"What the fuck is that?" Astrology:

The Importance of Speed

Something I've encountered time and time again in my studies is confusion regarding speed. People don't know the speeds, it doesn't seem important! However, not knowing them affects how you view your chart.

This new addition to "What the fuck is that!?" Astrology is inspired by a conversation from one of my classes at Raven Academy. This is in no way about or aimed at the individuals, but rather our conversation reminded me that this is something I see a lot of and could talk about.

When people are unfamiliar with the speeds of the planets and other major points, they fall into roughly two kinds of mindset:

1. "There shouldn't be this much of X, am I doomed?"
2. "I want to know why my chart is special with so much X."

While how you view astrology and yourself is very personal, from the perspective of a life coach and astrology student, neither of these are helpful!

Thought 1 is fatalistic and casts a shadow over the developmental potential of your chart. This means that you'll have to work back up to seeing you aren't doomed just for having a heaviness or a stellium, but that this is a natural part of you that you can wield how you wish.

Thought 2 tips the seesaw of balance with ego. We predominantly come to astrology to learn about and improve ourselves, and the ego is the antagonist of this. We're all special in our own ways, but titling the chart so can subconsciously make us feel we've 'done' our growing.

In both thought processes, the chart is being isolated from universal context, in some ways ironically overpersonalised*, to the point where doing so may be preventing your own developmental growth through the practice of astrology. But where do speeds come into it?

*Natal charts are intrinsically personal and I use this term to simply outline that lacking knowledge on how the cosmos are ever moving can isolate our charts from the larger network of astrological movements as a whole, in some ways alienating us from a largely social practice.

When we know the speeds of things, it helps us to ground ourselves in how truly natural and organic chart casting is. It helps us to understand that our chart is a snippet in time, not something hand picked and edited by the cosmos! (more on that later)

So, without further ado, here's the speeds of major chart objects...

The SUN changes sign roughly every month, though imperfectly (e.g. 20th to 20th).
The MOON changes sign roughly every 2.5 days.
The ASCENDANT moves through a new sign approximately every 2 hours.

MERCURY stays in one sign for anywhere between 1/2 a month and 2 months, it changes due to retrograde factors, but is never further than one sign (28° to be precise) from the Sun due to the path it takes around it in relation to our view.

VENUS has a similar motional boundary of roughly 47° from the Sun, pitting it never further than two signs away. It can stay in a sign for a little under a month to roughly 2 months, again changing due to possible retrograde motion.

MARS is the final personal planet, i.e the fast movers, and changes sign roughly every 1.5 to 2 months.
JUPITER the first of the social planets, will change sign every year, making it's sign a factor of your year group, rather than a personal placement.

SATURN is the other social planet, who changes sign roughly every 2.5 years, making it a sub-generational placement.
After this are the outer planets, whose movements are even slower, so much so, they're known as the generational planets as they'll span a sign for a whole era.

The reason planet speeds are important to note is because they demystify astrology! Their movement is natural and organic, and it just so happens we were placed into a snippet of time where we personally feel a factor of that.

As you can see from the movements, it's very, very easy to end up with nothing in one sign or lots in the next. This is nothing to be worried about, but equally so natural that it isn't a point of veneration either. It's just beautiful nature, doing it's thing!

For instance, anyone born in the late 90s will have both Uranus and Neptune in Aquarius by generational default. When the often clustered Sun, Mercury, and Venus approach Aquarius, there's always going to be at least 3 planets in Aquarius, just due to organic patterns.

Now, people often have the same worries about houses, and having too much in some houses or nothing in the others. Houses, while not always split equally between signs and degrees, are affected by the speeds of objects also. How can houses be equal if the sky is not?

Again, this is absolutely nothing to worry about, and actually lacking objects in certain places and having empty houses is 100% expected and normal due to the cycles we are observing. Just remember, nothing is truly empty, as each house still has a sign and a lord.

So what's the point in teaching you the speeds of planets? Well, it was to debunk some things which sit in the way of astrological growth, be it ego or doubt, fear or fortune.

After all, the essence of astrology is to see our interconnection to the cosmos, and to do so requires us to fully understand what's happening up there. Like said, the stars aren't chopping and changing just to form you and I, flying across space for a certain sign!

That brings me back to something I said I'd mention later: philosophy of astrology. Obviously, in this thread, I'm breaking it down into exactly what it is, the movements of the planets. However, *why* you were born at a certain time is a whole other can of worms.

The *reason* for your chart, though, isn't inherently astrological. This question dives into the realms of dualism and rebirth, which may be a leading factor in how you choose to read charts, as it can provide extra meaning to those organic cycles.

And that's that on the speeds of objects! Hopefully, this has been an interesting thread, and helped you to contextualise what's really happening up in the sky. Maybe it's even given you an idea of how to realistically theorise on charts!

If you liked this thread, check out my other "What the fuck is that!?" Astrology on Cazimi and Combustion

https://twitter.com/underworldariel/status/1286312692224086019?s=19