How to read your own chart, one piece at a time.
Birth Chart BasicsAn empty house is normal and means nothing is missing. There are ten bodies and twelve houses, so at least two houses are empty in every chart and most charts have five or six. An empty house is...
Birth Chart BasicsYour chart ruler is the planet that rules your rising sign. It is the single most important planet in your chart, because wherever it sits is where the whole chart is pointed. Find your rising...
Birth Chart BasicsThe twelve signs are four elements crossed with three modalities, and every combination appears exactly once. Fire, earth, air and water describe what a sign is made of; cardinal, fixed and...
Birth Chart BasicsRead a chart in four passes: the Big Three first, then which planets sit in which houses, then the aspects between them, then the chart as a whole. Most people fail at charts because they start...
Birth Chart BasicsA planet is retrograde in your chart if it appeared to be moving backwards at your birth. It is common: about one person in five has Mercury retrograde, and nearly half have Pluto. The usual...
Birth Chart BasicsAn orb is how far from exact an aspect can be and still count. There is no agreed set of numbers. A workable rule: give the Sun and Moon up to eight to ten degrees, other planets six, and minor...
Birth Chart BasicsA birth chart is a diagram of where the Sun, Moon and planets were, as seen from your exact birthplace, at the exact moment you were born. It is astronomy: the positions are calculated and...
Birth Chart BasicsThe positions in a birth chart are accurate to a fraction of a degree and can be checked against NASA. The interpretation of them has never been shown to work under controlled conditions. Both...
Birth Chart BasicsThe four angles are the ascendant on the eastern horizon, the descendant opposite it on the western, the midheaven at the top of the chart and the imum coeli at the bottom. They are the only parts...
Birth Chart BasicsA house system is a method of dividing a chart into twelve. Whole sign gives each house one entire sign and is the oldest; Placidus divides by time and is the modern default. They often put...
Birth Chart BasicsIf you were born while the Sun was above the horizon you have a day chart; below it, a night chart. The distinction is called sect, it is one of the oldest things in the tradition, and it changes...
Birth Chart BasicsAn aspect pattern is three or more planets making a recognisable shape. The common ones are the grand trine, the T-square, the grand cross, the yod and the kite. A pattern is read as a unit rather...
Birth Chart BasicsYour Big Three are your Sun sign, Moon sign and rising sign. The Sun is what you are trying to become, the Moon is what you need privately, and the rising sign is how you come across before you...
Birth Chart BasicsEssential dignity is a traditional system for how well a planet operates in a given sign. A planet in the sign it rules is in domicile, in the opposite sign it is in detriment, and there is a...
Birth Chart BasicsA stellium is three or more planets in the same sign or the same house. It concentrates a large part of the chart into one area of life, which tends to make that area unusually loud and the...