What it is. Western astrology maps where the Sun, Moon and planets were in the sky at the moment you were born, measured against the seasons (the tropical zodiac).
The parts. Each planet stands for a part of you (the Sun is your core self, the Moon your feelings, Mercury your mind, and so on). The SIGN a planet sits in is its style. The HOUSE it sits in is the area of life it plays out in. ASPECTS are the angles between planets — some easy, some frictional.
How to read it. Read the Sun, Moon and rising sign (the Ascendant) first; they carry most of the weight. Then the tight aspects. Every number lives in the data table; the prose is what it adds up to.
Everything on this page is interpreted — the conventional meaning of a placement, the same for every chart. Which sign, house or aspect you actually have is calculated; what it means for you is the reading.
The twelve signs
A sign is a 30° slice of the zodiac. Western astrology and Vedic astrology use the same twelve, with the same core meanings — Western measures them from the spring equinox, Vedic from the fixed stars, which is why the same planet can sit a sign earlier in your Vedic chart. The Sanskrit name is shown beside each.
- AriesMesha · Fire · Cardinal · ruled by Mars
- Initiative, courage, impatience — starts things, leads with the head, hates waiting.
- TaurusVrishabha · Earth · Fixed · ruled by Venus
- Steadiness, appetite, stubbornness — builds slowly, keeps what it has, trusts the body.
- GeminiMithuna · Air · Mutable · ruled by Mercury
- Curiosity, talk, restlessness — collects information, holds two views at once, bores fast.
- CancerKarka · Water · Cardinal · ruled by the Moon
- Protection, memory, moods — feels first, guards its own, needs a home base.
- LeoSimha · Fire · Fixed · ruled by the Sun
- Pride, warmth, performance — wants to be seen, loyal once won, hates being ignored.
- VirgoKanya · Earth · Mutable · ruled by Mercury
- Precision, service, worry — improves things, notices the flaw, works before it rests.
- LibraTula · Air · Cardinal · ruled by Venus
- Balance, taste, other people — weighs both sides, needs a partner to think against, avoids the fight.
- ScorpioVrischika · Water · Fixed · ruled by Mars (and Pluto)
- Intensity, secrecy, control — all or nothing, reads the room, never forgets.
- SagittariusDhanu · Fire · Mutable · ruled by Jupiter
- Appetite for meaning, travel, bluntness — wants the big picture, says the thing, leaves the room.
- CapricornMakara · Earth · Cardinal · ruled by Saturn
- Ambition, structure, patience — climbs, takes responsibility early, respects what lasts.
- AquariusKumbha · Air · Fixed · ruled by Saturn (and Uranus)
- Detachment, ideas, the group — thinks in systems, allergic to the expected, loyal to principles.
- PiscesMeena · Water · Mutable · ruled by Jupiter (and Neptune)
- Porousness, imagination, empathy — feels everything, blurs edges, escapes when it's too much.
The planets and points
Each body stands for a part of you; the sign it sits in is that part's style, and the house is where it plays out. The Sun, Moon and Ascendant carry the most weight, then the personal planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars), then the slower ones, which colour whole generations.
- Sun
- Core identity, will, vitality — who you're becoming and what you're proud of.
- Moon
- Feelings, needs, instincts, memory — how you're comforted and what you do when nobody's watching.
- Mercury
- Mind, speech, learning — how you think and how you talk.
- Venus
- Love, taste, pleasure, money — what you're drawn to and how you draw others.
- Mars
- Drive, anger, desire, action — how you go after things and how you fight.
- Jupiter
- Growth, luck, belief, excess — where life is generous and where you overdo it.
- Saturn
- Limits, discipline, time, fear — where you're tested and where you become reliable.
- Uranus
- Disruption, freedom, sudden change — where you refuse the script.
- Neptune
- Dreams, blur, longing, illusion — where you idealise and where you dissolve.
- Pluto
- Power, obsession, transformation — what you can't leave alone and what remakes you.
- Chiron
- The wound that becomes a skill — where you hurt, and where you help others with the same thing.
- North NodeMean Node / True Node · Rahu in Vedic
- Direction of growth — the unfamiliar thing your life keeps asking you to do.Mean and True Node are two ways of calculating the same point; they sit within a degree or two of each other.
- North Node (true)True Node
- Direction of growth — the unfamiliar thing your life keeps asking you to do.
