Lunation Calendar · — Deep Dives · — Astrology

A celestial ruler

The zodiac comes to us from an ancient model of the cosmos in which the stars formed a fixed sphere turning around Earth. Across that sphere, the Sun traced a yearly path called the ecliptic. The zodiac wrapped around this path like a ruler, dividing it into twelve equal signs. Each sign inherited the name and symbol of a constellation associated with that part of the sky. Naming a body’s sign states where it lies along the ruler.

The Lunation Calendar uses the tropical zodiac, which anchors the first sign to the March equinox. This keeps the ruler aligned with the seasons even as the constellations slowly shift behind it.

In this model, the Sun and Moon followed independent but predictable circuits around the zodiac. The Sun made a stately yearly journey, with each sign spanning one-twelfth of its path and each group of three signs marking a season. The Moon moved quickly, crossing a sign in a little over two days.

Five other lights wandered among the fixed stars, sometimes appearing to stop, reverse direction, stop again, and resume their usual progress. These were Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Together with the Sun and Moon, they are the seven celestial bodies of classical astrology followed by the Lunation Calendar.

Astrology in the Charts

In the Lunation Chart, the Moon in the Zodiac Band follows the Moon through the signs. Its Rare Events Band marks ingresses, stations, and conjunctions, while the Astrological Table summarizes the Sun’s and planets’ signs and motion.

In the Year Chart, Zodiac Bands trace the Sun and planets across the annual cycle. Its Rare Events Band marks significant moments in those longer passages.

Astrological labels and notation are shown in lilac wherever they occur, to allow the reader to focus or ignore them as a group.

Sign colors

The Lunation Calendar assigns a color to each zodiac sign. Neighboring signs receive neighboring hues, allowing the reader to see when celestial bodies are in nearby signs. These colors are a visual convention of the calendar, not traditional astrological associations. Names and symbols repeat the same information, so the charts never rely on color alone.

♈︎

Aries

♉︎

Taurus

♊︎

Gemini

♋︎

Cancer

♌︎

Leo

♍︎

Virgo

♎︎

Libra

♏︎

Scorpio

♐︎

Sagittarius

♑︎

Capricorn

♒︎

Aquarius

♓︎

Pisces

Ingresses

As the Sun, Moon, or a planet moves through the zodiac, it crosses from one sign into a neighboring sign. The moment it crosses that boundary is an ingress.

The Moon in the Zodiac Band shows a lunar ingress as the passage from one sign to another. The Year Chart’s Zodiac Bands show the same transitions for the Sun and planets.

Solar ingresses and planetary ingresses are also marked in the Rare Events Band and summarized in the Lunation Chart’s Astrological Table. When the Sun enters Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn, it reaches an equinox or solstice and begins a new tropical season. The chart adds the corresponding season symbol to these four ingresses.

Direct and retrograde motion

In direct motion, a planet advances through the zodiac in its usual direction. At times it appears to slow, stop, and move backward before resuming that course. This retrograde motion is an effect of Earth and the planet orbiting the Sun at different speeds; the planet does not reverse its orbit.

In the Year Chart’s Zodiac Bands, a retrograde passage keeps the color of its current sign but uses a thicker, higher-contrast line.

In the Lunation Chart’s Astrological Table, the ℞ symbol appended to a planet’s opening sign means it is already retrograde. Each later change of direction is a station, written s℞ when the planet turns retrograde or sD when it resumes direct motion. The same notation appears in the corresponding Planetary Station Rare Event label.

Conjunctions

A conjunction occurs when two bodies occupy the same degree of the zodiac. Because they can be separated north and south of the ecliptic, a conjunction is not necessarily a visible overlap.

A Moon-planet conjunction is marked with the planet’s symbol in the Lunation Chart’s Moon in the Zodiac Band. Sun-planet and planet-planet conjunctions are marked with whiskers connecting their Zodiac Bands on the Year Chart. Rare Event labels show the bodies’ closest apparent separation and identify an occultation or transit as seen from the chart location.

The New Moon is the Moon’s conjunction with the Sun. (The Full Moon is their opposition, when they are 180 degrees apart.) Near a lunar node, either alignment may produce an eclipse; the Eclipses Deep Dive explains why.