How to Pull Your Birth Chart
And not have to become an astrologer to decipher it
Introduction
There are hundreds of free birth charts generators out there. Most reputable astrologers recommend two as being the most accurate:
01. Astro.com is commonly the top recommendation among professional astrologers for good reason—it's powerful and accurate. But it can be overwhelming for beginners.
02. I recommended starting with Astro-seek.com instead. Still accurate, but I'm going to show you a little beginner-friendly trick to make the chart less overwhelming if you’re new to all of this.
Instructions
Step One
You'll need your birthday, birth location, and birth time. If you don't have your exact birth time, you can still determine most of the planet placements, but you won't be able to access your Rising Sign or house placements.
Step Two
Brace yourself. If you've never seen a birth chart before, you're about to see a weird circle with a ton of mysterious lines and symbols.
Step Three
Go to this website and enter your birth information. Once you hit Calculate Chart, the circle that comes up is your all important birth chart!
But let's talk about making it easier...
The Scary Wheel
When you pull up your birth chart, it’s going to look something like this (this is mine)…
Now, professional astrologers will insist you need to reference this full circle to properly read your chart. They're right—assuming you actually know how to read this wheel!
If you’re new? Don't let anyone shame you for taking it one step at a time and starting with a less overwhelming view of your chart!
Here’s how…
The List View
The graphic below? Still my birth chart! It's just a simplified, "plain english" explanation of that scary wheel above. It's not the complete picture, but it's a perfectly respectable starting point…
Looking at this, you can see the Sun was in Aries in the 10th House when I was born, which I already knew (April birthday!) But I can also see the moon was in Taurus, Venus was in Gemini, and so on.
That means I’m an Aries Sun (10th House), a Taurus Moon (10th House) a Gemini Venus (11th House)…
(If you’re wondering about your Rising Sign, that’s also known as an Ascendant, and is marked as ASC in the list above … I’m a Cancer Rising, and by the way, Rising Signs are always in the 1st House)
How to Access the List View
To find your "list view," simply scroll way down on the page of your birth chat (again, using this source) until you see the list view like you're seeing above.
Pro tip: copy/paste it into your favorite notes app as a quick reference.
Next Steps
Now that you know you've got multiple signs, it's time for the fun part—exploring what it means!
I would be remiss not to suggest that the best way to properly understand your chart is to hire a professional astrologer to do a full reading. They'll be able to look at all-important things like aspects, degrees, and so on.
But if you’re just starting out, there’s nothing wrong with doing a little causal exploration on your own, either with the resources here on this site, or hitting up Google to find out what it means to be a “Pisces Moon,” or if you want to go even more advanced, “Pisces Moon in the Third House…”
Lastly, this is admittedly a sales plug, but I created a Birth Chart Placement Index that breaks down every single placement into highly specific personality descriptions.