Understanding Astrology and the Natal Chart

A little disclaimer: If you're only here to know why your ex broke up with you and you want someone to look at your chart in hopes to give you answers as to why said ex isn't returning your texts, this might not be for you.

If you are genuinely interested in astrology, however, then stick around.

I think the first thing that a person should do when trying to understand astrology, aside from learning your basic knowledge of the zodiac signs, because that does come in handy, is to take a look at what a natal chart really is.

A lot of people I feel look at astrology and equate it to pure mysticism, some made up thing that has no basis in reality, and I personally feel like that couldn't be farther from the truth. So to understand what it truly is, you'll need to take away that mysticism and look at some facts.

Astrology was born back in the Mesopotamian/Babylonian era, at the same time as astronomy. The two studies initially being synonymous. It wasn't until modern times that astrology was actually viewed as bunch of hoodoo that no one took seriously.

So back in the day, ancient astrologer/astronomers began to watch the heavens. They took notice of the fact that there would be a specific constellation that could be seen in the sky just before the sun would come up every single morning, and that it would be in the same spot for roughly about 30 days before changing into another constellation. Being the keen scientists that they were, they decided to start studying this, and began counting the number of cycles it took before the constellation changed. So they did this for what we today would know as roughly 360-365 days. They came to the realization that this happened 12 times before the cycle started all over again.

The first constellation that they noticed was.. you guessed it, Aries. The second? Taurus. Third=Gemini, and then the rest of the zodiac, I don't think I need to name all 12.

Okay, so they figured that part out. There are 12 signs of the zodiac, which we can look at on a natal chart and see clearly. So why are their houses that don't normally match up with the zodiac?

Well, that is because the zodiac and the "houses" are separated by roughly about 6-8 degrees latitude, some constellations above, some below the "houses", but from our point of view, it just looks like circles that lay on top of each other. A 3D model would give a different effect, however.

The "houses" are based off of the ecliptic. Don't worry, I'm not going to get too much more scientific than this. The ecliptic is the path that the sun, which moves 1 degree longitude per year, takes to make it around the Milky Way Galaxy, before it comes back full circle.

The ecliptic is the basis for the ecliptic coordinate system, the system that our modern calendars are structured on. There are 12 sectors in the ecliptic coordinate system, and this is where we get our 12 houses of the zodiac.

Cont'd..

So I guess the next obvious question would be.. but wait, so if the zodiac and the ecliptic “match” to make a perfect circle (it’s not a perfect circle, but in our heads it works best to see it that way), then what is the need for both houses and zodiac signs if the houses are based on the same things the zodiac is based off of?

It’s a good question.

The answer is proper motion. At some point the realization came that constellations are not actually fixed in their 30 day, 12 month cycle, but they do in fact shift over time so that now, thousands of years later, if you look at the last constellation in the sky around your birthday just before the sun rises, you will not see the one that matches your zodiac symbol because of the subtle shift of the belt that the constellations move on. This is.. proper motion.

So while the house system is pretty fixed because the sun doesn’t like to stray from it’s natural path, save for leap years, the zodiac is not, and the two cannot possibly match up for this reason. This is why we have both the house wheel and the zodiac wheel, though they should consist of roughly 30 degrees each, and also why we have degrees in a natal chart.

Do you have a headache yet? Sorry. I’m trying to break it down as simply as I can.

So the next thing I’d like to discuss is how and why do we use the planets and luminaries in astrology. Well, being that the sun is the basis for astrology all together (thanks, sun, I appreciate you), and also the largest luminary we have, taking up a whopping 99.8% of the mass of the solar system, and is our main energy source (note the key word energy there), it stands to reason that we would look to the OTHER giant masses in the sky for our other sources of energy.

“But why would you do that?” skeptics have asked for decades.” You can’t base your mood off of what some giant mass of rock and gas in the sky does!”

Why not? I ask.

My grandfather was a farmer. I can remember him telling me that you could dig a hole in the ground, leave the dirt out, and come back on a different cycle, or rhythm as farmers call it, of the moon and try to fill the hole with that dirt and guess what? On some cycles of the moon, it wouldn’t fill the hole. On others there would be too much dirt to fill the hole.

Why is that? Energy.

It is a scientific fact that the moon controls the tides of the freaking ocean. Why is that?

Energy.

So why doesn’t it make sense that we humans, us literal walking bodies of water and energy, aren’t in some way, shape or form affected by the sun, the moon, and all the other planets?

It makes perfect sense. And this is why I study astrology. This is the basis of it and the first things to understand before jumping into.. but what do all these aspects mean for my life?

My answer is.. if you really want to know, always start from the beginning of anything and go forward. Understand the foundation before you try to interpret a natal chart, otherwise there will always be points that make no sense or you can’t wrap your head around.

To me, a natal chart in it’s literal form is a map. That’s it.

I’ve got a thread open doing past life interpretations right now, and all that is is the starting point of your map, which for anyone who wants to know, is the south node. It’s the karmic “node” that will tell you where you came from. Any planets aspecting it will tell you of the people, the sign it’s in will tell you of the circumstances and the house will tell you of the place or setting. It’s not that difficult once you understand what you’re doing to draw a path and combine the energy so that they tell a story.

This was really long and kind of drawn out, but maybe it’ll help someone. If you made it this far without screaming in confusion, you should pat yourself on the back.

Kudos!

^Also, I guess this was like intro to astrology and the natal chart. I can write more on how I read charts if anyone is interested, but I figure there's no point to keep rambling if no one is.

Give me your thoughts and opinions on this, too!