The Basics

The natal chart or birth chart is your blueprint. It is the book of life. To generate any chart we always need the following information: Date of birth, exact time of birth, and place of birth.

Calculate your Birthchart

Horoscope wheel

This is a snapshot of the sky at the exact moment of your birth. The birth chart is always read counterclockwise.

There are 12 zodiac signs and 12 houses. Each sign naturally corresponds to a house, but their actual placement in your chart depends on your exact birth time, date, and location.

To determine where the signs fall in your chart, astrologers use different house systems, methods for dividing the chart into 12 segments. The most commonly used house systems include:

Placidus House System – A psychologically oriented system that emphasizes individual perception and inner experience. It divides the houses based on time, making it more subjective and commonly used in modern Western astrology.

Whole Sign House System – A traditional system where each zodiac sign occupies one whole house, starting from the sign of the Ascendant. It’s considered more objective and is often used in Hellenistic and Vedic astrology for its clarity and symbolic consistency.

Other ways to understand what the birth chart represents :
• Your potentials and challenges
• Visual representation of the inner psyche
• Life path, lessons and evolution
• The playing cards to navigate this incarnation
• The tools and skills you were born with

The houses

The houses represent different areas of your life. There are twelve houses in total, each linked to specific themes such as identity, money, communication, family, creativity, health, relationships, shared resources, beliefs, career, community, and the unconscious. The houses show where something happens in your life, where energy is focused or where experiences unfold. The layout of the houses depends on your exact birth time and location, and they form the foundation of your birth chart.

An empty house in your birth chart simply means that no planets were in that area of the sky when you were born. It doesn’t mean that part of your life is unimportant or will be empty. To understand an empty house, look at the sign on the cusp (the beginning) of the house and find the ruling planet of that sign. Then, see where that ruling planet is located in your chart, by sign and house, to understand how and where the themes of the empty house will show up in your life.

Example :
If the 7th house is ruled by Sagittarius a.k.a 7th house cusp in Sagittarius, than the ruling planet is Jupiter. Than you have to look at where Jupiter is placed in the natal chart ; what house, what sign ?

The signs

The signs describe how energy expresses itself. There are twelve signs, each with its own personality, qualities, and way of behaving. For example, Aries is bold and action-driven, while Pisces is intuitive and sensitive. Each sign colors the way a planet or house expresses itself. Signs are the emotional or psychological style you bring into the houses as areas of life. They are like filters or lenses through which your energy flows.

The Ascendant, also called the Rising Sign, is one of the most important parts of your birth chart. It represents how you appear to others, your first impression, your self-presentation, and how you start new things. It also sets the structure of your entire chart by determining which signs rule each house. The ascendant is also connected to appearance and body.

To find your Ascendant, look at the zodiac sign that was rising on the eastern horizon at the moment you were born. You can calculate it using a birth chart calculator online. Unlike your Sun sign, which stays the same all day, the Ascendant changes roughly every two hours, so an accurate birth time is essential.

The Planets

The Planets represent what is happening, they are the active forces. Each planet symbolizes a specific part of your personality or experience. The Sun represents your core identity, the Moon your emotions, Mercury your thinking and communication, Venus your relationships, Mars your drive, and so on. The planets sit across signs and houses, showing what part of you is active, how it behaves, and where it shows up in your life.

Planets influence the house they’re placed in by either supporting or challenging that area of life. Some planets bring ease and flow, while others can create tension or growth through difficulty. In traditional astrology, Mars and Saturn are known as the two malefic planets. This doesn’t mean they’re bad, but they often bring pressure, conflict, or lessons that require effort. Wherever Mars or Saturn are located by house, they highlight the area of life where you may face more obstacles, delays, or personal tests. These challenges often lead to strength, discipline, and resilience when worked through consciously.

There are also two benefics: Venus and Jupiter. These planets tend to bring growth, support, and ease to the house they occupy. Venus brings harmony, pleasure, connection, and beauty, often softening the area of life it touches and making it more enjoyable or fulfilling. Jupiter brings expansion, wisdom, optimism, and opportunity, often opening doors or providing protection in that part of life. While their influence is generally positive, too much can lead to excess, laziness, or unrealistic expectations if not grounded in awareness.

• Birthchart = Blueprint of you and your life
• ASC = Beginning of the 1st house, Lens and outward expression to life
• Signs = Your approach to the life areas, pieces of you, the theme of a house
• Houses = The areas of life
• Planets = The forces & influences within the life areas, where the energies play out

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The quadrants

The birth chart is divided into four sections called quadrants, which help show how your energy is directed in life. Each quadrant contains three houses and reflects a different focus. The quadrant with the most planets in your chart often shows where your attention and energy are naturally drawn.

The first quadrant (houses 1–3):
is about personal development, how you understand yourself and your immediate environment.
Symbolizes the awareness of the self. It is the unconscious seeding.

The second quadrant (houses 4–6):
focuses on your private life, home, family, and how you manage daily responsibilities.
Deals with the integration of the self with the environment. It is the unconscious harvesting.

