Glossary
Retrograde, ascendant, houses, aspects, void-of-course Moon, precession — explained simply, with a clear line between astronomy and interpretation.
The sky
Measurable — astronomy.
- Constellation
- A named group of stars. There are 88 official ones; 12 lie along the ecliptic.
- Eclipse
- Solar — the Moon covers the Sun; lunar — the Moon passes through Earth's shadow.
- Ecliptic
- The path the Sun travels across the sky in a year. The planets and the Moon move close to it.
- In Astronativa it is the golden arc.
- Full Moon
- Earth is between the Sun and the Moon; the Moon is fully lit.
- Horizon
- The line below which you can't see the sky from where you are. Planets below it are faded in Astronativa.
- Local mean time
- Before time zones every town had its own sun time. It matters for old birth dates.
- Magnitude
- How bright a star looks. The smaller the number, the brighter it is.
- Moon phase
- How much of the Moon is lit by the Sun, as seen from Earth.
- New Moon
- The Moon is between Earth and the Sun and barely visible. The start of the lunar month.
- Precession
- The slow wobble of Earth's axis — a full circle in about 26,000 years. It makes signs and constellations drift apart.
- Retrograde motion
- When a planet seems to move backwards across the sky. It is an optical effect — Earth overtakes it.
- Sign and constellation
- A sign is a 30° slice from the spring point; a constellation is a real group of stars. They don't match.
- Because of precession, signs today are shifted about 24° from the constellations — the sign Aries lies mostly in the constellation Pisces.
- Station
- The moment a planet “stands still” before turning backwards or forwards.
- Zodiac
- The band around the ecliptic, divided into 12 equal parts of 30° — the signs.
Interpretation
Astrological tradition — for inspiration, not science.
- 7th house
- The partner and agreements — that's what the “Partner” profile is for.
- Ascendant
- The sign rising in the east at the moment of birth. It needs an exact time.
- Aspect
- A set angle between two planets: conjunction 0°, sextile 60°, square 90°, trine 120°, opposition 180°.
- The angle is measurable; what it “means” is interpretation.
- Challenging aspects
- Square and opposition — tradition sees them as friction calling for effort. “Shadow” shows these.
- Electional astrology
- Choosing a date and hour to begin — a wedding, a contract, a trip.
- Elements
- Fire, Earth, Air, Water — three signs in each.
- Harmonious aspects
- Sextile and trine — tradition sees them as easy and supportive. “Light” shows these.
- Houses
- The 12 areas of life in a chart — from “self” to “quiet and rest”. In Astronativa they count by whole signs from the ascendant.
- MC (Midheaven)
- The highest point of the ecliptic above your place. Linked with one's calling.
- Modalities
- Cardinal (starts), fixed (holds), mutable (changes).
- Natal chart
- A snapshot of the sky at the moment and place you were born.
- Orb
- How many degrees off the exact angle still count as an aspect.
- Retrograde shadow
- The time before and after a retrograde when the planet crosses the same degrees.
- Ruler
- The planet tradition links to a sign — e.g. Venus to Taurus and Libra.
- Sign horoscope
- A general reading for everyone with a sign — by houses counted from the sign.
- Synastry (two charts)
- Comparing two birth charts — where you complement and where you rub.
- The big three
- Your Sun, Moon and ascendant — the three most personal points in the chart.
- Transit
- A planet today making an aspect to a point in your birth chart.
- Void-of-course Moon
- The hours from the Moon's last aspect in a sign until it enters the next. Tradition advises not to start anything new.
Money
The money cards and the knowledge behind them.
AI
Artificial intelligence — a tool, not an oracle.
- AI horoscope
- A game: which AI tools “the stars favour” today. The sky is real, the AI link is a joke with a lesson.
- AI by profession — KAGAMI Academy our project
- AIscendant
- A pun: which AI suits you by the stars.
- Language model (LLM)
- The program behind ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini: it predicts the next word from a huge amount of text. It does not “know” the future.
- How AI works — KAGAMI Academy our project
- Local model
- AI that runs on your own computer without sending data out.
- How AI works — KAGAMI Academy our project
- Prompt
- What you write to an AI. The clearer you say what you want and for whom, the better the answer.
- AI by profession — KAGAMI Academy our project
Positions in Astronativa are astronomically exact. The interpretation is for inspiration. · Terms · Privacy