<aside> <img src="/icons/info-alternate_green.svg" alt="/icons/info-alternate_green.svg" width="40px" /> These assignments are offered as suggestions for ways to assimilate the material in the lesson. Do whichever call you, adapting them to suit your particular learning needs and style. And feel free to come up with entirely different ones.
You can find the lesson for this assignment on Substack.
</aside>
Review the experiment described in the lesson and do it now if you haven’t already to get an experiential understanding of the directions as they have been encoded in the astrology wheel.
First, find the direction of North for your location and face that direction. If you need to, pull up a map for your specific address to determine where North is for you. Then, lie down on the floor, face down. Notice that East is on your right and left is on your left, just as they are on a standard map. Notice also that North and South are on the same plane as you, not above or below you. But the direction of Above is above you and the direction of below is below you.
Now turn over so that you are facing the sky, Notice that East is now on your left and West is now on your right, just as they are on the astrology wheel. What has changed is not the locations of East and West, but your orientation to them. While standards maps encode an Earth-facing perspective, the astrology wheel encodes a sky-facing perspective.
Notice, also, that when you stand up from an Earth-facing position, you are facing North. But when you stand up from a sky-facing position, you are facing South. In the Northern Hemisphere, the planets are found in the Southern sky. Thus, this orientation has been encoded into the chart. It is different from a Southern Hemisphere orientation. In that Hemisphere, the planets are found in the Northern sky.
Choose a quadrant. Note which hemispheres are relevant for that quadrant and write up descriptions of each sign from the perspective of the symbolism of those two hemispheres.
Try drawing a sphere with the horizon and meridian great circles. Indicate the four cardinal directions (North, South, East, and West) as well as the zenith and nadir. Refer to the spheres that were included in the lesson if necessary. You can try this by hand if you have a knack for drawing, or you can use an online design tool. I use Figma, which I like a lot, but there are other options to choose from.