Astrology 101: Some Very Basic Foundations to Get You Started
This is a brief, very basic guide to the fundamentals of astrology for those of you who have no background. This entry is not intended to teach you astrology; it's meant to provide you with enough of a skeleton to start learning on your own.
The first thing you need is a copy of your birth chart. If you don't know, a birth chart is a snapshot of the sky at the moment of your birth. You can get a free copy of your chart at this link. Just follow the
instructions (make sure you select "whole sign" for the house system) and you'll get something that looks like this:
This is the birth chart of a made-up person named, Tim. The symbols all around the outer most parameter are the signs and the symbols on the inner ring are the planets. Here's a chart of what the symbols stand for:
Each slice of the birth chart (see how it looks like a pie) is equal to one house. So in our example, Tim has the sign of Leo in his first house. The "AC" represents his ascending or rising sign, so he is a Leo rising. His sun is in the eleventh house of Gemini, and his moon is in the eighth house of Pisces. Remember, your chart will be unique to you, so you'll probably have a different sign in your eighth house. If I asked Tim where he had the sign of Aries at in his chart, he would say his ninth house. Make sense?
Here's a chart of some basic meanings of the houses:
Beyond these basics, I encourage you to do a lot of Googling. You really can teach yourself so much here. If you want more, you can always book a chart reading with a whole sign, traditional astrologer (like me or someone else. There's a lot of bright, intuitive, really wonderful readers out there). I hope this is helpful.