Evaluating and Interpreting Your Chart
When evaluating the house in a chart, consider these guidelines:
Note the ascendant. What element is it in? What does the sign immediately tell you about the individual? Where does the ruling planet fall?
Note the cusps of the fourth house (the IC), the seventh house (the descendant), and the cusp of the tenth (the Midheaven or MC). What do these signs immediately tell you about the person? What do the planets in these houses tell you about the person?
What houses do the Sun and the Moon occupy? Are they above or below the horizon? In the western or the eastern hemispheres? In which elements?
Note any house where there's a cluster of planets. A house that holds more than one planet indicates activity in that area. It holds a clue as to the soul's purpose in life.
Are there any houses that hold three or more planets within three degrees of each other? This cluster is called a stellium and indicates intensely focused activity in that particular house.
Which house holds the Part of Fortune? Where are the Moon's nodes? The placement of these three points provides valuable information about the soul's purpose.
Does the chart have a singleton, one planet that stands alone? An example is in the chart in
FIGURE6–2 , with Jupiter sticking up there all alone in the eighth house.What intuitive feelings do you get from the chart?
What is the chart's general shape?
Astrology is as much an art as it is a science. As with any art, the best impulses and ideas begin somewhere deep inside. They bubble up from the unconscious, make connections with the right brain, and suddenly leap into your conscious awareness as a flash of intuitive insight. These flashes of insight are invaluable when interpreting an astrology chart.
When you have a birth chart in front of you, allow your intuition the freedom to make connections you might not perceive with your conscious mind. Sometimes, those connections are the only ones that matter to the other person. Don't allow the science part of astrology to become dogma. Learn the basics, assimilate them, and then let your intuition speak to you.
When you intuit something, you feel a “click” or an “aha” as you experience it. It's like following a hunch, and it just feels right. The sensation is different for everyone, but it does seem to register somewhere in the body while it's happening. It may be a tightening in your stomach, a sudden pulsing at your temple, or a flash of heat in your hands and fingertips. Once you experience it, you never forget it. Remember to follow your intuition after you have all the facts. It won't let you down.
