When someone who doesn’t know anything about astrology wants to reference it in a “humorous” way, he might say something like, “My Moon is in Uranus.” (Astrological humor almost always includes Uranus.) That’s an objectionable sentence in many ways, but most importantly, it’s poor astrological grammar. Here’s why.
Astrological Nouns
When you learned grammar, you began with nouns. These were the words that did the heavy lifting, the people, places, and things that occupy space and perform actions, the grammatical rock stars around which the rest of the words in a sentence revolved like groupies. In astrology, planets are the nouns. Planets are described as being in signs, in houses, and in aspect to other planets or angles. In other words, a planet appears to be moving through a particular constellation (sign) and part of the sky (house), and in specific geometrical relationships (aspects) with other planets or parts of the sky. For example:
Venus is in Aquarius. This means that the planet Venus is moving through the sign of Aquarius.
Venus is in the first house. That is, the planet Venus is in part of the sky that the Sun occupies just before sunrise.
Venus is trine Saturn. This means the planet Venus is approximately 120 degrees from the planet Saturn. The faster-moving planet is the one that makes the aspect to the slower-moving planet. (If we waited around for Neptune or Pluto to aspect something, we’d be here all day.) Put these concepts together and you get a sentence like this:
Venus is in Aquarius in the first house, trine Saturn.
Planets also rule signs; for example, Mars rules Aries. Before the discovery of Pluto, Mars was also considered the ruler of Scorpio. Most modern astrologers still consider Mars a co-ruler, or traditional ruler, of Scorpio.
To a more limited extent, signs can occasionally serve as nouns. Signs can be in houses:
Capricorn is in the first house. That is, some or all 30 degrees of the sign Capricorn fall between the cusps of the first and second houses.
Signs are also be on house cusps or angles:
Scorpio is on the cusp of the tenth house, or Scorpio is on the Midheaven.
But signs are never in planets, or in other signs. Saying something like “My Virgo is in Mars” is like saying “My yellow is in dress.” It doesn’t mean anything except that the person who constructed this sentence doesn’t know how to speak the language of astrology.
Astrological Adjectives
The signs of the zodiac function as astrology’s adjectives, describing the nouns. For example, your girlfriend dresses eccentrically, favoring odd pairings like army boots with a tutu. In this case, your girlfriend is a Venus character (a female) who dresses in an Aquarian (eclectic, surprising) fashion.
Astrological Verbs and Adverbs
Planetary movements are astrology’s verbs and adverbs, showing action in the sky. The nature of that action is the adverb.
- Planets form aspects to other planets:
Today, Mercury will aspect Pluto.
If you want to give a little more color commentary, you could describe the aspect:
Today, Mercury will make a square aspect Pluto, so be on guard for sarcasm.
Or simply: Today, Mercury will square Pluto. - Planets enter signs or houses, or change direction:
This morning, Mercury entered Sagittarius, quickly followed by my foot entering my mouth.
Look at that—the Moon just left the seventh house and my wife walked out on me!
Before you know it, Mercury will turn retrograde again.
I’m living for the moment when Mercury turns direct!
© 2011 April Elliott Kent. Excerpt from The Essential Guide to Practical Astrology (Alpha/Penguin 2011).
