part0009

To get the most out of this book, you’ll really want to have a copy of your birth chart (also called your natal chart). Think of it as your celestial baby picture. Like the tiny hand- and footprints on your hospital birth certificate, a photo taken moments after your earthly debut, or a newspaper clipping from the day of your birth, the astrological birth chart is a representation of what the universe was like at the moment you joined us here.

As you may recall from Chapter 1, astrology and astronomy, once peas in a celestial pod, had a nasty falling out in the 17th century when Galileo demonstrated that the earth orbits the Sun, and not the other way around. Up to that time, the world subscribed to a geocentric (earth-centered) model of the universe; astrology reflected this, and (mostly) still does.

A heliocentric view of the world is exemplified by the iconic photograph of the earth called “The Blue Marble,” taken by the crew of the Apollo 17 space mission from space. The charts astrologers use to interpret the sky are like a photograph you’d take from your front yard if you had a 360-degree lens and the earth were transparent.

Why do it this way? Beyond the powerful lure of tradition, astrologers argue that our journalistic beat is the connection between phenomena in the sky and earthly affairs— with an emphasis on the earthly affairs part. Astrologers were probably as excited about the 1969 Moon landing as anyone, but what really gets us going is what is happening on earth. Those of us who live on earth can hardly help having a geocentric view of things, and astrology’s geocentric charts speak to our earthly interests and orientation.

You probably have a pretty good handle on how to use the world for practical purposes. If you want to see the noonday sun, you walk outside and look up; if you want to see the midnight sun, you go to Alaska in July. If you’re consulting a map of the United States, using Wichita as your reference point, you know that if you look to the east (right side of the map) you will eventually find stet New England; if you look to the west (left side of the map), you’ll reach California.

When the old-fashioned analog clock on the wall wants to represent the forward march of time, its hands move from top to bottom, and then from bottom to top, moving from the right side of the clock to the left; we call this clockwise motion. This is how things work in your world.

So when you get a copy of your birth chart for the first time and see South notated at the top of the chart and North at the bottom, East on the left side of the chart and West on the right, and the sections of the wheel are labeled from one through twelve counterclockwise —well, you know you’re not in Kansas anymore.

All of this fancy graphical footwork is to compensate for one inconvenient truth: the earth is tilted on its axis. In the northern hemisphere, we’re actually looking down (south) to see the sun; when it reaches its daily peak, the sun is due south. So charts are drawn with south on top, representing the highest point in the sky. (In the southern hemisphere, charts are drawn the same way but the math that gets you there is somewhat different.)

The concept of day and night and time in general are based on our experience of darkness and light, not an hour on a clock. If you doubt that, spend a summer in Antarctica—it’s light outside whether the clock says noon or midnight .

In the age of electricity, people organize our time with clocks, designed to approximate the movement of the Sun throughout the day and night. However, because the earth is rotating on its axis and gradually showing different areas of its surface to the Sun, people on opposite sides of the earth don’t experience day and night simultaneously. This presents certain practical and logistical problems about how to keep track of the time in various parts of the world (in order to organize international conference calls and coordinate television coverage of the Academy Awards broadcast).

Look at a globe, and you’ll find lines called meridians running from the top to the bottom at regular intervals. The line that runs through the United Kingdom (and specifically, Greenwich, England) is called the Prime Meridian. It’s the reference point against which time is measured in all other parts of the world. All the other meridians basically describe how far a given place is from Greenwich, and how much sooner or later the Sun will be overhead there than in Greenwich.

Meridians are imaginary lines running from the North to the South Pole at regular intervals, marking degrees of longitude from the Prime Meridian at Greenwich, England.

The earth’s 24 main time zones roughly approximate these meridians. One time zone/meridian represents approximately 15 degrees of longitude, or about one hour of travel time for the Sun. Since the Sun rises in the east, anyplace west of Greenwich will have the Sun overhead later, and anyplace east has it earlier. So the time of day is later as you move east from Greenwich, and earlier as you move west, up to the International Date Line (longitude 180°).

Which is why when the queen is greeting the day in London, sipping a cup of Earl Grey and sneaking bites of crumpet to her corgis under the table, New Yorkers are just dragging themselves home from a late night at the clubs. New York is five meridians/time zones west of Greenwich, so when it’s 6 a.m. in London, it’s only 1 a.m. in New York—a full five hours before you down your coffee and bagel.

In 1985, a New Zealand entomologist named George Vernon Hudson proposed the idea of adding more daylight hours to the working day, the better to collect fascinating insects. He had unwittingly given birth to Daylight Saving Time, the practice of moving the clock forward one hour between spring and fall, shifting an extra hour of daylight from morning to afternoon. After a rocky start, Daylight Saving Time eventually caught on nearly everywhere. In the United States, the Uniform Time Act of 1966 standardized the beginning and end dates for Daylight Saving Time, but also allowed localities to opt out. Arizona and Hawaii, for instance, don’t observe Daylight Saving Time (presumably because they get plenty of sun as it is).

