A birth chart is an astronomical map, interlaced with the language of astrology.
It shows you the position of the planets (and other planetary bodies) at the precise moment you were born. Save for people born at the same place and time (e.g., twins), every person’s chart is unique, and no identical chart will come into existence again for another 25,000 years.
1) To use this guide, you’ll need a map that you can reference and use for practice. So, lesson one: This is how you pull your birth chart:
Go to www.astro.com.
Click “My Astro” in the upper right hand corner.
Create a free registered user profile.
Once you register and are inside your user profile, click the blue button that reads “Add New Astro Data.”
Enter your birth information and save it so you can easily pull your chart whenever you want. (You only have to do this once.)
In the navigation, click "Horoscopes."
Choose "Extended Chart Selection" under Horoscope Drawings & Data.
Now, you are going to create the settings to pull your chart. Make sure to save these so you only have to do this once.
SECTIONS: Round
CHART TYPE: Natal Chart Wheel
CHART DRAWING STYLE: Astrodienst Style
START DATE: Ignore for now (when you’re ready to start using this feature: see transits)
HOUSE SYSTEM: Placidus, check "Tropical" & "Geocentric" under “Zodiac”
CALCULATION OPTIONS — check the following boxes: True node, Descending node
ASPECTS — check the box: To all objects
IMAGE SIZE: 100% (landscape if possible)
ADDITIONAL OBJECTS (Common Elements) — highlight: Chiron
You'll see in my sample charts that I'm often running way more objects, but I highly recommend keeping it simple for yourself at first! To add more objects (aka asteroids) in the future:
You can highlight any “common elements” in the drop down at the bottom that you want to include. You can also manually enter any asteroid numbers by adding them to the “manual entry” box in that same Additional Objects section. If I’m ever talking about an asteroid in The Magic Guide, and you’re curious about where it is in your chart. Google the name of the asteroid plus “asteroid number” to get the number for that specific asteroid. You can then enter that number manually into your chart to see where the asteroid is for you.
Now that you’ve created your settings, press the green "SHOW THE CHART” button.
You have your chart! But don’t close out yet.
On the page with your chart, click "save default settings" under your name at the top. That way, you don't have to do all of this again.
Now your chart is saved in your account, and you can access it whenever you want.
And to start making sense of it — onwards to step 2!
The Astrology Guide
by Virginia M. Richardson