The Birth Chart

A birth chart is a snapshot of the sky taken at the exact moment and place someone was born. It is drawn as a wheel, a circle that stands for the whole three hundred and sixty degrees of the zodiac. Around the rim run the twelve signs in fixed order, and inside sit twelve segments called houses, numbered like slices of a pie. The planets are placed around the wheel according to where they actually were, each falling in a particular sign and house. Lines drawn across the center connect planets that sit at meaningful angles to one another; these connections are the aspects, and they show how the parts of the chart relate. The exact time and place matter because they set two things the wheel depends on: the houses and the angles. The rising sign on the left edge changes about every two hours and shifts with location, so a chart cast for the same day but a different hour or city produces a different framework. The planets barely move in that span, but the scaffolding around them does.