Astrology guides
These guides explain how a birth chart works and how to read your own: the houses and the aspects, what changes without a birth time, why two sites can show different charts, and what the Saturn return, the lunar nodes and Black Moon Lilith are. Every figure in them is computed with the engine that draws our charts.
Your own chart
Enter your birth date and see the sky you were born under, with your Sun, Moon and rising sign.
How the guides are organised
The first guides are about reading a chart. Begin with how to read a birth chart, then take its building blocks one at a time: the twelve houses, the aspects, elements and modalities and the Midheaven and the other angles. Two practical guides follow, for when the birth time is missing and for tracking it down.
The rest take one question each: retrograde planets, the Moon phase you were born under, the lunar nodes, Black Moon Lilith, the Saturn return, how two charts are compared, what being born on the cusp means, the two zodiacs, and why your chart can look different on another site.
When a guide gives a figure, such as how many people are born with Mercury retrograde or the age of the first Saturn return, we computed it from real planetary positions, and the table says which births or which year it covers. For a single placement, your Moon sign or your rising sign for instance, the library pages are shorter and go straight to it; the statistics page collects the figures for every sign.
All guides
- How to Read Your Birth Chart
How to read a birth chart step by step: what planets, signs, houses and aspects mean, how the wheel is laid out, and a reading order with a worked example.
- No Birth Time? What Your Chart Can Still Show
No birth time? What stays reliable in your birth chart, what the time adds (rising sign, houses, sometimes the Moon) and how a noon chart is drawn.
- How to Find Your Birth Time
Where to find your time of birth: which birth certificate shows it in the UK, US, Ireland and Europe, how to ask family, and how exact it needs to be.
- The Twelve Houses in Astrology
What each of the twelve astrology houses means, how houses differ from signs, why they need your birth time, and how Placidus and whole-sign houses compare.
- Aspects in Astrology: The Five Major Angles
What the conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition mean in a birth chart, how orbs work, and how to read an aspect between two planets.
- Elements and Modalities in Astrology
What fire, earth, air and water mean in a birth chart, how cardinal, fixed and mutable signs differ, and how to find your dominant or missing element.
- The Midheaven and the Four Angles of a Chart
What the Midheaven, IC, Ascendant and Descendant mean in a birth chart, why the MC is rarely 90° from the Ascendant, and how to find your chart ruler.
- Retrograde Planets in a Birth Chart
What a retrograde planet in your birth chart means, why no planet really moves backwards, and how many retrogrades are normal (89.8% of people have at least one).
- The Moon Phase You Were Born Under
What moon phase were you born under? How a birth chart names the eight phases, what each one means, how common it is, and why it is not your Moon sign.
- The North Node and the Lunar Nodes
What the lunar nodes are, what your north node and south node mean by sign and house, true node versus mean node, and when the nodal return comes.
- Black Moon Lilith in a Birth Chart
What Black Moon Lilith is (the Moon's farthest point from Earth), what it means in a birth chart, and why mean, true and asteroid Lilith differ.
- The Saturn Return
When is your Saturn return? Our computed ages for the first and second return and the Jupiter return, what the return tends to bring, and how to find yours.
- Synastry: How Astrology Compares Two Charts
Synastry explained: how astrology compares two birth charts through cross-aspects, house overlays and elements, which contacts count, and why we give no score.
- Born on the Cusp: Which Sign Are You?
Born on the cusp? The Sun is only ever in one sign. See when it changes sign each year, why the dates shift by a day, and why you may still feel like both.
- Tropical and Sidereal Zodiac, and Ophiuchus
Why tropical and sidereal astrology give different signs, what the 24° gap means for your chart, and why Ophiuchus is a constellation, not a 13th sign.
- Why Your Birth Chart Differs from Site to Site
Why your rising sign, houses or Moon change between birth chart sites: time zones, birthplace, house system, zodiac, node, rounding, and how to check.
- Mercury retrograde in Scorpio 2026: what it means for you
Mercury is retrograde in Scorpio from 24 October to 13 November 2026: the shadow dates, what it touches for each rising sign, and which signs feel it most.
- Venus retrograde 2026: what it means for your relationships
Venus is retrograde from 3 October to 14 November 2026: the dates, the shadow, what tradition says about exes, new love and haircuts, and what it touches for you.
- Full Moon in Taurus: meaning, dates and what it lights up for you
The Full Moon in Taurus falls on 26 October 2026 at 04:12 UTC: what it means, this year's square to Pluto, the next dates and what it lights up for your rising sign.
- Why Don't I Feel Like My Zodiac Sign? 7 Reasons, and How to Check Yours
Don't relate to your zodiac sign? It is only your Sun. Seven reasons it may not fit you, from a louder Moon or rising sign to another zodiac, and how to check.
- Which Zodiac Sign Am I Really? Sun, Moon or Rising
Your sign is your Sun sign, but your Moon and rising signs describe other layers of you. Three simple tests show which one is loudest in your own life.
- Your Big Three, Explained in Plain English
Big three meaning in plain words: what your Sun, Moon and rising sign each say about you, how to read them as one sentence, and what they leave out.
- New Moon in Scorpio: meaning, dates and where it falls for you
The New Moon in Scorpio falls on 9 November 2026 at 07:02 UTC, inside Mercury retrograde: what it means, the next dates and where it falls for your rising sign.
- What Does My Birth Chart Say About Me? A Plain-English Tour of Your Own Chart
What does my birth chart say about me? A plain-English tour of your own chart: the big three, planets, elements, houses, aspects, north node and limits.
- What Does My Birth Chart Say About My Love Life? How to Read Your Chart for Love
How to read your birth chart for love: what Venus, Mars, the Moon, the 5th, 7th and 8th houses and the Descendant say about how you love, and what they cannot.
Questions and answers
Where should I start if I am new to astrology?
Start with the guide on reading a birth chart. It explains the four building blocks, planets, signs, houses and aspects, and gives an order for reading your own chart. Then read the guides on the houses and the aspects, and look up your Sun, Moon and rising sign in the library.
Do I need my birth time to use these guides?
No. Most of a chart comes from the birth date alone. The rising sign, the Midheaven and the houses need the time and the place, and on some days the Moon's sign does too. The guide on charts without a birth time explains exactly what changes and what stays.
Where do the figures in the guides come from?
From our own calculations. The shares, ages and dates are computed from real planetary positions with the same engine that draws your chart, over births from 1925 to 2025 or for the year a table names. Each figure says what it covers.