HOW TO APPROACH A CHART

When you have a friend and you want to describe them to someone else, what do youdescribe? You describe characteristics that distinguish that person from other people. It's differentthan describing them to the police. If you're describing them to the police, you'd say they're 5'4",brown eyes, scar on the left arm, whatever, but if you're describing them to a friend you'd say,
"They're pretty talkative and they're interested in music." That's the kind of information you wantto be able to get out of a chart. You want to know what distinguishes the person. Therefore, whatyou look for in a chart is what distinguishes that chart. In other words, since every chart has the same ten planets, twelve houses, and some aspects, what distinguishes it from other charts?

I am going to assume that you know a little bit about astrology.TheRising sign is overwhere 9 o'clock is on a clock face. The bottom of the circle is the nadir of the chart. Thetop of the circle -- where 12 would be on a clock -- is the top of the chart. And the setting isover on the right where 3 o'clock would be. There are twelve houses, numbered counter-clockwise one through twelve, and ten planets.



Planetary Emphasis

The first concept I want to introduce is: What gives a planet weight or strength, i.e. whatmakes a planet potent in a chart. There are several principles. One has to do with occupying anangle. If a planet is at an angle (the definition of an angle: bottom, top, sunrise, sunset), thatplanet becomes stronger. That planet becomes a distinguishing feature of a person's chart. Thecloser to an angle, the stronger it is. So if we allow 0-6 degrees as the range of how close to theangle we'll count, then if, for instance, the descendant is at 19 degrees and a planet is at 4degrees of the same sign, it isn't close enough to sunset to count (because it is 15 degrees away
from the descendant and the cutoff is 6, and 19-4=15). In other words, if something is to be focal,it has to be within 6 degrees of the angle; the closer the stronger.
There is also a hierarchy of angles. A planet at the top of the chart will tend to bestronger than the planet rising. A planet rising is going to be second strongest. A planet at thebottom will be third strongest. A planet setting will be fourth strongest. Why? In terms of basic
logic, the last two aren't visible. Sunset is visible but it is waning in light. But if something isrising, you tend to notice it. If something is at the very top you really tend to notice it. So even interms of just plain visuals this makes sense. Top, Rising, Bottom, Setting. In addition, there are the
other angles, meaning the other house cusps. (Note: I use the Equal House System, which meansthat every house is exactly 30 degrees wide, so when I talk about a planet at the top of the chart,
I mean 90 degrees from the Ascendant, not conjunct the Midheaven.)

Aside: There are probably 40 or 50 different methods of slicing the sky into houses. They arecalled house systems. The most popular ones are called Placidus, Campanus, Koch and Equal. Oneof the reasons I use the Equal House System is so that you don't miss planets at the secondary angles. For instance, in a chart with 19 Libra rising and the planet Uranus at 21 Gemini, Uranus iswithin 2 degrees of the 9th house cusp, and therefore strengthened. For the secondary angles, Iallow about 0-3 degrees orb. Again, by secondary angle, I mean not at the top, bottom, left, orright angles, but at one of the other cusps (e.g. the 11th, 12th, 2nd or the 3rd house cusp).

The second factor making a planet unusually strong is when it's alone in half the sky. Inour sample chart, the Moon is in the 4th house with nothing in the adjacent two houses on oneside and nothing in adjacent three houses on the other side of the Moon. So the Moon is alone inthis half of the sky (from house 3 through house . A planet alone in half the sky can be even
stronger a planet rising.


The Rising Sign

People will often say to you, "What's your Sun sign? What's your Moon sign? What's yourRising sign?" These are very important factors. The Rising sign has a lot of different meanings. It ishow people first see you. I've researched the charts of those whose Rising signs are in an element
where there are no planets (in the same element). In one case, a man had all his planets in waterand earth signs but his rising sign was Sagittarius. He would go a party and women were attractedto his enthusiasm, his passion, and his independence, but once they got to know him, they discovered he was "mud" (water and earth). I.e. he was clingy, conservative, introverted, dependent.The first image, the first contact was the Rising, and it does not always represent a person's trueinner temperament therefore.

Another idea is that the Rising sign is the "guardian at the gate," "the Gatekeeper" whocontrols and regulates what comes into a person and what comes out of a person. Every planet inyour chart has to express itself through the Rising. That's a very important principle. It meansthat if the Rising sign is in Air, a person will preferentially express the planets in their chart thatare in Air signs, and suppress or restrict the expression of the planets in other elements. Forexample, one of my best friends has a fiery Moon in Aries and Sun in Leo. But, because his Risingsign is Libra, he does not initially come across as firey. In fact, he often avoids confrontations (as
air signs do) until it is too late, and then explodes very fierily. His fire essential nature has toexpress itself through a filter (the rising sign in Libra) of softness, gentility, and social receptivity,so he's not going to be anywhere near as fiery as someone who has Fire Rising along with a Sunand Moon in Fire. In terms of letting things in, someone with a Water sign rising is very affectedby the world around them, while someone with has Earth sign rising is usually more sturdy andgrounded.

