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THE TRAVELING WITCH
May 6
Astrology For Beginners: How To Decode Your Birth Chart
Julie Hopkins
Astrology has been mainstream for a while now. Dating apps prompt
you to post your sun sign on your profile. Daily, weekly, and monthly
horoscopes are published in newspapers, magazines, and online. You
can even ask your Amazon Alexa for your daily horoscope, and she’ll
tell you what the stars have to say about your future. It has never been
easier to learn about astrology and how to use it for guidance in your
life.
At the same time, all of this information seems a bit surface level. There
is such a strong focus on sun signs that many people don’t even know
that moon signs and ascendant signs are just as important in
understanding yourself through the lens of astrology.
For example, I’m a Taurus, and for a long time, I steered clear of
astrology because I didn’t relate at all to my sign. After I did my birth
chart and discovered all the other energies that affected my life, I
understood why my personality wasn’t explained by the characteristics
of Taurus. It was because my sun sign was just one part of the
astrological equation. When I dove deeper and explored all the other
factors at play in my birth chart, I realized that astrology could provide
valuable insight into my life and my spiritual practice.
If you’ve been curious about astrology and you want to go beyond just
looking up your sun sign horoscope, this article will tell you everything
you need to know to get started.
The Importance Of Birth Charts
An astrology birth chart is a great place to start. It will tell you your sun
sign, moon sign, and ascendant sign (or rising sign) as well as where all
the influential planets were at the time of your birth.
There are websites you can use to get a complete birth chart done for
free. This is the one I use and recommend.
Besides your date of birth, you also must know the exact time and the
location of your birth. If you don’t know when you were born (and your
parents don’t remember), I recommend digging up your birth certificate.
This information is vital to an accurate birth chart because the planets
can shift throughout the day. Your ascendant sign changes every four
minutes, which will change the rest of your birth chart. That’s why it’s
possible for twins to have very different personalities despite being born
under the same sun sign.
Astrology Basics
Here are some astrological terms you’ll need to know:
Zodiac
Most people believe that the zodiac is made up of twelve constellations.
These constellations are Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus,
Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius.
Sun Sign
A sun sign refers to the position of the sun at your time of birth. In
astrology, the sun is considered the most powerful celestial body.
Even though there are other factors that may affect your personality, the
sun sign has the most influence on who you are as a person. Your sun
sign will also shed some light on the major themes of your life.
Every thirty-ish days, the sun will “move” through each constellation on
the zodiac. Because there are twelve constellations, it takes about a year
for the sun to travel through all the constellations or astrological signs. I
put the word “move” in quotes because the sun doesn’t actually move. It
only appears to move because we’re on planet earth, which orbits the
sun. The movement of the earth makes it look like the sun is passing
through each constellation on the zodiac every month as it completes its
yearly cycle.
Moon Sign
The second most important part of your astrological birth chart (after
your sun sign) is your moon sign. This refers to the position the moon
was in at the moment of your birth—what sign it was passing through. If
you’re like me and you don’t relate to your sun sign, you’ll probably get
a better understanding of yourself through your moon sign.
While your sun sign provides information regarding your conscious
mind (or your “ego”), your moon sign will give you a deeper
understanding of your subconscious and your instinctual tendencies (or
the “id” side of your personality). Some people even describe your moon
sign as your true self, who you are deep down.
Ascendant or Rising Sign
The sign that was rising up from the eastern horizon at the time of your
birth is known as your ascendant or rising sign. These two terms are
used interchangeably.
This is the sign you will most “look like” on the outside. If your friends
think you don’t embody your sun sign, they’ll probably understand you
better through your ascendant sign.
This sign also dictates when major life events will happen to you.
Typically, you’ll need to know your exact time of birth to figure out
your ascendant sign. But theoretically, an experienced astrologer can
look over your life and tell you what your ascendant sign is based on the
timing of certain personal milestones you’ve experienced.
Elements
The twelve signs in the zodiac are all associated with specific elements.
Once you know what your three main signs are (sun, moon, and rising),
you can look at how much of each element you have in your birth chart.
Earth signs
Taurus, Capricorn, and Virgo
Creative, stable, nurturing
Air signs
Gemini, Aquarius, and Libra
Intellectual, decisive, great at communicating
Water signs
Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces
Emotional, intuitive, idealistic
Fire signs
Aries, Leo, and Saggittarius
Enthusiastic, ambitious, energetic
This elemental classification is especially helpful for you as a witch
because you probably already associate certain characteristics with the
individual elements. The witchy associations you have with the cardinal
elements of earth, water, fire, and air carry over into astrology. People
with a lot of air signs in their chart will probably embody more air
personality traits. Others will have a variety of elements in their birth
charts. That means they hold equal parts of several energies.
