What are symbolic degrees?
The zodiac is a 360-degree circle, twelve signs of thirty degrees each. Most astrology stops at the sign, but symbolic degrees go one layer deeper: each individual degree carries its own symbolic image. So your Sun is not just in Leo, it is at a specific degree of Leo, and that exact degree has a picture and a meaning all its own. The most widely used system of symbolic degrees is the Sabian Symbols, a set of 360 short images, one for every degree of the zodiac. Astrologers use them to add precision and texture to a placement that the sign alone cannot give.
Where the Sabian Symbols come from
The Sabian Symbols were created in San Diego in 1925 by the astrologer Marc Edmund Jones, working with a clairvoyant named Elsie Wheeler. Over a single sitting, Wheeler received a vivid image for each of the 360 degrees, which Jones recorded. Decades later the astrologer Dane Rudhyar reworked and deepened them in his book An Astrological Mandala. Because they were received intuitively rather than reasoned out, the symbols are meant to be read the same way: as poetic seeds for reflection, not literal predictions.
How to find your symbolic degree
You need your exact birth chart. A planet at, say, 14 degrees and 40 minutes of Leo is read at the 15th degree of Leo, and you look up the Sabian Symbol for that degree. Astrologers usually round up to the next whole degree, so 14 degrees 40 minutes becomes the 15th degree. You can do this for any point in your chart, but the Sun, Moon, and rising degree are the most revealing places to start. Because the degree changes with your exact birth time, two people born the same day can have completely different symbolic degrees.
How to read a Sabian Symbol
A Sabian Symbol is an image, not an instruction. The art is to sit with the picture and let it speak, the way you would with a dream or a tarot card, rather than looking for a fixed definition. Notice the mood, the action, and what it stirs in you. Read alongside the planet involved: the same symbol on your Venus speaks to love and values, while on your Mars it speaks to drive and action. Used well, a symbolic degree turns a generic placement into something that feels uncannily personal.
Why the exact degree matters
This is the whole reason symbolic degrees are worth knowing. Two people can both have the Sun in Aries and feel nothing alike, partly because one is at the very first degree and the other at the twenty-ninth, with entirely different symbols and a different decan, and partly because the rest of their charts diverge. The degree is one of the finest tools astrology has for explaining why a sun sign alone so often misses. It is the difference between knowing your sign and knowing your chart.
How to find the symbolic degree behind your own placements
The Sabian Symbols only mean something once you know your exact degrees, and that takes a real birth chart, not a sun-sign guess. Calculate your free birth chart to see the precise degree of every planet, then start your 7-day free trial to get a personal reading built on your real placements, degree by degree, sent to your WhatsApp each morning.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are symbolic degrees?
Symbolic degrees are the idea that each of the 360 individual degrees of the zodiac carries its own image and meaning, beyond the sign it belongs to. The most popular system is the Sabian Symbols, a set of 360 short symbolic images, one per degree, used to add precision to a chart placement.
What is a Sabian Symbol?
A Sabian Symbol is a short, vivid image assigned to one specific degree of the zodiac. There are 360 of them, created by Marc Edmund Jones and the clairvoyant Elsie Wheeler in 1925. Each is read intuitively, like a dream image, to deepen the meaning of whatever planet sits at that degree.
How do I find my Sabian Symbol?
Find the exact degree of the placement you are curious about, usually your Sun, Moon, or rising sign, from your birth chart. Round up to the next whole degree, then look up the Sabian Symbol for that degree. You need your precise birth time, since the degrees shift through the day.
Are Sabian Symbols accurate?
Sabian Symbols are not predictive in a literal sense; they are a reflective, intuitive tool. People often find them strikingly resonant, but they work best as poetic seeds for insight rather than fixed forecasts. Their value comes from how they personalize a placement, not from precise prediction.