1. Head to astro-seek.com

The usual site people recommend beginners cast charts with is astro.com, but I find that there’s too much information for beginners. Over on https://horoscopes.astro-seek.com/birth-chart-horoscope-online, you can make a birth chart for free, and see some half decent descriptions of your astrological placements.

What I would suggest is just turning everything off. If you like, you can leave the lunar nodes on, and switch them to true. You can also change the aspect orbs to 7 or 8 degrees, thought the default orbs are actually quite decently chosen.

Some other time, I can explain what all those settings mean, but for now just calculate the chart!

Here’s a chart for the time I’m writing this blog, that I cast in about a minute. You could say it’s the chart for this article. I just changed the address.

Now let’s get to chart synthesis, the fancy term for reading a chart and trying to combine all the parts and get a sense for the whole thing…all at once.

2. Look for the Core Signifiers

Here are the symbols for the 3 parts we’re looking for. The sun looks like a circle with a dot in it. The moon looks like a crescent. The ascendant is on the left-hand side of the chart and has the letters ASC.

Now let’s see if you can find them in our chart example.

• Red: Fire
• Yellow: Air
• Blue: Water
• Green: Earth

You should keep track of this. For our example, here are the elements so far. Keep in mind that we’re not done with these numbers. We will add some weighting for the more important parts.

• Earth: 4
• Water: 2
• Fire: 1
• Air: 0

Now remember that the Ascendant, the sun, and the moon are all particularly important. For each of these, add 2 more points to their element. So in our example, the sun gives +2 to earth. The ascendant gives another +2. The moon gives fire +2.

• Earth: 4+2+2 = 8
• Fire: 1 + 2 = 3
• Water: 2
• Air: 0

By the end of this, we see that this chart is earth heavy, with a bit of fire and water, and no air. Notice that fire moved up to being the second highest element, beating water, thanks to the heavier weight of the moon.

3. Look for Weaknesses

This is a more complex step, but let’s use our judgement to see what the weaknesses of the chart are.

Why focus on negativity? We aren’t, we’re being practical. Knowing where you really stand can bring a sense of comfort, or at least catharsis.

In the above image, King Solomon renders a judgement that roots out a liar and returns an infant to it’s real mother. If you don’t know the story, it’s worth learning. Here’s a summary.

The Test of King Solomon

Two women came to the king, both claiming to be the mother of a baby. Each pleaded their cases. The first said, we gave birth around the same time. We both had babies. But this woman’s infant passed away, and in the night she switched them. She said, I arose in the morning and, “behold he was dead, but I looked closely at him in the morning, and behold, it was not my son whom I had borne.”

Now the other woman yells back that no, this is really her son.

King Solomon’s proclamation was a surprising one. “He said, “Fetch me a sword.” And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.” (Melachim 3)

The first woman said, give her the child, do not slay him.

The second woman said, let neither of us have the child, divide.

The king said, the first must be the mother. “Give her the living child, and by no means slay him: she (is) his mother.”

It’s a compelling story, and it’s a good example of the importance of judgement. The king knew that the woman who cared about the baby’s life must be its true mother. The woman who didn’t care was not, and was a deceiver, not only lying to the king but also swapping the infant in the night.

Return to step 3. Look for Weaknessess

If we reserved our judgement in such a situation and only tried to be kind, the baby may have ended up with the wrong mother!

Here is what you’re looking for in your chart.

Malefics. Mars and saturn are usually the troublemakers in any chart. Take a look at them. In our example, mars is in capricorn, and saturn is in pisces.

If you like, you can look at a list of essential dignities and see if any of the planets are strong or weak. Weak planets will cause more trouble, or simple be less able to do what they want to do without help.

Here’s a table of domicile and exaltation. Take a look where yours fall.

Sign	Domicile ruler / Detriment	Exalted planet / Fall
Aries	Mars / venus	Exalted sun / Fall saturn
Taurus	Venus / mars	Exalted moon
Gemini	Mercury / jupiter
Cancer	Moon / saturn	Exalted jupiter / Fall mars
Leo	Sun / saturn
Virgo	Mercury / jupiter	Exalted mercury / Fall venus
Libra	Venus / mars	Exalted saturn / Fall sun
Scorpio	Mars / venus	Fall moon
Sagittarius	Jupiter / mercury
Capricorn	Saturn / moon	Exatled mars / Fall jupiter
Aquarius	Saturn / sun
Pisces	Jupiter / mercury	Exalted venus / Fall mercury

For our case, mars is exalted (helpful) and saturn is… neither in domicile nor in exaltation.

