Lesson 4: Making Sense Of Signs

You are one step away from interpretation of birth chart. To interpret a birth chart, all you need to know is how different signs and different planets interact with different houses in your birth chart. 

Sorry, I was a bit exaggerating when I said one step away. Because in order to do that interpretation, first you’d need to know what each sign and planet means. 

And a good place to start that is with knowing some background information about signs. 

In today’s lesson, you’ll learn two things. 

1. Relationship between Planets and Signs
2. Classification of Signs

How Are Signs And Planets Connected?

Imagine signs as ‘plots of space’ just as there are plots of lands and imagine planets as beings or people. So there are 12 of such plots – that is 12 signs and 9 planets. 

So these signs or plots of space are owned by some being, in this case, one or the other planet. Every signs is owned by a planet or we can say planets are owners of signs. 

Sun owns the sign Leo (5)

Moon owns the sign Cancer (4)

Mercury owns the signs Gemini and Virgo (3 and 6)

Venus owns the signs Taurus and Libra (2 and 7)

Mars owns the signs Aries and Scorpio (1 and 8)

Jupiter owns the signs Sagittarius and Pisces (9 and 12)

Saturn owns the signs Capricorn and Aquarius (10 and 11)

Take a look at the picture above…You see, Sun as the heart of the Solar System, takes the heart of the Zodiac, which is Leo, then Moon takes the one next to Sun – Cancer. So we have one sign of Sun and one sign of Moon. 

Then we follow the sequence of planets in solar system – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn…Each planet takes one sign on the sun side and one sign on the moon sign. 

For example, Mercury is first in sequence after Sun, so he takes one on Sun’s sign Leo, next to Leo (5), which is Virgo (6) and one on Moon’s side, next to Cancer (4), which is Gemini (3)

To make sense of the chart you need to remember, which planet owns which sign. 

If you have noticed, Rahu and Ketu do not own any sign.

*At the end of the lesson you’ll find a file to download with useful table including the ownership of signs.

Classification of Signs

There are several ways signs are classified, but for this lesson we will focus on two classifications.

Classification of Signs Based On Elements

You probably know about the 5 elements or Tattvas as we call them in Sanskrit. Fire, Earth, Air, Water and Space.

In Astrology, Signs have elements. 

For example…signs can have elements like Fire, Earth, Air and Water. Space is not used because Space is the element that allows all other elements to exist within it. 

Fire Element Signs: Aries (1), Leo (5) and Sagittarius (9)

Fire element represents ambition, transformation, energy, inspiration, push.

Earth Element Signs: Taurus (2), Virgo (6) and Capricorn (10)

Earth element represents practicality, rationality, material world, solidity, concreteness

Air Element Signs: Gemini (3), Libra (7) and Aquarius (11)

Air element represents expansion, limitlessness, creativity, ideas, abstract things

Water Element Signs: Cancer (4), Scorpio (8) and Pisces (12)

Water element represents sensitivity, adaptability, softness, empathy etc.

If you want to learn more about signs and their elements, you’ll find a video here in this lesson as additional resource at the end of the lesson. 

Classification of Signs Based On Nature

In addition to elements, Signs can also be classified based on their nature. 

For example, 

Movable Signs: 1, 4, 7,10

Movable signs promote changes, movement, motion, action

Fixed Signs: 2, 5, 8, 11

Fixed signs also known as stable signs promote stability, security, passiveness, control

Dual Signs: 3, 6, 9, 12

Dual signs have both characteristics of movable signs and fixed signs

You can download the file below which contains Reference Table for Classification of Signs and Ownership of Signs

That’s about it for today. Try to remember elements and nature of signs. The file above has a table which will make it super easy for you to remember.

Have a great day!