- Angles
- The four sensitive points of a chart: Ascendant, Descendant, Midheaven (MC) and Imum Coeli (IC).
- Applying / separating
- An aspect is applying while the planets are closing toward exactness and separating after it has passed. Applying aspects are felt more strongly.
- Ascendant
- The zodiac degree rising on the eastern horizon at birth. Its sign is your rising sign and starts the first house.
- Cusp
- The starting point of a house or the boundary between two signs.
- Decan
- A ten-degree third of a sign.
- Detriment
- A planet in the sign opposite the one it rules, traditionally weakened.
- Dignity
- A planet's strength by sign: domicile, exaltation, detriment or fall.
- Domicile
- The sign a planet rules and where it is traditionally strongest.
- Exaltation
- A sign where a planet expresses its nature at its best, for instance the Sun in Aries.
- Fall
- The sign opposite a planet's exaltation, where it struggles to express itself.
- Ingress
- A planet moving into a new sign.
- Midheaven (MC)
- The highest point of the ecliptic at birth, linked to career and public direction.
- Midpoint
- The point halfway between two planets, treated as a sensitive spot.
- Natal chart
- A map of the sky at the exact time and place of birth.
- Node
- A point where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic. The North Node shows a direction of growth.
- Orb
- How far from exact an aspect may be and still count.
- Retrograde
- A planet's apparent backward motion against the zodiac, caused by the relative motion of Earth and that planet.
- Stellium
- Three or more planets clustered in one sign or house, concentrating that theme.
- Station
- The moment a planet appears to stand still before changing direction.
- Synastry
- Comparing two natal charts to read the relationship between them.
- Transit
- The current position of a planet as it relates to a natal chart.
- Void-of-course Moon
- The Moon in the stretch before it leaves a sign without making any major aspect.
- Whole sign houses
- A house system in which each sign is one house, starting with the rising sign as the first.
- Placidus
- A time-based house system popular in modern Western astrology.
