Astrology Basics: Pre-Chart Reading
Because birth chart readings are expensive. Today we begin to talk about how to actually read your chart by breaking it down first!
Now that we have all the basic information of astrology we’re going to talk about how to start tackling a chart reading. Think of this as a warm up to reading it. We will do things one step at a time and learn how to look for key information so you aren’t trying to understand every placement and aspect all in one go. We won’t be doing a lot of interpretation today. This is kinda like a checklist I do before I do a chart reading. I recommend using whole sign when you’re learning.
We’ll be using my chart as an example.
I use astro-charts.com because the key information is laid out for you in an easy to read format but use whatever you like.
First thing we want to do is an overview of the chart. You want to look at this information.
To do this we look at our placements. You decide if you do all the planets or just inner planets. I count all of them at this point since I want an overview.
Count how many placements you have in each element and only count planetary bodies. Fire: 1. Earth: 4. Air: 2. Water: 3. Earth heavy chart with all the planets. Do the same for modality. Cardinal: 5. Fixed: 4 Mutable: 1. Cardinal energy is heavy.
Next look at the planetary dignities and look for retrogrades. The only planet I have domicile is Pluto. I have a mutual reception of Uranus and Saturn as well as the Moon and Venus. Both Jupiter and Mars are in Detriment.
Now we look at the rising sign, the planet that rules it and then find that planet in your chart. I’m a Leo Rising which means my chart ruler is the sun. My sun is in Cancer in the 12th house. The Moon is the ruler of Cancer so I will look for that as well. My moon is in Libra in the third house. The ruler of Libra is Venus and my Venus is in Cancer and a mutual reception. So I’m very moon aligned.
Now I want to look at aspects to personal planets starting with the above planets having to do with my chart ruler which is the sun. My Sun conjunct Venus, trine Pluto, opposite Uranus conjunct Neptune, and is square my Moon. My Sun is ruled by the Moon. My Moon is sextile my Mercury. Mercury is in my First house. Mercury is conjunct Chiron, opposite Saturn conjunct Lilith, and all of that Squares Mars. Mars is opposite Pluto which is trine Venus and Venus is in Cancer which would loop me back to the Moon so I know to stop for now. I also have something called a grand trine of Earth which contains Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Mars. Again we aren’t looking to interpret anything at this point we are just noting things down. This is just all the things that are impacting personal planets or that seem important.
Now we’re going to look more closely at the degrees. I feel its important to talk about all the degree theories. There are many such as each degree being ruled by a Zodiac sign. However, the only ones that really have anything behind them are things at 0, 22, or 29. Beyond this I only use degrees to look at decans and obviously transits for horoscopes. For all of my personal planets and rising I will note the decan each falls in. 1st decan (0-9): Moon and Chiron. 2nd decan(10-19): Sun, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Lilith, and Saturn. 3rd Decan (20-29): Venus and Rising. This will be more helpful when you start to actually work with the planets and interpret their meaning.
Beyond this you can look at the phase the Moon was in when you were born, Lot of Spirit and Fortune, the lunar nodes, the most aspected planet or most common aspect in your chart, chart shapes and aspect patterns, if anything was retrograde that retrograde cycle, dominant planets, chart signatures and so on. I would also highly recommend familiarizing yourself with the houses of your chart and their themes.
Regardless of what information you choose to look up just make notes at this point and highlight anything that feels important to you. Your intuition is still important even with something that can seem as technical as astrology.
This is just the way I do it but I hope it’s helpful to you and gets you on your way.