Astrology is a symbolic language
Astrology is the study of the motions and relative positions of the planets, Sun and Moon, interpreted in terms of human characteristics and activities.
Astrology attempts to reduce life experience into a series of ordered cycles.

The Earth as Symbol of the Individual
In astrology, measurement begins with the first point of independent existence, in the case of the individual, the first breath.
Astrology as presented here is "person-centred" - the world revolves around the individual. The individual is the center of their own universe.
However the freedom of the individual is bound by the collective, the groups to which they belong.
The acorn is not free to become an apple tree.

Key to Astrological Symbolism - Axial Rotation and Orbital Revolution

(1) Orbital Revolution - the Earth circles around the Sun and
(2) Axial Rotation - the Earth rotates around its axis.

Orbital Revolution and Axial Rotation give us a dualism of life-direction, a dualism of individual and collective.

The Collective
Family, race, nationality, class, religious group, club, trade union, your occupation, your corporation etc. The individual may help to create or transform these groups but they also act upon the individual, by imposing their standards, directly and indirectly.

1. Astrology of the Collective
Orbital Revolution is "objective motion," as it brings about change in location. Through motion in space, through actual displacement of one's center, one relates oneself to others; one gains objective experiences of others and becomes aware of the reality of the larger group of which one is but a part.

2.Astrology of the Individual
Axial Rotation represents "subjective motion", as it does not create any change of location. It is motion within the individual; interior or subjective. It represents inner changes. Values, which deal with the individual, will be referred symbolically to the axial rotation of the Earth and the astrological factors created thereby, mainly the circle of houses and its two axes.

The signature of an individual is usually not legal unless it contains the individual first name and the family (collective) name.

For any Given Time and Place of Birth
Orbital revolution - gives the zodiacal position of the Sun at birth, the point of the Earth's orbit around the Sun where the native is born (e.g. Sun in Pisces).
Axial rotation - gives us the exact stage of the daily rotation of the earth around its axis and thereby the circle of houses.

When the horoscope is cast for the exact time and place of birth, the sign that is rising on the Eastern horizon at the time and place of birth is placed on the cusp of the first house, and it is called the "rising sign" or the ascendant.
The Planets represent energies - "What" is operating.
The Signs tell us "How" the energies operate.
The Houses tell us "Where" the energies will operate.
The Aspects show the relationships between the planets, the ease or difficulty of the flow of energies between the planets.

The Planetary Pattern as Personality
The nature of the planets are characterised by their positions in the zodiac, and they operate in particular ways according to their positions in the houses of the birthchart. The sum total of the planets including the Sun and Moon - the whole planetary pattern - represents the personality as a whole.

Epilogue
Each and every birthchart represents a moment of time, distilled.
It is as if Time held a bag of seeds, from which at every moment seeds would drop which would be formed in the likeness of the nature of that moment.
For the personality there is a certain amount of free will, in so far as the individual can dominate or influence the collective. However the collective tends to blur the outlines of any individual, and can work against the freedom of the individual.

The acorn is not free to become an apple tree.

"Character is Destiny" (Novalis).

Article by John Hayes