Astro Match Trivia Quiz

Answer: Aspect

Planetary aspects comprise a major portion of a person's astrological chart. As seen from Earth, the degree of separation between heavenly bodies at the time a person is born is interpreted as pointing to areas of challenge or ease in life, and can also provide a lot of information about what might befall a person over the course of his or her life.

Answer: Placidus

The houses of a natal chart (usually) represent twelve general areas of life. House boundaries can be calculated in different ways. One way is simply to divide the chart into twelve 30-degree sections (the so-called Equal House method). The Placidus System, which results in houses of varying numbers of degrees, was widely favored by astrologers in the 20th century, but there are a number of other systems in use today and there is much lively controversy in astrological circles about which system results in the most accurate and viable natal chart.

Answer: Midheaven

The midheaven, or medium coeli, is technically the point at which the ecliptic - the path followed by the celestial objects of astrological importance - intersects the meridian. In some astrological systems, the midheaven marks the starting point of the tenth house, which is traditionally concerned with career. Whether or not it is used as the cusp of the tenth house, the midheaven, abbreviated MC, is noted as a sensitive and important point of consideration in interpreting the chart.

Answer: Trine

The trine is one of the major aspects, or relationships between planets, that exists in a natal chart. It is formed when two planets are approximately (or exactly) 120 degrees apart in the sky as viewed from the earth. Trines are generally thought to represent areas of good fortune or easy flow in life.

Answer: Retrograde

Because the planets revolve around the sun but are viewed by astrologers on earth, their orbits sometimes seem to go out of whack, and they can appear to be moving in the opposite direction of their actual orbits. This happens to different planets at different times and for different lengths of time. Planets in retrograde have a slightly negative connotation in today's cultures: a retrograde planet's energy works inwardly rather than out in the world, or does not flow as easily as it would were the planet in its regular, direct motion mode.

Answer: Ephemeris

Ephemerides are essentially a daily tracking of the position of each of the planets, the sun and the moon along the ecliptic. The information includes what sign each body occupies, and in what degree of each sign it's found in. Retrograde motion is also noted.

The most widely used ephemerides are based on Greenwich Mean Time at either noon or midnight. Correctly calculating the positions of each of the planets and the sun and the moon and placing the cusps of the houses accurately are probably the most critical jobs an astrologer has in completing a person's natal chart, and all those things require an ephemeris to accomplish.

Answer: Transits

Transits are simply the motion of the planets, sun and moon along the ecliptic, which is the orbital path they follow in the sky. Each day there is movement of each of the bodies included in a natal chart, causing them to form different relationships and to move into different signs and houses of the chart. With all these changes occurring continually, it becomes easy to see why interpretation of charts is a complex and nuanced pursuit.

Answer: Synastry

Astrologers can more or less overlay one natal chart on another and compare the relationships between the elements of one to the other. This is known as synastry, a practice widely used to determine if a romantic or other connection between two people is likely to work out over time.

Answer: Ascendant

The ascendant, or rising sign, in a chart, is interpreted to represent the person's outward appearance and how they present themselves the world. To accurately calculate one's ascendant, the exact time and place of birth are critical. The ascendant represents the beginning of the first house in a chart as well, and all subsequent houses are to some degree derived from it. Newspaper and other mass-market horoscopes, lacking birth information for individuals, assume that the ascendant and the person's sun sign are the same, when in most cases they are not - in fact, the only time they are the same is if the person was born close to sunrise.

This assumption can give rise to inaccurate interpretation of people's daily horoscopes.

Answer: Mutable

There are three quadruplicities in a chart, each consisting of four signs. The Cardinal quadruplicity is comprised of Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn; the Fixed quadruplicity includes Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius; and the Mutable quadruplicity has the signs Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces. Each quadruplicity has different qualities: Cardinal signs are thought to be leaders, capable of initiating activity but not necessarily seeing things through to completion.

The Fixed signs are steady, dependable, and able to go the distance in any endeavor. Mutable signs are adaptable, changeable, often good followers but not necessarily good leaders.