Backwards astrology

[unknown]

Do any of you play the game where you take a description of someone, such as
a newspaper article, and write down your guess at the indication for each
trait mentioned before you cast their chart? Makes good practice, and it
still surprises me how well it works out. I've got good enough at it that I
can usually write down at least half a dozen features (admittedly quite
vague things like "Uranus emphasised", "Moon in Earth sign" or
"Jupiter-Saturn connection") and get all but one or two right, if not all of
them. My mother's better at it than I am, though (at least I think so - she
sometimes writes such nebulous Mercury-in-Pisces sort of guesses that nobody
but herself can feel sure whether the chart matches what she has in mind or
not!)

[m***@gmail.com]

This is, I think, a priceless practice. I only do natal astrology these days but always, when I read about someone, try to guess a dominant sign (Sun, Moon, Mars, Ascendant, if available) and then check up on it. Even if I'm wrong it teaches me about how the actual dominant signs would work to promote the feature(s) presented about this person in the article. Or I'll see it in the aspects.

[unknown]

Post by m***@gmail.com
This is, I think, a priceless practice. I only do natal astrology these
days but always, when I read about someone, try to guess a dominant sign
(Sun, Moon, Mars, Ascendant, if available) and then check up on it. Even
if I'm wrong it teaches me about how the actual dominant signs would work
to promote the feature(s) presented about this person in the article. Or
I'll see it in the aspects.

I do that too, so does my Mum (she's better at it than me!). It really does
work out well, once you've got the hang of it - and as you say, even the
mistakes you make tell you something.

I often try it in more detail, going through the article and marking in a
likely astrological indicator next to every character trait that's
mentioned. Even things like being an animal lover - actually that's one
that works particularly well - or travelling a lot. Then I look to see
which possible indications have come up most (might be I've guessed
emphasised Mars repeatedly about different things, for instance) before
looking at the chart to see how it worked out.