The Decoder’s Guide to the Sky – Part I
A soft day. A subtle map. A place to begin.
There’s not a lot of astrology today.
The Moon is drifting through Pisces,
headed toward a long void.
And sometimes, that’s the perfect invitation:
To pause.
To soften.
To remember what we’re actually doing here.
Since a few new readers have joined us recently
and those of you who’ve been here a while might welcome a refresher,
today we return to the symbolic code of it all:
How to read the sky.
Not as a fixed script.
But as a language.
A mirror.
A rhythm.
Astrology isn’t something to memorize.
It’s something to feel.
To live.
To slowly learn to trust.
So here it is—
a beginner’s map.
The key symbols.
The foundational triad.
Planets. Signs. Houses.
Let’s begin.
Planets = The Who
Planets are the protagonists of the cosmic play.
Sometimes the heroes.
Sometimes the challengers.
Active, alive, and in motion.
They aren’t just distant rocks—
they’re celestial bodies with purpose.
Each planet carries the legacy of myth,
moving through the heavens with meaning,
marking time as the ancients once watched them do.
Each one speaks to an archetype you live with daily:
☉ The Sun is your essence. Your core vitality. The self you’re here to shine into.
☽ The Moon is your body. Your emotions. The tides of memory and mood.
☿ Mercury is your voice and perception. How you think, speak, and interpret the world.
♀ Venus is how you attract, love, create beauty, and define value.
♂ Mars is your desire. Your drive. Your sharp edge and sacred “yes” or “no.”
♃ Jupiter is expansion, hope, and the wisdom that comes with believing in more.
♄ Saturn is structure, discipline, and the long game. It shows where you grow through effort.
♅ Uranus is disruption, innovation, and the lightning bolt of truth.
♆ Neptune is dreams, illusions, longing, and divine disorientation.
♇ Pluto is transformation, power, shadow, and soul-level evolution.
☊ North Node is symbolic of direction, growth, destiny.
☋ South Node is symbolic of release, karma, past life patterns.
Some move fast. Some move slowly.
The faster a planet moves, the more often you feel its shifts.
The Moon, for example, changes signs every 2–3 days.
Which is why she becomes our most immediate translator,
our daily companion in the sky.
These descriptions only begin to touch the surface.
Each planet carries a long lineage—
deep, ancient archetypes
that have been studied, named, and revered for centuries.
Zodiac Signs = The How
If planets are the characters—
then the zodiac signs are their style,
their voice,
their posture in the story.
Twelve sacred constellations
that shape how the planets express themselves.
Each sign has its own mood,
its own tone,
its own elemental flavor.
Each one is a way of being.
♈ Aries acts fast. Bold, direct, igniting the fire.
♉ Taurus slows things down. Grounded, steady, sensual.
♊ Gemini moves quickly. Curious, clever, always connecting dots.
♋ Cancer feels deeply. Protective, nurturing, emotionally attuned.
♌ Leo shines. Creative, loyal, expressive from the heart.
♍ Virgo refines. Observant, healing, tuned to what needs adjusting.
♎ Libra balances. Harmonizing, relational, beauty-seeking.
♏ Scorpio intensifies. Private, passionate, transforming from within.
♐ Sagittarius expands. Free-spirited, truth-seeking, bold of belief.
♑ Capricorn builds. Strategic, ambitious, climbing toward mastery.
♒ Aquarius liberates. Futuristic, collective, attuned to the edge.
♓ Pisces dissolves. Mystical, imaginative, connected to the beyond.
When a planet moves through a sign,
it wears that sign’s clothes or costume.
Example:
Saturn in Pisces moves like mist—
building boundaries out of vapor and vision,
shaping structure through the curve of the container,
not the force of the wall.
It teaches through surrender, stillness, and spiritual endurance.
But Saturn in Aries brings a different lesson entirely—
sharp, fast, and forged in fire.
It teaches through instinct, initiation,
and the courage to begin before you feel ready.
Same planet.
Different style.
Different story.
Houses = The Where
The houses ground the sky into your life.
They show where each planetary energy shows up—
which part of your story is being shaped,
under your free will,
with a bit of fate.
There are twelve houses, each one a distinct life area:
The 1st House is you—your body, your identity, your arrival into the world.
The 2nd House is your money, your resources, your self-worth.
The 3rd House is communication, your mind, and your local environment.
The 4th House is home, family, and your emotional roots.
The 5th House is creativity, children, romance, and joy.
The 6th House is daily life, health, routines, and service.
The 7th House is one-on-one relationships and everything you reflect.
The 8th House is intimacy, shared resources, and transformation.
The 9th House is travel, truth, belief, and higher learning.
The 10th House is career, reputation, and the legacy you leave.
The 11th House is community, vision, and collective belonging.
The 12th House is dreams, endings, and the unseen world.
Which sign corresponds to each house for you depends on your rising sign.
This is what makes astrology personal
and why the same sky lands differently in each of us.
Look up yours here.
Start Here: Follow the Moon
If all of this feels like a lot—
just start with the Moon.
She’s the most embodied. The most relational. The most immediate.
And she moves through all twelve signs
and all twelve of your houses—each month.
Watch her.
Listen to how your mood shifts.
Notice what calls for your attention.
It doesn’t need to make sense.
It just needs to feel real.
Because astrology isn’t a belief system.
It’s a language of pattern and presence.
And you already speak it.
You just might not yet know to trust it.
Here are a few simple things you can begin noticing each day:
What sign is the Moon in today?
Each sign carries a mood—fire feels different than water.How do you feel when the Moon is in that sign?
Watch your energy, emotions, and cravings.Is the Moon making any major aspects to other planets?
You don’t need to know them all—just notice if the day feels tense, floaty, productive, or offbeat.Is the Moon void-of-course?
This is a natural pause—good for finishing, resting, not starting new things.Is the Moon passing through a part of your life that feels activated?
Even if you don’t know the houses yet, pay attention to what’s coming up.
You don’t need to track everything.
Just begin with what you feel.
That feeling is the message.
As you start to notice patterns,
you begin to trust the rhythm.
And from there,
you start reading the sky like it was written for you—
which, of course, it is!
This isn’t about memorizing.
It’s about sensing.
Following the quiet shifts.
Letting meaning emerge as you go.
Tomorrow, we’ll continue
The Decoder’s Guide to the Sky – Part II
with the building blocks of the zodiac itself:
the elements,
modalities,
and polarities
that give each sign its nuanced flair.
Because astrology isn’t just
twelve planets,
twelve signs,
twelve houses—
it’s a language of rhythm,
balance,
and motion.
And once you learn the pattern,
you’ll begin to sense it everywhere.
If you’re not the do-it-yourself type,
I offer a yearlong experience called Twelve Suns.
It’s not a productivity planner.
It’s your solar lived experience,
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Each month, we follow the Sun as it moves through the zodiac
illuminating a new part of your chart,
and with it, a deeper layer of your life.
In Twelve Suns, you’ll receive:
A personalized Trello board mapped to your natal chart
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Astro-tarot reflections tied to the Sun, Moon, and your eight life areas
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Invitations to track your patterns—not for perfection, but presence
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You don’t have to figure it all out.
You just have to begin.
And let the light lead.
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Thank you, Heather. I always appreciate these refreshers. I am an Aries Rising with Chiron in my first house. Learning about this has helped me tremendously.
Thank you for this!! I am printing it out and keeping it on my desk!