T
he components of your natal chart (birth chart) are not difficult to
understand. What follows are the basics needed to interpret your own
chart and the charts of friends and family.
Anyone with Internet access who knows the place, date, and time of his
or her birth can obtain a free printout of his or her personal natal chart in a mat-
ter of minutes. People typically know their place and date, but not their time.
This last item of information can almost always be found on one’s birth certifi-
cate. Although an error of five or ten minutes is not likely to change much, the
Rising Sign and the house positions of the planets change approximately every
two hours, so an error of an hour or two will make a significant difference.
Armed with this data, go online and find an astrology website that pro-
vides online charts. Be careful not to confuse an offer of a free astrology reading
or a free astrology report(which is usually only a Sun-sign reading) with free
chart casting.I have set up a website as part of this encyclopedia (http://www.
astrosoftware.com/astro/06903.htm) to provide readers with this service. If for
any reason this site is unavailable when you are seeking to have your chart case
online, note that other astrology websites, particularly some of the websites for
major astrological software companies, also provide this service.
For any site offering this service, the procedure is to find an appropriate
link, which will take you to a data entry page. Data entry is pretty straightfor-
ward. After entering your birth data, the final page in the process provides you
with a picture of your chart wheel. The first time you look at your chart, it will
appear to be an incomprehensible muddle of symbols. Do not despair; these
symbols are relatively easy to translate into plain English.THEASTROLOGYBOOK [753]y
APPENDIX A
READING YOUR OWN ASTROLOGY CHART
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