Astrology wiki
Explore wiki concepts, word origins, evidence and their connections to traditions and tools.
9 terms
Benefic →
A traditional label, especially for Venus and Jupiter, describing an interpretive tendency rather than guaranteed good events.
Word origin, evidence & sources
Latin beneficus combines bene, well, with facere, to do. The traditional label describes doing good or bringing benefit.
Classical texts assign favorable tendencies to certain planets within a larger judgment. The designation is conditional and symbolic; it is not evidence that a placement guarantees a beneficial outcome.
Cardinal signs →
Also: cardinal
Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn; a traditional grouping associated with seasonal turning points in the tropical zodiac.
Word origin, evidence & sources
Cardinal derives from cardo, hinge, then principal or pivotal. The seasonal turning points explain its astrological application.
The grouping follows the tropical seasonal turning points in the classical scheme. Applying its symbolism to initiative is an interpretive analogy, not a direct observation of the person being described.
Fixed signs →
Also: fixed modality
Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius; one of astrology’s three four-sign groupings.
Word origin, evidence & sources
Fixed means established or held in place. The classification uses this steadiness metaphor for Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius.
Classical texts document this four-sign grouping. The label describes a place within an astrological scheme; it does not show that people assigned these signs resist change.
Malefic →
A traditional label, especially for Mars and Saturn, describing an interpretive tendency rather than guaranteed harm.
Word origin, evidence & sources
Latin maleficus combines male, badly, with a form of facere, to do. The traditional label describes a harmful influence.
Classical texts use this category for demanding or adverse tendencies within context. It is not an observed harmful force, a moral description of a person, or a prediction of inevitable injury.
Mutable signs →
Also: mutable · common signs
Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces; the traditional group between fixed signs and the next seasonal turning point.
Word origin, evidence & sources
Mutable comes from Latin mutabilis, changeable, from mutare, to change; the name supplies the classification's changeability metaphor.
The grouping is inherited from zodiacal classification rules. Its association with changeability is symbolic, and should not be mistaken for a measured behavioral category.
Sect →
A traditional distinction between day and night charts and the planetary groups associated with each.
Word origin, evidence & sources
Latin secta meant a following or school. Astrological sect applies the grouping idea to day and night planetary affiliations.
Day or night can be established from a declared solar-horizon rule. The planetary teams and their favorable conditions are traditional interpretations layered onto that astronomical distinction.
Triplicity →
Also: elemental triplicity
A grouping of three zodiac signs associated with fire, earth, air or water; rulership tables vary by tradition.
Word origin, evidence & sources
From triplicitas, threefoldness. Each elemental triplicity contains three zodiac signs.
Elemental groupings and their rulers are historical interpretive conventions. In Lilly-style use, the triplicity ruler can depend on whether the chart is judged by day or night; use the named table and sect rule rather than treating one ruler list as universal.
Tropical zodiac →
Twelve equal 30° signs beginning at the March equinox, tied to the seasonal reference rather than constellation boundaries.
Word origin, evidence & sources
Tropical is related to the tropics and turning of the Sun; zodiac descends from Greek terminology for the band of figured signs.
The equinox defines the origin of twelve equal sectors. That construction is reproducible; linking a sector to character or events is a further interpretive claim, not a result of the coordinate definition.
Zodiac sign →
Also: sign
One of twelve equal 30° sectors in a specified zodiac; not the same thing as an IAU constellation.
Word origin, evidence & sources
Zodiac derives from Greek zoidion, a pictured figure or zodiacal sign; sign comes from Latin signum, a mark.
A sign is defined by a sector within a named zodiac, whereas its qualities come from a tradition. Accurate sector assignment does not turn those qualities into measured personality traits.