Tropical Astrology

Chart Reading

The free lesson track for reading your own birth chart, step by step.

Lesson 1

Essential dignities: how a planet behaves in the sign it landed in

Dignity describes how easily a planet works in the sign it landed in, not whether a chart is good. Domicile, exaltation, detriment and fall, explained plainly.

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Lesson 2

Rulership chains: following a house to where it gets decided

The ruler of a house cusp carries that house wherever it lands. Learn to build rulership chains, follow a dispositor tree and read an empty house properly.

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Lesson 3

Chart shapes and stelliums: what the wheel tells you before you read it

Bundle, bowl, bucket, locomotive, splash, splay and seesaw. How planetary distribution, hemispheres, singletons and a stellium set your reading order.

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Lesson 4

Aspect patterns: T-squares, grand trines, yods and what they ask for

When aspects share planets they lock into figures. How to spot a T-square, grand trine, grand cross or yod, and the tighter orbs these patterns really need.

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Lesson 5

The lunar nodes: reading an axis with nothing in it

What the North and South Nodes actually are, why they move backwards through the zodiac, the 18.6 year cycle, and how to read the axis without fate talk.

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Lesson 6

Chiron and Lilith: a 1977 discovery and a point with no body

Chiron was spotted in 1977 and returns near age 50, while Black Moon Lilith is no object at all. What each adds to a chart reading, and what neither does.

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Lesson 7

Chart synthesis: the order to read a whole chart in

A working order for reading a whole chart, the rule of three for deciding what goes in a portrait, and what to do when two placements say opposite things.

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The content on this page is astrological interpretation and general information; it is not medical, legal, or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional before making important decisions.