Hello, hello,
How are you doing?
Today, I'd like to show you how to read a birth chart by yourself even if you're a beginner. All you'll need to bring is your curiosity and imagination.
I've made a video of this post too, so if you're more in the mood to watch rather than read, here you go:
So you know how astrology lovers are kind of obsessed with the zodiac signs?
Well, the truth is, if you want to read a birth chart, I’d advice you to start with the houses. Shocking, right? : O
The Houses
In a birth chart, the chart is divided into 12 houses. Each house symbolizes a bunch of topics in your life. And with those 12 houses, we’re supposed to be able to cover any human experience in the world.
That’s how such a small chart can contain the whole of who you are and of your life. Beautiful.
My first advice to easily read a birth chart is to start by choosing a topic you’re interested in. Because if you start by trying to read the whole of your birth chart, that’s just too big.
Choose a simple topic you’d like to explore, like your creativity, your relation with your lover or partner, your health, your spirituality… anything, really.
And look in which house does your topic fall. Like creativity belongs to the 5th house, your partner is the 7th house and your health is the 6th house.
But health can also be the 1st house.
That’s something to be aware of. Some topics will be very clear-cut, but others might be over in a couple of houses. Because astrology reflects the messiness that life is.
Like, your health is far from being something that can neatly put in a box. It’s a mix of your lifestyle, genetics, any injuries you’ve had and blablabla.
But if you’re beginning, stick to one house at a time.
This video is a short intro so I don’t have the time to cover all the house topics, but I’ve got a whole post on the meanings of each of the 12 house topics. You can also download my small booklet on how to read your birth chart like a queen, and in it I've made a list of the main house topics.
So, 1. choose a topic you want to focus on. 2. check out the house that covers this topic.
And now the real fun begins!
Look at the zodiac sign that rules the house you’re looking at.
The Zodiac Signs
Let’s say you’re looking at your creativity, so at your 5th house, well all you have to do is note the zodiac sign that rules the 5th house.
I’m more of a traditional astrologer so I use the whole sign house system, where one house equals one zodiac sign. I really like how simple it makes things, but you can use any house system you favor.
In this birth chart example, the 5th house is ruled by the sign of Scorpio.
The houses are numbered in the inside of the birth chart, going counter-clockwise. The zodiac is shown in the outside of the chart with their symbols.
If you're not familiar with the symbols of each signs, you can use Chani Nicholas' birth chart calculator which will give you a super easy to read birth chart where each zodiac sign is written out on the birth chart. Click here to calculate your birth chart.
Don’t get distracted by any planet or weird thing happening in that house. All you need to do is think about the combo of the sign and the house topics.
What does creativity for Scorpio means?
How will the vibe and personality of Scorpio manifests itself concretely in the creative life of the person?
Quick Note
We often think of people being a Libra or a Leo. But the truth is, we all have the 12 signs in our birth chart. The 12 signs are present in our life in a variety of topics, some more discreet than others.
I don’t have the time here to cover the 12 zodiac signs, but for that, you can download my booklet. ; )
And you don’t have the understand fully the zodiac signs, you can simply work with the stereotypes surrounding them. Like, Scorpios are intense, mysterious, moody…
They’re a water sign so they’re connected to their emotions. They’re also rebellious, a bit edgy, because they’re ruling planet traditionally is Mars.
Just by hearing that, what image do you get in your mind? Who or what do you think of?
Astrology is really a game of associations and imagination. Like, for me, Scorpio makes me think of the band the Cure or Nirvana, of red wine and of the movie Blue Velvet by David Lynch.
You can read any birth chart simply by looking at a topic and seeing the kind of mood or vibe surrounding this topic.
Think about the kind of traits or characteristics that are recurrent in this area of your life and how it matches with the zodiac sign.
For example, for artists with Scorpio ruling their 5th house we’ve got Stephen King and Salvador Dali. Pretty good for the Scorpio vibe, huh?
So mixing the topic with the sign is something super simple that already give a very rich and insightful reading.
Next Level Pizza
If you want some more fun when reading a birth chart, you’ve got to check the planets.
It would be a shame to ignore a planet present in the house you’re looking at, because this planet is going to bring in its own energy, to mix it with the sign.
It’s like having a cookie (= Scorpio) and you blend it with an apple pie (= Jupiter). That’s a whole new desert.
Pay attention to how well the planet works with the sign. Like cookie and apple pie is a good dessert. But cookie and fries is more challenging. It can be good, but it’s more of an adventure.
To go again with Scorpio, if Mars is present, it doesn’t changes things much. Because Mars is very similar to Scorpio.
If it’s Saturn in Scorpio, even though those two energies are different, they’re pretty compatible. They’re both mysterious, distant and ready to work hard. So it’s a different kind of Scorpio, but it blends in a harmonious way.
But if you’ve got Venus, which is peaceful and friendly, there will be more of a clash.
This doesn’t mean it’s bad. There’s nothing bad in a birth chart per-say.
But it means that the person will likely feel in their creativity that there’s a pull between the energy of Scorpio, versus the energy of Venus. Things might be more challenging and unstable.
To put it in a very cliche way, they’ll want to create something emo but colorful. Or something alternative, but that everyone loves.
So the trick when reading a birth chart is:
1. to mix and blend the energies of the signs and planets, and
2. to see how those energies manifest themselves concretely in the personality or the life of the person.
And usually the 2nd part is actually pretty straightforward because either you’re reading for yourself and, well, you know your life, or either you’re reading for someone else but they’ll tell you how this makes sense for them.
That’s really the best part in astrology, how you re-think, re-imagine your life through the archetypes of the zodiac and the planets. It’s an awesome way to shift your perspective on things and to gain a deeper understanding of yourself.
And if you want to do this with the help of an astrologer, so you don’t have to focus on whether you’re reading your birth chart right or not, and how to make sense of Jupiter in Scorpio and so on...
But so that you can focus really on the reading, on the exploration of how the birth chart captures your life and has an impact on who you are, you can book a reading with me.
Final Questions
or rather Final Question: What if there isn’t a planet in the house I’m looking at?
That’s a great question.
There’s always a couple of empty houses in a birth chart and that never means that that house is ‘empty.’
Salvador Dali didn’t have any planet in his 5th house and it would be very mean to say that his creative life was unimportant in his life.
There’s actually a very cool way to look at what planet plays a role in this house. Because there’s always a planet in charge of a house, even if it isn’t in that house.
And that planet’s influence is super important.
But I don’t have the time to talk about it here, so I advise you to check out the video or post I’m going to do on that topic, haha.
I also cover that in my astrology booklet, so you can learn about that by downloading it for free right here. I mean, I know I'm being super insistent, but it's cool and fresh and if you're new to astrology I'm sure it will help you tremendously.
Alright. I hope you have loads of fun reading birth charts.
Just stay imaginative, think about your own experiences, and keep things small in your reading and it will be fine.
Here's a little summary of all the steps to read your birth chart.
See you soon.
Jin the Wizard
thunder and coffee
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