How To Read A Birth Chart In Astrology, Simplified

A birth chart is a map of the sky at the moment of your birth, from the perspective of your birthplace. If you don’t know what you’re looking at it can seem complicated and confusing. Here I’ll break it down with illustrations in order to help you understand and start you on your path to learning astrology.

The left most point in the circle represents the horizon where the sun rises that day, and the right most point represents where the sun sets that day. Thus, the top half of the circle represents daytime while the bottom half represents night. When you plot the location of the Sun, this will become more obvious. If you were born during the day, the sun will be in the top half of your chart in a similar location to where you would see it if you stepped outside. If you’re born at night, it will be in the bottom half.

In astrology the sky is separated into 12 sections based on the 12 zodiac signs or corresponding constellations. Your exact birth time is needed to determine which section was on the horizon line at the moment you were born. This is called the Rising Sign or the Ascendant and it will tell you which sign is in your First House. From there, you will follow the order of the zodiac to fill in the next 11 houses. Each sign contains 30 degrees and takes about 2 hours to pass over the horizon line. Every day each sign is cycled over the horizon line.

The celestial bodies, simplified as Planets, and other significant points are plotted onto the chart using their zodiacal degrees. Their symbol, or glyph, will be located in the corresponding house with the degree number and the glyph for the zodiac sign where the Planet is located.

Some planets/points will make Aspects to other planets/points in your chart. These are the lines you will see in the center. The closer to the exact degree, the more significant the connection between the two. Some Aspects are harmonious while others are more challenging.

Aspects can be analyzed between two different charts. For example, your birth chart and someone else’s (called Synastry) or your birth chart and the one in the current sky (Transits).

These are the basics of what you are actually looking at when viewing a birth chart. To begin learning how to interpret what you see start by learning about the Signs, Planets, Houses, Aspects, and Transits. Get a good start by buying a couple books and getting your birth chart read by a professional astrologer who has years of practice under their belt. Now that you know what you’re looking at you can follow along with their interpretations. Though often unjustly treated as a religion, at it’s best astrology is a tool for self discovery and introspection.