A third attribute is that the Rising sign affects our relationship to our bodies andembodiment. For example, I had an Aikido teacher who had only one planet in Earth, and you'dexpect Aikido teachers to be very grounded. What made up for that was very simple. She hadTaurus Rising. Your embodiment is very strongly affected by the Rising sign and therefore how
you relate to your body, how you relate to your embodied feelings, and what kind of link there isbetween the rest of you and your body, is strongly indicated by the Rising. (Note: of the threeEarth signs, Taurus is the most earthy because it's fixed Earth and also the first Earth sign. Fixed
Earth is likely to be much more conspicuous than mental Earth which is Virgo or social Earthwhich is Capricorn. Similarly, Aries is the most fiery because it is completely unbridled fire,partially because Aries is a Cardinal (initiating) sign, and initiating Fire is likely to be much moreexpressed than fixed Fire or scattered Fire, the other two fire signs. While I don't have a strong anopinion about which sign is airiest, I think that Cancer might be again most watery because of itscardinality, the initiative of Cancer stirs the water up a lot and makes for a lot more waves.)


By the way, the First House is the house of identity. Any planet in the First Houseautomatically becomes stronger just by being in the First House, because you tend to identifywith that planet. It's more the case if the planet is in the First House in the same sign as theRising but it's true in either case.







The Sun and the Moon


The Sun has a dual quality as does the Moon. The dual quality of the Sun is Ego andEssence. The outer shell, the circle, represents Ego. The dot in the center of the symbol representsEssence. And so you can say that someone's Sun sign has a balance, has two qualities, some veryegocentric qualities and some real essential qualities. The path of a soul is to go towards the
essential qualities of their Sun and to face up to and become freer of the ego qualities. E.g. Withmy Sun in Cancer, my ego asks "Do you like me, do you like me?" and wants approval and strokes,and can be insecure, needy, and sometimes avoiding or reclusive. The essential qualities of Cancer
are a loving and caring nature. As I move into my essence, I express more love and less insecurity.You can look at all planets in a similar fashion, i.e. what are its primitive vs. evolved qualities.

The Moon is the most subjective planet in the chart. The planet it is hardest to witness, tobe detached from, to see in operation. Thus, the Moon's qualities are sometimes the mostimmature, acted out, and the most unconscious. When you start off life, when you have Moon inAir, for example, you're likely to be very claustrophobic about getting close to people (even more soif you're a socialized male). I've seen more bachelors with Moon in Air than any other element. Ifthe Moon is in Fire, you're more likely to dominate and/or express yourself bluntly and intenselywithout even realizing it. If you've got Moon in Water, you're likely to take things personally
without even realizing it and feel really hurt by people. And if you've got Moon in Earth, you're
likely to inhibit yourself, or to hold on tight, or be conservative, without even realizing it. So theMoon at its most primitive acts instinctively and is unconscious, immature, exaggerated, andchildish. With maturity, one's Moon becomes appropriately self-conscious, and begins to first
compensate for, and then use optimally, their basic energies.

The high side of the Moon or the evolved Moon is both the healthy inner child and the
healthy nurturer/mother. The healthy child is spontaneous, expressive, and the mother is
protective and caring for people. Since the elements determine what you believe is important, if a
Moon/mother wants to care for someone, with the Moon is in Air, they'll share their ideas (possibly
also social activities). If the Moon is in Fire, they'll share their adventures and their enthusiasm. If
the Moon is in Water, they'll share cuddly, nurturing affection. If the Moon is in Earth, they'll share
money or other kinds of concrete support like cleaning the person's house. Astrology is a language
that describes reality.


Aspects & Planetary Strength

We now have two things that make a planet strong. A third one is aspects, the angularrelationships between planets. If a planet is conjunct, opposed, trine, or square the Sun or Moon(or even sextile -- which is weaker) within 0-3 degree orb, it becomes more importantthematically in the journey of the individual. Note: in using the above methods of assessingplanetary strength in charts where all of the aspects are fairly wide, you should consider using a
wider orb than the ones specified.

In other words, if you find a chart where there's nothing in category one or category two within orb, and there's something conjunct the Sun within 4 degrees, it definitely counts. In fact, I mightallow a slightly larger orb for the conjunction than the others (maybe 4 degrees) because anyplanet conjunct the Sun becomes an integral part of who the person is. Planets squared or
opposed to the Sun become a real challenge to integrate. So those planets become strong but achallenge to integrate. A person with Sun conjunct Uranus feels comfortable with being differentand an individual, but someone who has Sun opposite or square Uranus is going to have a real
struggle with feeling different. So while it's still an intimate part of their chart, it's a moreconvoluted, more complex, more conflictual.

The trine is like the conjunction, a natural blending of that quality into the essentialnature. This becomes another factor you can look at. Is it conjunct the Sun, is it conjunct theMoon? Or is it in at an angle to the Sun and Moon. When planets are within a degree of exactaspect, they should always catch your eye.

Now I want to introduce a fourth factor: what are the strongest aspects in the chart,because these aspects represent where there is the most energy. If the aspects are squares oroppositions (or even semisquares or sesquares), they can represent where in the body illnesses arelikely to occur. Imagine a body wrapped around the chart, with the head in the first house, thethroat in the second house, etc. There's actually an anatomical correspondence to each of thehouses and to each of the signs.


To summarize:

1. Top importance in amplifying the strength and meaning of planets are:
Planets at angles (top, bottom, rising, and setting).
Planets alone in half the sky.
Planets in aspect to the Sun or the Moon.
2. Of secondary importance
Planets near secondary house cusps (2,3,5,6, 8, 9, 11,12).
Planets is strong aspect to other planets.