The astrology chart is cast for a particular moment and place in time. It can be cast for any event for which the time and place of its beginning are known: a birth (such as your birth chart), marriage, death, beginning of a job, debut of a film, or natural disaster. However, the kind of event for which the chart has been cast can’t be determined just by looking at the chart. And if it’s the chart of a person, you can’t tell gender, sexual orientation, or marital status from looking at an astrology chart. What you can tell is something about the qualities of the moment in time for which the chart has been cast. And in astrology, it’s believed that whatever begins in a moment of time has the qualities of that moment in time.

Like a human body (or a Starbucks), an astrology chart has various consistent structural components. These are the same, regardless of the event symbolized by the chart.

It begins with a wheel: a circle, representing the ecliptic—the path of the Sun’s apparent journey across the sky. Picture it as a really big cigar band with pictures of animals and virgins and weighing machines stamped on the inside. Now picture yourself standing inside it, like one of those photographs of a formerly large person standing inside his erstwhile, now comically oversized, trousers.

If you took geometry in school, you’ll recall that a circle has 360 degrees. Around 2400 b.c.e., the Sumerians came up with the 360-degree circle idea, to keep track of the Sun’s journey which appeared to take 360 days. Later, the Egyptians came up with the 24-hour day; the Greeks made the hours equal in length; and the Babylonians divided the hour into fractions of 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute .

Basically, if you can tell time and use a calendar, you know all you need to know of math to understand an astrology chart such as the one shown here.

So you’ve got this wheel. Forgetting about the Sumerians, just be aware that the circle contains 360 degrees; and that even if these degrees aren’t individually represented on the chart (sometimes they are, but usually they aren’t), they’re still there, and each one corresponds with 1 of the 360 degrees of the zodiac. Each of the 12 zodiac signs is assigned 30 degrees of the wheel. 6 Part 1: Astrology as a Second Language

There are also some hieroglyphics to untangle that may be a bit baffling at first:

The 12 signs of the zodiac take their names, symbolism, and order from the constellations along the ecliptic. Each sign is associated with a house, and is “ruled” by one or more planets. The 12 signs of the zodiac appear in order around the perimeter of the horoscopic wheel, on the cusp of each house. Signs are described as being in houses —that is, moving through a particular area of the sky. Planets are described as being in signs —that is, moving through a particular constellation. (See Part 2 for more about the signs.)

Cusp is the term for the imaginary lines dividing the houses of the horoscope. Some astrologers feel that a planet that is close to a house cusp may be felt in both houses.

The chart is divided into 12 sections called houses, 6 of which represent the sky above the horizon and 6 of which represent the invisible sky below. The 12 houses have considerable correlation with the 12 signs of the zodiac. The first house corresponds to the first sign of the zodiac, Aries; the second house to the second sign, Taurus; and so on.

The houses are numbered counterclockwise beginning with the left-hand (east) point. They’re divided by lines, or cusps, which point to particular degrees and signs on the ecliptic, the band of fixed stars through which the Sun makes its annual journey. We say that signs of the zodiac are in and on the cusps of particular houses; they always follow their natural order from Aries to Pisces.

There are many ways of splitting the sky into houses and considerable controversy among astrologers as to which is the best method. Suffice to say, the 12 houses are not necessarily equal in size in your chart. However, the six houses in the top hemisphere of the chart will also be the same size as their corresponding opposite houses in the southern hemisphere. So if the twelfth house is 22 degrees wide, the sixth house will also be 22 degrees wide. (Houses are discussed in detail in Part 3.)

The Natural Wheel is a wheel with 12 houses of equal size, with the first degree of Aries on the cusp of the first house, followed by the first degree of each succeeding sign on subsequent house cusps.

In reality, almost nobody has a wheel like this. Yours may begin with any 1 of the 360 degrees of the zodiac on the cusp of the first house. The houses of your chart are unlikely to be exactly 30 degrees each, and some signs might appear on two house cusps in a row, with the next sign not appearing on a cusp at all.

But the Natural Wheel 7reflects the correlation between the signs of the zodiac and the houses of the horoscope. When we describe Gemini as the “natural” sign of the third house, we refer to the Natural Wheel and the thematic sympathy between Gemini and the third house.

Aries on the first house cusp and 0 degrees of the succeeding signs following in order on the remaining house cusps. It’s a representation of the connection between the themes of the 12 signs of the zodiac and the 12 houses of the horoscope.

The Sun and Moon are called luminaries or, for the sake of convenience, planets. Astrology charts also include Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Most “traditional” astrologers don’t use Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto in their charts. Planets have essential meanings derived from the mythological figures for which they’re named.

