Unlocking Your Cosmic Blueprint: A Guide to Understanding Astrology and Chart Readings with Me

by Aleena Glinski

Welcome! My intention with this blog post is to help you understand the basics of astrology in the way that I practice it, and give you the tools you need to start understanding your own chart. If you’ve booked a consultation with me, or are thinking about booking with me, reading through this will be very helpful for you to make the best use out of our time together. If you’re brand new to astrology, I don’t expect that too much of this will make sense before we have a chance to discuss it, but reading through this beforehand will give us a shared language that can help us optimize our time together. Hopefully after you’ve read through this, you will have the tools that you’ll need to understand your chart to the depth of your interest through self study. Astrology is as complicated as we are, so know that I am available for as many sessions as you might want or need to really understand this beautiful system.

What is a birth chart?

A birth chart is a two-dimensional snapshot of the sky at the time you were born. It shows where all of the zodiac signs and planets were relative to the exact time and location of your birth. The whole sky is represented by a circle that’s divided up into twelve slices. Around the time that natal astrology was invented thousands of years ago, the constellations that represent and inspired each of the 12 zodiac signs were found in each of these 12 different slices of pie that the sky was divided into. Below is an image of a chart that shows just the zodiac symbol and its constellation to demonstrate how the sky was divided.

Understanding the four pillars of astrology: 

Houses | Signs | Planets | Aspects

1. Houses 

Ancient astrologers used a metaphor to help understand the four pillars of astrology where the night sky was its own world - the realm of the gods - and the houses were like the kingdoms, or the borders of the different countries within this sky world. There are 12 houses, and because I practice Hellenistic astrology (origin 1st-2nd century BC), these houses map exactly on top of the 12 zodiac signs. Different astrologers use different house systems; what I’m using is called whole sign houses, because each house takes up a whole sign. The order in which these houses are layered on top of the zodiac signs depends on what sign was rising over the eastern horizon at the time of your birth (which is why it’s important to have an exact birth time; this is also what determines the ascendant, which represents the totally of you - mind and body - in the birth chart). These 12 houses represent different areas of life. For instance, the second house represents personal finance and the 7th house represents relationships. For a complete list of the significations of the 12 houses, see the graphic below. For more information about a certain house, you look at the placement and condition of the ruler of the house (which is like the king of the kingdom in our fantasy sky world) which is the same as the ruler of the zodiacal sign that that house is placed in (more on that when we get to planets).

Extra credit: Each house is either angular, succeedent, or cadent:

*angular house: these areas of life and any planets here tend to be more active/powerful/energetic (house 1, 4, 7, & 10 with 1 and 10 being the most potent and 4 the least)

*succedent house: “rising up towards,” you may notice the characteristics of planets located here a bit later in life (house 2, 5, 8, 11)

*cadent house: “falling away from,” accessing planetary qualities found in these houses may take greater effort or might come with a great delay (house 3, 6, 9, 12)

Here are the significations I tend to use for the 12 houses. Understand that these places are very nuanced and this is only a very brief overview of each. Planets, sign, and the condition and placement of the ruler of each house will add a great deal of complexity.

1st house: (angular) self, mind body, character, appearance  The ascendent is found here, which represents your mind and body. Any planets here in combination with the sign’s rulership tend to match the person’s essence. The house where the ruler of this house is found can indicate a person's main purpose or drive in life. The planet that rules this house has their hands on the helm of the person’s life, steering the ship.	7th house: (angular) relationships, partnership, marriage, “other.” The descendent is found here, which can indicate qualities that you lack or reject within yourself, or that you may be attracted to in others. You may be attracted to people with prominent placements in this sign or people representative of planets found here. The house where this house’s ruler is found may indicate the area of life where you meet your partner
2nd house: (succedent) finances, possessions, income, food. House placement of the ruler of this house may indicate how you make money.	8th house: (succedent) death, inheritance, taxes, assets of others, transformation. This is another dark house, so if there are planets here, you may not identify with those qualities. Malefics here may indicate an ability to deal with the malefic qualities in other people well, and benefics here might indicate gift giving as a love language.
3rd house: (cadent), siblings/extended family, pets, short trips, school, social, communication, daily routines	9th house: (cadent) travel, foreign things, higher education, philosophy, religion, magic/astrology/the occult
4th house: (angular) parents, ancestry, home/property, house where you live, family, private, hidden, or secret parts of life. Can indicate the type of childhood environment you grew up in (physical and/or emotional). Planets here may feel especially emotional or out of your control when you’re younger.	10th house: (angular) career, actions, reputation, public image. Your style of achieving. MC/midheaven often found here, which represents career. Planets conjunct the midheaven are extremely important. The ruler of this house may be found in the house that indicates your area of work.
5th house: (succeedent) children, fertility, creativity, pleasure, sex.	11th house: (succeedent) friends, groups, alliances, your audience, hopes, dreams. Traditionally known as “the house of good spirit.” your attitude towards friendship.
6th house: (cadent) illness, injuries, accidents, work, pets, subordinates  traditionally called “the house of bad fortune.” placements here can also indicate healing gifts or the ability to help with these issues. This is a “dark house,” meaning it’s not aspected by the ascendent, which can indicate that you may not identify with this sign or planets located here as much.	12th house: (cadent) enemies, sickness, loss, seclusion, self-undoing, addiction, mental health, spirituality. Traditionally “the house of bad spirit,” another dark house, so this sign and planets here may feel like more hidden qualities of the personality. strong placements here can also indicate gifts of alleviating people’s suffering. This would be the hour right before your mother gave birth to you: the painful and dangerous liminal space between worlds. Could indicate someone who has a strength of being helpful behind the scenes.