The third quadrant (houses 7–9):
shifts outward into relationships, partnerships, and your beliefs about the world.
Is about the awareness of others. It is the conscious harvesting.

The fourth quadrant (houses 10–12):
is about your public life, career, legacy, and spiritual connection.
This is the integration of the self with society. It is the conscious seeding.

The Angles

The angles are four key points in your birth chart that form the foundation of the chart’s structure. Also called the ‘skeleton’ of the chart, axis or cardinal points. The angles are often shown as the four bold lines in your birth chart that run across the circle, connecting opposite sides. These angles mark the beginning of the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th houses and are considered highly important. Together, they create a cross that anchors your chart and highlights the core themes of identity, family, relationships, and purpose.

The Ascendant is the sign rising on the eastern horizon at your birth and shows how you present yourself and begin things. It represents our attitude towards life, how we approach it, as well as the lens through which we perceive both ourselves and life.

The Descendant is directly opposite, showing how you relate to others and what you seek in relationships. It also represents parts of ourselves that may be unacknowledged or projected. This is why it’s sometimes called the ‘shadow side’, others can mirror traits we haven’t fully owned within ourselves.

The Midheaven (or MC) is the highest point in the chart and relates to your public life, career, and reputation. It is the outward expression of self, but it is also the point of what befalls us, where life takes us, and the direction we may go.

The Imum Coeli (or IC) is at the bottom of the chart and represents your home life, roots, and emotional foundation. It is the deepest part of self, often seen as the point of our soul, deep memories, and associated with the circumstances at the end of life.

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The Bottom half of the chart is the Night Half = Introverted, personal
If you have a lot of planets placed there, it can make you very introverted.

The Top half of the chart is the Day Half = Extroverted, public
If you have a lot of planets placed there, it can make you extroverted.

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Stelliums

A stellium occurs when you have three or more planets in the same zodiac sign or house. Some astrologers require at least one of the planets to be a personal planet (like the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, or Mars), and some use a minimum of four planets instead of three, but three is the widely accepted threshold in modern astrology. A stellium concentrates energy, amplifying the traits of the sign or the themes of the house it’s in, often creating a strong focus in one area of life or personality.

If you have a stellium in a specific house, the life themes linked to that house (such as relationships, career, or home life) will likely play a dominant role in your life journey.
If you have a stellium in a specific sign, the qualities of that sign, its strengths, challenges, and tendencies, will be strongly expressed in your personality, behavior, and sometimes even your appearance or energy.

A stellium can be a gift of focus and intensity, but it may also bring imbalance or overemphasis in one area, requiring you to consciously develop other parts of your chart for greater harmony.

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How to read your birthchart (basic) : 

The Sun, Moon, and Ascendant are the core building blocks of your personality and the first elements to consider when reading a birth chart. Together, they form what is commonly known as ‘the Big Three,’ offering an overview of your identity, emotional nature, and outward expression.

Check the signs
This should be your starting point, it sets the overall tone and helps define the core qualities of your Sun, Moon, and Ascendant.

Sun = represents your core identity, life force, purpose, and the essence of who you are becoming. It shows what energizes you and how you shine in the world.

Moon = reflects your emotions, instincts, rhythm, and inner world. It shows how you feel, what comforts you, and how you respond on an emotional level.

Ascendant (or Rising Sign) = is how you present yourself to the world. It represents your first impression, your approach to life, and the lens through which you experience the world.

check in which sign these 3 are placed.

1) In what sign is the Sun = Sun sign
2) In what house is the Sun = Area of life in which you express yourself most/best
3) In what sign is the ASC = Your appearance and approach to life, the lens that you view life through
4) In what house is the ASC ruler = Focused area and themes in life, Main theme
5) In what sign is the Moon = Your emotions and your needs, your emotional style
6) In what house is the Moon = Area of life that has influence on your emotions, where subjectivity brings fluctuations

7) In what sign/house is a Stellium = Highlighted area in your life, hyper focus
8) In what sign/house in Saturn = The restricted area in life, fear, insecurity, feeling held back
9) In what sign/house is Chiron = Your wound and possibility to heal, vulnerability
10) In what sign/house is Northnode = Your karmic challenges and lessons, growth
11) In what sign is MC = Your career possibilities, outward expression in public
12) In what sign is the IC = Your experience at home, your roots, how you ground yourself

Of course, reading your birth chart is much more complex than this. But these 12 steps provide the most important foundation for beginning to understand your life path and personality.

Next step :

1) Aspects to your Sun, Asc, Asc ruler & Moon, influences to your individual development
2) Sextiles = Talents, choices, harmony
3) Squares = Challenges & friction, passion, frustration
4) Trines = Cooperative energies, cooperation, talent
5) Opposite = Combative energies, inner conflict, struggle

Meaning of the Aspects
Meaning of your Sunsign
Meaning of the Planets
Meaning of Chiron