An astrology chart is a picture of where the planets were, in the sky all around us, at the moment of our birth. It shows our traits, strengths and challenges based on these planetary positions (the sign & house), and also from how the planets were interacting with each other on that day (the aspects). Themes also tend to emerge when viewing a chart holistically.

Does our chart determine our character?

In ancient times people saw celestial phenomena as omens, since the planets were gods that could make things happen. Creating personal astrology charts for people started after man developed the skills for mapping the heavens in time and place. The earliest astrologers were essentially astronomers.

There are two main systems being used today, western and Hindu/Vedic. Hindu astrology is thought to take a more fated view, our chart shows our fate, and the timing of fated events, and by changing one’s time of birth, one can change their luck or destiny.

But western astrology believes that people are free to create their own fate. It draws heavily from psychology with the signs and planets taking their attributes from Greek and Roman gods, which are essentially variations on universal archetypes. It’s a man made, and somewhat logical, system, and even if astrology doesn’t really work, the system reveals how humans tend to group personality attributes together to make characters, or archetypes, with different strengths and weaknesses – both human and divine.  Western astrologers are more likely to see the birth chart as a map of potential, and a baby like a seed with the potential to grow into what’s shown in their chart.

But it seems to me that we take our birth at a time that reflects what we already are. For example everything born in nature comes when it’s supposed to, seeds sprout, baby animals are born, it just happens.  So we too must come at the time that’s right for us, with our charts showing the traits and conditionings we bring with us into this lifetime. Our human nature. Our natural selves. A chart shows what feels normal to us, what we believe we can and can’t do easily, the eyes through which we look at and respond to, the world. It’s our programming you could say.

And then evolution, how we evolve through our lives, is a separate thing. What’s really interesting to me is how very different people can have the same chart. Actually a chicken and a person can have the same chart but the chicken’s personality will be limited by its chickenness. Do chickens choose to be nice or mean? Selfish or generous? I wonder. And maybe we too are limited by being human.

But humans are so interesting, and varied, and even more unpredictable because of free will. So a person can choose to express the qualities in their chart in a high or low way, or transcend them all together. Taurus the bull, some call this sign lazy because it likes to enjoy life, but it can also has the potential to work very hard. So an astrologer can’t really see how ordinary or evolved a person is from their chart, or the level at which they are expressing what’s there, since all the elements in a chart have both high and low forms of expression. Our charts show the expression itself, but not whether it’s evolved or devolved. And it doesn’t show a person’s spirit or soul.

What makes a chart easy or challenging?

Astrologers have a tendency to see charts as easy or difficult. A “difficult” chart is one that has many challenging aspects or planet-sign combinations that don’t fit together very well, thus showing a person faces challenges in expressing a particular quality, or energy, freely. There may be a lack of flow, or maybe they block their own flow.  But it’s also these complexities that make a person more interesting, if they aren’t busy being awful that is… although, as mentioned, how awful they can be may not be obvious from their chart. A chart will just show the potential to be awful… or the potential, with a bit of luck and effort, to turn that awfulness into something really great. That we have the free will to choose is really fundamental to western astrology.

And on the other hand, some people have very “easy” charts, with not many challenging aspects. Oh my perfect life – it’s so easy – and I’m so bored. Harmonious aspects show lines of least resistance, talents, things that come easily and naturally to someone.  And it’s possible that a person may take such talents for granted, or choose not to use them because there’s no challenge involved. So in that way a chart with a lot of “difficult” aspects and tension can also show great potential for growth.

But it’s also true that having many difficult aspects can make a person overly complicated from all the turmoil they experience trying to work out who they are, and what they want to be. They get mixed messages. People with a lot of difficult aspects may find it difficult to take the easy route toward something. Maybe they prefer the challenge.  But the less balanced a person is overall, the more likely that what’s in their chart will manifest in unpleasant ways, or be experienced as obstacles.

Maybe some astrologers feel they have to prove astrology works by looking at the chart and then describing the person to themselves. I feel it’s much more interesting to explore the meanings in a chart with the person themselves, if possible, because they bring so much more to it. It’s their chart after all…

Constructing the chart

In Western astrology the time of day we’re born is thought to influence our overall orientation because it shows which area of the sky, and chart, the Sun and other planets are in. Like our world has a horizon line where the sky meets the land, a chart has a line splitting it into light and dark areas of sky. All planets in the top half of the chart were in the light when the person was born, all under the horizon were in darkness. Depending on which planets are where, this can influence one’s overall, outward or inward, orientation.

Planets on the horizon line, as well as at the very top and bottom of a chart, are given more weight and significance. If a person is born around sunrise then the Sun in the chart (and in the sky) will be on the eastern horizon. This means their Sun is ‘rising,’ making them, theoretically, very sunny.

For those born around noon the Sun will be near the top of their chart, making them more an aspiring type with a desire to make their impact out in the world. Born around sunset? The Sun will then be setting in the chart inferring more of a focus on relationships and others. Born around midnight? Then the Sun would be near the bottom which indicates more focus on family, one’s roots and local community.

And like this all the planets are somewhere in a chart, which means something. If the birth time is accurate then the chart can be accurate in this way, and the interpretation more accurate also. In addition there are a whole variety of interesting techniques an astrologer can use when the a person’s birth time is accurate, many of which can’t be done otherwise.

