An Introduction to the Zodiac Wheel

If you’re new to astrology or would simply like to learn more, the zodiac wheel is a great place to start. The zodiac wheel is a circular map that ancient astrologers created to track the precise locations of the celestial bodies. Modern astrologers still use this exact wheel to chart the planet positions today. You can think of this wheel as the view if you were to look up at the sky from Earth. Read ahead to learn about the zodiac wheel and quickly become an expert at astrology charting.

Even the earliest civilizations, like Ancient Egypt and China, held a fascination with the stars. In these times, there was a general understanding that celestial movements affected life on Earth. But it wasn’t until about twelve centuries later, with the rise of the Babylonian Empire, that humans began to track and record the exact celestial movements.

A group of Babylonian scholar-priests who were employed by Babylon’s royal court were among the first to do this. They wanted to track the exact celestial movements to give the King the most accurate advice/predictions possible about upcoming energetic shifts and omens.

These scholars watched the planets closely. What they saw was that all of the celestial bodies, including the Sun, appeared to rotate above Earth, through the zodiac constellations, in a circular, counterclockwise direction. Some of the planets took a more sporadic route but the Sun followed a steady path.

They called the Sun’s path through the zodiac constellations around our sky the Ecliptic. Then they mapped this path onto a circular wheel and added in the zodiac constellations. The result is a perfect circle divided into 12 sections, one for each zodiac sign. Each zodiac sign accounts for 30°of real estate on the wheel.

Astrologers use the zodiac wheel to pinpoint a planet’s exact location down to the degree. For example — as I write this article, the Sun is currently moving through the zodiac constellation of Taurus. In the transit chart below, which is the current chart of the sky today, you can see that the Sun (☉) is currently in the zodiac sign of Taurus (♉️), at 10° Taurus. The Sun completes one whole rotation of the zodiac wheel (and the sky above Earth) every 365 days.

Knowing where a planet is in the sky gives astrologers more insight into how the planet will behave. When planets move through different zodiac signs they actually take on the characteristics of that sign, and this is all useful information for Astrologers to know, because it helps them to decipher what the energy on Earth will be like at that time.

Planets also act differently if they are contacting other planets. If two planets find themselves right next to each other on the wheel, we call this a conjunction, and the two planets’ energies blend in a powerful way. All of this is useful information for astrologers to have.

Transit charts and birth charts are the two most common types of charts you will likely encounter in astrology:

Transit charts are charts of the sky for any given day. You can generate a transit chart for any past, present, or future date using an online search engine like “astro-seek.com.” A transit chart can be helpful for deciphering the current energy on Earth or predicting the energy of an upcoming date (like someone’s wedding date or even a political election).

Birth charts are your own personal chart from the exact moment you were born. Think of it like your soul’s blueprint or guide for this lifetime. If we all came here with a built in guide for our lives, why not learn about it? You can generate your birth chart using an online birth chart calculator and then research what you find, or you can get a professional reading from an astrologer.

Perhaps a lot of the answers we seek as a modern society can be found by looking to the past. I'm fascinated with the ancient Babylonian empire in particular; they had many advanced inventions for such an Ancient society. They recognized the value of astrology and created a navigation system of the sky based upon what they saw with their own eyes. Besides their innovative work in Astrology, they also merged nature with civilization in their architecture, as seen in the visual of their hanging gardens of Babylon above.

Many people wouldn’t assume this, but astrology really is an exact science. This is why knowing the exact positions of the planets (down to the degrees they are occupying on the wheel and in our sky) matters. Now that you’re familiar with the zodiac wheel and different types of charts, you have the fundamentals of astrology down. The next step is for you to explore your own birth chart, or check out the current transit charts if you’d like to see what the collective energy is like right now.

I hope you found this introduction to the zodiac wheel informative and expansive as it pertains to your understanding of astrology!