2. Zodiac Signs

In this metaphor, the zodiac signs are like the culture of the countries. Each sign has unique archetypal qualities that indicate the native’s (the native is the individual whose chart we’re looking at, so you) attitude, disposition, or approach to these 12 different areas of life. 

You are probably familiar with your sun sign, but did you know that each planet (depending on its location at the time of your birth) will have a sign placement as well? You have not just a sun sign, but also a Moon, rising, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto sign as well! I’m using the traditional, western, tropical zodiac, but there are other zodiac systems as well (like the Chinese zodiac and sidereal zodiac). 

Zodiac signs all have some combination of the qualities found in the table below. All of these qualities, and all of the signs, and all of the planets and all of the houses (and all things) have both positive and negative, light and shadow sides. The graphics in the table illustrate which signs consist of which qualities. A complete summary of all the signs and all of their qualities can be found in the graphic under the table. As you go through your chart, you may want to refer back to this table to understand the sign placements of the planets and houses. Pythagorean numerology is a part of the underlying philosophy/logic behind how these qualities got assigned to each sign, which you can begin to see in the graphics here.

3. Planets 

The planets are the wandering characters that traverse around this sky world. They each have a god or goddess that they correspond to in ancient Greek mythology. They have their own unique archetypal qualities and temperament, but will also be shaped by the country’s culture that they find themselves in (the sign). Some planets will feel very at home in certain signs, and certain signs will have qualities that are quite antithetical to the planet’s natural disposition, and will be more challenging places for them. While this could be experienced as subjectively more challenging to the native with regard to this part of the personality, it could also add a little quirkiness or complexity to the person. 

In natal astrology, we take the snapshot of the sky when you were born and the planets’ placement indicate to us different parts of the character of the native. The planets are how and where these archetypal energies are constellated inside of you. Depending on house placement, the planets may also represent different people in your life, or qualities you’re attracted to within the different realms of life. For example, a planet in the 7th house of relationship might indicate qualities of your spouse, or characteristics you find attractive in other people.

In traditional astrology, some planets are considered benefic or malefic:

*benefic: subjectively more positive qualities (though they still have a shadow side). House placements of benefic planets might indicate areas of life where you experience relative ease or good fortune.

*malefic: subjectively more negative qualities (though they still have a light side). House placements of malefic planets might indicate areas of life where you may have experienced some hardship or challenges. 

Here are significations I tend to use for the planets. Understand that these bodies are very nuanced and this is only a very, very brief overview of each. Aspects, sign, and house placements will add a great deal of complexity to each.

Moon ☽: (feminine) emotional body, subconscious, the mother (sign placement can indicate qualities about your mother)

Rulership - cancer

Domicile - cancer

Exaltation - taurus

detriment - scorpio

fall - capricorn

Sun ☉: (masculine) the ego, intellect, the father (sign placement can indicate qualities of your father)

Rulership - Leo

Domicile - leo

Exaltation - aries

detriment - aquarius

fall - libra

Mercury ☿: (neither feminine nor masculine) your style of communication, the trickster, technical ability and skill, critical thinking, working with the hands 

Rulership - gemini and virgo

Domicile - gemini and virgo

Exaltation - virgo

detriment - sagittarius and pisces

fall - pisces

Venus  ♀: (feminine, benefic) your style of love, romance, beauty, aesthetic, music, art, desire, attraction, harmony, sensuality (aphrodite)

