Birth Chart 101
What is a birth chart?
A birth chart is a snapshot of the celestial happenings surrounding one’s birth. It gives insight on one’s experiences, both fated and free-will. Your natal chart can serve as a guidance tool to enhance your life’s experiences, as well as warn you of not-so-savory experiences. Your chart shows the exact placement of all the planets and its transits at your time of birth, this is why it’s imperative to know your time of birth. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t.
BIRTH CHART BASICS
If you’re reading this post, you must be interested in understanding astrology more deeply and want to understand your birth chart. When learning astrology, starting with yourself is always best. Then you can observe other people and events, and gain your own understanding through that.
This free cheat sheet covers the basics of Sun, Moon, Rising, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Pluto, Uranus
How to find your chart: Need date, time, and location of birth for accuracy. If you don’t know your birth time, it’s okay you can still get some placements w/o birth times, the main ones you need a birth time for is your rising and moon, as those transit (change) frequently.
Resources: Astro-seek.com to look up chart, it will show your birth chart wheel and when you scroll down it will have a chart breakdown of your placements/signs.
Books: Astrology for the Light Side of the Brain by Kim Rogers- Gallagher (GREAT for beginners)
Sun: your soul’s calling, ego & what you aspire to be
Moon: emotional needs, emotional responses, what brings you a sense of comfort/self
Rising: higher self, how you view the world, general disposition
Venus: love, money, relationships (romantic, platonic, etc.), sex, expression
Jupiter: growth, expansion/abundance, opportunities, luck, wisdom
Saturn: responsibilities, tradition, structure/foundation
Mars: how you assert yourself, your drive/will, can also represent anger, how your energy is expressed
Pluto: transformation; rebirth, major changes Uranus: sudden changes/events, unconventionality, innovation, liberation
Signs & their Planetary Rulership
Mars: Aries, Scorpio(traditionally)
Venus: Taurus, Libra
Saturn: Capricorn, Aquarius
Sun: Leo
Moon: Cancer
Pluto: Scorpio
Neptune: Pisces
Jupiter: Sagittarius, Pisces(traditionally)
Uranus: Aquarius
The house that the planets are in give insight to the situations where this energy is most expressed. For example, someone with Saturn in their first house may be someone who comes off rigid and serious due to the nature of Saturn.
We will get into the houses in the All Things Astrology tier! Feel free to subscribe when you are ready to dive deeper. Remember, take your time. Study the basics first so when you learn more about your placements you can apply it easier.
Knowing these placements can help you better understand yourself and why you are the way you are, and how certain life experiences have reinforced that. Remember, astrology EXPLAINS us, not define us. We always have freewill and astrology merely explains the subconscious meanings behind our actions, thoughts, emotions, anger, and so on. It can serve as a guidance tool and a healing tool for yourself. It even explains the energy around us and how we can maneuver it like how I discuss transits. I personally enjoy using it as a guidance tool because there have been moments I looked up current transits and how it impacts my chart, and I ended up being in alignment with the energy that was already working for me whether I knew the metaphysical meaning or not. Energy is all around us, and it can help to explore the meaning behind strong energies we may be carrying, good and bad.
Don’t let yourself get information overload while studying this too, it’s A LOT of info to take in, and honestly it would take multiple lifetimes to master/understand all of the elements of astrology. I personally don’t study the degree theory and I don’t think I ever will. But there’s someone else who does. So take your time, and study what pulls you. If you find yourself wanting to explore your Venus in Scorpio placement, then honor that. Meet yourself where you are.
Take note of your signs and you can use it as a point of reference when you do your exploration, or if you decide to subscribe to my astrology tiers or watch my transit videos/posts on Instagram!