Astral Atlas Guide

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Astral Atlas Guide Booklet

“The starry vault of heaven is in truth the open book of cosmic projection”

– Carl Jung, Ursa

“Astrology has no more useful function than this: to discover the inmost nature of man and to bring it out into his consciousness, that he may fulfill it.”

– Aleister Crowley, Libra

“Astrology is one of the earliest attempts made by man to find the order hidden behind or within the confusing and apparent chaos that exists in the world.”

– Karen Hamaker, Sagittarius

“The way that I see astrology is as a repository of thought and psychology. A system we’ve created as a culture as a way to make things mean things.”

– Eleanor Catton, Corvus

How to Use This Deck

The primary purpose of the Astral Atlas Guide Deck, as the name implies, is to guide readers, astrologers, and general enthusiasts through Zodiac Astrology with 54 elegant and educational cards.

In addition, we have also made some minor improvements to terminology, planetary rulership, and the addition of cusp signs to the system at large, hoping to add depth while also streamlining astrology for novices and experts alike.

For use in divination, our Guide Deck can be used to understand your own Star Chart (once you already know the Signs and Planets of your chart, based on putting your birthdate and its location into an online service of your choice).

A reader may also use it to explain the Star Chart of their clients, or may even add Planet and Constellation cards which correspond to current astronomic observations for every reading (for example, “Mercury in Cancer,” “Pluto in Aquarius,” and so on). Tell us how you use them in a product review on our Etsy!

The Constellations / Zodiac

There are 88 Constellations in the night sky according to Western Astrology.

Of those, 32 are in the Southern Hemisphere, 36 are in the Northern Hemisphere, and only 12 of those along the boundary are called Zodiacs.

Western Astrology has changed much since the first recorded Calendars in Sumeria some 5 thousand years ago. Assigning symbolic meaning to star clusters was a memorable way to track the stars over the course of a year, helping to keep track of the Seasons for agricultural and ceremonial reasons.

But all cultures, from Europe to Eastasia, India to America, and Africa to Oceania have used some form of Astrology. And many of them were even without agriculture for some time. But long before early calendars, people told Stories that were linked to constellations. This may have been as far back as humans could talk, which could be anywhere between 50-thousand and 2-million years ago!

Along with Orion “the hunter,” newer constellations like Monoceros ‘the unicorn’ can be linked back to the stag of Siberian hunting tales, which may best resemble one of our oldest hunting stories. It is also possible that Ursa Major ‘the great bear’ was originally a mammoth. The point is, constellations always reflect the imaginations of their particular culture. Today, the same constellation has come to be known by many modern folk as the Big Dipper, a notably artificial icon, more compatible with our industrialized world.

The same can be said of the Zodiacs as they are popularly understood today. They have adapted to suit our culture.

In tribal societies, the Zodiacs represented Archetypal Stories to help rear and educate their members; in civil societies, they came to represent Ceremonial Periods that cities, states, and empires could use to organize their citizens; and in liberal societies like ours, they have come to represent a set of Individual Personalities to identify and distinguish ourselves from one-another. I believe that we should utilize all three perspectives.

Simply identifying with one’s Sun Sign is a sure way to further divide humanity and brainwash people into one-dimensional patterns of behavior. Therefore, I think it important for astrologers to popularize the more complex and multi-dimensional aspects of astrology, from its Archetypal-Mythological and Ceremonial Calendar roots, to the intricacies of a Personal Star Chart. I hope this Astral Atlas Guide Deck might serve to bring about such an end.

At Studio Pandemonia, Calley Smith and I, Joshua Kes, have been interested in mythology, anthropology, and astrology from as early as we can remember. I even got a Bachelors in Sociology & Geoscience to explore my fascination with how humans construct societies and concepts out of the natural world, and how that natural world in turn influences them.

As a secular scholar, I approach myth, ceremony, and astrology with a humanistic lens. To me, the value of astrological concepts is dependent upon their use for the benefit of human nature and holistic well-being.

Personally, I choose to identify as a Gemini because it connects me to the archetypes of our ancestors, their diverse cultures, and to the stars above us. I make sure not to simply subscribe to Geminian stereotypes, but to define Gemini by my own example, and by that of Geminis whom I have known or read.

