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.
31. 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.
32. 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.
33. 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.
34. 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.
35. 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.
36. 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.
37. 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.
38. 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.