More astrology anyone can do

I had a funny interaction with a woman I swim with the other day. She was born May 21 so we don't know whether she's a Taurus or a Gemini, and I told her to find her birth time and we'd find out once and for all (she is a grandma so this has been a life-long question she vaguely wondered about very infrequently). She blanched at the idea of "finding out" thinking that I'm going to be telling her something ominous. Unlikely. Basic chart information should tell you stuff you're well-aware of, and the fact that she can't tell whether she's Taurus or Gemini also tells me that she probably has planets in both, because Mercury can only be one sign away from the sun and Venus can only be two, and the moon can be anywhere, etc. If she follows through with giving me her birth time, I'll just tell her her sun sign, her rising sign, and her moon sign, and then bask in validation that she has planets in both Taurus and Gemini.

If you have an astrologer saying stuff about your chart that you find surprising/off/weird, they are either using the wrong keywords, reading your chart wrong, or your birth time is wrong (for them or for you). Ask me for my "wrong birth time" stories and I will regale you. Also know that if you enter a chart as PM and you mean AM or vice versa, what the software spits out will basically be upside-down, and that makes an obviously huge difference.

So on to this week's topic, which again is an easy one that any of you who have your own chart generated and can read the signs in said chart can do. For fun! Or validation. Which is what this is all about.

Yin and yang is this week's topic. Hey remember the 90's* when yin-yangs overtook us for a while? Those were easy to draw and I can't draw, so it was a nice time to contemplate light in darkness and darkness in light in spiral notebooks. Super simple concept:

Yang: outward energy. Active, not passive. Likes running around doing stuff. Can't miss it. (Typically a masculine energy)

Yin: inward energy. Passive. Receptive. Reactive. Would prefer to contemplate. (Typically a feminine energy)

Yang signs: Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius
Yin signs: Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces

Count planets in your chart by type. Draw conclusions.

I just spent 20 minutes counting a bunch of people's planets, and I want to be clear, I mean PLANETS as accepted by astrology (Pluto is a planet in astrology). Do not count planetoids (Chiron, etc.) or your ascendant. There should be 10 in your count (if you are confused, ask). Here's the easy conclusion I drew: if you have 7 or more of one or the other, that should explain a lot. If you have 8, my reaction is "dear lord." If you have 9 (is that possible in recent decades?), the remaining 1 would be classified as a "singleton" and would pull focus as the one planet in your chart that behaves in extremes.

If you identify as female and have a lot of yang planets, do people find you aggressive? Or do you just move around a lot? Flip it for men. And yes, I agree "gender is a social construct" etc. but the reason I'm mentioning this is some of you might find this knowledge validating if you're acting contrary to what's "expected." If you have an even balance (or a 4/6 split), you're not gonna care about this so much. Those who can't sit still have a shit ton of yang energy and the passive amongst us have an abundance of yin.

In my own experience, yang people have like 5 things going on at once and when you ask them what they did over the weekend, there’s a list. Yin people don’t like answering that question. If yin people have a list, they’re probably not the scheduler of the list, if you catch my drift.

I can think of some mitigating factors that would counterbalance having a lot of something (lookin' at you, Jupiter), but for now, let's leave this as just a simple counting exercise. Feel free to report your non-surprises!

Please note that if you do this and do not have birth times for people, the moon is suspect: it changes signs every 3rd day. I treat the moon like it’s charged with crimes when I don’t have a birth time, since aspects the moon makes are some of the most fundamental elements of who people are (the moon is as personal as it gets). So please also distrust the moon’s sign and never read moon aspects if you lack a birth time.

*I know it’s really “hey, remember the 80’s” but when else am I going to involve Goat Boy in anything?

P.S. this is a really diluted form of Richard Idemon’s chart interpretation technique and I am obsessed with him, so if you want to know more, read either of his books.