Domicile - taurus and libra

Exaltation - pisces

detriment - scorpio and aries

fall - virgo

Mars ♂: (masculine, malefic) how you get things done, style of self assertion, the planet of war, anger, aggression, energy, passion, violence

Domicile - aries and scorpio

Exaltation - capricorn

detriment - libra and taurus

fall - cancer

Jupiter  ♃: (masculine, benefic), luck, abundance, where your gifts are, big picture thinking, growth and expansion, faith, philosophy, optimism, joy

Domicile - sagittarius, pisces

Exaltation - cancer

detriment - gemini, virgo

fall - capricorn

Saturn ♄: (masculine, malefic) structure, boundaries, limitation, constraint, discipline, restraint, time, loss, suffering, reality, mastery, archetype of the stern father, house placement may indicate an area of life where you experienced some core wounding as a child or experienced challenges

Domicile - capricorn and aquarius

Exaltation - libra

detriment - cancer and leo

fall - aries

Uranus ♅: (impersonal/outer planet) prometheus, sudden insight, revolution, electricity, lightning bolt energy, eccentricity, freedom, liberation, technology, futurism

Neptune  ♆: (Impersonal/outer planet), dissolving, mysticism, imagination, dreams, fantasy, illusion, delusion/self-deception

Pluto : (impersonal/outer planet), power, control, authoritarianism, instinctual id, underworld, hades, transformation, shiva, sexual, dark, mysterious, the unconscious

North Node ☊ : aspiration/direction of the soul, moving towards this for this and future lives, direction of spiritual growth, what your soul’s journey is moving towards

South Node ☋ : past life, moving away from this part of life in this lifetime, what your soul’s journey is moving away from

MC: (angle) career/vocation/public image (usually in the 10th house, but if not, can import 10th house significations into the house that it's found in)

IC: (angle) ancestry, family, maternal figures, tradition, and caregiving figures in a person's life. It can speak to a person's roots and family (usually in the 4th house, but if not, can import 4th house significations into the house that it's found in)

Chiron ⚷: (comet) archetype of the wounded healer, deep wounding, you may have gifts helping others with this aspect of life but have a hard time yourself in this area.

4. Aspects 

The aspects between planets are the planets’ relative angular position to each other. Aspects represent how these different planetary energies relate to each other inside of you and in your life. In the metaphor of this fantasy sky world, these are the relationships between the characters. 

Sextiles (60 degrees) and Trines (120 degrees) are the subjectively easier, more harmonious aspects with trine being the most positive, and squares (90 degrees) and oppositions (180 degrees) are the subjectively harder aspects with opposition being the most challenging. A conjunction (two or more planets located at the same point) represents a merging of qualities that could be either positive or negative. Pythagorean numerology was integral in assigning meaning to these angles. An Orb indicates how tight an aspect is. For instance, an exact conjunction is when two planets are in the same exact point (the same exact degree) in the sky. If they are in almost the same spot in the sky, only 5 degrees apart, then they are conjunct with a 5 degree orb. Different astrologers have different sized orbs that they work with, some including a wider range of consideration than others. Ancient hellenistic astrologers had a very wide orb that they worked with: they considered any 2 planets within the same sign to be conjunct, even if they were 29 degrees apart (each sign is 30 degrees (30 degrees x 12 signs = 360 degrees)). This is called a sign-based conjunction. Most modern astrologers work with more narrow orbs (8-12 degrees). The closer an aspect is to exact, the more intensely it’s felt. 

One of the implications of aspects is that even if a nice, benefic planet is very well placed in a sign that it feels happy in (e.g. its domicile), it could still be in a hard aspect with a challenging or malefic planet that may oppose the good thing this planet wants to do for you. Or vice versa: even if a planet is placed in a very challenging place, it may have positive aspects to benefics that greatly reduce the damage it may have wanted to inflict in this area of life. 

Not all planets and placements and aspects are active at all times. Certain indications about the life of the native may only be activated at certain times, and there are many different timing techniques that one might look at to predict when certain promises in the chart come to life. For instance, if Saturn is aspecting something, that can often indicate that whatever quality of life or aspect of the personality that Saturn is touching may only be developed after the Saturn return (around age 31), or even later in life. There are many different aspects of bonification or maltreatment that go into consideration when determining planetary condition. 

