Part 1
What is Astrology - The Birth Chart

​​Spring is a season of new beginnings. Nature comes back to life. We enter the Solar Sign of Aries which represents activity: we come from winter where nature is asleep and with Aries, everything starts moving and growing again.
 
In this article, the first of this new astrological year, we will start a new free course in Astrology. The goal of this course is to explain what Astrology is and explore some of the main uses of Astrology and how it could be beneficial to you. And at the same time, we will explain some of the basics for people who have no knowledge in Astrology and for those who already know a bit. There are many misconceptions about Astrology and I hope to clear some of them.
 
In the first article of this series we will discover what Astrology is, its uses, and we will explore one extremely important tool for the Astrologer: the Birth Chart.

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​What is Astrology - The Birth Chart

Astrology is a very precise science and it might be useful to explain how it works. In the West, Astrology is not called a science but in India, Astrology is still considered a science.
 
First let’s try to define Astrology. Astrology has nothing to do with the horoscopes you find in newspapers. Horoscopes in newspapers are based on the Solar Sign alone and cannot give any real or interesting information. It is impossible to base some previsions upon your Solar Sign alone, shared with millions of other people. Therefore newspapers’ horoscopes have been very detrimental to the understanding of Astrology. On the contrary Astrology, when applied to an individual, studies the sky of the individual at his birth with great precision.
 
There are many areas in Astrology. The first area of study is Astrology applied to an individual. For this purpose, the main tool is the Birth Chart. The Birth Chart will explore the entire life of the person and will give clues about his/her personality, about his/her career, about his/her love life, children etc.  Then when the Astrologer has a good understanding of the Birth Chart of the person, he/she can study previsions, or study relationships between this person and his/her closed ones. Other areas are Mundane Astrology which deals with events in the world or in a specific country for example; Horary Astrology which allows the Astrologer to answer one specific question; Astrocartography which studies the effect of one particular place on Earth on an individual (among other applications), Elective Astrology which allows to find a specific time to start a new activity, a new relationship, or anything else new.
 
 
So what is the use of Astrology for an individual?
 
There are different uses to Astrology but there are also different ways for a person to go to an Astrological Consultation.
Some people want to find an answer or get an insight into a particular problem.
Other people hope to learn more about themselves.
Others want to know what will come into their life in the future.
Many people also come to a first consultation because they want to know if ‘it works’. Now there is a problem with this approach : first some people come with a misconception of what Astrology is, mainly based on what they heard on TV or read in the newspapers’ horoscopes which, again, has nothing to do with Astrology. Then one consultation is rarely enough for the Astrologer to know the person enough to correct any mistake in the time of birth (which is almost never correct) and to move on to give really good advice.
But if you find a good Astrologer, who is able to verify and correct your time of Birth, study your Birth Chart in great details, then the benefits you can get from your Astrological consultations are huge.
 
 
The benefits of Astrology
 
There are many benefits to Astrology and we will explore a few of them applied to individuals.
First you get to know yourself better through your Birth Chart. This is an important part of life and of psychology to be able to know yourself, to understand your reactions, your shortcomings, your strengths, the main issues that can come into your life.
Then the previsions can be useful in different ways: they help you to know in advance if you are going to face difficulties or get some help in a specific area. When you know that, you can be ready to face the problems or you can benefit fully from the support that is coming your way. Furthermore, with the help of Active Astrology, the Astrologer can help you reduce some problems with Relocated Solar Returns (which we will see in another article) and/or the Exorcizing of Symbols, which are 2 methods that you absolutely don’t need to understand but which will allow the Astrologer to give you very simple advices to arrange a situation or prevent difficulties or at least reduce them.
 
 
The Birth Chart
 
Now let’s come back to the Birth Chart and see what it is.
It is an extremely important tool of Astrology applied to an individual. It is the first tool the Astrologer uses to discover the person.
What is exactly a Birth Chart? It is simply the sky at your time and place of birth. It will give a map of your life, with your strengths, your shortcomings, your goals, your successes and your failures, your difficulties and trials, your greatest joys…To draw your Birth Chart the Astrologer needs a precise date, time and place of birth. The greatest difficulty is usually to get a precise time of birth.
 
As we have seen the time of Birth is almost never correct. Most of the time it has been rounded. The first task for the Astrologer is to know the person enough to be able to correct the time of Birth. At the same time we can use some other tools to check and correct more precisely the time.
So when I first study a Birth Chart, I will interview the person at the same time to check how far we are from the real time of birth. We can usually manage to correct partially the time of birth after one session which should give an estimate good enough to be able to work on previsions. At the same time you benefit from the insights of your Birth Chart by learning more about yourself and with the help of Active Astrology you can already learn some things you could do to improve your life.
 
Now let’s see in more details how to read a Birth Chart: this is going to become a bit more technical and it is part of this free course to give you a few technical details that you can choose to skip if you are not interested.
On the Birth Chart (see example below), you will find the position of the Planets at your time of birth. For example, if you are Aries, you’ll see the Sun in Aries in your Birth Chart : that is what it means when you say ‘I am Aries’, it means that on the day you were born, the Sun was located in the Aries Sign. Then you can see the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto all located in your Birth Chart in different Signs and in what we call Houses.
The Zodiac is divided into twelve different Houses that represent different sectors of your life.
The First House is what we call the Ascendant and is important in defining your personality. So if for example your Ascendant falls in Taurus, we will certainly find some Taurus traits in your personality and in your life.
So you already see that you are not only defined by your Solar Sign but also by your Ascendant and by many other information that the Astrologer will be able to read in your Birth Chart.
Let’s see an example now with this Birth Chart:

​You can try to recognize the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.
In the same order:  

​And the Signs: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.
In the same order: 

​And then try to recognize here the Sun in Pisces, the Moon in Capricorn, etc.
 
 
To end this first part, let’s see the first 3 Signs of the Zodiac
SPRING:
Aries: 21st March-20th April
Taurus: 20th April-21st May
Gemini: 21st May-21st June
Did you know that the dates may vary? Therefore you might need to consult ephemerides (or your Astrologer) to know which one is your Solar Sign if you are born on the first or last day of a Sign, for example Aries or Taurus if you are born on 20th April.
 
I hope you enjoyed the first part of our free introductory course.
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