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Thus far in this column, we have looked in-depth at transits — passing, real-time planetary configurations — and interpreted their significance in our collective life as a university community. This is a practice known as “mundane astrology” — the astrology of the world in contrast with that of the individual.

In doing so, we have until now left out another widely known and widely misunderstood branch of our art: natal astrology.

Natal astrology tells us that the position of the cosmos, from our mother’s perspective, at the moment of our birth indicates the symbolic potentialities to be realized in ourselves and in our lives. Our birth chart provides us with signs or omens about our life, clueing us into the overall nature of our being, telling us where we may encounter ease and good fortune and warning us about those parts of our lives in which fate may deal us a bad hand.

Why should I study my birth chart?

Consulting a birth chart can grant us a deeper understanding of ourselves and our psychology, shine light onto frustrating patterns in relationships and life or simply pull us into a relationship with divinity.

Depth psychologist Carl Jung, for example, cast his clients’ natal charts for insight into psychological complexes which were difficult to immediately discern.

For many, seeing aspects of their lives mirrored in the stars is deeply therapeutic. Whether you believe existence is purely random chaos or you are a staunch determinist, it is undeniably true that many events in our lives, sometimes pivotal or formative ones, are completely outside of our control. Astrology helps us to form a healthy relationship with this reality.

American spiritual teacher Sharon Salzberg explains this in her book, “Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection.”

“If we think we will be able to dominate the streaming rapids of life through our efforts at control, we are destined to fail, and we will be ashamed at our failure,” she wrote. “If we add shame to what is already massively challenging, we can become cut off and isolated when we most need to feel connected, and when we most need to deepen our love for ourselves, just as we are.”

How do I read my birth chart?

Astrology is as deeply complex as it is rewarding and magical. It will give to you in wisdom and insight as much as you give to it in study and reflection. You will find right away that examining a birth chart requires a depth of understanding many interlocking elements, and serious astrologers will spend their entire lives refining and reworking their understanding of these basic elements of the craft. With this disclaimer in mind, I offer you some simple instructions and interpretive tools to begin to pull some meaning out of your chart.

First, with your birth date, time and location in hand, use a birth chart calculator like astro-seek.com to cast your chart. If you don’t have an exact birth time, no worries. This is only necessary to tell us the location of the ascendant, or eastern horizon, and the exact location of the moon. Though these are important, you can still do much interpretive work without them.

A chart has four main components, each interrelated and co-dependent: planets, signs, houses and aspects.

Planets are, of course, the wandering stars of our solar system, each with its own archetypal significance. The signs are the 12 30-degree divisions of the zodiac, each acting as a temple, or domicile of one of these planets. The houses are the divisions of the sky from our perspective, with the first house on the eastern horizon, the seventh house in the west, the fourth house at the invisible lowest point of the ecliptic and the tenth house at the highest point in the sky above us. Each house is associated with different life topics, and the planetary ruler of a sign in which a house falls can clue us into our fate in regards to that topic. Finally, the aspects are the interactions of the planets through geometric alignments within the circle of the zodiac. Having a conjunction or opposition of two planets in your chart is especially significant.

Although it would take volumes to flesh these elements out fully, we can quickly examine one placement with this information: the ruler of your ascendant.

The horizon, being the place where the sun rises to start the day and the visual point at which the heavens meet the earth, signifies your self, your character and your body. The ruler of the ascendant is the planet which rules the sign in which your ascendant falls. For example, if you were born while Leo was rising in the east, the sun would rule your ascendant and the placement of the sun by house and sign, as well as the aspects the sun makes to other planets, would offer you a range of symbolic meanings regarding these topics.

If this formula seems inscrutable, or if the automatically generated reading offered by whatever website you use does not resonate with you, do not fret. Each placement in your chart can be thought of as a puzzle to be solved over the course of your entire life, the secrets contained therein a treasure to be obtained only through a long process of reflection.

Be patient, and you very well may gleam from your nativity the eternal wisdom of the stars.

Published on March 21, 2022 at 1:02 pm