It is up to every one of us what our sign means to us. As an ever-evolving worldview, it will come to mean what we as persons and as a society want it to mean.

That being said, there is nothing truly new under the Sun. We all share our humanity in common, and we’ve been thinking about ourselves for a long time. So it shouldn’t be too constraining for us to accept that our ancestors have gifted us a good set of 12 profiles to start with.

We have been endeavoring to represent archetypes, virtues, and values worth striving for, utilizing the newest innovations of deep and personal psychology from the past few decades. We hope you might join us too!

Although there are hundreds of constellations, and each culture has its own names and stories associated with them, the Zodiacs are most important to astrologers, since the Sun travels through them throughout the year. Thus, there are 12 discernible periods per year. These are referred to by expert astrologers as “the 12 Houses of the Zodiac,” but I prefer to leave ‘Houses’ out of our wording for greater clarity. “The 12 Zodiacs” ought to suffice for most people.

As one might learn from looking at the constellations with a naked eye at night, it is hard enough to find a constellation, let alone discern when one begins and another ends. And when you learn that every star we see, including our own Sun, is actively orbiting around the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, drifting over the course of time, it is even more impossible to draw definitive lines. The constellations we see today and those that our ancient ancestors saw are different, and will only differ further over time.

So why draw firm lines at all?

The fact that star clusters change does not diminish their use by astrologers. In fact, it is the job of every astrologer to adapt their charts and constellations to the changes in the stars. But constellations will probably change sooner from cultural revolutions than from the astronomic revolution of stars. Constellations only exist in so far as they are useful.

For instance, there were attempts in the 70s to add new signs like Ophiuchus or Cetus to the Zodiac due to stellar drift, for a new total of 13+ signs. However, such a shift would require a total overhaul of elements, modes, and historic continuities of the12-based system. Also, 12 is more compatible with the Gregorian Calendar that most of the world uses.

We propose that astrology always be made up of 12 Core Zodiac Signs, and that the archetypes and themes behind the signs, including their Elements and Modes, shouldn’t just disappear. If the stars drift far enough, we can simply draw up new constellations in the same 12 zones to represent similar archetypes.

Instead of overhauling all existing signs, we’ve introduced Cusp Signs to represent the transition between Core Signs of the mainstream Zodiac. Now, Ophiuchus (between Scorpio & Sagittarius) and Cetus (between Pisces & Aries) can be Signs, just not Core Signs, having shorter duration and more compounded themes.

With 24 total Zodiac Signs, our system adds a bit more nuance without getting too out of hand. Cusps are not an obscure concept in astrology, but, at least in our research, very few astrologers have tried to systematize or integrate them into Zodiac Astrology at large, so we decided to give it a shot.

So long as Zodiacs are a reflection of genuine human values, I believe that they are valid. Prescriptions of behavior and over-identification with ideas is not.

We ought to express humanity, not repress it. The line may appear thin at times, but if we are open to adapt, improve, and validate what we think and feel about ourselves, our Zodiac will too.

The first set of 25 Constellation Cards in our Astral Atlas Guide Deck are the 12 Core Zodiac Signs, the new 12 Cusp Zodiac Signs, and 1 Constellation Info Card to aid in readings without need for this booklet.

The Core Signs include the traditional Zodiac, each lasting about 20 days, and each representing an archetype, time of year, and personality profile. They are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.

The Cusp Signs include a set of existing constellations to represent the roughly 10-day transition between each traditional Core Zodiac Sign, each also representing an archetype, time of year, and personality profile of their own. They are Phoenix, Cuniculus, Cervus, Ursa, Corona, Corvus, Lupus, Ophiuchus, Vulpecula, Cygnus, Pegasus, and Cetus. Cusps are an overlooked aspect of astrology, despite being relevant to many caught between two Core Signs who see aspects of both and neither in themselves.

The Planets / Celestials

Babylonian astrologers only recognized 5 Planets with the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Go outside tonight and you may be able to find them for yourself.

