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# How to Read Your Birth Chart

Consider it your astrological roadmap to life.



March 30, 2021

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In this installment of Practical Magic , Lisa Stardust explains how to read your birth chart. Always remember that magic is for believers, but this column can also simply serve as a guide to getting in touch with yourself — magically or not.

You can consider your astrological birth chart the guide to understanding yourself. No two charts are the same, just like none of us is like the other. Because it's based off your specific birth times and astrological houses, you can use it to better understand yourself and the world around you.

But first, let's get some logistics out of the way. What is a birth chart? And, how do you read your birth chart? Luckily, reading your birth chart doesn’t have to be hard. In this beginner tutorial, I will explain how you can master your chart and apply the meaning to your life in minutes.

First, you’ll need to create your birth chart. Websites like cafeastrology.com offer easy and free ways to cast your chart, giving you all the info you need to lay out the roadmap to your life. The only information you will need is your birth details: date, time, year, and place.

## What is a birth chart?

Your birth chart tells you where the planets were in the sky at the time of your birth. While that's cool and all, you might be wondering how it applies to your life today. Well, astrology is defined as “the divination of the supposed influences of the stars and planets on human affairs and terrestrial events by their positions and aspects.” So, every time you read your horoscope, it's based on the goings on of the stars and planets above. If that applies to your current life, you can imagine that astrologers believe the placement of the planets when you were born might have a little something to do with who you are and what happens in your life. \

## How to read a birth chart

Ok, so now you've created your birth chart via the internet and know where the planets were located when you were born. And, you know why that all matters. You might be looking at a wheel with weird squiggles on it, or perhaps a kind website has broken all this information down into a grid or list. So, what do you do with that information? The first thing to understand is what each house tells you. And also, what is a house? Here we go:

The Houses:

The birth chart is divided into 12 segments called “the houses.” Each of these represent a specific part of life and embody that specific energy, and where each house lies will tell you more about who you are. When looking at the houses, we start at the mid left of the zodiac wheel (at the point marked 1 or AC) and work counterclockwise around the chart from the 1st to the 12th house. Below are descriptions of what each house rules — once you know that, you can then understand how your houses lying in a certain sign influence your life.

1st House/Rising Sign/Ascendent/AC

Often called the “ruler” of the birth chart, the 1st House dictates the way others see or view you. Oftentimes, it’s the mask we wear for the world. The face and side of ourselves that others notice first. Your sun sign is also likely the one you're most familiar with — it's how you'd respond if someone asked “what's your sign?”

2nd House

The 2nd House represents material goods, personal wealth, and self-confidence.

3rd House

The 3rd House describes the way we communicate, our relationship with siblings and roommates, early education (schooling up until high school), and local travel.

4th House/Imum Coeli/IC (this is Latin for "bottom of the sky")

The 4th House is the area of the chart that dives into home (physical dwelling and life behind the scenes of the public glare), personal views, family, traditions, and ancestors.

5th House

The 5th House depicts creativity, casual love affairs, crushes, flirtations, risks, fun, and entertainment.

6th House

The 6th House shows personal health, daily routine, household pets (like dogs, cats, fish, etc.), and coworkers.

7th House/Descendent/DC

The 7th House is the area of the chart that denotes ALL partnerships and relationships (current boos, exes, and friends), enemies, and contracts.\

8th House

The 8th House is the home of intuition, transformation, debt, power, and growth.

9th House

The 9th House represents philosophy, higher education (college and beyond), long distance travel, and the law.

10th House/Midheaven/Medium Coeli/MC (this is Latin for “middle sky”)

The 10th House shows one’s public standing and image, career, and boss.

11th House

The 11th House explains how one relates to their acquaintances, classes, humanitarian projects and endeavors, and hopes.

12th House

The 12th House is our subconscious desires, punishment, mental health, addiction, prison, punishment, secret relationships and enemies, magic, large pets (like farm animals), and everything that’s hidden from others.

The Planets:

Each planet represents a different type of energy. Depending on the placement of the planet in the birth chart, the house takes on a specific vibe. Let’s say you have the Sun in the 5th house. This means your talents and creativity are meant to shine. If you have the Sun and Venus in the 5th house, you are a person who is an artist and designer. The planets add flavor to the houses. Having one or more planets in one house and none in others is totally ok. It doesn’t mean you are deficient in that area in life. On the contrary, it means you give more energy to those areas of your birth chart.\

The Sun

The Sun or Zodiac Sign represents one’s will, ego, and determination.

The Moon

The Moon is one’s emotional side, relationship with the maternal influence, how one nurtures, and memories.

Mercury

All communication, siblings, travel, news, information, and gossip.

Venus

How we give and receive love to others and ourselves (as well as care for others and ourselves), money, art, music, pleasure, social graces, and sensual desires.

Mars

How we take action, persevere, assert ourselves, sexual urges, and argue.

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Jupiter

Education, expansion, investments, luck, legal systems, and worldly views.

Saturn

Rules and regulation, authority, karma, commitment, and the connection with the father figure in our lives.

Uranus

Technology, rebellion, innovation, surprises, unique events, and revolution.

Neptune

Confusion, illusions, fears, dreams, inspiration, glamour, and spirituality.

Pluto

Transformation, passions, power struggles, and triangular situations.

North Node of Destiny/True Node

The energy you are supposed to pull in during this lifetime and try to bring into your present vibe.

South Node of Destiny

The energy from your past life that you are supposed to move away from in this lifetime

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Lisa Stardust (they/her) is a New York-based astrologer and tarot card reader who has written content for Teen Vogue, Refinery29, Cosmopolitan and Today.com. They are the author of “Saturn Return Survival Guide: Navigating This Cosmic Rite of Passage,” “The Astrology Deck: Your Guide to the Meanings and Myths of the... Read more

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© 2024 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Teen Vogue may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices