ASTROLOGY CHART
noun
a map showing the positions of the planets at the time of someone's birth, from which astrologers are said to be able to deduce character or potential.
- Oxford Languages
CHART BASICS
date, time & location
To create an accurate astrology chart, you need a date, location, and time. Using this data, an astrology chart can be drawn to show where the planets are and how the zodiac is oriented around this place and time.
DIVISIONS & HOUSE SYSTEMS
If you look at a chart, you will notice that its basic structure is a circle that is divided into 12 sections, or houses. The zodiac sign rising on the eastern horizon shows where the first house starts. This sets up the pattern for the subsequent houses, as the next sign in the zodiac will then rule the following, or 2nd, house, and so on.
When you match the qualities of a zodiac sign with the themes of a house, you can interpret basic character around a category of life.
Starting with the first house of Self, we hold very tight boundaries here. Moving through each house we gain greater and more complex awareness. Houses 1-3 are very self-oriented, 4-6 are about finding maturing and wholeness of ourselves, 7-9 are more communal and sharing, and the last three houses, 10-12 are detached and observant of greater collectives and patterns.
The left half of the chart is self-aware while the right side is other-aware. The bottom half of the chart is subjective, while the top half is objective. While we have access to all parts of our chart, so all of these awarenesses, when we have planets in different parts of our chart, a certain awareness might be more prevalent than an area with less gravity, or planets, in it.
Orientation Via The Four Angular Divisions
The chart is divided by our horizon lines. As mentioned, the 1st house, or AC, shows which zodiac sign is rising on the eastern horizon and aligns with our awareness of the Self. The sign setting on the western horizon is shown by the opposite 7th house, or DC, and shows the relational style. If you were to look directly above head for the time of a chart, you would see the summit or top of the chart, the MC or 10th house of aspiration. If you draw a line from location of the chart, through the Earth, and out the other side, this would show what is underneath and how this chart finds grounding, stability, and depth, the IC or 4th house.
There are many different house systems in astrology that determine how these angles set up house boundaries and the number of degrees of the zodiac each house contains. A popular system is using whole sign houses. With this system, if Libra is rising at the chart place and time, the 1st house would contain all of Libra’s degrees even if the actual rising degree was near the end of the sign. Each house would contain the whole of each next sign. This is what I currently use and find it to be quite reliable.
Popular KINDS OF astrology & CHARTS
BIRTH CHART
There are many branches of astrology, just like there are many kinds of doctors. There are vast reasons why you might draw up a chart. The most known and popular is natal astrology and the use of a birth chart. A birth chart can help us learn more about ourselves based on the signs ruling our houses, the signs and houses that different planets are in, and a few more complex concepts beyond this.
ELECTIONAL astrology CHART
Electional astrology is used to draw up charts for timing things such as signing contracts, launching campaigns, and any other event you want a good juju for. Things like businesses (time of incorporation), marriages (time of signing the marriage license), and so on have charts and so many people want these kinds of important events timed to reflect their hopes.
HORary astrology CHART
This is a form of astrology connected to divination. The time and location of when a question arises is used to create a chart and get insight into a concern. For example, maybe a career question comes up for you. Note the time this question arises and look at the chart for this time. I would start by looking at the conditions around the 10th house of career to gain insight into the question.
Locational astrology CHART
Have you ever noticed that when you travel, different sides of yourself become more and less amplified? When we change location, a relocation chart can be drawn to show how your chart reorients for that location, as if you were born there at the exact same moment you were born where you were born. This is a fun way to choose destinations you might want to travel to or to see if a move to a different state or country might be felt as challenging or beneficial.
For example, maybe you have your birth chart Sun in your 4th house, bringing a focus to privacy and soulfulness in how you create. A move to another city might move your Sun to the 5th house, orienting how you focus your creativity more outward and more courageously. To you, that could sound either like a positive or negative thing.
Mundane astrology CHART
This is one of my favorite types of astrology and charts to study. This is going down the rabbit hole kind of astrology. This is research-oriented astrology to track patterns and cycles. Maybe you want to understand what it might mean for the US to be going through a Pluto return (the time it takes for Pluto to return to the same degree it was in a chart). Pluto returns only happen every 248 years so you need to go back in history and look at appropriate case studies, in this case, other countries that have experienced Pluto returns (as this is the first one for the US).
You might try a simple and personal experiment with this kind of astrology, such as tracking what patterns arise for you when the moon is in Scorpio. For me, this brings the moon to my 12th house, which can be spacious and cosmically connected. I often experience (or at least desire) space to dream and take time-outs during Scoprio moons.
Relationship & Composite CHARTs
Have you ever noticed how different people bring different things out in you, how one relationship fits for inexplicable reasons why another (that on paper should be ideal) doesn’t easily click. Relationship charts can help us to see how two charts interact. It can show where there is natural ease and where challenges arise that can also push and bring growth. Another kind of relationship chart is called a composite chart. I typically don’t use this unless there is a more serious commitment as it requires a level of entanglement and working as a team. This chart takes each planet, point, and angle and finds the midpoint between these in each of the separate charts, creating a chart that shows the unified energy of a relationship. For example, in a relationship chart, I would look at how my Virgo Sun and my husband’s Aries Sun relate, or how my Venus in Libra sits on his Libra rising, bringing a beautiful interaction. In a composite chart I would note that as a team, our combined Sun is in Gemini, and so when working together we tend to be more social and lighthearted than we are as our individual selves.
Now that you’ve familiarized yourself with a few top-level astrology concepts, jump over to ‘Read the Symbols’ section to learn some basics in understanding and interpreting the nuts and bolts of astrology.
"We are born at a given moment, in a given place and, like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season of which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything more."
-Carl Jung