wikiHow wikiHow Staff: Could you please just tell me a little bit about your expertise and background? Tara Divina: I've been studying Vedic Astrology for almost 10 years. I study with a teacher who teaches traditionally with an oral transmission from teacher to student as it's been done for the last 5000 years, and have given over 1000 readings, if not more. wikiHow Staff: How would I start learning astrology? Tara Divina: Astrology in general or Vedic Astrology? You mean Astrology in general, right? I keep forgetting because I'm a Vedic astrologist, it's a big branch. Astrology in general, a lot of people think it's good to just learn astrology from a book. Actually, I believe strongly that it is extremely important to find a reputable teacher to go learn from versus reading a book because astrology is meant to be learnt from a teacher, and all the reputable traditions have taught it that way. A lot of things can't be shown in a book, there's a lot of subjectivity. There's a lot of important key transmissions that have to come from a human. So what I would recommend is finding a reputable teacher with a lot of experience teaching and a lot of experience giving readings. wikiHow Staff: Specifically more about your field. How do you read a Vedic Astrology chart? Tara Divina: It takes a lot of knowledge to be able to read a Vedic chart. So I wouldn't recommend someone try to read their own Vedic chart, I would actually recommend that they go to a Vedic astrologer to read it for them. In fact, even the most experienced Vedic astrologers choose to have their charts read by a professional or astrologers in general, because it's really hard to be objective with our own chart. We're going to read our chart and be very biased towards answers that might not be as painful or maybe we will be overly negative in reading our own charts, not seeing the silver lining. So my answer to that is to absolutely find a reputable professional to read your chart for you. And if you want to learn how to read a Vedic chart to study with a teacher, wikiHow Staff: What are some methods for creating my own astrological chart? Tara Divina: How to generate it so you can read it? There's different software out there. For example, the software I use is called Shri Jyoti Star. It's pretty much one of the pieces of software that's the gold standard for reading Vedic charts. Now, there are online chart generators out there that you could use to just quickly pull up your chart and there are varying accuracy in terms of what you're going to get. An app that I use on my phone that works really well, it's called I horoscope Vedic. That's the one I use when I don't have a computer with me. That's another excellent way to get your own chart. I don't have any affiliation with the software. wikiHow Staff: We just want your personal expertise. So that's all super helpful. The last question about general astrology. What are some tips you have for guessing someone's astrological sign? Tara Divina: For guessing it? First of all, one of my favorite pastimes is trying to figure it out. wikiHow Staff: I'm gonna ask you at the end. Tara Divina: I look at the person's appearance. So an example would be, let's say, the round face. I might start to think, I wonder if the moon is in there, literally some people can see the moon in their face. That'd be one thing or let's say they're very red, then I would start to think they have a lot of heat, Pitta, it's an ayurvedic term for heat. Basically if they have a lot of heat, I might start to wonder about the involvement of the planet Mars, perhaps they're an Aries rising or a Scorpio rising, perhaps they have Mars in their rising sign. So the rising sign is all about, in Vedic astrology by the way, we primarily use the rising sign so I don't tend to speak in Sun signs very much. But in terms of the rising sign, it's all about the person's nature, how they look, their personality, their overall appearance and so for that reason, we can start to look at what that rising sign is by looking at the person. Next I might examine how I think how that person seems to think and relate with the world to try to gather some psychological clues to what kind of sign, so for someone who's super heady, maybe they really analyze things and they're super mental, I might start to look at one of the air signs, maybe they're a Mercury person, they're Gemini, they're Virgo, these are some of the things I would start to assemble. And then maybe the person is really unusual, they have a lot of very strange, off the normal path fringey qualities. And I might start to look at the involvement of the note, or Saturn. So these are the types of ways that I might approach guessing someone's sign for their chart. wikiHow Staff: Now we're getting into more specific questions specified towards specific signs. So starting with Capricorn, how do Capricorns act when they like someone? Tara Divina: Such a funny question. Capricorn happens to be up on my stream. It's not an obvious answer. Let me work this out. The reason I'm taking a moment is because there's so many other factors that I would consider aside from the fact that the person was a Capricorn. So I'm trying to think of what I would determine just based on that fact. They might be