In the last post, I talked about the Sun, Moon and Rising placements and why you might want to learn about yours. But this is just a place to start! The birth chart tells us all of that and so much more. A birth chart in Western Astrology is a circle, made up of a few key components. Just like a clock, it is divided into 12 sections represented by the zodiac signs: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. These signs are placed in 30 degree increments to equal 360 degrees.
Once you have your signs laid out onto the chart, the planets are what give the chart meaning. There are seven traditional planets and three additional modern planets that Astrologers consider to be the most meaningful. Furthermore, there are other celestial bodies such as fixed stars, asteroids and calculated points that can give even more information pertaining to the birth chart. To keep it simple, we will begin with just the 10 planets: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The first five are considered “personal” planets because of their proximity to Earth. When we get to Jupiter, it takes much longer for the planets to rotate around the zodiac signs. For example, Jupiter takes 12 years to go around the zodiac compared to Mars, which is about two and a half years to complete its cycle. From Jupiter to Pluto and beyond, they become "generational" planets. It means that people born in the same years or generations will have similar placements. To figure out where the planets are in your birth chart, we need to know the date of birth and the location of birth.
After you have those two components, you can learn all about the planets in their signs on your birth chart. The final major component of a simple birth chart is to know the time of birth. With this piece of information, we can discover what area of life these planets reside in and might add meaning to you. This concept is called the “Houses” on a birth chart. Though there are many different house systems, the most popular being used today are called “Placidus” and “Whole sign” house systems. The 12 houses range from the self, to others, to public life and private life and everything in between such as relationships, finance, careers, children, creativity, home, community, travel and many more areas of life. There are 12 zodiac signs and 12 houses that make up the basis of the birth chart, and the planets tell us all the information we need to know for a birth chart reading. This is a very basic explanation of what a birth chart is but I hope it helps you to understand why anyone would be interested in finding out more about their birth chart and what it means for them. There are many more uses for an astrological chart too, not just for an individual but to look at questions and predictions. You can look at the natal (birth) chart of anything from an individual, to a business, to a country… as long as you have a date, location and time you can look up a birth chart for it. In the next coming posts, I will explain more about the planets and what they represent in Astrology and how we read the language of their placements.