Disclaimer!!! This information is as beginner friendly as it gets however it can still feel overwhelming. If you're not fully ready to dive into degrees but still want a basic understanding, just use this as a takeaway:

A simple way to start reading degrees is to think in three parts:

0° to 9°: early part of the sign
10° to 19°: middle or “developing” part
20° to 29°: late or “culminating” part

Tone & Timing of Degrees:

Early degrees feel like starting something new in that sign’s energy
Middle degrees feel like you’re fully inside the experience of that sign, exploring its traits, developing its strengths, and working through its challenges.
Late degrees can feel like you have a mastery skill, wrapping up, or being pushed to integrate that sign’s lessons

If you want to learn more, please feel free to dive in!!!

If you have ever pulled up your birth chart and seen something like Venus 17° Leo or Moon 2° Pisces and wondered what the heck the numbers mean, this is for you.

Those tiny numbers next to each planet are called degrees, and they add a lot more detail to your chart than just the sign alone. Think of degrees as the exact address of a planet, not just the neighborhood or subdivision.

In this post, we will walk through what degrees are, how they work, and why they matter when you are learning astrology.

Example of a test chart: The Moon is at 21° in Libra

The Zodiac Wheel: 360 Degrees, 12 Signs

Astrology uses a circle called the zodiac wheel. That circle is divided into 360 degrees.

There are 12 zodiac signs.
Each sign takes up 30 degrees of that circle.
12 signs x 30 degrees each = 360 degrees total.

So when you see “Sun at 10° Cancer”, you are looking at:

Cancer as the sign
10° is the exact point inside Cancer where your Sun sits

Every sign runs from 0° to 29°.

Example:

0° Cancer is the very start of Cancer
15° Cancer is the middle
29° Cancer is the very last degree of the sign

This is how astrologers pinpoint where every planet, angle, and point lives inside your chart.

Why Degrees Matter in Your Chart

Two people can both have the Sun in Leo and still express that Sun very differently. Degrees are one of the reasons why.

Early, middle, and late degrees

A simple way to start reading degrees is to think in three parts:

0° to 9°: early part of the sign
10° to 19°: middle or “developing” part
20° to 29°: late or “culminating” part

Tone & Timing of Degrees:

Early degrees feel like starting something new in that sign’s energy
Middle degrees feel like you’re fully inside the experience of that sign, exploring its traits, developing its strengths, and working through its challenges.
Late degrees can feel like you have a mastery skill, wrapping up, or being pushed to integrate that sign’s lessons

So Mars at 2° Scorpio might feel like you are just stepping into Scorpio-style courage, intensity, and depth, while Mars at 27° Scorpio might feel like you are getting called to fully own and refine those same themes.

Different Modes: Cardinal, Fixed, Mutable Energy

Each sign belongs to a mode: cardinal, fixed, or mutable. Even though degrees belong to the signs, it helps to remember what kind of energy that sign carries.

Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) start things and bring new cycles.
Fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) stabilize, deepen, and hold.
Mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) adapt, shift, and transition.

So if you have a planet at any degree of a:
Cardinal sign, it often shows where you initiate.
Fixed sign shows where you are steady or stubborn.
Mutable sign shows where you are flexible or changeable.

You do not have to memorize special “cardinal degrees” or “mutable degrees” to start. Just knowing the mode of the sign already tells you a lot about how that planet likes to operate.

Critical Degrees

Some degrees are considered more intense or sensitive. Astrologers often call these critical degrees.

There are different traditions, but for beginners, you can start with this simple idea:

0° of any sign: fresh start, new cycle, strong emphasis on that sign’s themes
29° of any sign: completion energy, urgency, integration of that sign’s lessons

So if you have:

Moon at 0° Gemini, it can feel like you are just stepping into Gemini-style emotional expression: curious, talkative, mentally active.
Moon at 29° Gemini, it can feel like you are being pushed to fully integrate what Gemini has taught you, especially around communication and nervous system regulation.

Critical degrees often show areas of life that feel heightened, pressurized, or tied to big turning points.

Degrees and House Cusps

Your chart is not only made of signs and planets, but is also divided into houses, which represent different areas of life like self, money, relationships, career, and so on. You learn more about houses, degrees and more with my Astrology Insight Dashboard. Click Here to Learn More!

The line that starts each house is called a house cusp, and every cusp has a sign + degree

For example:

Your Ascendant (1st house cusp) might be 12° Virgo
Your 7th house cusp (partnerships) might be 12° Pisces

The sign tells you the style of that area of life where the degree adds nuance and strength.

A few simple ways to read degrees on house cusps:

Early degrees can feel like you are still figuring that area of life out.
Middle degrees can feel like steady development.
Late degrees can feel like you are being asked to level up, make decisions, or close old cycles in that area.

This gets especially interesting when a planet sits at the same degree as a house cusp or closely aspects it. That planet tends to strongly activate that area of life.

Degrees and Aspects: Angles Tell a Story

Degrees are also how we measure aspects, which are the angles between planets.

Some of the major aspects:

Conjunction: around 0° apart (planets sit together)
Opposition: around 180° apart
Square: around 90° apart
Trine: around 120° apart
Sextile: around 60° apart

To see if two planets are in aspect, you look at their signs + degrees.

If you have Sun at 10° Leo and Moon at 10° Aquarius, they are about 180° apart, which is an opposition.

If you have Mercury at 18° Cancer and Jupiter at 19° Pisces, they are close to a trine.

The closer the degrees, the stronger the aspect usually feels.

Putting It Together: Reading a Degree in Your Chart

When you look at a placement like Venus 23° in Capricorn in the 5th house, you can unpack it layer by layer:

Venus: relationships, attraction, values, pleasure, love
Capricorn: steady, grounded, long-term, hard worker, responsible energy
23°: later in the sign, so themes of integration, maturity, and “I have learned some lessons here”
5th house: creativity, joy, children, romance, self-expression

Degrees add detail to signs and houses.

Questions to ask yourself when reviewing:

Is this planet early, mid, or late in the sign?
Is it close to a house cusp (the point where two houses or signs meet up)?
How close is it to another planet in terms of degrees?

Those questions alone will give you a lot to work with.

How to Start Working With Degrees...

If you are just starting out, you do not have to memorize lists of special degrees because it can feel overwhelming. You can begin by:

Noticing the degrees of your Sun, Moon, and Ascendant/Rising.
See which ones are early, middle, or late in their signs.
Look for planets that share close degrees, even in different signs. They might be forming aspects.
Pay attention to any planet at 0° or 29°. Journal what that area of life feels like for you.

If you keep track of this over time, degrees will start feeling less abstract and more like a natural part of how you read charts!

If you want a practical place to log all your placements, degrees, aspects, and house cusps, you can set this up inside your astrology tracking space or digital planner so you can slowly layer in more nuance as you learn.

Sunday, November 16, 2025

Degrees in a Birth Chart & Their Significance in Yours