Understanding Your Birth Chart

Your birth chart is a snapshot of the sky the moment you took your first breath. It marks your arrival here on earth; a celestial blueprint, if you will, that holds the keys to living a life of purpose. Popular astrology has focused heavily on one part of the astrological alphabet: your Sun sign. While the Sun may have been in Sagittarius when you were born, that is only one small part of what was occurring in the sky. You have every planet and every sign somewhere in your chart. Astrology represents the entirety of life and, like life, we escape none of it. You are not just a Virgo or a Gemini or a Libra; you are a moment in time, with every sign, planet, and point playing a part in who you are, how you move through the world and what you came here to do.

Whatever pattern constellated in the heavens at the moment you took your first breath is the cosmic imprint of your soul, the map of the journey you will take in this lifetime, and the ways in which you will go about it. Whether Mars marks your chart in a prominent way—stirring controversy and courageous acts from you—or Jupiter is in charge of your life’s direction—encouraging you to open doors through optimism and generosity—you, like everyone and everything else here, are an amulet of celestial significance.

The positions of the planets in your birth chart reveal the nature of your life without any kind of judgement attached. Your astrological makeup is a neutral reflection of your life, much like a mirror. Only the person looking at the reflection judges it; the mirror simply reveals what is there. Astrology reminds us that we are exactly as we are supposed to be for good reason. On purpose and with a purpose that we must live out if we want to feel any kind of fulfilment.

Extract from You Were Born For This by Chani Nicholas.