# 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.

Source: https://natalore.com/en/guides (Natalore, updated 2026-09-25)

## How the guides are organised

The first guides are about reading a chart. Begin with [how to read a birth chart](https://natalore.com/en/guides/how-to-read-a-birth-chart), then take its building blocks one at a time: [the twelve houses](https://natalore.com/en/guides/astrology-houses), [the aspects](https://natalore.com/en/guides/astrology-aspects), [elements and modalities](https://natalore.com/en/guides/elements-and-modalities) and [the Midheaven and the other angles](https://natalore.com/en/guides/midheaven-and-chart-angles). Two practical guides follow, for when [the birth time is missing](https://natalore.com/en/guides/birth-chart-without-birth-time) and for [tracking it down](https://natalore.com/en/guides/how-to-find-your-birth-time).

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](https://natalore.com/en/moon-sign) or your [rising sign](https://natalore.com/en/rising-sign) for instance, the library pages are shorter and go straight to it; the [statistics page](https://natalore.com/en/astrology-statistics) collects the figures for every sign.

## 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.