How to Analyze Your Birth Chart: Astrology 101

Introduction

I've built Far Far Away, the FarFarAway astrology website. In this site walkthrough, I'd like to share how you can use the information you'd get on the website to understand your chart, how you can make best use of the website and how you can put the pieces together.

Entering your birth details

The first thing would be that you enter your birth details carefully. When you reach the place-of-birth section, please type in the first few letters of your place of birth.

And in case you're unable to find your place of birth in the list, in the rare case, please choose a city next to your place of birth. Use this only as a cautious fallback under the same historical civil-time rules, then verify the coordinates and time conversion. And if you've made a mistake, go back to the form and make sure your details are correct. Be also careful of the format of the date and the time.

Checking the details again

So once you've entered your details, you'd get to see your birth chart. Here too, if you are a first-time user, please check the details again. Please see if the latitude and longitude have been accurately pulled out by the website for your place of birth.

Here you'd also see Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), calculated based on the local time you've entered, which takes into account the daylight-saving time too. The website does the calculation, but you must still verify the place, coordinates, recorded local time and displayed UTC result, especially for a historical birth. What you must worry about is: what does your chart say?

H1 and the rising sign

On the selected FarFarAway chart used in this lesson, the houses are arranged as they are in that layout. The first house is represented by the symbol H1, and the other houses are arranged around it. The number 2 is a very important number. For this person it's number 2; for you it might be number 7. This is the rising sign, the Ascendant, the starting point. It is the zodiac-sign number occupying H1, not a house number.

The rising sign is very time-sensitive, so make sure your time of birth is accurately entered. Now number 2 corresponds to the sign of Taurus. For him, in the selected chart used in this example, the rising sign, the Ascendant, is Taurus. The other signs then arrange themselves around the houses.

The story as a starting point

It now becomes very easy to read the chart. I find Venus in his chart, in the 10th house, in the sign of Aquarius. You'd straight away want to know what this planetary position means for you.

In the birth-chart story, you'd find the position of planets explained. This is an excellent starting point, rather than the complete analysis.

The roles planets play

You must now take your analysis to the next level and identify the role planets are playing in your chart. For example, Venus in his case is ruling the 1st and the 6th house. Venus is responsible for these two houses in shorthand: it is their ruler. How did I arrive at that? The signs that fall in the 1st and the 6th house are ruled by Venus.

In the FarFarAway Rulers view, now you can see Venus in the 10th, in the sign of Aquarius, while it is further ruling the 1st and the 6th house in this selected Taurus-rising chart.

Combining the Nakshatra information

The next layer represents the Nakshatra, so you now have the complete picture. Venus is occupying Dhanishtha Nakshatra in the selected chart. I understand you would be unfamiliar with these terms. In tabular form, put all the information nicely together.

Read the planet, the house, the sign, the Nakshatra, the sign ruler and the Nakshatra ruler. These basic fields give the planetary position its context.

The house behind your question

So if you'd like to know something more specific from your chart, like which career direction to take, or who might be your partner, you must look at corresponding houses. The 10th house, for example, is the main starting house related to your career. The 7th house is the main starting house related to marriage or partnership.

So you're not just looking at planetary positions; you also have the context. In the story, interestingly, you'll also find information on the position of the ruler of the 10th house and the ruler of the 7th house. The 10th-house ruler's position may describe your career. It's a starting point already explained in the story. And the position of the 7th-house ruler might describe your partner or relationship, a starting point that is also part of your story rather than a complete prediction.

The Michael Schumacher example

Furthermore, you can try to more deeply understand a planet's position in a Nakshatra, like Venus in his chart is in Dhanishtha. The source next studies the nature, a neutral category or archetype, the guna and the gana. This information I have explained through illustrations in the linked Nakshatra article, if you're interested. They do not define rank or personal worth.

Now Venus Dhanishtha together is a sign of massive fame, in my opinion, in this worked example. And Dhanishtha's ruler Mars in his chart is in the 6th house in Swati Nakshatra. Mars Swati indicates the person is likely to be on the go on a physical plane specifically, in my reading. Mars's position in the 6th house indicates competitive effort or contest.

So Venus's position in his career itself explains, in this reading, that this person is in competitive sports. This is the selected birth chart of Michael Schumacher, the famous German Formula One racing driver. From Venus's position, which signified fame, we were also able to identify what this person would be famous for, in my reading. This is interpretation, not proof.

D9, D10 and the main chart

You must read the D9 chart, the Navamsha chart, to fine-tune your analysis. The D9 chart is derived from the main chart. Here too, I'm linking planetary positions back to the main chart.

And the same I've done in the D10 (Dashamsha), which is more directly linked to your career analysis. Read both alongside the main D1 chart; they do not by themselves determine a spouse or career.

Adding the aspects

There's another aspect in the main chart I'd like to share, and that's the aspects. Planets, wherever they are placed, they're also keeping an eye on other houses. In the FarFarAway Aspects view, review the houses the planet is also keeping an eye on.

Here, keeping an eye means an astrological aspect.

Degrees and the Karakas

The Degrees view gives you the degree values of different planets. The lesson also introduces AK and DK: the AK corresponds to the Atmakaraka and the DK corresponds to the Darakaraka.

The AK corresponds to your personality in this method, and the DK corresponds to your spouse or relationship. Neither gives a complete description by itself.

Dashas and life-event windows

So far I have been sharing planetary positions with you. Now if you'd like to predict life events in my method, I would strongly recommend you rely on the Dashas. In the Dasha table you'd see the Mahadasha, Antardasha and Pratyantardasha. The columns are labelled Time period #1, #2 and #3.

So whilst reading the Dasha table, you'd also have a view on which houses the Dasha planet is ruling in the main chart. It can be very handy in your analysis, so you don't have to go back to the main chart. A detailed guide on how to read the Dashas is linked if you're interested to know how I predict life events. A Dasha does not guarantee an event.

Transits and the timing window

In my method, predictions also take into account the transits. So if you've identified from the Dasha table that there's a high possibility of a promotion during the Pratyantardasha of Jupiter, Jupiter's Pratyantardasha might last for a few months. From the transits you can narrow down which days might be favourable, without a guarantee of promotion or any particular day.

So in the transit table you'll find daily data for many years. You pick the year range, then you search for the day, a particular day, 9th of October 2023, and get the corresponding planet data. The data in the transit table corresponds to your chart. The source reads the house in your main chart that the planet is transiting on that particular day, along with the exact degree value, sign, Nakshatra and pada. This is a dated demonstration, not a present recommendation.

Current data is a 12-noon-GMT daily snapshot, not every moment or a guaranteed favourable day.

The remaining FarFarAway tools

See, the purpose behind me sharing this with you is that you now have the planetary data necessary for you to do a more comprehensive analysis. And if you'd like to change the birth details, check someone else's birth chart and the corresponding story, you can do so from the birth-details form. The current form offers an account save choice.

FarFarAway also provides Match, a compatibility calculator. If you add your details and that of your partner, it offers a compatibility interpretation, not a guarantee of relationship success. Use another person's details with appropriate permission and care. The information is self-explanatory, so I'll leave that to you to explore. And lastly, I keep posting articles on the Blog.

So if you take out the time to understand your chart logically, I'm very sure it's going to make sense.