Unlike other stars, these celestials wander to and fro (prograde & retrograde) from night to night, week to week, month to month. Over time, they recognized cycles of motion, and could predict future motions. They projected various human qualities onto these planets, ultimately leading to the kind of correlations we see between their current Latin names in English and the Roman gods they once represented.

Although the Sun and Moon were not called “planets” then or now, they were of utmost importance to astrologers and to the human psyche. The Sun has arguably the most significant meaning to humans and animals alike for obvious reasons. But the Moon, too, with its predictable phases, is the basis for our Moonths (Months). Along with the 5 Planets, they make up the 7 Celestials common to most ancient astrologies.

The Sun was so symbolically important to mankind that the Pythagoreans of classical Greece believed in a “central fire” that Earth orbited – even if they didn’t recognize the Sun itself was that very “fire.” Nonetheless, they recognized the existence of Earth as an orbiting planet, the 8th Celestial. The heliocentric models of Aristarchus in 270 BCE and Copernicus in 1543 CE would eventually confirm that the Earth was, in fact, a planet in orbit around the Sun, as we know it today.

It surprised me to learn that the remaining 2 Outer Planets were discovered after the invention of the telescope. Uranus was discovered in 1781, long after the Romans could have projected their god of the same name onto it. Neptune was discovered even later, in 1846. Aquarius and Pisces were only then given their own planets, no longer sharing Saturn and Jupiter, by astrologers during and following the scientific revolution. Their work in characterizing these outer planets was no less important than that of the ancients. We, too, have some work to do.

The final two Celestials in our new astrology include 2 Dwarf Planets, although there are even more dwarf planets than that. Ceres was discovered in 1801 within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter (between the rocky inner and gassy outer planets).

At first, it was treated as a large asteroid, until Pluto, which was only discovered in 1930, was demoted to a “Dwarf Planet” in 2006.

Seven more dwarf planets include Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Sedna, Quaoar, Gonggong, and Orcus, many of which we have little information about at the time of my writing this. If we included them, we would have 21 celestials, more approximating the Major Arcana in Tarot, I suppose. But if we were to factor in other Moons as well, we would find ourselves at a grand total of 221 or more… As such a number is no longer useful, at least for the purpose of simplifying Zodiac Astrology, we think 12 will suffice for now.

Before we had 12 Celestials, the ‘planets’ would have “dual-ownership” of certain Zodiac Signs: Mercury ruled Gemini & Virgo, Venus ruled Libra & Taurus, Mars ruled Aries & Scorpio, Jupiter ruled Sagittarius & Pisces, Saturn ruled Capricorn & Aquarius, the Sun ruled Leo, and the Moon ruled Cancer. However, since the astronomic horizons have widened, we are able and should be willing to give every Celestial a single Zodiac Sign to share their themes and gods with.

Sol / Sun – Leo

Mercury – Gemini

Venus – Libra

Earth – Taurus

Luna / Moon – Cancer

Mars – Aries

Ceres – Virgo

Jupiter – Sagittarius

Saturn – Capricorn

Uranus – Aquarius

Neptune – Pisces

Pluto – Scorpio

Each Celestial has a sort of lens through which, depending on which Constellation it passes through, a Story or Horoscope may be interpreted from it. If, for instance, Venus passes through Aries,

it may be interpreted that one’s love life (Venus) is entering a phase of romantic and passionate character (Aries).

One born under a Venus in Aries may then be interpreted as one who is romantic and passionate in love. Once one understands the scope of each Celestial and the theme of each Zodiac, one needs only pay attention to the stars and connect the dots. The rest comes down

to the art of intuitive, poetic, and philosophical interpretation.

The second set of Planetary Cards include the 12 Celestials and 1 Celestial Info Card to aid in readings without this booklet. We entertained the idea of providing a handful of Moons, Dwarf Planets, and Comets for Cusp Signs, like Titan for Cygnus, Triton for Pegasus, and Halley’s Comet for Phoenix, for example, but decided to leave that sort of expansion for the potential future.

The Elements & Compounds

Elemental theories seem to have come from alchemists of the Axial Age, a period between 900 and 300 BCE which saw the explosion of philosophical and early scientific thinking and writing across Eurasia, including the Presocratic philosophers of Ionian Greece, the Upanishads & Buddhists of India, the Hundred Schools of Thought in China, the Zoroastrians of Persia, and even the composition of the Hebrew Torah.

