Astrology is a popular metaphysical study that we see referenced in online horoscopes, products in gift shops, or people asking, “what’s your sign?” However, the ways we encounter astrology in everyday life is only skimming the surface of a complex study. So, what is astrology? Astrology is the study of the positioning and movement of celestial bodies around the earth, and the perceived influence this has on an individual’s personality, motivations, challenges, and life experiences.
During the earth’s yearly rotation around the sun, the path that the sun appears to take across the sky is called the ecliptic line. The constellations that extend a few degrees above and below the ecliptic are the twelve zodiac signs. While most people are familiar with their sun sign, or the zodiac sign determined by one’s month of birth, digging deeper into astrology reveals that everyone has an entire birth chart made up of signs, planets, and houses whose relation to one another determines specific aspects of your identity and experiences. Your birth chart, or natal chart, is calculated by using the date, time, and location of your birth to see how this corresponds to the positions of each of the planets. Using this information, an astrologer can then interpret and explain what the different aspects of your birth chart mean for you. At Downtown Tarot Company you can book a reading with our professional astrologer to get your birth chart calculated and interpreted.
Unique Ways to Work with Astrology
Your birth chart can give you a lot of insight into your personal growth and development, but there are other ways to work with astrology beyond this. At Downtown Tarot Company we have created our Astrologia Collection, which features candles for each of the twelve zodiac signs and astrology dice for divination practices.
The Astrologia Collection
Our Astrologia candles are a coconut soy wax blend curated with crystals and herbs to strengthen the unique qualities of each zodiac sign. The candles are perfect for rituals, meditations, spells, or simply to enjoy the beautiful designs and scents. The candles can be used for your sun sign, moon sign, ascendent, or any area of your birth chart that you are looking to focus on. Throughout the year there are many astrological events, such as the recent Full Moon in Pisces or the current Mercury Retrograde that began on September 9th and will continue through October 1st. Candles can be a great way to enhance or focus energy if you plan on doing any rituals or meditations for these astrological events. For those interested in using astrology in divination, Downtown Tarot Company also features our Astrology Dice sets. In divination, astrology dice can be used to predict future events, answer questions, or determine what aspects of yourself or your life would benefit from being focused on.
How to Use Astrology Dice
Let’s start with the dice themselves. A set of astrology dice includes three twelve-sided dice with the symbols of the planets, zodiac signs, and houses respectively. Below you will find brief descriptions for the basic energies associated with each planet, sign, and house.
The Planets
1. Sun – Individuality, confidence, personal power, conscious mind
2. Moon – Emotional self, intuition, instincts, subconscious mind
3. Mercury – Intelligence, expression, communication, logical reasoning
4. Venus – Sensitivity, affection, attraction, beauty, harmony
5. Mars – Action, passion, aggression, competition, physicality
6. Jupiter – Expansion, abundance, growth, good fortune, optimism
7. Saturn – Responsibility, ambition, discipline, authority, restriction
8. Uranus – Change, inspiration, innovation, rebellion, freedom
9. Neptune – Intuition, dreams, imagination, delusions
10. Pluto – Transformation, evolution, death and rebirth
11. North Node of the Moon – Fate, lessons, the path forward
12. South Node of the Moon – The past, karma, previous lifetimes
The Signs
1. Aries – Energetic, driven, strong willed, reckless
2. Taurus – Grounded, dependable, extravagant, stubborn
3. Gemini – Social, intelligent, charismatic, unfocused
4. Cancer – Sensitive, compassionate, protective, manipulative
5. Leo – Confident, loyal, natural leader, arrogant
6. Virgo – Practical, reliable, detail-oriented, perfectionist
7. Libra – Balanced, charming, fair, indecisive
8. Scorpio – Secretive, passionate, determined, vindictive
9. Sagittarius – Adventurous, freedom seeking, funny, impatient
10. Capricorn – Ambitious, hardworking, disciplined, controlling
11. Aquarius – Unique, philosophical, giving, emotionally reserved
12. Pisces – Dreamy, imaginative, adaptable, self-victimizing
The Houses
1. First House – Personal life, new beginnings, potential accidents
2. Second House – Finances, material desires, business transactions
3. Third House – Siblings or relatives, locations, movement, travel
4. Fourth House – Parental figures, domestic life, inheritance
5. Fifth House – Fertility, women, children, pleasure, creativity
6. Sixth House – Health, hygiene, routines, injuries
7. Seventh House – Partnerships, contracts, rivalries, separation
8. Eighth House – Death, transformations, occult, debts, loans, legacies, investigations
9. Ninth House – Journeys, travel, religion, philosophy, education, media, the arts
10. Tenth House – Career, success, reputation, environments, weather
11. Eleventh House – Good fortune, friends, protection, gifts, praise, group activities
12. Twelfth House – Imprisonment, loss, solitude, secrets, fears, dreams, the unseen
Once you are comfortable identifying the symbols on the dice, you are ready to try rolling and interpreting them. For this form of divination, it can be helpful to begin with a question or an area of your life you would like to focus on. To get the most out of your experience, these questions should be open ended rather than something that could be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.”
Before rolling, it may be helpful to predetermine what you would like each of the dice to represent. A common example is shown below, but you can also determine your own meanings for what each die will represent.
Planet Die – The situation or actions taken
Zodiac Sign Die – Emotions or people involved
House Die – Area of life that will be affected
After determining what the dice represent and asking the question either in your mind or out loud, roll the three dice. Now comes the fun part: interpreting the message of the dice! For each die, start by looking at the symbol and understanding the energy or meaning associated with the planet, sign, and house. Next, think about the meaning of the symbol within the context you determined for that die (situation, people/emotions, or area of life affected). Thinking about how these meanings work together should provide insight or guidance regarding the situation you asked about.
To see what this looks like in practice, here is an example:
To start off, let’s say that we are using the dice representations from earlier: planet die = situation or actions taken, zodiac die = emotions or people involved, house die = area of life.
Next, let’s ask a question: “I’m frustrated with a coworker because I feel like I am contributing more work to our mutual project. What should I do to address the situation?”
Now that we know what our dice are representing and we have asked our question, it’s time to roll the dice.
We roll:
Planet Die – Mercury
Zodiac Die – Libra
House Die – Tenth House
Our house die is in the Tenth House, which represents career and success. This means that the area of life that will be affected by this situation is our job and work environment.
Our zodiac die is in Libra, which represents balance and justice. This may mean that it is important for us to feel like there is fairness and reciprocity in the situation or dynamic with our coworker.
Our planet die is in Mercury, which represents communication, expression, and logical reasoning. This can indicate that the action we are being advised to take is to communicate our frustrations to our coworker by using logical reasoning and seek a fair solution.
Keep in mind, the planet die does not always have to be the one you take as the message for guidance. When asking a different question, it is possible that the planet die could describe an action already taken, and the zodiac die might be guidance for the emotional energy you need to embody. A key element of divination is using your intuition to understand how the messages apply to your unique situation.
Crystal Fact of the Week
Apache Tears are a form of obsidian, named after the Apache Tribe of Arizona. The story goes that after being defeated in a battle, the warriors rode their horses off the side of a mountain rather than being killed by their enemies. As their families wept for them, their tears turned to stone on the ground. These became the Apache Tears.
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