When I meet clients for the first time, I often find that they are intrigued by the layout of their charts, so I thought it might be useful to cover this in the blog. At first glance charts can seem baffling and overwhelming, but hopefully this little introduction will clear the mists. In it, I’ll explain how the birth chart is a map, suggest how you can orientate yourself inside it, and identify some of the major features.
As this is just an introduction, I won’t be looking at interpretations, but the birth chart is essential for any astrological work. If you’d like a copy of your chart, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your date, time and town of birth and I’ll email you a copy.
Chart Basics
Zodiac Signs and Chart Angles
Here’s a chart drawn up for this afternoon:
You’ll see in the top left corner that the time, date and place for the chart are shown, and the combination of these three factors forms the basis for the calculation of the chart. The latitude and longitude are shown, and other information is also given:
Geocentric means that the chart is drawn as viewed from the earth.
Tropical shows the Zodiac system used. The Tropical Zodiac is the one used most commonly in Western astrology.
Placidus shows the type of house system used. We’ll come back to houses in a later blog and will look at them in more depth then.
Mean Node refers to use of average to the measurement shows
Having got the technical details out of the way, let’s move on to looking at the rather interesting circles…
Orientating Yourself with the Chart
Imagine you are standing in the middle of this chart. If you put out your arms they would point towards the horizon in opposite directions, towards east and west, you’d have the sky above you and the earth beneath your feet. The points where the wheel of the Zodiac intersects with the horizon, if the horizon could project that far out into space, is shown by two red lines and the symbols AS and DS shown on the left and right of the circle. These symbols stand for Ascendant and Descendant, and they are very important for showing how a person views the world around them, and their closest relationships.
You’ll notice two other symbols: MC and IC. These show significant points that are traditionally connected with south and north, so together these four points link with the four cardinal points and are known as the Angles of a chart. Very briefly, the MC (often known as the Midheaven) is associated with our public status and career and the IC with our family background. We can think of ourselves as being surrounded by the symbolism of the chart, with these four points acting as conductors for receiving planetary energies that we can then express in our lives.
Houses
You’ll also notice that the middle circle is divided into twelve unequal sections. These are the houses I referred to earlier. They are many different ways of calculating these, but the main thing to remember is that they cover twelve different areas of life and show where astrological factors may be experienced particularly strongly. They’re numbered 1 to 12 anti clockwise from the Ascendant.
Planetary Positions
Chart with Planets
Now that we’ve got the layout of the chart, let’s add the very important planets. Although the symbols look complex, they are really a form of shorthand that are easy to read. Each placement consists of 4 pieces of information:
The first symbol in each group is that of the planet.
The row of numbers indicate the planet’s position in each sign in degrees and minutes.
The second symbol in each group is that of the sign.
Each group of these symbols falls in a numbered area of the chart, and this number shows which house the planet occupies.
Identifying Planets
I’m sure that you can identify the Sun and the Moon straight away as their symbols are very familiar. From the chart, we can see that the Sun is at 11 degrees 22 seconds of Aquarius and is in the 8th house and the Moon is at 13 degrees 01 seconds of Capricorn in the 6th house.
Locating Planets
Can you match up the other symbols with the right planets, signs and houses?
Planetary Symbols
Here are the rest of the planetary positions to help you:
Mercury: 24 degrees 54 seconds Capricorn in the 7th house
Venus: 25 degrees 53 seconds Sagittarius in the 6th house
Mars: 12 degrees 17 seconds Aquarius in the 7th house
Signs of the Zodiac
Jupiter: 01 degrees 40 seconds Aries in the 10th house
Saturn: 17 degrees 12 seconds Libra in the 4th house
Uranus: 27 degrees 58 seconds Pisces in the 10th house
Neptune: 27 degrees 45 seconds Aquarius in the 9th house
Pluto: 06 degrees 22 seconds Capricorn in the 6th house
Finally….
The birth chart is a 2D representation of the 3D environment into which you were born. This blog has covered a lot of material, but perhaps the main thing to take away is the idea of being surrounded by earth and sky, and the cycles of the planets and Zodiac, and the feeling that we are attuned to these great celestial patterns. These truly are here, there and everywhere.
See you next time – do let me know if there’s any topics you’d like me to look at in the blog and I’ll do my best to cover them.
Deborah