Philosophy 

The philosophical implications of astrology could span several books. Here is a brief note on my take on things. As an astrologer, if you choose to get a reading with me, my hope is to leave you feeling fortified, connected on a cosmic scale, and with a greater sense of meaning and purpose. I believe that our capacity to make meaning out of symbols is magical and a huge source of personal power. Whether or not the planets have a real, measurable, causal influence on our lives is not as important to me as the fact that when we give them meaning and relevance that is integrated into our lives and understanding of ourselves, it can give us a greater power to manifest our dreams and purpose. You could think of it like the placebo effect: even if there’s no reason that a certain practice, pill, or planet should have any tangible effect on our lives, if we really believe in it, it can. And this type of symbolic projection has been happening across cultures for millennia which I believe makes it particularly potent. Certainly there’s a balance to be struck here in that this power could have a positive or negative effect on the life depending on how we wield it, but I will do my best to help you navigate these waters skillfully.

Another way to think about the power of astrology as a form of symbolic projection (there are many different ways to practice symbolic projection, e.g. ink blot tests, dream interpretation, the scribble test) is that this type of activity can sidestep the grip of the ego in order to access subconscious content by inviting us into a perspective shift into the observer consciousness, which is a more reflective state. The narrative that you create around the symbols presented to you in the chart can reveal a lot about the unconscious. Furthermore, I believe that reflecting on our subjective experience in a hyper-rational, objectified, externally oriented, scientific, materialist culture is a radical act of Self care. Your subjective experience is the only experience that you will ever have, every moment of every day. Knowing in your head that there is an external reality that may not match your subjective experience doesn’t intrinsically change your quality of life at all. Unconscious conditioning from our culture, childhood, and other people have a much greater impact on our experience and actions than our rational understanding and reasoning does. We are much more irrational than the ego would like to think. Astrology is one way to look under the hood and see the conscious and unconscious narratives playing out in our lives. Once you become aware of the stories you may be telling about your life, you can begin to change them - every symbol in the natal chart has both positive and negative potential. Yoga nidra is one very powerful way to rewire subconscious conditioning in ways that are more beneficial to you, so you can check out my youtube channel if that interests you, as well. 

Caveats about my Readings

I’ve studied and am most fluent in hellenistic astrology, and I know a little bit about modern psychological astrology as well. I use whole sign houses and traditional planetary rulerships, but am happy to look at modern rulerships as well if that’s what you’d prefer. Some of my techniques don’t work with other house systems, so if you’d like to use placidus, equal sign, Porphyry, or other house systems, I may not be the best astrologer for you. I do not practice horary or electional astrology and I don’t have the skills to do birth time rectification. I will not be able to answer questions with exact specificity or in a detailed manner. I believe that astrology is archetypally predictive and that it can help us to get a road map of major themes that may come up in our lives. My hope is that our time together will be a collaborative dialogue where I may offer the symbolic nature of what I see in the chart and you can let me know what does or does not resonate. There are a myriad of ways that any particular configuration can play out, which is also largely dependent on cultural context. For instance, the hero's journey would be very different in Boston in 2024 than it would be in Rome in 100 BC, but the general temperament and characteristics of the hero are timeless, and this is the wisdom of mythology. 

I don’t pretend to be an authority on astrology or on your life. I understand that things may come up in a reading that are very sensitive and personal, and please feel free to let me know as we go along if anything is making you feel uncomfortable or if you’d like to move on to a different topic. If something comes up that is outside of my wheelhouse, I'll do my best to refer you to someone who’s better equipped to help.

Conclusion

This is only the beginning, friend! That is that basic infrastructure of my take on the sky world that for some reason has a significant impact on human lives. Ever since my undergraduate years at Yale studying physics, everything I learned about cosmology or astrophysics or quantum mechanics or anything, I took symbolically and tried to ask myself, "if this is the nature of the universe, how can it also be human nature?" because of course, we are the universe - subject to all of the same laws and made up of all of the same stuff. I have always taken symbolism very seriously, and it wasn't until later in my 20s that I found out my inclinations and approach to physics were not actually some far out delusion, but a natural human impulse that has been practiced for at least 4,000 years across every culture. We are a part of something much greater than we can possibly comprehend. There is meaning and method to it all, though we will surely only scratch the surface. But what a joy it is to try! And what a blessing that we are all supported by an archetypal framework that our ancestors have helped us to understand over the course of thousands of years. These tools and systems have helped me so much to understand myself, my place in the world, and my orientation to it. I would be honored to help you do the same. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions.