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Astrology for Magicians and Metaphysicists - Introduction

In the following lessons you will find an introduction to natal astrology.  I am using the key-word method, because I realized that this is the most efficient way to gain the skills of natal chart interpretation.  Conversely, you may use the same method to set up your astro trend generation units for the purpose of taking control of your stars!

How to Draw and Evaluate an Astrological Chart

The astrological chart is a representation of the astrological factors at the time of the event it describes. In the case of a birth chart, it represents the positions of the planets and houses as seen from the place of birth at the time of birth.

The following is not designed to give you an understanding of the astronomical factors involved. I will rather give you a step by step introduction that helps you understand the structure of a chart, to design it and to understand it. You need not know the astronomical basis of astrology for this task.

I am going to use the method that shows the planets as they are in the zodiac (European method) rather than the twelve-equal-wedges method that is still practiced in the Anglo Saxon countries. This latter method shows the astrological signs and planets in the houses. With this antiquated method it is rather difficult to see and evaluate midpoints and structural patterns of aspects, both of which are important for our task to generate astrological trends. If you have a computer program that calculates your charts, be sure to have a printout that shows the planets and houses in the zodiac -- the way you are going to learn in the following pages.

It is the ZODIAC in which you will draw all the planets, house cusps, and other factors of the chart. This zodiac is represented by a circle of 360 degrees. The degrees are counted in a counter-clockwise manner. T

The circle on the left shows the twelve signs of the zodiac. The zodiac is always here. Everything else moves through the signs of the zodiac at its own speed. The Sun completes one orbit through the zodiac in one year, the Moon in 28 days, Jupiter 12 years, etc. The system of the houses makes one rotation through the zodiac every twenty-four hours. This movement is cause by the rotation of the Earth around its axis.

Rulers of the signs Each sign is affiliated with one or two planets whose action, or function, best corresponds to the energy of the sign. Traditionally these planets were called the "rulers" of the sign. The following diagram shows you the rulers of each sign. The outside circle shows the day-rulers, the central circle shows the night-rulers, the inner circle shows the signs.

Elements (Triplicities) and Quadruplicities You learned about quadruplicities in the course material. The chart below shows you the distribution of elements and quadruplicities.

Inscribing the houses The first thing we do is draw the cusps of the twelve houses into the circle of the zodiac. We work with a chart for September 14, 1974, at 1:33 p.m. daylight savings time in New York. The twelve houses are twelve sections that are distributed in the zodiac in a counter clockwise manner. Unlike the signs of the zodiac, the houses are not of equal size.

The cusp (= beginning) of the first house, or ascendant, is at 13 Sagittarius and 12 minutes of arc, or 13:12 degrees of Sagittarius. This, then, was the point of the zodiac that was rising in the East at that time.

The beginning of the tenth house is at 2 degrees Libra and 46 minutes of arc, or 2:46 degrees of Libra. The beginning of the tenth house is called Midheaven. This is so because the midheaven is the point of the zodiac that is "in the middle of the sky." It is at the point where the sun is at Noon.

The cusp of the seventh house, or descendant, is the point in the zodiac that is exactly opposite the ascendant. It is 13 degrees Gemini and 12 minutes of arc, or 12:13 degrees Gemini.

The cusp of the fourth house is on the opposite side of the tenth house cusp, in 2:46 degrees of Aries.

We proceed to draw all other house cusps into the chart. With the houses drawn into the chart, you see that the houses are not equal. The first house measures from 13:12 Degrees of Sagittarius to 17:22 degrees of Capricorn. It is slightly larger than 30 degrees, while the eleventh house measures from 1:11 degrees of Scorpion to 23:39 degrees of the same sign, hence it is much smaller than 30 degrees.

The axis from the first to the seventh houses marks the horizon.

The axis from the tenth to the fourth houses marks the extension of the meridian.

The houses from one through six are always below the horizon.

The houses from seven through twelve are always above the horizon, visible from the place of the event.

The houses are always in the same sequence, from 1 through 12.

I prefer to write the house numbers in Roman numerals. I do this so that they will not be confused with numbers that mark the position in degrees.

The ascendant, or the point of the zodiac that rises in the East at the time of birth (or at the time of an event) is by far the most influential part in a chart. It exceeds even the sun in importance. In pop-astrology, the person who was born at the time for which the sample chart was erected, would be considered a Virgo, because this person has the sun in Virgo. However, considering the importance of the rising degree, I would say that this person is a Sagittarian with the sun in Virgo.

Inscribing the Planets The next step is inscribing the planets into the chart. Here we proceed in the same fashion as we did when we inscribed the twelve houses: The sun is marked into 21 degrees of Virgo 31 minutes of arc (roughly 21 1/2 degrees on the chart), the Moon is 2:08 Virgo (the mark is close to the two degree line), etc.

Inscribing the Aspects

Our next step is to find the aspects between the planets and inscribe them into the chart. Here you will already see the advantage of the chart pattern that you learn to use: With a bit of practice, you can directly read the aspects from the chart.

As you have read in the course, an aspect between two planets exists if the planets are within the range of specific angles from each other.

For the beginning, we consider only the major aspects: The opposition, or 180 degrees apart (opposing), the trine, or 120 degrees apart, the square, or 90 degrees apart, the sextile, or 60 degrees apart, and the conjunction, where the planets are close to each other.

An exact aspect is very brief. This is so because the planets are always in motion. However, an aspect is valid within a certain range of accuracy. This range is called "the maximal orb" of an aspect. Consequently, an opposition is valid when the planets are between 172 and 180 degrees apart. This means that the maximal orb for an opposition is 8 degrees. The same holds for a conjunction that is good up to a distance of 8 degrees. The square has an orb of 7 degrees, the trine 7 degrees, and the sextile 6 degrees. The effect of an aspect is strongest when it is exact. It is weakest when it reaches the orb. For instance, two planets exactly 60 degrees apart are in their strongest mutual aspect, while when 54 or 66 degrees apart, the influence of the aspect is still noticeable, but it is very weak.

We inscribe the aspects as lines that connect the planets in aspect. Draw blue lines for soft aspects (trine and sextile) and red lines for hard aspects (squares and oppositions). In our sample chart we used two different dotted lines.

Abbreviations and Symbols

Aspects: write the degrees for the exact aspect: 60 for sextile, 90 for square, 00 for conjunction, 180 for opposition, etc.

Examples for AbbreviationJupiter in Leo -- J le
Jupiter in Leo in the Third House -- J le 3
Jupiter in Leo in the Third House Sextile Mars in Gemini in the First House -- J le 3 60 A gm 1 etc.

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