The case of mars

What might this mean? The aggression of mars is cooled and channeled in the earth sign of capricorn, ruled by the disciplinarian saturn. Thanks to the direction and influence of saturn, mars is more manageable in its sign of exaltation.

What does that look like in a real life situation? This could be someone who has a lot of energy that could be aggressive, but instead they take it out in something structured, like sports or a skilled trade.

For this example, let’s suppose this is the chart of a man. For him, it’s the difference between being a man who fights everyone with no respect for the rules, disrupting the peace (think mars detriment, like taurus or libra), and a man who fights, but he fights in a specific structured environment. And his fight is ultimately construcive.

This environment (capricorn) channels the man to take more decisive and respectable actions using that same energy that could otherwise have become aggression.

The case of saturn

Next, saturn. Saturn is in pisces, which means that it might be emotional and adaptable, since pisces is water and mutable.

What might that look like? Well saturn is neither better nor worse in pisces, which means its energy could come out at times as oppression and depression, or at other times as helpful discipline or the ability to get through hard, harsh work or emotional labour (since it’s a water saturn).

What does that look like in the real world? Let’s look at some examples for this one.\

Here are two charts with an accuracy rating of A. They are both actors. Let’s consider how saturn could affect them and their acting.

It’s obviously tough to filter one planet’s influence form the many others, but let’s try to use our intuition for this one. Both Robert Downy Jr. and Stiller seem to have a harsher side (saturn) that is both emotional (water) but shiftable (mutable).

So our example chart might have a shiftable emotional harshness, when that side is put forth anyway.

Houses and Planetary Strength

Another thing we have to look at is the house a planet is in. Certain houses give more strength to a planet, and others give less. The malefics are somewhat extreme, so giving them less energy is best.

Here is a guide:

• High energy: 1, 10, 7, 4
• Middle energy: 2, 5, 11
• Low energy: 8, 3, 9, 6, 12

For our example, mars is in the 4th. Saturn, it’s hard to read, but it is in the 7th. So both of our troublesome planets are in strong houses. That’s particularly bad for the case of saturn, but as we explored above, the mars could be in a constructive place given its exaltation.

4. Look for Strengths

The positive planets are venus and jupiter. Let’s take a look where they are in our example. We’ll breeze through this, since I taught most of the principles already in step 3. We can just reapply them here.

Venus lays in capricorn, and jupiter in cancer. If we take a look at the table of rulerships that I made above, we can see that venus is neither here nor there. On the other hand, jupiter is doing well, exalted in cancer.

An Explanation of Strong versus Struggling Benifics

A strong venus looks like someone who is in touch with their feminine energy, who has a sense for harmony and beauty, and who is most likely kind.

A struggling venus might be someone who has eccentric tastes, an odd sense of fashion (or no sense at all!) and perhaps they also struggle in relationships and being kind.

A strong jupiter looks like someone who has an appreciation for big ideas and has big enthusiasm. They could talk for hours, and maybe the read a lot of philosophy or theology books. Or, in this day, watch a lot of videos on big ideas, politics, and laws. Oh, and this is the person who enjoys the boring local politics, not necessarily the divisive headlines. They like the concept of universal rules, laws, and morals.

A weak jupiter might like strange philosophies, and be part of an odd religion or subgroup. They are more likely to have a personal code they follow that is more practical and less ideal. Maybe they go against the grain, seeing that commonly accepted values, such as freedom, could do with some responsibility or specificity to buffer it. They might be libertarian, and confuse both conservatives and liberals. They might think that a “free spirit” crosses a line when they abandon their family to travel the world, a jupiter in virgo might judgmentally say. Notice that the focus is still on morals, politics, and philosophy, but it’s a little out of the box. This could lead to detrimental situations when such a person interacts with the outer world.

Once again, you would also want venus and jupiter to be in strong houses so that they have the energy to do good.

5. Planetary Conversations and Aid

Now that we have our planets down, let’s take a look at how they interact with each other. If you have a weak planet, don’t worry! That planet can find aid through a handful of different options within the chart.

We’ll focus on two.

1. Aspects
2. Domicile rulers

Aspects

An aspect is a line of communication between two planets. It means they can reach out to each other and maybe give some help.

Similar to planets, there are helpful aspects and tough aspects. Trines and sextiles signify easy communication. These are helpfully coloured green on astro-seek charts. Squares and oppositions are tough communication, and often signify struggle. They are coloured red.

Let’s take another look at our example chart.

Like before, let’s begin with the tough aspects. We see that the moon squares venus, the sun, and mars.