Planets are described as being in signs (that is, moving through a particular constellation) or in houses (moving through a particular part of the sky). Planets move through the houses of the chart in a counterclockwise motion. Planets move at different rates relative to earth, based on their distance from the Sun, with the Moon moving through the zodiac most quickly (about 28 days) and Pluto most slowly (approximately 245 years).

Each planet rules one or more signs. Planets are also classified according to their essential dignities, or strengths. In traditional astrology, the matter of essential dignities is fairly complex. It’s worth knowing, however, the signs in which each planet is considered in its “house” (the sign or signs that it rules), exaltation (especially strong), detriment (the sign opposite its rulership), or fall (the sign opposite its exaltation), as shown in the following table.

Fortunately, getting a copy of your birth chart is easier than ever. Gone are the days of hauling out several large reference books; today you can calculate it online for free. Software programs that calculate charts are available at very affordable prices. Or simply turn to your favorite search engine for help and search for a phrase such as “free astrology chart.”

• Verified time of your birth —You need to know this to the minute. Even a few minutes can make a big difference in your chart! I’ve included some tips in the next section for finding your verified time of birth.

• Your place of birth —City, state or province, and country. In the U.S., many states have multiple cities or towns with identical names, so make sure you know the county in which you were born.

Time and place tells us the orientation of the horizon to the ecliptic, giving us your rising sign and house cusp degrees. Since the Moon moves quickly, the time and place of birth tells us its exact position at your birth.

Without the time of birth, you’re limited in what you can do with astrology. Prediction, in particular, gets tricky and imprecise. Because the degree on the Ascendant changes about every four minutes, and the Moon changes degree about every three hours, time is of the essence. It’s worth hunting down your birth time, and it’s not that difficult for most modern people. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Check your birth certificate. If you can’t find your original birth certificate in your file of important family paraphernalia, request a copy from the county where you were born. Get in touch with the Vital Records department of the county seat, or order a copy through Vitalcheck (www.vitalcheck.com ), an online service that handles such requests for many government agencies. If you are given the option, choose a “Birth Long” or “Birth Full” record, which normally has more detailed information, such as birth time .

• If your birth certificate doesn’t have a recorded time, try the hospital where you were born. If they’re no help, look through baby books, family letters, or newspaper announcements.

• As a last resort, hire an astrologer who specializes in rectification to figure out your birth time based on the dates of important events in your life. This is time-consuming work that requires a high degree of skill, so expect to pay a premium for the service.

Please don’t rely on your mom’s memory of what time you were born. If she’s like most women, she had other things on her mind at the time. Instead, get a copy of your birth certificate from the appropriate governmental office or from the hospital where you were born.

Back in the days of manual chart calculation, errors were far too easy to make. But it’s surprisingly easy to botch even computer-calculated charts. Here are a few words of caution:

• Enter your birth data correctly! I realize that sounds obvious—maybe even a bit insulting. But be sure you enter the birth date in the correct format—some programs require that you use the European format, DD/MM/YYYY, others require the U.S. format, MM/DD/YYYY. Also, some programs will automatically adjust a.m. or p.m. times to 24-hour or “military” time (e.g., 2 p.m. = 14:00), or vice versa.

Here’s an easy way to double-check input errors, such as using a.m. instead of p.m.: check the house placement of the Sun. The Sun should be above the horizon (houses 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, or 7) for birth times between sunrise and sunset, and beneath the horizon (houses 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) for birth times between sunset and sunrise.

If you plan to calculate a lot of charts, want to maintain a personal database of birth information, or want easy access to advanced features you can grow into as you learn more about astrology, you probably will eventually want to purchase a chart calculation program. These nearly always include a built-in atlas with the longitude, latitude, and time zone of the practically every city, town, berg, or mole hole in the world. They also have built-in features to adjust for Daylight Saving Time and the like. See Appendix C for a sample of user-friendly programs at a variety of price levels.

Both computers and astrology are thought to be “ruled by” (associated with) the planet Uranus. It’s impossible to overestimate the influence of the personal computer and the development of software designed to perform astrological calculations on the field of professional astrology. Computers have been the great equalizer, making astrology accessible to people who have a hard time with math. They make it a lot easier for astrologers to serve multiple clients in a single day. Generally, they ensure more accurate results and fewer incorrect charts and readings.

If you were born sometime after the Carter administration, you may never have run across a hand-drawn birth chart. When I was 12 years old I sent away for mine, answering an ad in the back of a paperback astrology book. It came back hand-drawn on heavy, cream-colored paper, with the astrologer’s handwritten notations. It had a sort of old-world, mystical romanticism that made it seem laden with otherworldly powers and insights.

