How to approach your birth chart as a complete beginner
If you’ve only ever heard about your Sun sign (you know, when you say, for example, “I’m a Taurus” or “I’m a Scorpio”), you might actually be surprised to find out that there’s way more to your birth chart than just that one tip of the iceberg. Your birth chart is like a snapshot of the sky at the moment you were born, giving you a deeper look into who you are like your personality, your inner world, and more flowy and more challenging parts that you can address. In this diary entry, we’re going to take a closer look at the basics of a birth chart, so you can start uncovering the layers within on your own. Think of this diary entry as your mini Astro guide. Let’s begin!
THE POWER OF YOUR BIRTH CHART AND UNDERSTANDING YOUR CORE
If you're new to astrology and looking at your birth chart for the first time, it can feel a bit overwhelming. There are lots of lines, symbols, and unfamiliar terms, but don't worry, it's a lot easier than it seems once you break it down. Think of your birth chart as a roadmap to your personality and life’s journey, and each piece is there to help you understand different parts of yourself and the first step is to learn a symbolic language! But let’s cover the ultimate basics first…
STEP #1 — gather your birth information
Alright, before we begin exploring your birth chart, you’ll need a few things: your birth date, the exact time you were born (hour and exact minute), and the place you were born. These details are super important because the planets were in different positions at the moment you took your first breath, and that’s what makes your chart completely unique to you.
If you can, take a moment to look into the story behind your birth certificate. For example, my own birth certificate lists my birth time as 11:25 AM, which would make me a Capricorn Rising. But in reality, I was still in the womb at that time and was actually born later in the evening, making me a Cancer Rising, the complete opposite. I know the exact time of my birth because my mother was watching the clock when I took my first breath. Without that, I’d never have known the true timing. So why is my birth certificate wrong? Well, only the hospital staff from that day could tell you that.
Once you have that info, there are some great free tools online where you can generate your chart—sites like astro.com or astro-seek.com work really well. I would avoid popular astro apps as they can mess up the data + they are written by hired copywriters, not actual astrologers. I personally prefer astro-seek and will use it in my examples here.
STEP #2 — generate your chart
Once you have that info, use an online tool to create your chart. Once you have that info, there are some great free tools online where you can generate your chart; sites like astro.com or astro-seek.com work really well. I would avoid popular astro apps as they can mess up the data + they are written by hired copywriters, not actual astrologers. I personally prefer astro-seek and will use it in my examples here. Enter your details into the tool, and it will calculate your chart for you. The result is a circular chart (called a natal or birth chart) that represents the position of the planets at your exact moment of birth. Don’t worry if it looks complicated; it’s just the framework we’ll start working with.
As a complete beginner, you can scroll down and read generic interpretations of your placements. Keep in mind that these are generic and would repeat what they say for each Sun sign. These descriptions are here so you can get a bigger sense of each placement's meaning, yet it’s not take into account the degree and overall energy of your unique Sun sign placements due to their aspects. Interpretations of aspects are also generic when you click on them. All in all, aspects can be a bit overwhelming at the beginning as well, so you can skip them and focus on the planets and the signs.
STEP #3 — understand the key components
Once you've got the overall big picture that your birth chart isn’t just about the Sun sign, the next step is to acknowledge the whole wheel! Here’s how:
1) begin from the ascendant by setting the whole sign house system
The Ascendant is always placed in the First House and serves as the starting point for how your entire birth chart is organized. In the example below, I used the Whole Sign House System, which divides all twelve houses into equal 30-degree sections, making the chart straightforward to read. When you run a chart for the first time, Placidus will be automatically set up. In astro-seek, you can change the house system by selecting advanced data below “Calculate Chart”. I am elaborating this from the very beginning, because house systems can confuse you later in your learning, and Whole Sign is the easiest to digest. So, for the example chart below, the Ascendant is in Cancer. The Ascendant also dictates the ruler of the chart. For the imaginary individual charts below, the ruler is the Moon, because the Moon rules the sign of Cancer. Each sign has its ruler.
2) Explore the planets and signs deeper in the wheel in this round of learning
As you read the overall interpretations of each sign and planet in the descriptions below, now it’s time to connect the dots between the textual and the birth chart wheel. Some symbols are easier, like the Moon and the Sun. In this chart above, you can detect them in the 3rd house and the 8th house, while the others may take more time to engrave in your memory. We briefly mentioned in the part related to the Ascendant that each sign has its planetary ruler. Below, you can explore each in more detail:
To clarify the difference between traditional and modern rulership, so you don’t get confused, astrology has evolved, and some zodiac signs are now associated with two rulers.
Traditional rulers are based on the planets and luminaries visible to the naked eye, as used in ancient astrology. Each sign was assigned one of the seven classical luminaries and planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn).
On the other hand, modern rulers were incorporated after the discovery of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Astrologers assigned these outer planets as rulers of certain signs based on their symbolic connections. Modern rulerships add another layer to astrology, but don’t replace the traditional ones as they complement them.
So keep in mind that…
Scorpio is traditionally ruled by Mars, but in modern astrology, its ruler is Pluto.
