What is your birthchart ?

Your birth-chart wheel (or natal chart) is a picture of the sky at the moment that you are born. The position of each planet, and it’s relative orbit not to the sun, but to the star constellations of the sky

How it works:
There are 12 star configurations (Aries to Pisces). These Star constellations are fixed in place and do not move. Planets occupy different constellations depending on their movement in the sky (please note that I will be referring to the sun as a planet).

Each planet occupies a star sign for a certain amount of time depending on how long it’s orbit is. For example, the Sun will take 30 days to ‘move’ (it doesn’t really move, but more on that later) through the beginning of a star constellation-

hence why we have ‘zodiac seasons’. The moon takes less time- it’s takes approximately 2 days in one sign before moving to the next! A planet like Pluto however, moves extremely slowly and would take up to 21 years in one sign....and so on for all planets.

Where a planet is in terms of its orbit translates to the degrees of that planet your natal chart

Example : someone born in the beginning of Pisces season (19th of Feb) would have their Sun at 0degrees Pisces. Someone born on the end of Pisces season (March 20th) would have their Sun at 29degrees Pisces

Another Example : someone born during a Scorpio moon at 10am could have their moon at 8degrees Scorpio, but someone born on the same day at 10 pm, could have their moon at 18 degrees scorpio!!

Because the moon is moving through the star sign of Scorpio, and it moves much faster than any other planet!!

The ascendent and it’s importance:

Now that we’ve figure out all the planets and the signs they occupy and how they move, how do we decide which of the planets comes first? And what’s the relevance of the houses in your natal chart?? You guessed it, the ascendent.

The ascendent, also called the ‘rising’ sign, is the star that is occupying the sky the moment you are born, specific to YOUR location.

I want you to imagine your circular birthchart, and imagine a line pointing from where you are to the sky. That line going up, forms the angle called the ascendent. It’s the star constellation that you rise (born) to.

Because the earth takes 24 hours to rotate on its axis, it spends 2 hours facing a different star constellation. After the two hours is faced the constellations (sign) that comes AFTER the one it was facing. This happens 12 times- 12 signs

(Check the diagram illustrated if you’re still not quite understanding this point)

Now, how does this all relate to houses?

In astronomical terms, the 12 house divisions represent the orbit of the earth around the sun, from the earths perspective, also known as the ecliptic plane

If you look at the gif provided, you can see the earth moving in relation to the sun, with all the constellations (stars in the background) being fixed in place. The earth is split in half, one facing the sun, and being illuminated, while the other half isn’t

Houses 7-12 are the ‘Day’ houses, as they face the sun. Houses 1-6 are ‘night’ houses, as they face away from the sun

I want to reiterate this point again, the star constellations are FIXED in place. It’s our movement and position around the sun and our daily orbit that causes the shift in the ascendent .

The 12 house divisions are technically imaginary lines and points created to understand our lives and make sense of why things happen the way they do, and each house rules an aspect of our lives

Each house is traditionally ruled by a sign. For example,the 1st house, rising house, rules our outward appearance and action- the characteristics and traits of Aries. The 7th house, rules love, partnership, agreements and marriage, and is traditionally ruled by Libra, and so on.

In the perfect world, you would rise on the star of Aries, meaning your 1st house is ruled by Aries, and all the other signs would come after it, from Aries to Pisces. But that’s not the case.

You might rise on the star of Scorpio, meaning your 1st house is ruled by Scorpio , you appercepence is ruled by Scorpio, and your 7th is ruled by Taurus. (The 1st and 7th house oppose each other, as so the 2/8, 3/9, 4/10, 5/11, 6/12 houses)

You would still obviously have appearances and actions, but these would be expressed in a Scorpionic way.

Similarly with the 7th house, you will still deal with partnerships, marriage and love in your life, but not in the traditional Libra way. The way you go about marriage, love, partnership and business would be in a Taurus- like fashion.

Now you might be asking, why do some people have houses of different sizes etc etc- that will be the next topic I will cover!! Stay tuned for more

*I want to add- I am not a professional astrologer, this is how I think of my birthchart. My definitions may not be 100% accurate*

a lot of you ask me about the birthchart and all, this is just the very basics and explains a bit of the mechanisms behind astrology

if you enjoyed this thread or learnt something new, let me know!!