Is This Chart Feral Enough?
The zodiac signs were not used solely to indicate character or behavior in traditional birth chart interpretation. Astrologers of the past focused on much more practical indications of the zodiac sign, for instance:
- which sign ruled which part of the body if they were looking at a decumbiture (chart for when a person falls sick),
- which sign ruled which part of the house or kind of terrain if someone was asking about a lost object,
- and what part of the world or general direction to go for good fortune.
Someone wrote in to r/askastrologers talking about how they wanted to leave it all and go feral. The last part of the question was, “Can I Go Live My Feral Dream?” I loved the question so much that I decided to use traditional zodiac meanings to interpret whether this birth chart was truly feral enough to leave civilization behind.
Using Traditional Zodiac Sign Meanings for Birth Chart Interpretation
Signs are designated as fertile or sterile, licentious, mute or of attractive voice, and more germane to our discussion domestic, feral and human.
It was believed that the nature of the animals depicted in the zodiacal sigil would be reflected in the character of the native, and that a proliferation of domestic signs, or the presence of the ascendant, chart ruler and/or Moon in them, would incline the native towards being a home body, an emphasis on feral signs would incline the native towards isolation and wandering and an emphasis on human signs would incline the native towards rationality and equilibrium.
The domestic signs are Aries, Taurus, and Capricorn
The feral signs are Leo and the 2nd half of Sagittarius
The human signs are Gemini, Virgo, Libra and Aquarius.
How Feral Is This Birth Chart?
The ascendant and the ruler of the ascendant represent the body and inclination of the native, with Moon and Mercury representing the instinctual and rational mind respectively.
During the Medieval period, Mercury and the Moon were used as primary significators for the soul of the native, respectively ruling the rational, intellectual mind and the instinctual, autonomic mind. The Moon was also considered the seat of the senses, and thus personal taste, desire and appetite. Venus specifically ruled appetite.
Thus the local determination of the Moon and Mercury, which includes the zodiac signs they occupy, is especially important in the interpretation of a traditional birth chart, and gives important information about the essence of the native. For more information about using the Moon and Mercury to delineate the soul in the birth chart, please see my video
Local determination refers to the condition of any planet by sign and house placement, house rulership and aspects being made to it.
Libra, maybe the most human of human signs, rises with Venus, chart ruler, in the sign of Scorpio. Scorpio is a mute, fertile sign.
The Moon is also in Scorpio. Scorpio is ruled by Mars
Mars is in the 2nd half of Sagittarius, making him quite feral. Mercury is also in the 2nd half of Sagittarius. Thus Mars and Mercury can be seen as feral root of this native’s character.
But just how strong is this feral root? Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter. Jupiter is in Virgo, a human sign and his detriment. Jupiter is also in mutual reception with Mercury, and in the 12th of pipe dreams. Mercury is ruler of the 12th.
It looks like there’s a bit of a war between the civilized side of you that might like things to be neat and pretty (maybe not pretty with Venus in Scorpio, but you should have an aesthetic sense) and the side that wants to be wild and feral. Remember that mutable signs like Sagittarius and Virgo are also called dual and double-bodied, meaning that they have two natures.
