How To Cast Your Free Astrology Chart

These instructions will allow you to find some of the more obscure data, like your Ascendant degree or positions of Ceres, Pallas Athene, Juno, Vesta or Chiron, as well as the basic 10 planets.

Before you begin:

Your astrology chart is the go-to map of your life. Your Whole. Entire. Life. It’s worth digging up your accurate birth time for this, because some things in the sky move quickly and can cause a difference in your chart (and therefore your personality) in as short a time as 10 minutes. The time listed on your birth certificate is usually better than what a relative remembers, so don’t just take your mom’s word for it. Find a written source with a down-to-the-minute-accurate birth time in it. You’ll be glad you did.

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Pandora Astrology November Astrology Forecast

No birth time?

If you have no birth time, list noon as the time. Many things about the resulting chart will not be accurate, including your Ascendant (aka Rising sign), your Midheaven and the house placements of all the planets. Your Moon sign may also be off, if you were born on a day when the Moon changed signs.

How to cast your chart on Astro.com:
Use this link to get to the birth data entry window at astro.com: http://bit.ly/makechart

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Key to the Symbols of Astrology

The Planets-Parts of You

  • The Sun The Sun – your center, the heart or core of you, seat of your creativity
  • The Moon The Moon – your inner child, the emotional and intuitive side of you
  • Mercury Mercury – the thinker in you: your style of learning and communicating
  • Venus Venus – the lover in you, your romantic and magnetic side, your inner feminine
  • Mars Mars – the action hero in you, the warrior and pioneer, your inner masculine
  • Ceres Ceres – your body, your grounding, your relationship with food, money & security
  • Pallas-Athene Pallas-Athene – the wise one & strategist in you, your balance of softness & strength
  • Juno Juno – the marrying side of you, the side that manages people, the matchmaker
  • Vesta Vesta – the side of you that focuses your energy and channels it, the vessel
  • Jupiter Jupiter – the philosopher in you, the side that learns, grows and seeks meaning
  • Saturn Saturn – the elder in you, your career, that which you fear and must achieve
  • Chiron Chiron – the wounded place in you that drives you to evolve and to heal others
  • Uranus Uranus – the rebel or revolutionary in you, your experimental side
  • Neptune Neptune – the dreamer and visionary in you, your imaginative side
  • Pluto Pluto – your dark side, your shadow, the side of you that wants control

The Signs

Ways the Planets Express Themselves

  • Aries Aries – strong, forceful, dynamic, fierce, fully alive, honest, direct, naïve, clueless
  • Taurus Taurus – slow, deliberate, sensible, practical, sensory, peaceful, consistent, materialistic
  • Gemini Gemini – intelligent, articulate, clever, inconsistent, nerdy, communicative, wordy
  • Cancer Cancer – sensitive, emotional, nurturing, caring, feeling, intuitive, codependent
  • Leo Leo – creative, expressive, flashy, self-centered, larger-than-life, radiant, playful
  • Virgo Virgo – analytical, detail-oriented, perfectionist, judging, discriminating, artisanal
  • Libra Libra – lovely, sweet, kind, diplomatic, balancing, compromising, argumentative, fair
  • Scorpio Scorpio – intense, controlling, passionate, sensitive, deep, vulnerable, sexual, raw
  • Sagittarius Sagittarius – philosophical, expansive, upbeat, cheerful, overbearing, adventuresome
  • Capricorn Capricorn – hard-working, serious, organizing, goal-oriented, ambitious, on track
  • Aquarius Aquarius – rebellious, reactive, experimental, abstract, social, networked, techie
  • Pisces Pisces – dreamy, visionary, imaginative, escapist, universal, compassionate, empathic

The Nodes of the Moon

Life Purpose and Destiny Path

  • South Node South Node – familiar turf; comfort zone; past lives and karma; backwards path to stagnation
  • North Node North Node – new, risky territory; pro-evolutionary direction; exhilarating pursuit of purpose

The Houses

Arenas of Life Where the Planets Do Their Thing

  • First House – house of identity, parts of you placed here are on display and perceivable by others
  • Second House – house of security, the arena of finances, the realm of the senses, food and money
  • Third House – house of communication, learning, early education, the people you see everyday
  • Fourth House – house of family and domestic life, the home you came from, the home you create
  • Fifth House – house of creation, recreation and procreation; fun, pleasure, play, also children
  • Sixth House – house of work, health and service; also your daily routines and self-organization
  • Seventh House – house of relationship, partnerships of all kinds, whether romantic or business
  • Eighth House – house of sex and death, the alchemical cauldron of change, your hidden corners
  • Ninth House – house of travel, education and philosophy, growth and expansion, your worldview
  • Tenth House – house of career and public image, your goals and aspirations, your reputation
  • Eleventh House – house of friends, networks, tribe, ideologies; laboratory of experimentation
  • Twelfth House – house of dreams, fantasy and imagination, family karma, collective unconscious

