I'm fairly new to the study of Astrology, so bear with my naive questions. Since I discovered the astrological foundation of most of our religious stories, I've wanted to learn more about these charts. But what exactly are these charts for? How do you determine them? What do the different houses and planets mean? What must I do to get one? Thank you for helping me out.
First of all there are four major branches of astrology: Natal - These are birth charts, and is the most popular form of astrology today. The charts are based on the time, date, and place of your birth. Horary - In the old days (pre 18th century) this was the most popular form of astrology. This is a chart of a question - for example "where are m car keys", "am I going to get this job?", or "is my husband cheating?". The chart is made for the time, date, and place the question was asked. If the person asking the question is in a different place than the astrologer, then the place is where the astrologer lives. Horary is making a comeback! Electional - This is a chart for finding the astrologically right time to do things such as marriage, traveling, and so on. Between the classical and late renaissance periods, this was also extensively used for rituals and magic. This is a very complicated type of astrology. You basically find planetary and sign significators for what it is you want and then find out when those significators are strong. This requires a very thorough knowledge of astrology. Mundane - This is a chart that represents a group, city, or country. This is probably the most complicated form of astrology and few people do it today and even less do it well. This requires finding the birth time of the country or city, but it also has to be combined with presidents, governors, mayors, or whatever applies. A typical delineation in mundane astrology can use more than a dozen charts that have to be dealt with somehow. Ok the basic rule in astrology is that planets work through signs in connection with houses. Houses - These are usually 30 degree divisions of southern sky (in the northern hemisphere) or the northern sky (in the southern hemisphere). There are 12 houses, so with 12 houses of 30 degrees you get a circle. Modern charts are usually a circle with the houses looking like pieces of a pie. Each house represents an area of life and/or other people. The meanings are a bit different in modern astrology and traditional astrology since modern astrology focuses on the psyche, and traditional focuses on prediction and understanding. Since I do traditional, I'll give you the basic traditional meanings for natal and horary astrology. The first house represents the eastern horizon and on a chart it will be the 9:00 position. For the other houses you move in a counterclockwise direction, so the 2nd house is the 8:00 position, the 3rd is the 7:00 position, and so on. 1st house = The person for whom the chart is for, their health, mind, and wit. 2nd house = Money, wealth, moveable possessions (basically anything besides property and land). 3rd house = Siblings, neighbors, short journeys 4th house = Father, land, home, end of life 5th house = Children, games, sex, entertainment, moderately long journeys. 6th house = Chronic disease, small animals, workers, labor 7th house = Spouse, marriage, known enemies, litigation, other people 8th house = Death 9th house = Religion, long journeys, God 10th house = Profession, honor, actions, destiny 11th house = Friends, hopes 12th house = Long illness, secret enemies, curses, imprisonment. The way this is used, in its simplest form and it's rarely this simple, is if I want to know how many children I'll have, I look at the 5th house. My job, I'll look at the 10th, and so on. Signs: There are 12 signs. These are not to be confused with constellations of which there are around a 100 or so. The signs each represent a series of things, and there are long lists of what these are. For instance Aries is a ram, represents aggression, impulse, blood, red, war, conflict, and so on. Each sign is represented by an element which in Aries' case is fire. Taurus is Earth, Gemini air, and so on. Planets also have elements, so the way the planets interact elementally with the signs give you a clue about how they behave. Mars and the Sun are at home in Aries since both are fire. The Moon however is water, so the Moon doesn't do well in Aries. Each sign has a ruling planet. These rulerships are different in modern astrology, in my opinion rather arbitrarily. The traditional rulers are: Saturn - Capricorn and Aquarius Jupiter - Pisces and Sagittarius Mars - Aries and Scorpio Sun - Leo Venus - Taurus and Libra Mercury - Gemini and Virgo Moon - Cancer This is very important, but there are many different kinds of rulers for each sign, and can get very complicated. Suffice it to say that from one sign I can pull out about 5 different rulers which I can use for different purposes. The ones I listed are the main ones, and the ones most people talk about. Planets: Planets represent a bunch of things too numerous to list here. If a chart were a sentence, the planet is like the noun. They are the active force in the chart. So when I want to find out something, the first thing I do is find the planetary ruler, and then find out where that ruler is. The state of that planet will tell me if it's strong, weak, comfortable, uncomfortable, or in the middle. Some planets are male, some are female, and one (Mercury) is either. Lets say my chart says I will receive money from someone. I am simplifying things here, but let's say that this benefactor is represented by Saturn. Since it's Saturn, I know that it will be an older man with a rather coarse personality. Depending on what sign Saturn is in or any planets nearby affecting Saturn, I can get more detail. Each house is ruled by a sign. Which sign this is varies from chart to chart. The sign will tell me which planet represents my question, and you go from there. This can get very very complicated and isn't something you can learn overnight. There's a lot I'm not even mentioning since this will turn into a book otherwise. For free charts, you can go to astro.com. If you want a reading, you really should have a qualified astrologer read it for you.
