When someone says, “I’m a _” in astrology, they are usually referring to their sun sign and giving only the most basic astrological information about themselves. This is what is meant when a person says they have “Sun in Aquarius” or “Moon in Gemini”. There are also planets in astrology, such as the Sun and Moon, which have specific placements in signs for each person. Each is useful, because it uses metaphor to describe the experience. Each of these describes how energy tends to move in that person (i.e., if their emotions are always changing, like waves on the ocean, or if “still waters run deep” as in a lake). Pisces is mutable water like the ocean, and Scorpio is fixed water, like a lake. For example, Cancer is the cardinal water sign, because it is caring, compassionate and home-based, making it the quintessential water sign. Cardinal means the best, or leading, example of that element mutable means the changeable version of that element fixed is the stubborn version of that element. There is a cardinal, a mutable, and a fixed sign in each of four elements-fire, water, earth, and air-totaling 12. Then we’ll get to what I see as the top 12 clearest translations between the two systems. We will look at trends, at broad overlaps between the two systems, as a means of translating one to the other.įirst, let’s have a look at each system in turn. This article is nonetheless broader and could be applied to any astrological sign, planet, or personality type.
In full disclosure, in astrology, I am a Leo Sun, a Leo Ascendant, and Pisces Moon, as well as an INFJ in Myers and Briggs' system. However, as people curious about personality who want to understand ourselves and others better, some basic translation between systems is possible and worthwhile. Otherwise, there would be no need for two languages to exist. Let’s be clear: there is never any direct, one-to-one translation of one language to another. My aim is to show similarities between these two approaches to personality. What follows is a translation of salient overlaps between two of those languages: astrology and the personality system created by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. There are several languages for understanding ourselves which have evolved over time and which carry their own converts and skeptics.