Astrological Chart Reading: Part 1 – Understanding The Elements and Components of A Birth Chart

Wouldn’t it be great if we were able to look at any astrological birth chart, either yours or someone else’s, and quickly see the most important components of somebody’s personality and what their life experiences are?

Well, you can do exactly that, here’s how.

There are four steps involved with interpreting an advanced astrology chart on a basic level.

At this level, the focus is on the basic foundations of who we are, and our prime personality and experiences.

A basic understanding of the birth chart won’t highlight the little but oh so powerful intricacies that an advanced perspective can bring, but we all have to start somewhere don’t we?

If you follow these essential guides, you will know how to read the basic components of anybody’s birth chart easily and that in anybody’s book is a good start.

● Step 1: Understand the four zodiac sign elements of a birth chart and what they represent, and differentiate cardinal signs, fixed signs and mutable signs.

● Step 2: Understand the three necessary components of the birth chart structure as seen in the astrology wheel.

● Step 3: Identify the position of the basic elements in the birth chart structure.

● Step 4: Translate the meaning of the essential elements on their own and how their positions influence your psyche.

Step 1:

There are four elements to a birth chart that we need to pay attention to, and that will show us the main astrological aspects that influence our personality, and experiences in life.

The four elements are;

● The Sun
● The Moon
● The Ascendant
● The Ascendant’s ruler.

The sun and moon represent the yin, yang energy that we all have, they represent the masculine and feminine aspects of our ‘self’ and all of the ways that we express masculine energies and feminine energies through the anima and animus in our psyche.

So as you can see, the sun and moon are immensely important astrologically because they represent the basis of our personality.

The Sun

Represents our masculine side, and how we express ourselves outwardly and publicly in the world.

The Moon

Represents our feminine side, and how we reflect, and express ourselves internally.

The Ascendant

Represents how your evolving, the qualities that you are developing as a result of your life experiences. Regardless of where all other planets are (which we will discuss later) the ascendant is always found in your first house – the house of self. And represents you and your base personality.

You’ll need to understand what planet is your ascendant ruler to find out what your lifepath and experiences will look like.

The Ascendant Ruler

Because the ascendant is not associated with a planet, the planet which has fallen into the first house when you were born, and where the ascendant is located becomes the ruling ascendant.

This planet and it’s meanings, and energies, provide information on how your psyche and sense of self is going to be experienced in your lifetime, and will also provide details about your life path and destiny.

For example; your ascendant ruler might be the planet, Mercury.

To clarify; The ascendant never moves in your astrological chart, no matter who you are your ascendant will be in your first house ‘Self’. However, planets that influence each house move around all of the time, so different planets will be in the first house at the time of birth depending upon what date and time you were born and where you were born.

Step 2: Identify The Three Basic Components Of A Birth Chart

A birth chart has three primary components which include the houses, star signs and planets.

The Houses:

There are twelve astrology houses in total, and on the astrological charts, they never move. Everything else moves around in and out of the houses. Such as the planets and star signs. The houses are said to represent the sky itself. Houses represent areas of life, which is why the first house represents the self and is the host for our personal ascendant (which is created at the time of birth).

Over the course of time, planets and star signs will move in and out of the houses bringing in and switching up the energy constantly.

The Star Signs

If you imagine that the population is divided into 12 categories, each of which are represented by a star sign, and you’ll get the picture. Each star sign takes one-twelfth of the sky up and moves around over time (approximately one month for each sign to pass through one house).

Your astrological star sign (or sun sign) will be determined by what star sign the sun was in during the time of your birth.

The astrological star signs will influence whichever house they fall in as they pass through, but your external personality and how you project yourself into the world will reflect the characteristics of your predominant astrological sign.

Similarly, the sign that the moon fell in at the time of your birth will represent your inner personality.
Even though there is not much emphasis on the moon sign during daily astrological horoscopes, there should be, since that reflects who we are most of the time!

Planets

The planets also move around on a cycle, which can differ depending upon the planet. But the position of the planets at the time of our birth is also relevant.

We can look at which of our houses the planets fell in at the time of birth to determine some of the finer details about how we will view the world; what is important to us, and aspects of life that we may not notice, or that are hidden, but that we might – or should (according to Carl Jung) explore.

Planets also rule the star signs, and their particular energy will influence each star sign accordingly.

So you can see how, when we are born, that we could almost put a pin in the astrological map and that pin will land in a house and pin a planet and astrological star sign to that exact spot that represents you. Wherever that pin lies will form the basis of the story of who we are and what we will experience.

In the next part, we will review how to get a birth chart for free, and how to look at it to find out where your sun sign, moon sign, ascendant and ascendant ruler falls. And also how to translate the meanings into something that will give you great insight into your ‘self’.

Now, proceed to Astrological Chart Reading: Part 2!

Michelle Marshall

Michelle is a personal development and spiritual content writer and blogger. She previously worked as a Hypnotherapist, and NLP Master Practitioner and has studied human behavior and ‘things’ of an esoteric nature her whole life. Her passion for helping people to attain joy, peace, and happiness through all aspects of personal development and through simplifying life flows through in every piece of work she does.