How to Read
Your Chart

A natal chart is a picture of the sky as it looked from the place you were born, at the exact moment you were born. It shows where each of the ten planets was, which zodiac sign each planet was passing through, and which of twelve life areas each planet was sitting in.

Every chart is unique. Even someone born a few minutes after you, a few miles away, would have a slightly different chart.

When people ask "what is your sign?" they mean your Sun sign — which zodiac sign the Sun was in when you were born. That is only one of ten placements. The other nine add the rest of the picture.

Every chart speaks through four kinds of information. Learn these four and you can read any placement.

Planets — The Actors

Planets are what is happening. Each planet does a specific thing.

The Sun is your identity. The Moon is your emotions. Mercury is your mind. Venus is love and beauty. Mars is drive. Jupiter is expansion. Saturn is discipline. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are the three modern outer planets; they move so slowly that they describe generational themes more than personal ones.

Signs — The Style

Signs describe how a planet acts. The same planet behaves differently in each of the twelve zodiac signs.

Mars in Aries fights directly and loudly. Mars in Libra fights through argument and diplomacy. It is still Mars — still drive, still conflict — but the sign colors it the way stained glass colors light.

Houses — The Life Areas

Houses tell you where in life a planet operates. Imagine a house with twelve rooms, one for each part of life: money, home, career, romance, friendships, and so on.

Whichever room a planet sits in is where it spends its energy. A planet in the career room shows up in your working life. The same planet in the family room shows up at home instead.

Aspects — The Conversations

Aspects are the angles that form between two planets. When two planets sit at a specific distance apart on the wheel, they start to influence each other.

Some conversations are harmonious. Some are tense. Aspects tell you how the different parts of you cooperate or conflict.

Take three of the four pieces — planet, sign, and house — and you have the fundamental sentence of chart reading:

Planet in Sign in House

what  ·  how  ·  where

A few examples, in plain English:

Mars in Gemini in the 3rd house. Your drive (Mars) expresses in a quick, verbal, restless way (Gemini) in the life area of learning, communication, and siblings (the 3rd house). You might fight with words, hustle between ideas, or be a perpetual student.

Venus in Capricorn in the 7th house. Your capacity for love (Venus) takes a serious, durable, patient shape (Capricorn) in the life area of marriage and partnership (the 7th). You commit slowly and for life, or seek a partner older or more established than yourself.

Moon in Aquarius in the 11th house. Your emotional nature (Moon) feels through detached, humanitarian, unusual wiring (Aquarius) in the life area of friends and groups (the 11th). You find belonging through chosen family and shared causes rather than blood ties.

Every planet sits in one of these twelve life areas. The first, fourth, seventh, and tenth are the loudest — read them first.

1 Self

body, appearance, first impression, vital energy

2 Possessions

money, income, belongings, self-worth

3 Communication

siblings, short journeys, learning, daily speech

4 Home

family, roots, private life, emotional foundation

5 Creation

romance, children, creative work, pleasure, play

6 Daily Work

health, routines, service, employment

7 Partnership

marriage, contracts, one-to-one relationships

8 Shared Resources

intimacy, others' money, death, sex, the occult

9 Higher Mind

long travel, philosophy, publishing, religion

10 Public Life

career, reputation, calling, standing in the world

11 Fortune

friends, alliances, groups, hopes realized

12 The Unseen

solitude, hidden things, retreat, undoing

If you are new to charts, do not try to read all ten planets at once. Start with the three placements that form the backbone of every chart.

Your Sun sign. Your core identity. The part of you that shines outward. What you are here to become.

Your Moon sign. Your emotional nature. What you need to feel safe. How you react when no one is watching.

Your Ascendant (or Rising Sign). The sign that was rising on the eastern horizon at the moment you were born. It describes the mask you wear, your first impression, and your body's general build.

If your Sun is who you are at the core and your Moon is who you are at home, your Ascendant is who you are when you walk into a room full of strangers.

One more question shapes the tone of a chart: was the Sun above the horizon when you were born, or below it?

If the Sun was above the horizon — daylight — yours is a day chart. The Sun is your guide, Jupiter is your friendliest planet, and Saturn is the harder of the two tough planets to navigate.

If the Sun was below the horizon — nighttime — yours is a night chart. The Moon is your guide, Venus is your friendliest planet, and Mars is the harder of the two tough planets.

This distinction, called sect, was central to ancient astrology and is one of the fastest ways to understand the tone of a chart. Your sect appears under "Sect & Signature" on your chart page.

When two planets form a specific angle on the wheel, they influence each other. There are five major angles to know.

Conjunction (0°). Two planets in the same place. They fuse into one voice. Whether that is pleasant or difficult depends on which two planets are involved.

Sextile (60°). Two planets two signs apart, cooperating easily. Gentle opportunity — but you have to reach for it.

Square (90°). Two planets three signs apart, clashing. Inner tension that forces growth. Your squares are where you wrestle with yourself, and also where you eventually develop your strongest muscles.

Trine (120°). Two planets four signs apart, flowing together. Natural talent. What you do without trying. The warning: trines can be so easy that you never develop them further.

Opposition (180°). Two planets directly across the wheel. A see-saw. You often experience the opposite planet through other people — the partner, the boss, the antagonist — until you integrate both sides within yourself.

The closer an aspect is to an exact angle, the more strongly it shapes your chart. Your chart page lists every aspect in order of how close to exact it sits.

Let us read one placement from beginning to end. Say someone has this placement:

The Sun in Capricorn in the 10th house, square Mars.

The planet. The Sun is the core identity.

The sign. Capricorn is disciplined, ambitious, reserved, long-term oriented.

The house. The 10th is career, public reputation, and calling.

Combine the three. This person's identity pours into career and public life, expressed through discipline and long ambition. They are here to build something durable and be recognized for it.

Add the aspect. The Sun is square Mars, which means their identity sits at a right angle to their drive. There is friction between their ambition and their raw aggressive impulse. If they do not manage this, they burn out or burn bridges.

Apply this same method to every planet in your own chart and the picture becomes clear.