In Western Philosophy, there are usually 4 Elements: Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. Sometimes, Aether or Space is considered a 5th or transcendental element too. At some point in the age, early philosophers applied their elemental system to the Zodiacs of Greek Astrology.

In Eastern Philosophy, there are 5 Elements: Fire, Earth, Water, Wood,

and Metal. Although Ice and Dust are not present in any elemental system, their prominence in Scandinavian, Mideastern, and Modern myths inspired me to include them in our set of 4 Compounds which are distributed to the12 Cusp Signs.

It would seem that the Elements were first correlated with the Zodiacs through their relation to the 4 Seasons of the Northern Hemisphere: to Spring was given Air for its light and breezy character; to Summer was given Fire, for its heat and energy, to Autumn was given Earth for its melancholic character, and to Winter was given Water, for the wet season of the mild climates +where astrology was first practiced.

But if that were to be all, then Gemini, Cancer, and Leo would all be Fire signs, given all three are in the Northern Hemisphere’s Summer. And if we consider the Southern Hemisphere’s seasons are the opposite, the same three signs would be Winter/Water signs in, say, Australia, Uruguay, and South Africa. The Chinese Zodiac actually does something like this, giving 2 Zodiacs in each Season the same Element.

Instead, astrologers have adopted an Elemental Cycle, perhaps taken from early theories about the origins of the world. Today, we know the Earth was molten (fiery), then formed an (earthy) crust, an (airy) outgassing formed the atmosphere, and the (watery) oceans were condensed out of rainclouds.

Given that Winter for many is a time of hibernation and death, the thaw of Spring often represents the beginning

of a new cycle. Thus, Aries, at the heart of Spring, has long been considered the first sign of the Zodiac. Following the Elemental Cycle, Aries is considered the first Fire sign, followed in turn by Earth, Air, Water, and then Fire again. And so it is today.

The Elements of Every Core Sign

Fire – Aries, Leo, Sagittarius

Earth – Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn

Air – Gemini, Libra, Aquarius

Water – Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces

Symbolically, Fire is the proactive element of energetic Action. Earth is the reactive element of solid Sensation. Air is the proactive element of free Thought. Water is the reactive element of ever-changing Emotion.

The 2 Proactive and 2 Reactive Natures of the elements are referred to by many astrologers as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ or ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ respectively. Daoist philosophers also refer to these dualities as Yang and Yin, respectively.

Zodiac Astrology is a unique personality system, because its base set of 12 types is divisible by 2-base (dualistic) systems, 4-base (quadrant) systems, and 3-base (triadic) systems. The Enneagram, for instance, is only divisible by 3, the Myers-Briggs is only divisible by 4 and 2, and the Big Five is made up of 5 dualities for a total of 10, divisible only by 5 and 2.

Now, the latter three personologies should not be taken as permanent birth-charts. Rather, they are generally meant to diagnose certain imbalances in the psyche and prescribe adaptive strategies for the improvement of well-being.

One’s Zodiac Sign is not a diagnosis. All signs are worthy of cultivating well-being by any means. The purpose of Zodiacal profiles, at least in my practice, is to participate in and channel certain human values as individuals and in relation to one-another. I would have become a writer regardless of my sign, but the archetype of Gemini as the divine messenger inspires me to pursue those values even more deeply.

We’ve collected hundreds of universal virtues during the research for our Gift of Virtue Deck, and at least a dozen of those are worth cultivating.

Since every Core Sign has an Element, we gave every Cusp Sign a Compound, made up of its two adjacent Elements.

The compound of Fire and Earth is Metal. The compound of Earth and Air is Dust. The compound of Air and Water is Wood. The compound of Water and Fire is Ice.