The Aspects

Scripts the Characters Are Acting Out

  • Conjunction Conjunction – these parts of you must work together despite their differences
  • Sextile Sextile – these parts of you enjoy and stimulate each other, creating opportunity
  • Square Square – these parts of you obstruct each other, creating friction and forcing self-awareness
  • Trine Trine – these parts of you support, help and validate each other, giving you easy talents
  • Quincunx Quincunx – these parts sabotage each other, making you anxious or compulsive
  • Opposition Opposition – these parts of you are antagonists, locked in a dualistic tug of war

The Angles

Your Four Faces

  • Asc. = Ascendant/Rising – the face people see when they meet you in person; your presentation
  • MC = Midheaven – your public face as a representative of your business, your career reputation
  • IC = Nadir – your private face; what people see when you’re at home or alone in private
  • Desc. = Descendant – the face of the Beloved that you look for in others to complete yourself

The Signs in the Four Elements and the Three Qualities

  • The 3 Fire signs – Aries, Leo and Sagittarius: active, inspired, clueless, overbearing
  • The 3 Earth signs – Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn: hardworking, grounded, structured, boring
  • The 3 Air signs – Gemini, Libra and Aquarius: intellectual, cerebral, abstract, distant
  • The 3 Water signs – Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces: emotional, intuitive, sensitive, boundaryless
  • The 4 Cardinal signs – Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn: initiatory, motivating, drives energy
  • The 4 Fixed signs – Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius: thorough, consistent, consolidates energy
  • The 4 Mutable signs – Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces: flexible, scattered, disperses energy

All the Planets at Home

Each planet has a sign it is most comfortable in and a house it belongs with. Astrologers say the planet “rules” that sign and house or that it is “at home” there. In the following diagram, you’ll find the symbol for each planet inside the house it rules, along with the sign it rules. Mercury is listed twice because it rules two signs instead of just one. Ceres, largest of the asteroids and Earth Mother archetype, is listed as ruler of Taurus.

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One Analogy That Puts It All Together:
Your Astrological Chart as the Theater of Your Life

Your chart may seem strange at first, and filled with mysterious symbols, but each symbol shown, and the exact placement of it, reveals worlds of information about your personality. Looking at the chart as if it’s a theater, playing the grand drama of your life, we see there are characters (the planets), the costumes they are wearing (the signs of the zodiac, which the planets are placed in) and scenery or settings (the houses the planets are placed in).

Each character has a costume that naturally belongs to it and a setting it belongs in, and each character also has costumes that don’t fit very well and settings it’s uncomfortable in. In astrology, this is called “rulership,” so we say that “Mars rules Aries and the First House” because Aries is the costume that belongs to Mars and the First House is the house most aligned with Mars’ nature. As a rule, a planet is very comfortable when placed in its own sign or house.

Every chart is a complex and interesting mishmash of planets, signs and houses. It’s as if the director suddenly called out “Places, everyone!” and the characters made a mad dash for the costume room, throwing on whatever they could find, then ran to the stage and froze for the curtain in whatever setting they happened to find themselves.

There’s one more layer to it, and that is the fact that the planets/characters have relationships with each other. These relationships act as scripts and cause the characters to relate with each other in particular ways, either disposed to help or interfere with each other’s agendas. Scripts are the aspects. Put the whole drama together and you have a fascinating portrait of a human being!

Enjoy these resources to help you find out a lot more about your chart, your life and your destiny, using astrology—the very best personality inventory and self-discovery tool in existence

This Chart Introduction video shows you the pieces of an astrology chart and how they fit together, using the chart of a much-loved comedian as an example: http://bit.ly/astrologyintro

This article on Pandora Astrology’s blog shows you how to cast your own chart online for free, with lots of illustrations to help you. The article also contains a list of blogposts that offer interpretations for what you find in your chart once you start decoding it: http://bit.ly/astrocht

When research isn’t enough and you’re ready to learn more about your own chart from the wisdom of a dedicated professional, Pandora Astrology offers readings: https://pandoraastrology.com/services/

When you’re ready to learn more about astrology itself, from a teacher who loves astrology and loves teaching it, Pandora Astrology offers classes: https://pandoraastrology.com/classes/

And Pandora Astrology’s monthly horoscopes are a great way to keep in touch with the stars: https://pandoraastrology.com/horoscope/