The words SideraMea uses
Glossary
37 terms the application uses, briefly explained. Ascendant, orb, cusp, solar return: precise words that mean nothing to anyone who has not met them before.
The angles
Ascendant
The sign that was rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth.
Descendant
The point opposite the Ascendant: it concerns others and relationships.
Imum Coeli
The point opposite the Midheaven: it concerns home, roots and private life.
Midheaven
The highest point of the sky at birth: it concerns public role and career.
Reading the chart
Birth chart
A map of the sky as it was at the exact moment and place of birth.
Cusp
The exact point where a house begins.
House
One of the twelve sections the sky is divided into, each tied to an area of life.
House system
The method used to divide the sky into twelve houses. SideraMea offers six.
Time of birth
The most delicate figure in a chart: on its own it decides Ascendant, Midheaven and houses.
Aspects
Aspect
The angle between two planets, when it matches a measure held to be significant.
Conjunction
Two planets in the same place in the sky, or nearly: they merge.
Opposition
Two planets 180° apart, on opposite sides of the chart: they pull in contrary directions.
Orb
How far an aspect departs from the exact measure.
Sextile
Two planets 60° apart: an opportunity, but one you have to take.
Square
Two planets 90° apart: friction, and a push to do something about it.
Trine
Two planets 120° apart: they cooperate effortlessly.
Techniques
Astral climate
How harmonious today's aspects between the sky and your birth chart are.
Astrocartography
Lines on the world map where planets were angular at your birth.
Davison chart
A single chart for two people, computed from the midpoint between their births.
Planetary line
One of a planet's four lines on the map: MC, IC, AC or DC.
Secondary progressions
One day after birth symbolically stands for one year of life.
Solar return
The chart of the exact moment the Sun returns to the position it held at birth.
Synastry
The comparison of two birth charts: how one person's planets touch the other's.
Transit
A planet in today's sky forming an aspect with a point in your birth chart.
Bodies and points
Time and measurement
Ephemeris
The tables that say where each celestial body was at a given instant.
Progressed lunar phase
Where the Sun-Moon cycle stands in the progressions: it lasts about thirty years.
Pythagorean numerology
The method that assigns each letter a number from 1 to 9 and adds them up.
Universal Time (UT)
The reference time that is the same everywhere, with no zones and no daylight saving.
Spirituality
Astral body
In esoteric traditions, a subtle body that accompanies the physical one and can separate from it.
Astral projection
The traditional name for deliberately leaving the body by means of the astral body.
Hypnagogic state
The passage between waking and sleep, when the mind is still awake and images begin.
Lucid dream
A dream in which you realise you are dreaming while the dream carries on.
Out-of-body experience (OBE)
The sense of being outside your own body and seeing it, often from above.
Sleep paralysis
Waking up and being unable to move for a few moments: the body is still in the dreaming stage.