Astrology is a divination tool, a science, an art form, mathematical, and a language (i.e., as a language -- if you don't know it -- you don't know what someone is talking about with using it; but if you do, you can use it as a form of short script to describe something, or part of your personality), and is a useful guide to one's personality, inner knowledge, to planning events, and generally, perhaps, to one's love life.

An astrological chart is a map of the heavens at a certain time and location. A natal chart is a map of the heavens at one's birth. Astrology is usually Geocentric, or having the Earth (not the sun) as the center of observation, or of the universe. Heliocentric would be using the sun as the center point of one's chart, instead of the Earth, but since we're born on Earth, that's what's generally used. And if the moon can control the huge ocean tides, and we're 80% liquid in our bodies, then, the factors found in astrology can certainly have an effect on us, and also, astrally, on the forming of one's etheric body (the link between the physical, and spiritual [and the Higher Self], mental, and emotional bodies) at the time of one's soul joining to their physical body, which is looked at, in astrology, as complete at birth. Astrology uses the Ecliptic, or the appearant path of the planets and factors as they go around the Earth. The celestial equator is when one takes the Earth's equator and projects it out into space (like, in charting), for, generally, astrological purposes. Astronomy (not to be confused with astrology) is more the science part of studying the heavens, and astrology is a more mystical system, attemping to divine or find out certain properties (about someone or something/some event), through a basically spiritualist system. In actuality, astronomers tends to study the stars much more than astrologers, and astrologers are much more focused on the planets, and the sun and moon (most astrologers generally don't look at the stars, at all, except for our own star, the Sun; and if you think about it, we have a million suns overhead at night [the stars], though, the stars, or suns, are always there, around us, in outer space). It's also well worth your time (especially for Wiccans) to watch the moon, in the sky, for real, in it's various phases each month, or at least take a summer and devote time to moon-watching or moon-gazing, and to watching moonset and moonrise, and even, lightly keeping track of it each year, if you can. And yes, the sun's another great one to keep tract of, but you should never stare at it, at most times, of course.

The planets and factors in an astrology chart represent parts of one's personality, or parts of how a certain day might go. The main planets and factors are: the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, the planetoid Chiron, the asteroids Juno, Ceres, Pallas Athena, and Vesta, the Part of Fortune, the Moon's North and South Nodes, the Lilith, the Vertex, the Ascendant and one's Rising Sign, the Descendant, the Midheaven or Medium Coeli, the Imum Coeli or "Undersky," and the East Point. There are other factors, such as, Uranians, and Fixed Stars, and the House Cusps, which might be included; also, Modes, i.e., Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable, and the elemental signs -- earth, air, fire, and water, and Polarities: Yang or masculine, and Yin or feminine; and also, Angular, Succedent, and Cadent houses, and/or properties.

Note, when a planet or factor is Retrograde, it appears to be moving backward, but only as seen from Earth, and they may act a little unusual during those times, whereas, the Moon's North and South Nodes are almost always Retrograde in motion, and are exactly opposite of each other (the opposite of Retrograde is: Direct, in motion, or planets moving forward as seen from the Earth). When the Moon is Void-of-course, or v/c, it's the period when the moon has made it's last major aspect/angle to any planet, within one sign, before it/the moon enters the next sign; things done when the moon is void-of-course, especially traveling, may often not work out right, or not come to fruition at the time.

The 12 astrological or zodiac signs act as filters to color parts of one's personality (or of an event), which are represented by the planets (as said above). They are, in order, 1 to 12: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. One's Sun Sign is the sign their sun was in at the time of their birth, so, if one's sun is in Taurus, then, they are, therefore, a Taurus. They also have other associations with the planets, such as, Mars is the ruler of Aries, Venus is the ruler of Taurus and Libra, and so on.

The 12 astrological houses represent areas of one's life in which the planets, or parts of one's personality, colored by the signs, are expressing themselves. The house system most often used in astrology is Placidus Houses.

The aspects are the angles formed between planets and the other factors (such as, some other factors are points in space, like the Nodes, and the Part of Fortune, or PoF), and tell how parts of one's personality are interacting, or what one will have to deal with on a given day. Some of the main aspects are: Conjunction, Inconjunction, Trine, Square, Opposition, and Sextile. An orb is the degree of space allowed on either side of an exact aspect, for it to still hold true. Six degrees is usually used as an orb. For instance, a Conjunct aspect is zero degrees, so, two planets were still be Conjunct if they form an "angle" within six degrees of zero, or the exact, conjunction aspect.