Key terms

Glossary

Short definitions of the terms used across the library’s astrology, tarot and numerology articles, each linked to the article that explains it.

Frontispiece. Glossary

Astrology

Ascendant: The zodiac degree rising on the eastern horizon at a chart's time and place, also called the rising sign. It is closely tied to the first house.
Aspect: An angular relationship between two chart factors, read by astrologers through its geometry. The library covers five major aspects.
Birth chart: A map of the sky for a particular time and place, used in astrology as a set of symbols to interpret.
Cardinal: The modality associated with beginning and setting a direction. Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn are cardinal signs.
Conjunction: An aspect in which two chart factors lie at or near the same zodiacal longitude, read as a close combination of functions.
Element: One of four interpretive categories for the signs: Fire, Earth, Air and Water.
Fixed: The modality associated with sustaining and consolidating. Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius are fixed signs.
House: One of twelve divisions of a chart, each read as a life setting such as resources, home or partnership. Houses are not signs.
Luminaries: The Sun and Moon, grouped with the planets as chart factors in astrology.
Modality: One of three categories describing how signs initiate, sustain and adapt: cardinal, fixed and mutable.
Mutable: The modality associated with adaptation and transition. Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces are mutable signs.
Natal placement: Where a chart factor was at the time of birth, as recorded in the birth chart.
Opposition: An aspect near 180°, placing two chart factors across the zodiac from one another and read through polarity.
Retrograde: A period when a planet's apparent motion through the zodiac, as seen from Earth, temporarily runs backward. The planet has not reversed its physical orbit.
Rulership: The planet assigned to a sign in an astrological system. Traditional and modern schemes differ for some signs.
Sextile: An aspect near 60°, often interpreted as an available opportunity for two planetary functions to cooperate.
Sidereal zodiac: A zodiac measured from a reference tied to the stars, rather than from the March equinox.
Square: An aspect near 90°, read by astrologers as friction between functions that demand engagement.
Transit: Where a planet is at another time, often compared with the positions in a natal chart.
Trine: An aspect near 120°, commonly interpreted as an easy channel between two planetary functions.
Tropical zodiac: A zodiac that begins at the March equinox and divides the year's solar path into twelve equal 30° signs. It is this library's primary framework.
Zodiac sign: One of twelve 30° divisions of the zodiac, read in astrology as a style of expression.

Tarot

Celtic Cross: A ten-card spread that examines a situation from several angles, with card 2 laid sideways across card 1.
Court cards: The sixteen Page, Knight, Queen and King cards of the Rider–Waite–Smith suits. They can represent a person, a role or an approach.
Cups: The tarot suit commonly associated with feeling, relationship, imagination and emotional meaning.
Major Arcana: The 22 named trumps in a standard tarot deck, from the Fool through the World.
Marseille tarot: A historical tarot tradition with its own imagery and interpretive conventions, distinct from Rider–Waite–Smith.
Minor Arcana: The 56 suited cards in a standard tarot deck: four suits of Ace through Ten plus four court cards.
Pentacles: The tarot suit commonly associated with material conditions: resources, skill, work, maintenance and practical care.
Reversal: A card appearing upside down relative to the reader. Some readers interpret reversals and others use upright cards only; a reversal is not automatically the opposite meaning.
Rider–Waite–Smith: The tarot deck used as this library's visual reference, with artwork by Pamela Colman Smith.
Spread: An arrangement of cards in positions chosen before the draw, where each position has its own role.
Swords: The tarot suit commonly associated with thought, communication, decisions and conflict.
Thoth tarot: A tarot tradition with its own imagery and interpretive system, distinct from Rider–Waite–Smith and Marseille.
Wands: The tarot suit commonly associated with initiative, desire and creative effort.

Numerology

Birthday number: A number using only the day of the month on which someone was born. It is a smaller interpretive layer than Life Path.
Expression number: A number using all eligible letters in a chosen full name, which practitioners interpret through abilities.
Life Path number: A value derived from the full birth date and used as an ongoing interpretive theme.
Master number: In this library's method, 11, 22 or 33, kept rather than reduced in core birth-date and name calculations.
Personal Day number: A short-term value that adds the calendar day to the Personal Month number and reduces fully to 1–9. It is a symbolic prompt, not a prediction of daily events.
Personal Month number: A temporary value that adds the target calendar month to the Personal Year number and reduces the result to 1–9.
Personal Year number: A temporary cycle calculated from the birth month, birth day and the calendar year being studied.
Personality number: A number using a name's consonants, interpreted through outward style or first impressions. It is not a psychological personality test.
Pythagorean numerology: The modern Western convention used in this library, which assigns symbolic meanings to numbers derived from dates and names.
Reduction: Adding a number's digits until a stopping rule is reached.
Soul Urge number: A number calculated from the vowels in a name and interpreted through inner motivation. It is also called Heart's Desire.