Astrology 101 Series: Decoding Your Birth Chart
Since astrology apps like Co-Star and The Pattern have gone bonkers-viral in the last few years, and especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, everyone and their grandmother wants to know what astrology can teach them about who they are and what their path to healing can look like.
As we’ve seen in past articles here at Dandy, astrology is first and foremost a potent self-development tool, so, if you want to better understand yourself and your unique gifts and cosmic lessons, you need to start with your birth chart.
Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about how you can start decoding your birth chart, and begin your astrological journey of self-discovery!
What is a birth chart
Your birth chart is a snapshot of what the sky looked like in the moment and place you took your first breath. Why is this important, you ask?
By diving deep into each placement of the stars and planets at the time of your birth, astrology will tell you what your cosmic lessons (what you’re here on Earth to learn) and what your cosmic gifts (the qualities you inherited at birth) might look and feel like.
It can be especially beneficial to learn more about your main placements (Sun, Moon, and Ascendant) if you’re struggling to find a path or place for yourself in the world, and feel like you’re being pulled in different directions, or need some guidance on the things that make most sense for you.
By looking at your planet placement and houses, you can also gain precious insights into how you move through the world and what cycles you may be going through, as well as what cycles await on the horizon.
And finally, by looking at each of the twelve segments that your birth chart is divided into (twelve houses) you can better understand how you relate to different areas of your life such as career, home, and relationships.
How to get your birth chart and decode it
In order to learn more about your unique and personal birth chart, you’re going to need to download it on a website like Cafe Astrology, Chani Nicholas, or Astrostyle: it’s completely free to do so, and all you need to know to get your result is your date and place of birth.
If you know your exact time of birth, that will give you a more comprehensive view ––for example, the Moon and the Ascendant change quite quickly, and you won’t be able to know where they were at your time of birth unless you know the exact time. But if you can narrow it down to a 1-2 hour window, that’s a great way to get started!
The meaning of the Sun in your birth chart
The Sun represents your basic identity, your energy force and your ego.
It’s your vitality and creativity, and as the focal point everything else in the chart revolves around (just like the planets revolve around the actual sun in the sky), it’s the most crucial element to identify and understand.
When you embody your Sun’s most positive qualities, you feel like you have a clear purpose and you are living your most aligned, directed and in-flow life. The sun is potentiality, wholeness, and pure will to live.
The meaning of the Moon in your birth chart
The Moon represents your emotional self, how you find your drive and motivation, and what your inner self truly longs for.
When you embody your Moon’s most positive qualities, you feel creative, intuitive, introspective, and imaginative.
The Moon is linked to how you respond to your environment, and how your habits and behaviours change with your emotions and deepest feelings.
The meaning of the Ascendant (Rising Sign) in your birth chart
The rising sign, or Ascendant, is the element in your birth chart that represents how you move through the world, and how people relate to you.
You could think of it like the main cosmic aspect mirroring the masks you wear in your day to day life, your coping mechanisms, and your relationship to your external environment as well as the people in your life. It encompasses your attitudes and your expectations, and it speaks volumes about how you perceive the world and what energy accompanies your perceptions and ideals about it.
The Ascendant is the zodiac sign that was ascending the eastern horizon at the time you were born, and it changes every couple of hours, which means it’s the most unique element of your birth chart. Astrologers usually recommend you read both your Ascendant and Sun horoscope, for example, because your rising sign is so crucial to who you are and how you express yourself: most astrologers actually write horoscopes based on rising signs, not Sun signs, so you might have been reading yours wrong all along!
The planets in your birth chart
Mercury
Mercury represents how you communicate with others, and how you analyse processes, energies, and ideas, so you can be your most inquisitive and curious self.
Venus
Venus represents how you give and receive love, how you spend your money, and where you find joy and pleasure in life.
Mars
Mars represents what gets you out of bed in the morning, how you express your desires and passions, and how you are led to take action so you can be adventurous, direct, and energetic.
Jupiter
Jupiter represents how you express generosity, understanding, tolerance, and improve your own life and that of others.
Saturn
Saturn represents how you deal with responsibility, limitations, energy blocks, facing your fears, and transformational life changes.
Uranus
Uranus represents how you (and your generation, as Uranus moves extremely slowly) go against the grain, break out of the status quo, and essentially put new spins on collective systems and situations.
Neptune
Neptune represents how you (and your generation, as Neptune moves extremely slowly) push against existing boundaries to create new ones, release stagnant energies, and express your most intuitive truths.
Pluto
Saturn represents how you (and your generation, as Pluto moves extremely slowly) search for truth and deeper meaning, plus, how you deal with change and upheaval.
The twelve houses in your birth chart
1st House
The first house represents your true self and your personality,
2nd House
The second house represents your value and possessions.
3rd House
The third house represents how you communicate and connect with others.
4th House
The fourth house represents your family, ancestry, traditions, home and domestic affairs.
5th House
The fifth house represents your expression, enjoyment, pleasure and creativity.
6th House
The sixth house represents your health, both physical and emotional.
7th House
The seventh house represents your interpersonal relationships and partnerships.
8th House
The eighth house represents transformative relationships and abilities, such as birth, death, sexuality, inheritances and karma.
9th House
The ninth house represents the house of religion, morals, ethics, travel, culture, and dreams.
10th House
The tenth house represents your social standing, including your career and any achievements related to it.
11th House
The eleventh house represents friendships and social groups that can lead you to self-actualisation and full expression of one’s ideal self.
12th House
The twelfth house represents emotions, creativity, the subconscious mind and how you learn from the cosmic lessons of your past, present, and future.
What else is in our Astrology 101 series?
In this volume, we’ve gone over a beginner-level decoding of what your birth chart is and why decoding it is so vital for your astrological understanding. In future instalments here at Astrology 101 Basics with Dandy Wellness, we’ll cover more in-depth topics and offer fascinating insights into the world of the stars and cosmos. Stay tuned!