- South NodeKetu in Vedic
- What you already know how to do — comfortable, and a place to get stuck.
- Black Moon LilithMean Apogee · Osculating / Interpolated Apogee
- The Moon's far point — the raw, refused, unapologetic part of you.Three calculations of the same point (mean, osculating, interpolated); they can sit a few degrees apart.
- Lilith (osculating)
- The Moon's far point, calculated moment-to-moment — the raw, refused part of you.
- Lilith (interpolated)
- The Moon's far point, smoothed — the raw, refused part of you.
- PriapusInterpolated Perigee
- The Moon's near point — appetite, the thing you grab at.
- Ceres
- Nurture and nourishment — how you care for others and what feeds you.
- Pallas
- Pattern-recognition and strategy — how you see the shape of a problem.
- Juno
- Commitment and partnership terms — what you need from a bond to stay.
- Vesta
- Devotion and focus — the flame you tend; what you'd give everything to.
- Pholus
- Small cause, big effect — the lid that comes off; family patterns that surface late.
- AscendantRising sign · Lagna in Vedic
- The sign rising in the east when you were born — your front door: how you come across, your body, your approach to life.
- MidheavenMC · Medium Coeli
- The top of the chart — career, reputation, what you're known for and aim at.
- Vertex
- A fated-encounter point — people and events that arrive without being chosen.
- Part of Fortune
- Where Sun, Moon and Ascendant combine — a spot of natural ease and luck.
The twelve houses
Houses are twelve areas of life laid over the chart, starting from the Ascendant. A planet in a house brings its energy to that area; an empty house is run by the planet that rules the sign on its cusp. Houses need an exact birth time.
- 1st house
- Self, body, how you come across.
- 2nd house
- Money, values, self-worth.
- 3rd house
- Mind, communication, siblings.
- 4th house
- Home, roots, family.
- 5th house
- Creativity, romance, play.
- 6th house
- Work, routines, health.
- 7th house
- Partnership, one-on-one relationships.
- 8th house
- Intimacy, shared resources, transformation.
- 9th house
- Belief, travel, the big picture.
- 10th house
- Career, reputation, public life.
- 11th house
- Community, friendships, hopes.
- 12th house
- The unconscious, endings, what's hidden.
The aspects
An aspect is the angle between two planets. Tight angles (a small orb) matter more than loose ones. Vedic aspects work by whole signs on different rules; these are the Western set.
- Conjunction
- 0° apart — two planets fused, acting as one.
- Sextile
- 60° apart — an easy, cooperative angle; opportunity that still needs a push.
- Square
- 90° apart — the hard angle; friction with no easy release.
- Trine
- 120° apart — the gift angle; energy flowing without effort.
- Opposition
- 180° apart — directly across the wheel; a tug-of-war asking for balance.
Dignities
Sign dignity describes how a sign supports or challenges a planet's expression. It contributes to assessing the planet; it is not a total strength score. Western and Vedic use different sets of classifications.
- DomicileRulership · Own sign (Swakshetra)
- The planet is in a sign it rules — at home, acting cleanly and on its own terms.
- ExaltedExaltation · Uchcha
- A traditionally supportive placement for the planet's expression. Other chart conditions still shape how it operates.
- Detriment
- Opposite its home sign — the planet works against the grain and has to try harder.
- FallDebilitated · Neecha
- Opposite its exaltation — a traditionally challenging placement for the planet's expression. Other chart conditions still matter.
- DebilitatedNeecha (Vedic)
- A traditionally challenging placement for the planet's expression. This alone does not determine its overall strength or results.
- Own SignSwakshetra (Vedic)
- The planet occupies a sign it rules — at home, expressing its own nature.
- MoolatrikonaVedic
- A designated part of a sign where the planet is traditionally well placed to carry out its core function.
- Friendly SignNatural friendship (Vedic)
- The sign's ruler is a natural friend of this planet — a supportive host in the tradition's relationship scheme.
- Neutral SignNatural relationship (Vedic)
- The sign's ruler is neither a natural friend nor a natural enemy of this planet. This describes their relationship, not the planet's total strength.
- Enemy SignNatural enmity (Vedic)
- The sign's ruler is a natural enemy of this planet — a less accommodating host in the tradition's relationship scheme.
- Peregrine
- No dignity either way — the planet takes its character from its ruler and its aspects.