Tough Aspects

The square to mars will be the most difficult. It could indicate hurt feelings, and wounded moods. From there, the moon also has to contend with the sun’s contrasting capricorn opinions, confliction with its own aries temperament.

But the venus is less worrisome. Benefics almost always do good (though they can sometimes go a little haywire in a sign they don’t like) so we don’t have to worry about venus causing trouble. Instead, the issue is that it might seem like the help venus brings is troublesome, but it really isn’t. Or, it could struggle to reach you.

I can almost imagine venus sending a care package with a courier, but it’s in the middle of a rainstorm. And that rainstorm (the square) is there interrupting communication every time the moon talks to venus and vice versa.

We can look at all this from the perspective of the houses too. If our example chart was a man…actually, we used a male example before, let’s try a woman. If this chart was woman, we would see this tension building up between romance (7th house moon) and home (4th house mars, sun, venus).

This could mean that her home life is good, but she finds it at odds with her romance. The 7th house can also signify the spouse. So maybe her and her husband argue about how to run the home. There are a lot of different ways this configuration could go.

Because these are all inner planets, they will affect the temperament of the chart as well. That means that everything we said above will especially apply to the chart’s personality.

Easy Aspects

Did you know that sometimes aspects can be a little too easy? It’s so calm that sometimes you don’t even notice it’s there. Keep that in mind if you’re ever wondering if you have a hidden strength. I would explore any trines in your chart.

Our example chart has a trine, and its between jupiter and saturn. These are social planets, they are less personal. Everyone born in that year (roughly speaking) will have the same jupiter sign, and for saturn it’s three years.

This means that these two planets say a little more about your social role than your own personality. It’s like your micro-generation.

Tangent on jupiter trine saturn

So jupiter and saturn have an easy connection to each other. What does that mean? Well, looking at some examples, I found that Jules Verne (writer), Bruce Willis (actor), Steve Jobs (Founder of Apple and Pixar), and Louis Daguerre (Invented the early Daguerreotype photography method) all have this aspect.

What do they have in common? It’s hard to say, but let’s try to find a connection, and maybe we’ll get a clue about this aspect.

Jules Verne was a famous author who wrote a series later catalogued by him into a series called, “Voyages extraordinaires,” French for “Extraordinary voyages.” Some of the stories you might have heard of are, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, and Around the World in Eighty Days. These are sprawling stories of, well, extraordinary journeys.

Louis Daguerre was a painter who invented one of the first practical forms of photography. Based on these two alone, I’m sensing a visionary quality. If we add Steve Jobs, I think it confirms it.

Remember that astrology has a lot of moving parts, so this isn’t a definitive conclusion, just a hint. On top of that, I’m not sure if Bruce Willis is necessarily a visionary, but who knows. Maybe he participated in some sort of visionary process through some of his films? Or maybe it’s the filmography link to the photography of Daguerre…and the Pixar project of Jobs. Interesting, I think we might have narrowed this down further. Especially when we consider that Pixar was a pioneer in 3D animation, like Daguerre was a pioneer in (short exposure) photography.

Anyway, what a tangent…!

Let’s bring it back to our example. A trine between jupiter and saturn has something to do with perhaps a visionary quality, and perhaps innovation in picture or moving pictures.

Both of these planets share the element water, so it’ll have something to do with affecting the social emotions. Or maybe the chart owner will approach the above themes from an emotional place.

The houses are 10th house jupiter and 7th house saturn. 10th house is career and 7th is other people, usually the spouse. Maybe they work on this project with their spouse.

6. Other Major Considerations

There are a few things to look at that we missed. Let’s quickly look at the sun, moon, mercury, and ascendant. The ascendant is considered fundamental in traditional astrology, so let’s start there.

Ascendant. Our example has a virgo ascendant, which means that it is ruled by mercury. The ascendant is the main signifier of personality. We can see that this chart is mostly virgoan, and the mercury which rules virgo lays in sagittarius so we include that too. The ascendant influences the entire chart. You can almost think of it as a lens overlaying the chart. You can imagine that each other planet is 10% virgoan.

Mercury. Mercury is in its detriment in sagittarius. We can see how this works in the fact that this article is:

• Far too long
• All over the place

The excessive length points towards the expansiveness of jupiter being expressed through a planet that conflicts with its significations, mercury. Mercury is about definitions and details, hence the conflict.

Sun. The sun is in capricorn, which is more or less neutral. Capricorn energy pushes me to finish this article even though frankly, I’m quite exhausted writing it.

Moon. The moon is in aries, again more or less neutral. Aries charges forward and brings its fiery energy to the mix.

7. Final Sythesis