When I first started learning astrology and talking with Anna and Nick (two of our Astrology teachers) about astrology they would say things to me like, degrees, houses, and I don’t know what else! 

I was like, “What are you talking about? The temperature outside, what does that have to do with my time of birth or where I was born? How is that relevant?”

They said, “No, Sara it’s not temperature, it’s degrees around a circle. And this is relevant to your birth information and predictive astrology!”  Plus, all of this other cool stuff! For example, looking at how we’re moving through lifetimes! Which is amazing and interesting to me, because I particularly like to talk about the past, present, and future lives.

In talking with our astrologers about this and with lots of our community members we see all sorts of examples of people that might be one degree something, or 29 degrees something, or 15 degrees and we’re going to break it down and make this a little bit easier for you to understand right now!

So, quick and dirty, what is a degree in astrology?

There are 360 degrees in a circle and there are 12 signs. Therefore, there are 30 degrees in each sign. 360 / 12 = 30…

High school math?

Yes! You just look at where the planets or the house cusps are in your chart and it gives you a little bit more information about that sign, about that particular planet in that sign.

The lower kind of degrees you that find, like 1 and 0, 0 and 1, especially zero, you’re kind of learning, you’re just starting to learn about that sign, so the traits are a little bit more immature. Towards the end, 28, 29 degrees, you’re very mature in that sign. That planet acts with more wisdom and knowing.

It just starts to behave a little bit more like the next sign.

Basically, we’re moving through this journey. In a previous blog we talked about if you didn’t feel like your sun sign was really relevant to your personality, to who you are, your degrees can come into this.

So, if you’re born near a cusp, you’re going to act a little bit like both signs, the one you were born under and the sign the suns moving into next. 

For example, I’m a Sagittarius. If I were one degree Sagittarius versus 15 degrees versus 29 degrees, as my Sagittarius sun sign I may have different qualities then another Sagittarius sun. If you’re 1 degree Sagittarius, you carry a lot of that instantaneous fire, that desire to just go and do something, experience something, journey, journey, journey and without really thinking about it.

It’s more instinctual. And then when you move into more of the middle of the sign, you end up seeing that it acts very strongly, like itself, it’s just a little bit more mature. It’s like if you’re in your 20’s. You’re not acting like a child, you’re not acting out just to act out, you’re experiencing, you’re gaining knowledge-

And then towards the end, when Sagittarius finally meets the end of its sign, it’s more of the philosopher, it’s done the journey, it knows what’s going on and it carries more maturity to it.

The next sign is  Capricorn which has to do with achievements and goals so the end of Sagittarius is looking forward to that. It’s looking forward to using all of its knowledge so that it can achieve its goals.

As we’re moving through the degrees, we’re transitioning, moving into the next sign and so if you are higher in those, like a Sagittarius sun, that was  28 degrees Sagittarius, you might feel more Capricorn or more steady. Maybe like, “I don’t know, I’m not really wild and crazy and making rash decisions,” but maybe you’re still feeling that fire and that goal chasing but you’ve got plans in place and you’re like, “Listen, I need a plan to chase my goals, I’m going to chase them after I make my plan.”

This versus somebody who is coming off of Scorpio season. 

Like moving from Scorpio into Sagittarius.

If you’re coming out of Scorpio where you’re in transformation, change,something totally new. Moving into Sagittarius, that’s going to be a whole different thing.

We can see those degrees. That’s what degrees mean in astrology. It has nothing to do with the temperature, it turns out. It’s all about the degree you are around that circle and in that specific space of the sign. Very cool stuff. And even a better way to dive into who you are, what you are, and what you’re doing here in this lifetime.