How to Locate Your Birth Chart

How to Locate Your Birth Chart

YOUR STARS WITHIN - ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELING

Welcome back!

Now that you have a handle on the elements, I bet you’re wondering how many of each element YOU have? Where do you find that out? What planets are in what elements etc?

So there are two common sources for pulling up an astrology chart. Both are free.

https://www.astro.com/horoscope

Or

https://cafeastrology.com/

On Astro:

Scroll over free horoscopes in the top banner, second button.

A box of options will pop up.

On the right side under drawings and calculations

Click “Natal chart, Ascendant”              

It will ask you to make an account or be a guest.

If you click for guest users, it will take you directly to where you enter your day/time and place of birth.

If you create an account it will save that information so you can return to it later, which I would recommend.

Enter your data: 

You have your chart!

This are how you can easily see the elements: 

First- Don’t get overwhelmed. You don’t need to understand everything on here.

You will see the circular chart on the right, and three boxes on the left. The first box lists each planet and what sign they’re. The second, small, box shows you the breakdown of elements. It lists F, A, E, W on the left representing Fire, Air, Earth and Water respectively. On the top it lists C,F,M standing for whether it’s a cardinal, fixed or mutable sign. I haven’t discussed those categories yet. So this box shows you how many of each you have in the elements. I would pay particular attention to Ascendant, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars. The slower outer planets aren’t as important to this specific discussion. The element they are in does mean something, but since those planets move slowly and effect everyone in that year or longer, it isn’t something you’ll see in your personality.

The bottom box shows you the aspects, which is something we’ll discuss in the future.

So let’s talk about what all this means and what exactly this chart is that you’re looking at!

Let’s start with the basics- this chart is a picture of the sky when you were born. Its where each planet was at the time of your birth.

So on this chart are signs, represented by symbols along the outside of the wheel.

Houses- represented with the numbers 1-12 on the inside of the wheel

Planets, represented by symbol inside the wheel.

The connections between the planets are the lines inside the circle. This is different degrees, such as 60 degree angle, 90 degree angle, 180 degrees, that we have found to be meaningful. Those “aspects”, the meaningful angles the planets make, are what is drawn inside.

Orienting Yourself:

The chart’s beginning point is the star rising on the east- this is called the Ascendant. It is the spot we start the “first house”, see on the left middle of the circle inside the number 1? That’s the first house. The sign it’s in, is the star that was rising. For example, if the ascendant is Scorpio then Scorpio starts the first house. This is why the time of birth matters, as it gives us this rising star and orients the chart.

The astrology signs then go in order around the chart, each taking up approximately 30 degrees. All 12 signs equal a 360-degree circle.

So, if Scorpio is first than Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra. That order doesn’t change. We just start with whatever sign is rising on the horizon and work our way around.

Now each planet will be placed on this circle based on where it was in the sky. In our example Venus is at 25 degrees Capricorn in the 2^nd house. So what we would look at is Venus in Capricorn- steady, reliable, initiating in relationships. Would value commitment and creating something that lasts. In the second house of possessions/values, this would reinforce that. The person is looking for someone they can build a life with. The ability to have material success/security would be important as would together buying a home and putting down very concrete roots. They wouldn’t rush into this, because Capricorn, the goat is stead but reaches the top. A passionate but flighty or unreliable mate will not be attractive to this person, they are looking for the type they can count on.

Let’s say maybe instead of Capricorn, that Venus was at 16 degrees of Aries. So, it’ll be in the 5^th house there in Aries and specifically at 16 degrees.

What would that mean?

Well, we would analyze what Venus in Aries means.

Then, we would analyze what Venus in the 5^th house means.

The houses represent domains of life. The area of your life this energy will show up. We’ll get into that in more detail in a future post.

So, for example, we know Venus is about relationships. When you put it in Aries, a fire sign, we know it’s going to tend to be impulsive and passionate. So maybe many quick lived relationships. When we place that energy of fast, passionate relationships in the 5^th house of fun, hobbies, romance and children we could see a person who is playful, adventurous and spontaneous. They probably have a spouse who is this way and probably raise their children with these values. The children may tend to be fiery in nature and maybe this will be a person who has a family that is highly active and creative together.

On Your Chart:

Let’s start a little simpler, let’s just list the personal planets (Ascendant, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars) and list what element they are in. Is it very heavy in one or two elements or are you spread out amongst the energies? You might be like a friend of mine who is an earth sign, but never relates to her “horoscope” because we saw when we did her chart EVERY other personal planet of hers in in fire! So while that one earth sign does say something about how she shows up in the world, she probably would relate to the explanations of fire signs much more.

A good balance is positive in that you have different energies to pull from. The challenge is getting them all to get along in one container- YOU! You can feel pulled in different directions, or have such a breadth of interests that it’s harder to know where to commit yourself to.

So let’s start with just getting a sense of what your main planetary energies are and if you haven’t already read it, maybe going back to the element series and reading the relevant ones through.

Also, as a quick help, below is a list of the symbols you’re looking at in the charts.

Lastly,

Please please please don’t be afraid to ask questions. The entire reason I am putting this together is to help you better understand and make use of astrology. If you are left with questions I would bet others are thinking the same thing. Please post so I can answer them! 

I am including instructions for Café Astrology as well, because they offer a lot of computerized interpretations with the chart, but it is not as easy to see the elements in your chart.

Instructions:

On Café Astrology you scroll down to where it says

“Free reports and calculations”

“Free Astrology Reports”

“Create a new chart”

Enter the day/time and place of birth.

The report Café Astrology gives you is full of computer generated interpretations. This can be good for starting to get the idea of things, but please remember it’s not synthesized and the computer doesn’t know how to adjust what is actually a likely energy to feel versus one that isn’t. It can be so much information that it doesn’t get to the heart of what an astrologer would see as standing out.

The charts in the beginning show you each planet and the corresponding sign. You have to figure out which elements they are. If you scroll to the very bottom, you see the circular chart which gives you that information using the sign symbol.