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ASTROLOGY 101 by Juliana Borruso

After sites like CafeAstrology, Astro.com and AstrologyZone saw traffic jumps in March, more and more people have begun learning about the stars and how they affect their lives. So, here's a beginner's guide to what a natal chart is and how to interpret it.

Before you start:

Keep in mind that everything is up to your interpretation, and let go of any preconceived judgements about any signs. There are no bad placements.

CALCULATING YOUR CHART

To calculate your exact chart, you'll need your birthday, as well as your birth time. This is important for rising signs and degrees of signs.

For calculating, I like to use CafeAstrology, but you can use anything. Type in your information and something resembling the natal chart on the left will show up.

INTERPRETING YOUR CHART

YOUR "BIG SIX"

The Big Six are a nickname for your Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Mercury, Venus and Mars. These planets change more often, unlike Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, which take at least a year to change transits. The Big Six all take less than a year to change, so they're often different for everyone. Even people born on the same day in the same year could have different charts.

Within your Big Six is the Big Three: Sun, Moon, and Rising.

Your Sun is the essential quality of who you are. It's the sign you say when people ask you what you are.

Your Moon sign represents your inner emotions.

Your Ascendant (also sometimes called rising) is what you can come off as to other people before you get to know them.

Mercury is the way you communicate and think.

Venus is how you are relating to love and navigating relationships.

Mars relates to aggression. Essentially, it's how you argue.

Okay, now you know what the planets mean.

But what do the signs mean when they're in them? Every sign is different, so usually you can take the essential qualities from a certain sign and that's how it will show itself in your planet and chart.

For example, my Mercury is in Pisces, which means I can be very creative, thoughtful and empathetic, but it also means it can be difficult for me to verbalize my thoughts, since Pisces are often said to be in a different world.

Keep in mind, signs manifest themselves in different ways for everyone. This is where the degrees of signs come in, but that's more advanced.

It can also depend on whether you were born when a planet was in retrograde or not. If you were, that's usually some type of karmic lesson to be learned. It essentially means that planet's energy is blocked externally, so expressing the life area within that planet's domain can be more difficult.

HOUSES

There are 12 houses, and one sign will always occupy each house. All of the signs are going to be represented in your house placements. The sign in your first house is also called your rising sign, or your ascendant.

Your signs in the houses represent how you take on these aspects of life.

For example, if I have Libra in my second house, it means I have a need to feel balanced and secure in my finances.

LEARNING ABOUT ASTROLOGY ON YOUR OWN

The first thing I did when I began getting into astrology was follow some social media accounts about it (@realastrology on Instagram, @marenaltman on TikTok are two of my favorites). These really help you learn about your signs, aspects, planets, and what they represent. A lot of account owners are also really open to answering questions about it for new people.

Something else you could do is read about it. There are a number of books about astrology that you can even borrow from your local library. This, again, will help you learn not only about your own chart, but also how to interpret other people's charts, if that's what you're interested in.

There's so many aspects to astrology that I haven't even gotten into. This is a basic, basic guide to essential terms and concepts in Western astrology.

Take everything with a grain of salt. Not everything you read about your horoscope will be 100% accurate, and that's expected. Remember everything is up for interpretation and keep an open mind.

Astrology can be intimidating, and it takes time to truly understand every aspect of it, but if you're willing, it can be really interesting to learn about. Have fun!

Credits:

Created with images by Pexels - "astronomy bright constellation" • Unknown - "Free photo: Earth, Rise, Moon, Surface, Space - Free Image ..." • AD_Images - "planet astronomy moon" • Alexas_Fotos - "starry sky zodiac sign clock" • Comfreak - "solar system sun mercury" • FelixMittermeier - "milky way starry sky night sky"