Guides
Learn to read your chart.
These astrology guides teach you to read your own birth chart, one skill at a time. Each guide walks through its skill in plain steps and uses your chart as the example.
A chart can look like a dense circle of symbols the first time you see it. You do not need any background to follow along. We explain each term the first time it appears, and we try to show why a piece matters before asking you to remember it.
What the guides cover
The guides teach how to read a chart. For what a single placement means, such as Venus in Libra or the 8th house, see the planet, sign and house sections. Here you will find the method that ties those pieces together.
A good order to read them in
If you are starting from zero, begin with how to read a birth chart. It gives you a simple order to look at things in. The big signs come first, then the planets, then the houses and aspects.
Next, read about the big three, which are your Sun, Moon and Rising signs. Together they sketch how you see yourself, what you need emotionally and how you come across to others.
Then find your chart ruler, the planet that rules your Rising sign. It often acts as a guide through the whole chart. Looking it up is one of the most useful habits a beginner can pick up.
Missing your birth time?
Many people do not know when they were born, or only know it roughly. The chart still has plenty to tell you. Our guide to an unknown birth time explains which parts still hold and which become uncertain. It also shows how to work with what you have.
More on the way
We add new guides as we write them. Each new one appears in the cards below.
- How to read a birth chartFrom the big three to the whole picture, step by step.
- What the big three mean in astrologySun, Moon and Ascendant, and why they belong together.
- What is a chart ruler?The planet that rules your rising sign, and why it matters.
- What if you do not know your birth time?What still works, what does not, and how to find your time.
- Astrology symbols: a guide to the glyphs on your chartThe glyphs for signs, planets, points and aspects, and how to read the wheel.
- House systems in astrology: Placidus, Whole Sign and the restHow the main house systems divide the chart, and why a planet can shift house.
- How to learn astrology: a step-by-step path for beginnersSigns, planets, houses, aspects, then the whole chart: a study path that works.
- Empty houses in astrology: what they mean and how to read themWhy empty houses are normal, and how to read them through their ruling planet.
- Synastry explained: how astrologers compare two birth chartsHow two birth charts are compared: aspects, house overlays and the composite chart.
- Career astrology: the 10th house, Midheaven and your work in the birth chartHow the 10th house, Midheaven, 6th and 2nd houses, Saturn and Sun describe work.
- Can AI read your birth chart? What software can and cannot doWhat software and AI can calculate and draft from a chart, and what still needs a person.
Questions
Where should a beginner start?
Start with the guide to reading a birth chart. It shows the order to look at things in, so the chart feels less like a puzzle. Then read about your Sun, Moon and Rising signs, which give the basic outline of a personality.
Do I need to know astrology to use these guides?
No. Each guide explains its terms as it goes and assumes you are looking at your own chart for the first time. You will need your birth date, and ideally your birth time and place.
Can I read my chart without a birth time?
Partly. Your planets in signs and most aspects still work. The Rising sign and houses become uncertain. Our guide on unknown birth time explains what to trust and how people narrow the time down.
Are the guides free?
Yes. All guides on this site are free to read, with no sign-up. They follow the same method we use in our written reports.