The Compounds of Every Cusp Sign

Metal – Phoenix, Corona, Vulpecula

Dust – Cuniculus, Corvus, Cygnus

Wood – Cervus, Lupus, Ophiuchus

Ice – Ursa, Pegasus, Cetus

To match the Seasonal aspects of the Elements, the Compounds correlate with 4 Climates, based on Geographic Zones: Arctic, Subarctic, Subtropic, and Tropic. I decided to refer to the Subarctic and Subtropical zones as Temperate and Deserate – I coined the latter term to describe more accurately the typical desert climates of a Subtropical zone.

These 4 zones exist in each hemisphere, 8 in total from the North to the South Pole. The Arctics are represented by Ice, the Temperates by Wood, the Deserates by Dust, and the Tropics by Metal.

Ophiuchus and Pegasus are exceptions to the compounding cycle, since Ophiuchus and Lupus are Wood signs on both sides of Scorpio in Autumn, and Pegasus and Cetus are Ice signs on both sides of Pisces in Winter.

Symbolically, Metal represents Production, the metaphorical forging through Fire of raw ores (Earth) into various crafts, shaping reality with our own hands.

Dust represents Perception, the medium by which the senses generate imaginative ideas, the metaphorical wind that grinds Earth into grains of dust to be lifted up into the Air.

Wood represents Instinct, that which is deeper than both thought and feeling, the voice of our genes and of life itself, that miracle which sprouted forth in all of its complexity from the mere presence of Water and Air.

Ice represents Conscience, the metaphorical chill of foresight, cooling our Fiery passions, freezing our Watery feelings, and guiding us to reflect upon the bigger picture and the greater good.

The third set of Elemental Cards include the 4 Elements, 4 Compounds, and 1 Elemental Info Card to aid in readings without this booklet.

The Motives & Values

The 3 Modes of Zodiac Astrology are the byproduct of a 12-base system. 4 Elements call for 3 Modes, since 3×4=12. Each Zodiac Sign has one of 4 Elements and one of 3 Modes, sharing that Mode with 4 Signs with different Elements.

For instance, Gemini, an Air Sign, has the Mutable Mode, which it shares with the Fire Sign Sagittarius, Earth Sign Virgo, and Water Sign Pisces. These four Signs share a common Modality, or mood.

The Modes are traditionally called Mutable, Cardinal, and Fixed. Generally, Cardinals are considered to be initiators, like Aries; Mutables are changeable, like Gemini; and Fixed Signs are more settled, like Taurus.

However, we’ve decided to refer to them by more hopefully memorable and meaningful terms. These new 3 Motives still correlate with their prior Modes, yet appeal to fields outside of astrology exclusively. They are Wisdom, Power, and Love.

When we look at all four Cardinal Signs, we find that Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn all share a commitment to life goals and greater purpose – Power.

When we look at all four Fixed Signs, we find that Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius all share a commitment to sustaining and caretaking – Love.

And when we look at all four Mutable Signs, we find that Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces all share a commitment to learning and adapting to new situations – Wisdom.

Another way to look at each Motive is in what temporal phase of a process they tend to excel at most. Every project has a Beginning, Middle, and End.

Wisdom Signs find their best flow in new beginnings, during the Creation process, without which, no project would ever get started. Love Signs find their flow in the middle, during the necessary process of Maintenance, without which, great potentials lead inevitably to decay.

And Power Signs focus on the ends, the Selection process which all successful objectives must ultimately reach.

In addition to the 3 Motives, we have also added 3 Values in a similar fashion for the Cusp Signs. There are 3 Value Signs for every Compound. They are the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.

Each Value is like a compound of two Motives. Goodness, for instance, is where Wisdom and Power meet. Truth is where Love and Wisdom meet, like in philo-sophy – “the love of wisdom.” And Beauty is where Power and Love meet, when Love is manifest in reality.

Temporally, Truth Signs tend to focus on the Past, Beauty Signs tend to focus on the Present, and Good Signs tend to focus on the Future.

The Modes of Every Sign

Wisdom – Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces

Truth – Cuniculus, Corona, Ophiuchus, Pegasus

Love – Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius

Beauty – Phoenix, Ursa, Lupus, Cygnus

Power – Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn

Good – Cervus, Corvus, Vulpecula, Cetus

The final set of Modal Cards include the

3 Motives, 3 Values, and 1 Modal Info Card to aid in readings without this booklet.