Your Vedic astrology birth chart interpretation, in minutes

Reading a chart quickly

I'm going to help you, even as a complete beginner, read your chart quickly but comprehensively. That's the intention. I'm going to be taking the birth chart of Vincent van Gogh. He had an interesting life and, unfortunately, a tragic end. We'll try to find reasons behind his life story from his chart and also map, most importantly, his life events through the Dasha table.

The Dashas are not just some theory that is explained by people who are interested in astrology. You can actually verify them against his chronology, and this is one of those occasions where I'll try to demonstrate the usefulness of the Dashas.

Check the birth time

Before we begin, please enter your date, time and place of birth and make sure that the time difference is calculated accurately. He was born in 1853, and at that time the time difference was 20 minutes. That is taken correctly by FarFarAway.

If you're born in a country which uses daylight saving time, please make sure that the time difference is taken properly by your chart generator.

Use rulers to complete the picture

Let's look at his chart. You might be able to read it quite clearly because the house numbers are shown. The rising sign is the third sign, Gemini. This is the standard format, but in my view it is incomplete because it does not show the roles the planets play, including which houses they rule.

The fifth and twelfth houses fall in signs ruled by Venus and therefore Venus is ruling the fifth and twelfth houses. In the initial days I would struggle to discover that because you see the planet's position and then have to do this additional calculation to see which signs are falling in which houses ruled by the planet.

You don't have to do all of that. There's a control at the top called Rulers, and you'll see numbers appearing next to all the planets. These numbers represent the houses the planets are ruling in the chart. You have the complete picture: Venus in the tenth, Venus ruling the fifth and twelfth, in the sign of Pisces, and the Nakshatra is Uttara Bhadrapada. This makes reading the chart easy.

Look for creative ability

Let's now start to interpret what this means for him. When you are looking at a chart belonging to an artist, you look at Venus's position. Venus signifies our creative ability, the fifth house is the house of creation, and our imaginative power is the twelfth house.

Immediately you can find reasons behind his creative ability. Venus rules the fifth and twelfth and falls in the career house.

Follow the Venus–Saturn exchange

Let's analyse this Nakshatra position. Venus falls in the constellation of Uttara Bhadrapada, ruled by Saturn, and Saturn is in the constellation of Bharani, ruled by Venus. There's a beautiful Saturn and Venus relationship in this chart which, in my view, is behind his artistic ability.

Of all the constellations I rate Bharani as highly creative. He has a very Saturn-like energy expressing this creative sign. He might express a deep emotional pain through his paintings due to Saturn being there.

Cypress in The Starry Night

I'm not just trying to unnecessarily reverse engineer this combination and fit it to him being a painter. Let's have a look at his most famous painting, The Starry Night. The cypress tree represents themes of death and mourning, given its association with cemeteries.

If you go back to his chart, Saturn is in the constellation of Bharani. Bharani is linked to death and rebirth or life after death. That's the connection there.

The point is that we have identified his creative ability: Venus rules the fifth and twelfth houses and occupies a constellation ruled by Saturn, while Saturn completes the exchange. Saturn in Bharani links his creativity to themes of death and life after death. In my explanation, Saturn also represents the deep emotional suffering expressed through his art.

Trace the burst of ideas

If you look at Rahu's position in his chart, it falls in the first house in the constellation of Mrigashira. He's the kind of person who's going to be bursting with ideas: Rahu in the sign of Gemini, Gemini ruled by Mercury, and Mercury in Ashwini.

I'll leave that to you to analyse: why have I said he's going to be bursting with ideas?

Connect skill to career

Let's have a look at the position of the Sun in his chart. It's ruling the third house. The third house's energy now is falling in the career house, which makes him highly skilful, particularly with the use of hands.

Mars's position is also very helpful in the tenth house. The Sun, incidentally, is falling in another highly creative section of the sky, Revati, which again is directly linked to his creative ability. I want to take you right away to the Dasha table. Let's test the theory.

Map the career Dashas

I've mentioned the Sun is there in the tenth in a creative constellation. He was going through Venus Mahadasha, right at the end of this Venus chapter, when Ketu was also involved. Ketu was the Antardasha. He moved away from his work. He worked for a while as a missionary. It didn't work out. Then he felt inspired to be an artist.

He became an artist and painted his first major work under this Sun Mahadasha, Sun and Saturn to be more precise. During Sun Mahadasha he had the transition from whatever struggles he had before to becoming an artist.

The Sun brings this creative power in the tenth house: Sun in Revati, Revati being the creative power. During Sun Mahadasha he was involved in creative work.

Bring Moon into the reading

The Moon, which I forgot to mention in the main chart, is in the sixth house in the constellation of Jyeshtha. Jyeshtha is ruled by Mercury. When the Moon and Mercury have a relationship, the individual can dive very deep on the psychological plane.

He's also tried to express his psychological state through his paintings, which in my view is linked to this Moon's influence on his work.

The Moon–Rahu period

Let's look at the tragic period linked to the Moon at the end of 1888. More precisely, he was about to enter Rahu's chapter.

During this time he had his most struggles in life. I have always maintained that a person going through the Moon and Rahu chapter can go through some challenges which are mentally quite taxing. He went through those challenges. Firstly, he cut off his ear. Then he was sent to an asylum, or probably he was already in an asylum when he did that, and that was under Rahu's chapter.

But Rahu is also linked to an inspiration to do something new, and it was during this Rahu chapter that he painted his most famous piece of art, The Starry Night. Unfortunately, it was during this Rahu chapter that he was unable to cope with the psychological challenges he had to go through.

Keep difficult periods in perspective

There's another explanation. You can't generalise it. It's not as if every Moon-Rahu chapter is going to be so terrifying. In his chart, the Moon and Rahu are also sharing a difficult relationship. Rahu is eight places away from the Moon. That is a sign of difficulty.

The lesson here is don't let your Rahu Maha-Antardasha play with your mind so much that you lose sense of proportion. The best thing about the Dasha table is that you know certain time phases are only for a certain time.

If you are going through a difficult time, you can manage or cope with those difficulties much better. The maximum time any Antardasha would last is only about two and a half years. This time is going to pass.