As a witch, this information might help you know what elements to call
on during a spell. Perhaps you know that you’ll bring lots of earth
energy to your magic because of your birth chart, so you call on the
energy of air to help balance it out.
Planets
When you have your birth chart, you’ll see what signs each of the
planets were in at the time of your birth. This will impact your
personality and on your everyday life as these planets continue to orbit
during your lifetime.
Here’s what energy each planet is associated with:
Mercury: Communication
Venus: Love
Mars: Motivation and conflict
Uranus: Change and technology
Neptune: Hopes and dreams
Jupiter: Luck and learning
Saturn: Boundaries and external factors outside your control
Pluto: Power
Houses
There are twelve houses in your astrological birth chart. Each house
gives you guidance on certain aspects of your personality and life
experiences.
When you get your birth chart, it’s shown as a wheel. First, you’ll want
to locate your ascendant sign on the wheel. That will be your first house.
From there, you move counterclockwise around the wheel to see which
sign falls into the rest of your eleven houses.
Each house represents a part of you, and the sign that corresponds with
each of your houses will provide you with information regarding that
part of yourself.
For example, your ascendant sign is your first house. Your first house is
associated with your outward behavior and outward appearance.
Here’s an overview of the rest of the houses:
Second house: Money and material wealth
Third house: Communication
Fourth house: Home and environment
Fifth house: Creativity, romance, and pleasure
Sixth house: Health and work
Seventh house: Partnerships, marriage, and long-term enemies
Eighth house: Change, transformation, sexual relationships
Ninth house: Study, travel, beliefs, and spirituality
Tenth house: Ambition, career goals, social status, your reputation
Eleventh house: Hopes and dreams, friendships
Twelfth house: Self-sabotage, self-imposed limitations, secrets, and
accidents
Decanates of Sun Sign
If you want to go further into your sun sign, you can look up what part
of your sun sign you were born in.
Each sun sign is split into three parts. This split is called a decanates.
Each part is about ten days long. It means something different about
your personality depending on if you were born during the first ten days,
the second ten days or the third ten days that the sun was in your
particular sign. There are also additional constellations and planetary
subrulers that are associated with each decanates
For example, the decanates of Aries is March 21-March 31, April 1-
April 10, and April 11-April 19. The associated constellations are
Andromeda, Cetus, and Cassiopeia, respectively. The planetary
subrulers are Mars, the Sun, and Jupiter.
You can look up your astrological decanates online or in an astrology
book to learn what effect it has on your life.
Sun Sign Cusps
You might also want to figure out if you were born on the cusp of your
sun sign. If you were born during the first or last four days of a sun sign,
you were born on the cusp. This means you might hold some same
personality traits as the other sun sign you’re closest to. You’ll still
likely relate more to your true sun sign, but you might want to read both
horoscopes for guidance rather than just relying on your primary sun
sign.
Going Deeper
There’s so much more you can learn about astrology and if this article
piqued your interest, I invite you to dig deeper into this subject.
There’s even more information you can glean from your astrological
birth chart such as what body parts are associated with your sun sign
which may provide guidance on nutrition, potential health ailments, and
personal erogenous zones.
If you’d like to pick up a book on astrology or read up online, my
favorite three resources for beginners are the Astro Style website and the
books The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need by Joanna Martine
Woolfolk, and Moonology by Yasmin Boland.
Once you have a firm understanding if your birth chart, you can look at
the movements of the different planets and compare what you know to
what you read in your daily horoscope. Eventually, you’ll be able to
write your own horoscope based only on the movements of the planets,
just like a professional astrologer.
Sources:
The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need by Joanna Martine Woolfolk
https://astrostyle.com
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/astrology-101-how-to-
calculate-your-ascendant-or-rising-sign
http://www.lunalunamagazine.com/blog/astrology-for-beginners-whats-
it-all-mean
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by Julie Hopkins
Julie Hopkins is a writer, yoga teacher, and founder of Power Within, a whimsical
online space created to help others improve their lives with magic. She’s from Chicago,
but spends most of her time traveling to cool places.
Julie discovered the world of magic after she got tired of reading personal development
books and hearing the same ideas over and over. Looking for a new way to grow, Julie
started experimenting with tarot cards and felt an immediate connection to her intuition
in a way she’d never experienced before. After that, she began studying magic in all its
forms, never looking back. When she’s not writing about witchy things, you can find
Julie making candles, daydreaming, and playing with other people’s dogs and babies.
Beginner , How To
astrology, zodiac, birth chart, natal chart, stars, planets
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