HOW TO READ YOUR ASTROLOGICAL NATAL HOROSCOPE

The basic tool of a personalized astrological forecast is an individuals natal horoscope, composed for a persons exact time, date and place of birth. These charts are pretty easy to obtain at bookshops that have special books on metaphysics or over the Internet. For a small fee, or sometimes free, if you want to get a chart, you will be asked for this data. Then a set of mathematical computations will reveal the following: The sign in which each planet plus the sun and moon is placed: and the zodiac signs which are on the 12 houses of the chart. A horoscope is really a wheel, which resembles a clock, giving you the key, technical information that a professional astrologer would use to delineate and forecast for you. This chart is unique to your time, date and place of birth and will be used in making your personal astrological projections for your entire life. With this information, the persistent student can decipher even the most complicated astrology book. The secret to learning about astrology is that with your unique chart you are not just learning the art of prediction but the art of predicting your very own future. Thus study produces instant insight. Learning astrology has many of the same problems and satisfactions of learning a new language. And it is a language a language of the heavens. In olden times the language of astrology was used when different people did not speak the same tongues, but wanted to share insights and information. Before you start looking at the data in your chart, remember the chart displays mathematical calculations needed to read your chart. The chart is the final product of all these processes. It is not a substitute for an astrological reading, which is what an expert gives, based upon this chart information. I explain what goes into drawing up your chart for two reasons: First, in learning Astrology, many very talented and gifted astrologers are discouraged by learning all the mathematics required in doing this type of chart. Since computers can do this, I thought, why should people with the interpretive astrological abilities be sidetracked and put off by the difficult math? And, although serious astrologers should eventually learn how to do these calculations themselves, I feel that it is not necessary to do this at the beginning of your studies. Secondly, these charts can be expensive, and explaining how you can get one on your own will help defray your costs so that you can concentrate and put your money into astrological books and services that will be more practical now. After all, I assume that you are interested in interpretations and forecasts, and not the ins-and-outs of professional astrology? Not yet, anyway! ONE NOTE: For any but the practiced astrologer, completely focusing on forecasting from your chart is difficult; not because it cant be done, but because thinking that one can read a horoscope immediately is like assuming that someone who is accepted to medical school would be ready to perform surgery. I say this because I do not want you to become discouraged. What may seem like an unnecessary, uninteresting bundle of information will become increasingly meaningful. And, as you read astrology books and start applying the astrological principles, youll gain more appreciation of how knowing your special chart can make predictions even more personal and applicable to your way of life.

READING YOUR CHART The first point to look for when first reading your chart is the RISING SIGN. The rising sign is the astrological sign rising on the eastern horizon at your time of birth. (On your chart it would be in the 9 oclock position.) The sign describes your personality: How you look, impress others, and how others think of you. This is the way the world sees you. If your rising sign and sun sign are the same, you have few personality conflicts, as your inner and outer natures are similar. The degree of the rising sign is only meaningful in advanced astrological studies. PLANETS IN THE SIGNS This information is vital for reading astrological texts of all kinds, and tells the astrological sign that the sun, moon and planets are in. For brevity in astrology, the sun and moon obviously not planets are grouped under the generic term planets for ease in communication. As with the rising sign, the degree of the planets has to do with their placement within the sign, and has no bearing upon how they affect you. A person with their Venus in 1 degree Scorpio has no more luck or advantage (or less, for that matter) than someone with Venus in 29 degrees Scorpio.