Astrology 101 for the College Counselor

With Virgo Guides, you don’t need to be an astrology expert to infuse its value and magic into your college counseling practice. As you start to engage with Virgo Guides, you may naturally find questions arising.

Here are some useful basics for any college counselor trying to gain an understanding of astrology. These ideas are some of the core principles in my book that Virgo Guides pulls from to generate readings.

The Sun Sign as Core Identity

The sun sign represents your core identity and life’s purpose. It is also known as the star sign.

Popularly, this is the sign, based on birthdate, that people are most familiar with. There are 12 zodiac signs, each corresponding with a different set of birthdates. At the dawn of astrology centuries ago, the sky was divided into 12 constellation-based sections. If you were to draw a straight line from the Earth to the sun on your birthday, it would hit the constellation corresponding to your sun sign.

There are different systems of astrology, but Virgo Guides uses Western astrology, largely because it’s what I’m most familiar with. Here are the signs based on birthdate:

Aries: March 21 – April 19
Taurus: April 20 – May 20
Gemini: May 21 – June 21
Cancer: June 22 – July 22
Leo: July 23 – August 22
Virgo: August 23 – September 22
Libra: September 23 – October 23
Scorpio: October 24 – November 21
Sagittarius: November 22 – December 21
Capricorn: December 22 – January 19
Aquarius: January 20 – February 18
Pisces: February 19 – March 20

Each sign has its own character and way of being. Many people identify very strongly with their sun sign, but others don’t. For various reasons, they may connect more with their moon or rising signs. The sun sign is a piece of the bigger picture of your birth chart, but like anything in astrology, it’s not the be-all-end-all.

The Moon Sign as the Emotional Self

Your moon’s zodiac placement represents your emotional core. It speaks to how your emotional world is structured, what it needs, and how it expresses itself. It may also indicate how you present to your inner circle and/or how you presented to the world most strongly in your childhood.

In the same way your sun sign is based on where the sun was in the sky at the moment of your birth, your moon sign is determined by where the moon was at the moment of your birth. The moon changes signs on a shorter timeline than the sun, however, every 2-3 days.

The Rising Sign as Personality

Your rising sign represents how you most strongly present to others. It’s how you dawn on others when they first meet you, and it’s the sign you are trying to integrate into your being the most. Your rising sign is determined by where the sun was rising on the eastern-most horizon at the time of your birth. Because the rising sign changes every two hours, it can only be gleaned if you have your exact birth time.

The North & South Nodes

In Astrology, the North nodes and South nodes refer to the two places where the moon’s orbital path crosses the ecliptic – the sun’s apparent path through our sky.

These points are believed to hold great meaning and are always directly opposing each other in the sky, which means they live in zodiac signs opposite each other. These nodes change about every 18 months. The North node is a very powerful piece of the natal chart because it points to the experiences a person can integrate most powerfully to move forward with meaning and purpose. The South node, on the hand, shows a person their “pitfall” tendencies. Often these pitfall tendencies will come the most naturally to a person, so it can be helpful for someone like a college counselor to guide and nurture students toward experiences represented by the North node. For example, a North node in Cancer will do best when they are choosing experiences that connect them with their feelings. With a South node in Capricorn, their default tendencies may be to seek out experiences where they can (over) achieve and perform, valuing hard work over the softness of feelings.

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If you haven’t generated a reading yet, log in today for a Virgo Guide-generated chart and interpretation of your natal chart.

I believe Virgo Guides can transform our college counseling, but this transformation starts and ends with you! Take a leap into the world of astrology to begin, begin again, or deepen your reflection as a professional with soul.

Hayley