Understanding others via counting

Every so often, I like to present some overly-simplistic astrology anyone can do to make this stuff super-accessible. In this case, you just need to be able to tell what planets are in what sign and count sign modes.

Fixed
This comes up because I was talking to a friend about her child, who often exhibits signs of self-determination, which is a nice way of saying "stubborn." This is a hallmark of having planets in fixed signs, which just about everyone does, but if you have 5 or more planets in fixed signs, god help anyone who tries to oppose you. Fixed sign people dig in and out-last the rest of us, who are bewildered and ask questions like "are we still doing this???!" Fixed sign people are deeply creatures of habit, so you must be very careful about the habits that get formed, because they have the toughest time quitting. They also tend not to let people go (Scorpio and Taurus most of all). Change upsets them and when you make a change out of necessity or otherwise, they will try to change things back ASAP. If you would like to play a very stupid cat-and-mouse game, change-for-no-reason is a fun one to see how quickly they fix it back to how they like it. They also enjoy rescuing things from the trash, so you can try that one, too.

Fixed signs are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. If the person in question has the sun conjunct, opposing, or square Pluto, or Pluto on the ascendant, stop counting, because they might as well have 10 planets in a fixed sign. Another "fixed" hallmark is Uranus on the ascendant.

People who have zero planets in fixed signs have a heck of a time with follow-through and leave a trail behind them of half-finished projects and hobbies they started and quit a few weeks later. Please understand: if you have zero of any type of energy, it's like a foreign language. These people don't speak the language of sustaining momentum, so blame 'em all you want, but it's just a natural deficit.

People with only one planet in a fixed sign can either really overplay that planet (and refuse to let go in whatever sign/house the planet is in) or find someone to project that energy on, because usually it doesn't fit in nicely with the rest of their energy (meaning: they find an intense person who doesn't let go of things to play the bad guy in their lives). Also, people who randomly display out-of-character fixations or obsessions are often people with Pluto in Leo or Scorpio as the only fixed planet in their chart.

Cardinal
People with planets in cardinal signs are the go-getters of the universe, who like to run around achieving things all the time. If the universe is working in order, the cardinal people get things started and then pass the torch to the fixed people, who sustain the momentum, because cardinal can't. And that's not a knock on them, it's just they need to go have different ideas and experiences, so one year they might be really into something and talk a big game about how great it is and the next year they're off doing something else. They like to achieve things and then it's on to the next thing. Cardinal people are where the fads come from. Think: Elle Woods. These are the competitors of the universe.

Cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. Give them merit badges and tell them how special they are for their achievements, because for some, it might be the only way they can keep track of all the stuff they did.

People with no cardinal energy are the procrastinators of the universe. You can give them everything they need for a project they genuinely want to do AND a kick in the ass and they still can't figure out how to get started. You basically have to start for them and then hand over the reigns. They're also distinctly non-competitive (though I can name like 15 mitigating factors, most having to do with Mars placements and any amount of Aries energy, so take that with a big ol' grain of salt).

Mutable
Finally, mutable signs are the ones that piss off everyone who doesn't have a lot of mutable energy, but when you think about it, they're necessary. Cardinal starts shit, fixed maintains it, and mutable fills in the gaps, which are all over the place, so they are all over the place. Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces: most people hate at least two of these signs if they're familiar with astrological signs at all. Gemini won't stop talking, Virgo won't stop alphabetizing things (um, I mean, putting them in order), Sagittarius won't stop trying to enlighten you, and...where is Pisces? However, this energy is flexible, capable of last-minute changes, and content with winging it. Cardinal likes a clear path forward, fixed likes things "the normal way," and mutable really doesn't care that much. Mutable people invented backwards day, just to mix shit up. They have preferences, but also a spirit of "whatever," and the other two modes find this baffling, but the trick is to see all circumstances as extremely temporary, which is the lens through which mutability sees things. These are the jacks of all trades and the delivery people of the universe, capable of doing things that don't really go together and comfortable with that.

For all the shit mutable gets, a lack of mutable planets is a calling card of inflexibility, and having just one mutable planet *can* make that one function the planet represents hyperactive (not always, but often). I have seen it with my own eyes: a Jupiter in Virgo in the 1st house who was everyone's best friend and belle of any ball, held anytime, anywhere, because it couldn't and wouldn't switch off. Hiding under all that was a tremendous amount of fixed energy, so the real person was very stubborn, but the persona everyone saw (because it was a 1st house planet) was a whimsical class clown. Ever seen a clown with control issues?

Generally speaking with any of this counting, I like 5 or more planets in a mode, except for every fixed planet in a chart, the need to keep everything the same increases exponentially. Five is where it tips to become "a lot," though, because we're only counting to 10. Don't you dare count planetoids or asteroids or something weird and creative to give yourself more than 10 because you don't like the mode you have. Some of us are well-balanced, but this exercise can explain some of the extreme personalities in our lives. Extremely driven, extremely stubborn, or extremely all over the place: if one of these sounds like someone you know and love, get their birth chart and start counting.

The one other exception I think is worth discussing (aside from the Pluto-sun and Uranus exceptions above) is if you have the sun as a lone planet in a mode. So let's say you have five cardinal planets and four fixed planets and a mutable sun, well congratulations on being a walking contradiction, but the mutable energy is still going to be pretty strong, because your sun is always the dominant force in your chart. Put another way: this person could still be flexible as needed despite all the cardinal and fixed energy.

If this was interesting to you, I recommend the work of Richard Idemon.