Aquarius is traditionally ruled by Saturn, while modern astrology assigns Uranus.
and finally, Pisces is traditionally ruled by Jupiter, with Neptune as its modern ruler.
With all of this in mind, read it through but let it ‘‘cook in your brain’’ for a little while, and you can go back on focusing on your Ascendant, Sun and Moon placements. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with these, you can start to explore the planets more gradually.
3) identify the houses they occupy
Once you feel ready to move on from the basics, it’s time to introduce another layer — houses. In astrology, the houses are like the stages where the story of your life unfolds. Imagine your birth chart as a play, and each house represents a different "set" or area of life where the action happens. The planets are the actors, and the signs they’re in show their personalities and how they behave on stage. There are also 12 houses, just like 12 signs, and each sign feels at home in the linear order: Aries feels “at home” in the 1st house, Taurus in 2nd, Gemini in 3rd, and so on. As mentioned in the beginning, where we explained the Ascendant and how to detect it, you should begin from the Whole Sign house system, besides getting Placidus set up automatically when running a chart.
The main difference between the Placidus and Whole Sign house systems lies in how the houses are divided in your birth chart. The Placidus system divides the sky into uneven segments, based on the exact time and location of your birth. This means that some houses can be larger or smaller than others, depending on where you were born. The Ascendant (the sign rising on the horizon) marks the beginning of the First House, but the rest of the houses are then shaped around that. This system gets more complicated the further away you are from the equator, leading to some charts that look irregular or hard to interpret. Sounds complicated enough, am I right?
The Whole Sign system, on the other hand, simplifies things by dividing each of the twelve zodiac signs into equal 30-degree sections. Each house matches exactly with one zodiac sign. So, for example, if you have Leo rising, the entire First House is Leo, the Second House is Virgo, and so on. There’s no need to worry about the exact degree of the Ascendant because each sign gets an entire house, making the whole chart more uniform and easier to interpret. For beginners, Whole Sign offers a much more approachable way to start understanding astrology.
Now let’s get back to the birth chart from above, this time focusing only on the Moon in the 3rd house, which is the ruler of this imaginary person’s birth chart:
So you can layer it like this as an example:
The 3rd House is all about how you think, communicate, and connect with others on a daily basis. It also represents your relationship with siblings, neighbors, and short trips.Virgo is known for being detail-oriented, practical, and analytical. It’s also connected to the desire for order and efficiency.
The Moon governs your emotional world, instincts, and what makes you feel secure. It’s how you nurture yourself and others, and how you process your feelings.
With the Moon in the 3rd House in Virgo, this imaginary person’s emotions are closely tied to how they think and communicate. They probably feel most at ease when they can analyze things carefully and have clear, logical conversations. Expressing their feelings might come more naturally when they can organize their thoughts first—so they might take some time to think things through before speaking. They also probably find comfort in the details and facts of life, and might prefer to write things down or talk through their feelings. When it comes to their relationships with siblings or neighbors, they tend to be helpful and practical, always offering advice or solutions in a grounded way.
Mentally, this person is sensitive to their environment (3rd house themes) such as how people communicate with them, or the overall vibe around them can really affect their emotions, especially as this is their ruler. Their mind and emotions are very connected, and they feel most emotionally satisfied when they can communicate clearly and find practical solutions to problems.
Congrats, now you understand the ultimate basics of understanding a birth chart!
...So, what's next?
Now that you've had a chance to look at your Sun, Moon, Rising, and the planets in your chart, it’s time to take a moment and reflect. How do these placements fit with your life? Do they feel true to who you are? The beauty of astrology is that it gives you a mirror to better understand yourself: your strengths, your challenges, and the way you naturally move through the world.
One important tip: go slow. Don’t try to learn everything at once. Take it one step at a time and explore what feels right to you. Once it feels right, you can start exploring more intermediate layers like aspects and degrees, analysis of the axis (Ascendant-Descendant, Imum Coeli-Midheaven), and later on, more advanced techniques like transits and progressions, solar returns, Lunar mapping, annual profections, and more. Astrology is a deep and intricate tool, but it’s meant to be personal and enjoyable, so don’t be strict with your learning sessions. It’s also important to tune into your intuition as well. Focus on what resonates with you in the moment, and give yourself time to grow into the language of astrology. The more you dive in, the more you’ll see how it all connects.
As you continue, you’ll start to notice patterns in your chart that reflect patterns in your life. Keep looking, keep asking questions, and keep learning. Your birth chart is like an ongoing story, and the more you understand it, the more you can work with it to create the life you want.
Be patient with yourself, take it one step at a time, and most importantly, enjoy the process. As you wrap up this entry, remember that your birth chart is like a lifelong companion. The more you dive into its layers, the more you’ll discover about yourself and the patterns that shape your experiences. Don’t rush—astrology is a journey of exploration and self-awareness. With each step, you'll gain clarity, not just about your chart, but about how you move through the world. Take what resonates with you, and leave room for growth and new insights along the way. The stars are always there, ready to guide you whenever you’re ready to listen. If you ever need help with guidance by any chance, and if it resonates with you, I can help you out, always.
Good luck with your soul exploration,
xx Ang ✨