In a chart there are 10 planets and each shows a different aspect of ourselves. The planets closest to the Sun and Earth — the Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars — relate more to us personally, whereas the slow moving and far away Uranus, Neptune and Pluto impact people more collectively, showing qualities shared with others in our generation because they spend years moving through each zodiac sign.

The connections between the more personal planets in our chart with the collective, more generational ones, can also be telling, showing how we are in synch, or not, with the collective mood of our generation. Hindu astrology, being set up long before the discovery of these far away planets, doesn’t include them. Western astrology, however, adjusted itself to accommodate them. Some western astrologers like to experiment by exploring possible meanings for the newly discovered or minor planets, or other heavenly bodies, and how these might work in someone’s chart. But I don’t really do that because I think people are complicated enough just with the planets we are sure about. But I am able to extend a chart in that way with someone if that’s what they wish.

 

The planets most personal to us are:

Sun ~ how we act and behave. Our personality.

Moon ~ how we feel and behave in the home. Our nurturing self.

Mercury ~ how we communicate, think and create. Our attention.

Venus ~ how we love and compromise. Our heart.

Mars ~ how we assert and protect ourselves and others.

 

Jupiter and Saturn are inbetween planets. They sit between our personal planets and the collective, generational plants. People born around the same year or two will Jupiter and Saturn in the same sign. For that reason they can show qualities, or tendencies, we may share with our peers:

Jupiter ~ how we seek meaning in our lives and grow, also how we share higher meanings with others. How we grow philosophically.

Saturn ~ how we connect with the worldly-material reality and approach our duties and responsibilities in a physical world. How we judge and discipline ourselves and others.

 

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto move very slowly and reveal collective and generational qualities. Entire generations have these planets in the same signs:

Uranus ~ shows the nature of the analytical, progressive and scientific elements of our generation.

Neptune ~ shows the nature of the devotional and spiritual qualities of our generation.

Pluto ~ shows the nature of the collective capacity for cleansing and transformation.

How to read the planets according to their sign and house

Each planet in our chart falls in one of the 12 signs, according to the area of the zodiac it’s in when we are born. The sign shows how the energy of the planet expresses itself in the person.
 

A chart is also divided up into 12 sections, called houses, with each house showing a different area of the person’s life. Each planet will have qualities from the sign. Then the energy of that planet + sign combination will itself in the area of life shown by the house.

At the bottom of our chart is the 4th house which corresponds to our foundation, our roots, home and family life. At the top, the 10th, shows aspirations, public life and career. If a person’s Sun in Gemini is their 4th house, then family and home is where that energy will go naturally. If in the 10th then it’s more toward career. With 120 different planet + sign combinations and 1440 different planet + sign + house combinations, its like having a massive database of human tendencies.

Also interesting is how the focus of each sign, and house, gets broader as you move from the first to the last. Aries, the first sign born in spring, is considered the most ‘me’ oriented, whereas Pisces, the last sign, has the most cosmic, least “me” oriented, point of view. The same applies to the houses (shown in more detail here).  These stages of human expression can also roughly correlate to how our focus shifts from birth to death, first being just ourselves and finally blending back into infinity.

Aspects – colouring the expression of each planet’s energy

Between each two planets is space which can be expressed as an angle, called the aspect. Aspects show how the expression of a planet’s energy will be modified, or colored, by the energy from another planet. Aspects show how easy it is for us to combine the energies of two or more planets and express the combination. The main aspects are:

Conjunction: 0 – 10 degrees apart. Planets next to each other like this are similar and so the energies tend to blend. If the Sun and Moon are together in the chart the energy of the Moon will color the Sun’s expression, and visa versa.

Square: 90 degrees apart – 1/4th of the circle. The two planets are likely to express themselves very differently, and so they tend to interfere with, and challenge, the expression of one another.

Trine: 120 degrees apart – 1/3rd of the circle. These energies are similar and compatible, they tend to agree and so support one another.

Opposition: 180 degrees apart – 1/2 of the circle. These planets usually fall in opposite signs of the zodiac. They will be different but complimentary. Tend to attract or repel.

Imagine a person has Mercury (communication) square Mars (self assertion) in their chart. This means there was about a 90 degrees angle between Mercury and Mars when they were born and that the expression of their Mars energy is likely to interfere, or get in the way of, their Mercury energy (or visa versa). So there is tension, or friction there, or an imbalance, when asserting themselves using communication. Perhaps they don’t feel comfortable giving orders or standing up for themselves, for example. Perhaps the tension colors their communication somehow, they come across as timid, or bossy, without realizing. This situation they can either live with, or learn from, thus achieving an even higher level of skill at bringing the two energies together if they work at it.

So squares are a bit like having two conflicting ways of doing things inside oneself, you either learn to moderate and manage the differences, or you fight all the time.Alternatively the harmonious aspects show which planets are supporting one another, resulting in strengths or talents that seem to come naturally. Having lots of harmonious aspects doesn’t mean life is perfect however (although it might be) because a lack of challenge sometimes also results in a lack of motivation, or so the theory goes…  In reality most charts have a mix of harmonious and challenging aspects.

So a chart illustrates what we brought with us into this world, inclinations, strengths, challenges. It’s like the planets are musical notes we play while expressing our personalities.They interact with one another also creating new sounds like chords or themes which repeat themselves in different ways. So a chart is really like a piece of music we play and improvise on, and develop, as we go along. Does it make sense? Maybe not – but it works!

 

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