A birth chart (natal chart) is a map of the universe at the exact moment and place you were born. Astrologers use it to understand who you are. But technically the chart is pure astronomy: it shows where the planets were at a given moment.
The planets are shown from Earth's perspective, in front of the ring of constellations called the zodiac.
- The sign names are constellations: ♈︎ Aries, ♉︎ Taurus, ♊︎ Gemini, ♋︎ Cancer, ♌︎ Leo, ♍︎ Virgo, ♎︎ Libra, ♏︎ Scorpio, ♐︎ Sagittarius, ♑︎ Capricorn, ♒︎ Aquarius, ♓︎ Pisces.
- Seen from Earth, every planet is in front of one of these constellations at any moment.
- The symbols are the planets: ☉︎ Sun, ☽︎ Moon, ☿︎ Mercury, ♀︎ Venus, ♂︎ Mars, ♃︎ Jupiter, ♄︎ Saturn, ♅︎ Uranus, ♆︎ Neptune, ♇︎ Pluto.
- For example, if Mars was in front of the constellation Libra when you were born, your Mars is in Libra: ♂︎ Libra.
Let's draw a chart
Let's call our example person Deniz. Deniz was born on 13 June 1990 at 19:00 in İzmir.
It is evening, so the Sun is setting on the western horizon. If we look at the eastern horizon we see the sign that is rising. With just this we can start drawing the chart:
The constellations (signs) are always spaced 30° apart, always in the same order. If we know where one is, we know where all of them are.
The other planets are in the sky too. Let's add Mercury ☿︎ and Venus ♀︎: their symbols on the chart show where they were in their orbits when Deniz was born.
So what does this chart say?
Everything so far is astronomy that anyone at NASA would understand and sign off on. But what do we do with this chart? What does it mean?
In astrology every planet + sign combination has a specific meaning. For instance, what can we say about someone with Mars in Gemini?