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Learn astrology

Astrology reads the sky at the moment you were born. A birth chart is that sky drawn as a wheel: twelve signs, ten planets and the angles between them. These pages explain each part in plain words, with real charts to practise on.

Guide · ten minutes

How to read a birth chart

The ring, the symbols, the big three, the lines and the houses, in the order to read them, on a real chart.

The twelve signs

Each sign has an element (fire acts, earth builds, air thinks, water feels) and a mode (cardinal starts, fixed holds, mutable adapts). The dates are the usual ones for the Sun; the exact day moves a little from year to year.

What each planet describes

A planet’s sign says how it works in you; its house says where in life it shows. The Sun and the Moon are counted as planets here, as astrologers do.

Sun
who you are becoming, and what fuels you
Moon
what you feel and need, and how you look after yourself
Mercury
how you think, learn and talk
Venus
what you love, enjoy and value
Mars
how you go after what you want
Jupiter
where you grow, and what you believe
Saturn
structure, effort and what takes time
Uranus
change, independence and surprise
Neptune
imagination, ideals and what blurs
Pluto
depth, power and what transforms
North Node
the direction a life keeps being drawn in

Calculators

One question each, from your birth date, time and place, worked out by the same engine as the whole chart.

Practise on your own chart

Everything on this page is easier to learn on the chart you were born with. It takes a minute and needs no account.

Draw my birth chart

Or: today’s sky · horoscopes · birth chart compatibility calculator · celebrity charts