afraid of rejection. So a Capricorn might be slower to make a move, take a little longer, contemplate it, plan it out a little more in advance versus being spontaneous. A Capricorn would probably move from their head versus their heart in terms of what they decide to do and that they would have a lot of doubts about whether the person might like them back and maybe be really thinking hard about their desire, so it might be an overly practical approach. wikiHow Staff: The next question I have is what should I know about a Capricorn if I want to date them, specifically, a Capricorn woman? Tara Divina: If I want to date a Capricorn woman, what should I know? Again, I want to first say be careful about making generalizations based on somebody's sign because there's so much more to know about the person. Each first chart is like a snowflake, each human being is completely individual and their sign gives only a tiny piece of the overall information about that person. So if you've got a close Capricorn Woman in front of you and you apply general advice about Capricorn, it may well not serve you, because there's so many other things to think about in terms of that person's makeup. Now, I would say this is a person who is governed by the planet Saturn, so they're going to have some Saturnian qualities, which means that they're going to value realness and authenticity, and directness, versus overly positive, overly disney-fied romantic gestures, most likely, for most Capricorn, this would be true, so they're going to be a little more practical as opposed to romantic and idealistic. wikiHow Staff: Okay, and then final question on Capricorn, but on a fairly similar note, how do I keep my partner who is a Capricorn happy, specifically for men? Tara Divina: How do I keep a Capricorn man happy? Ditto for what I just said about not overly relying on the sign. How do I keep them happy? He is going to potentially be ambitious, and care deeply about his career. So giving him space to pursue his interest, to pursue his ambitions, and also the patience for him to pursue them at his own pace, not expecting him to move at your pace. But to give him the time to move slowly and intentionally, in a structured way, is important. Also, helping reinforce his capacities so that when he's experiencing self doubt, you appear as a supportive force in his life and not expecting him to be something other than a Capricorn, recognizing that he has a Saturnian nature and may not be the guy that writes you a song or shows up at your house with 10 bouquets of flowers, he may have different ways of expressing his love. wikiHow Staff: I have a question about Leo's. How would I apologize to a Leo? Tara Divina: How would I apologize to a Leo? Leo feels that Leo is right and important, so you could apologize by just saying "you were right, and I was wrong". The Leo would probably really appreciate that. You could compliment the Leo as well. wikiHow Staff: Why does that work? Tara Divina: Leo's sign is a lion and lions are regal, blustery, courageous, the king of the animal kingdom, so Leos embody some of those qualities of used to being at the top, feeling like they're meant to be served like a king or a lion, so they have a strong selfishness in that way, are self oriented and receive compliments and praise, very welcoming to that. wikiHow Staff: And just a couple more questions. How should I flirt with a Gemini? Tara Divina: This is like my teachers, anyway, basically, how do you flirt with the Gemini? Geminis are all about joining in to play and pleasure, so you want to flirt with them by stimulating the parts of them that are leaning into the qualities, you would want to be playful. You would want to do something that's pleasurable for them and their mind and so you could be playful with words. For example, creative with words, that would work really well for someone who's a very strong Gemini. Geminis are also dual minded about things. And so showing them both sides of a coin, "hey, do you prefer this or that?" would be a very entertaining conversation for a Gemini, they probably prefer both of everything. wikiHow Staff: I'll ask one more question about Aries. So in the similar vein, how do I keep a partner who's an Aries, specifically men happy? Tara Divina: Aries need space. So that's number one, giving them a lot of space. Number 2, Aries need space to think and to be in their head. Aries usually want people that can keep up with them mentally. So you can make sure that you're paying attention when an Aries is explaining something and not have to ask tons of clarifying questions, or not asking the same question over and over so that they get to feel like you're moving forward together. Aries might not be as interested in long term planning, so maybe not forcing, or either taking on the long term planning yourself but not expecting them to do it. I'll just leave it at that. Tara Divina: I'd be happy to do as many interviews as you need to help ensure there is good information out there. wikiHow Staff: Just like you, none of us want any sort of misinformation out there. So if there's nothing that's valuable from this interview we're not necessarily going to use it. Any questions for me? Tara Divina: No, that's great. Thank you so much. Page