A couple of years into my professional astrology career, my mother presented me with an oddity she’d found in an old trunk: Her father’s birth chart, complete with interpretations, which he’d commissioned from “a gypsy.” To this day it’s one of my most treasured possessions.

Are you a confirmed Luddite? Concerned with saving power? Kick it old school by arming yourself with a few tools and techniques that served astrologers well in the hundreds and hundreds of years before the advent of the personal computer.

First and foremost, the ephemeris is your friend. Most people don’t love or use it anymore, but in my lifetime—yes, even in the time I’ve been practicing astrology!—the ephemeris was essential for the everyday astrologer. An ephemeris is simply a table showing the planetary positions on a given day, usually calculated for midnight or noon in Greenwich, England.

An ephemeris is a table of planetary positions for a particular date. You can find one online, or buy a print copy with planetary positions for an entire century .

In my day (back when we walked 6 miles to school in the snow, barefoot), you toted around a small pocket-sized ephemeris for the current year to tell you about the daily planetary occurrences. These are still available online or in some metaphysical bookstores. You can also buy more graphically appealing annual astrology calendars (my favorite is Jim Maynard’s Pocket Astrologer, available through Quicksilver Publications; www.quicksilverproductions.com ) that include the ephemerides for an entire year along with helpful stuff like the Moon’s void-of-course periods, daily sign, and aspects (see Chapter 18).

The serious student or professional astrologer usually owns a book of ephemerides for the entire century. Nearly the size and weight of the complete works of William Shakespeare (hardcover edition), a century’s worth of ephemerides could substitute, in a pinch, for a low side table or footstool. Ephemerides are available with calculations for either midnight or noon at Greenwich.

The digital age being what it is, you can also access an online ephemeris for free at the website of Astrodienst (www.astro.com ) , a Zurich-based software development company. Select “Ephemeris” from the main menu, click on the link to the year you’d like to see, scroll through to find the month and date you’re looking for, and voilà—you’ll see something like the following page.

Let’s use the line I’ve highlighted in this figure as an example. It gives the planetary lowdown for Saturday, February 22, 1975, at midnight in Greenwich, England (hence the reference, at the top right-hand corner, to 00:00 UT, or zero hour and minutes, Universal Time). The top row of the table gives the symbol for each planet, and the days of the month are listed in the left-hand column. Then, from left to right, the celestial longitude is given for each planet. (Also included is the Sidereal Time (Sid.t), which for now you may safely ignore; it will become interesting and relevant if you choose to calculate charts by hand.) If there is no sign given for the planet’s entry, assume it is in the most recent sign listed above it in the column.

As of midnight on this date at Greenwich:

Sun 2° Pisces = 44’12

Mercury 10° Aquarius 2

Venus 28° Pisces 15

Mars 23° Capricorn 5

Jupiter 24° Pisces 5

Saturn 12° Cancer 20

Uranus 2° Scorpio 21

Neptune 11° Sagittarius 41

North Node (True) 6° Sagittarius 0

North Node (Mean) 5° Sagittarius 51

Black Moon Lilith 1° Pisces 51 (not covered in this book)

To see the planetary aspects for the day, return to the main list of years and click on the letter A to the left of the link for the year you’re interested in. You’ll see a list of planetary aspects in time order.

Remember, these placements are for UT (Greenwich Mean Time). So if you’re in New York, subtract five hours from the time given: 2:20 a.m. If you’re in Rome, one hour ahead of Greenwich, add one hour: 8:20 a.m.

In fewer than five minutes, you can calculate a chart online. For the cost of the materials required to calculate charts by hand, you can buy a very good chart calculation program. Why, then, should you go to the trouble to learn to calculate charts by hand?

• To pass examinations for certification by an astrological organization. The major organizations awarding certification will require you to know how to calculate a variety of charts by hand.

• Your power is out, and a client will be arriving in about two hours for a reading. If you know how to calculate charts by hand and have a hard-copy ephemeris, you’re in business. This will also come in handy in the event of some post-apocalyptic, Mad Max future when we’re all wearing tattered clothes and using an abacus for simple math.

• To spend quality time with a chart. Okay, so this is kind of romantic. But one thing I found is that when it became a lot easier for me to calculate charts (using a computer), I spent a lot less time with each one. When you calculate charts by manually, you spend time thinking about the sign and house placements of the various planets and angles, calculating aspects by hand, and drawing the thing out. Very tactile, very satisfying.

To calculate a birth chart by hand, you’ll need the following:

I realize calculating charts the old-fashioned may seem like a completely daunting task. But although I own two software programs that calculate charts (and barely passed high school algebra), I occasionally whip out the books and the calculator and knock out a chart for old time’s sake. You might be surprised to find that calculating charts manually is not only possible, but enjoyable.