How to get it wrong (to read a chart as a whole)

On Substack

First part: Charts have deceiving looks. 

Second part: But the way we look at them is no better

First part: Beware of optical illusions! 

1 If several indicators are very close to one another,  the chart is likely to display the symbols next to each other, and not in front of the little lines that indicate their exact position. You may see them far away from where they really are. 

Also, you may not notice which ones are very close to each other, and which ones are more distant. Orbs matter though.   

So put on your glasses, look at the little lines!

2 On Astrodienst, the default settings are 10 degrees orb for conjunctions, oppositions, trines and squares. You will see the same coloured lines for these aspects, independently of how tight they are. 

For instance, imagine  a Moon - Mars - Saturn T-square, with Saturn at the apex. The Moon is always a big player. 

 Let’s say the Moon - Saturn square is exact, and therefore really strong, but the  Moon-Mars opposition , and the Mars - Saturn square exist with a 9 degrees orb. 

Interpreting the Moon- Mars opposition without describing the Moon Saturn square first would be the equivalent of talking about a piglet in the room, whilst ignoring there is an elephant. Your interpretations won’t impress the querent. The other way round, starting with the elephant will be spot on, and then going as far as pointing out the piglet running between the elephant’s paws will come across as the cherry on top of the cake.  

4 Some aspects may be minor but they do exist! 

In the astrodienst format, minor aspects are represented by dotted lines. Semi squares or sesqui-squares are almost invisible.  However, they may be exact to the degree or almost, and therefore more powerful than a loose major aspect. Again, put your glasses on!

Check the grid under the chart, and be prepared to calculate mentally. If Pluto is at 9 degree Scorpio and Venus at 24 degree Sagittarius, how tight is this semi square? 

5 On astrodienst, if you’re using the default settings, Chiron is shown, but without aspects. I like it this way. It’s better not to have too many lines criss-crossing a chart. Sometimes people show charts with aspects to the angles, to the nodes and to a number of asteroids as well, and the result looks like a nervous breakdown. 

However, Chiron in a strong aspect to a personal planet is a meaningful and powerful indicator. Don’t forget to notice. 

6 Another way to make too much of a big deal of a piglet whilst ignoring the elephant herd is to forget that the most powerful indicators are those that move the quickest. Look at what’s going on around the angles first, then the luminaries, then the personal planets. 

If you get excited about a Jupiter Neptune trine because it is exact, and neither Jupiter or Neptune is conjunct to an angle or a luminary, or ruler of the Ascendant, and there aren’t important placements in Sagittarius or Pisces… then, this aspect may be a big piglet, but it’s not an elephant, not even a small one.  

Maybe you’re reading a chart with piglets only? You better check before elaborating on this Jupiter Neptune trine. 

NB:  Conjunctions are the most powerful connections. After them consider tight aspects, especially the major ones. If you have a stellium, you won’t see colourful lines across the chart, but don’t downplay it. Imagine a huge blue and red spot around it. 

Second part. About wrong and right ways to approach a chart.

Have you already played chess? 

If yes, you have probably lost at least once because you were so excited about your attack that you forgot to pay attention to your opponent’s point of view. You were moving forward like a bulldozer. You couldn’t think of anything else. You had built a fortress to protect your king, but a side door was left open. Before you knew it, you were checkmated. 

To get it wrong with an astrological chart is very similar. Imagine.  You have identified a planet as a main player. So you dig and dig, you focus on what this planet in this sign and in this house may mean, but the deeper you dig the narrower your horizon becomes and you end up unable to get out of the hole you dug for yourself! 

I am not saying not to dig at all. Not digging is the opposite way to get it wrong! Some unstable minds  jump like fleas from one placement to the next. Oh this Venus in Leo! And it’s in the ninth house! But Mars is in Scorpio, that’s tough! In the First House, woah! Moon in Aries that’s impulsive, but opposite Saturn, sometimes it’s not! …So much about the art of getting nowhere. 

So yes, when you spot a dominant energy, dig, but not too much. A chart is made of placements and bridges between them. Bridges are aspects, or rulership relations. 

For instance, if you get so fascinated by this Uranus conjunct the MC in Aries that you immediately set up to re-read the entire book by Liz Greene’s about Uranus, you’ll end up confused. In the book you get a rich tapestry of life. So much width and depth are wonderful, we need culture and intelligence, but hours later you’ll still be wondering: what does this Uranus conjunct MC in Aries mean exactly?... 

There is no exact answer to a precise question about a particular chart in a rich tapestry…  

You need to sum up all you know to “get the vibe” as clearly as possible, and move on. 

With Uranus, there is something different. Thinking outside the box, or behaving like an outsider, an outcast or a rebel. Could be an interest in science, politics, technology or an ideology. A rejection of nature and the body maybe. 

Sometimes, with Uranus you’re just different. You may not even know why and how. You’re a weirdo. There are many kinds of weirdos… 

At some level, there is a normal way, and there is breaking away from it. Difficult to be more precise. 

With Aries, it’s easy to feel that it's likely to be a tad more extreme as it would be anyway, with a leading, pioneering or competitive strike. Both Uranus and Aries want independence and have things going their own way. It feels rather uncompromising, radical. 

Keep the question marks hanging and look around. What else? 

From this Uranus in Aries, you can spot that it is ruled by Mars, in Aries as well, conjunct the Moon, and the Moon happens to be the Ascendant ruler, making it even more important. That’s a huge focus in the tenth house, and in Aries… 

There could be a lot to say about this, but again, don’t keep stuck here.

Look around. Don’t miss that Uranus is also connected with Mercury by a square. Moreover, Mercury is also conjunct with the Ascendant, so this aspect is important like a first class elephant. Even more so if you notice that the Sun is in Gemini. Mercury rules it, is dominant and squares another dominant planet! It’s huge!   

Mercury and Uranus have common grounds: the mind, the nervous system, communications of insights, weird communications… Remember that Aries rules the head. This could be a big brain. This could be a mad one. And Mercury is intense, it’s conjunct Pluto. 

Again, don’t dig a hole so deep that the horizon disappears. Look around!  Yes, Mercury is conjunct Pluto, and Pluto conjunct the Ascendant, itself ruled by the Moon, and squaring it… Great emotional intensity here, connecting the Ascendant (the guy himself) and the tenth house (his social status). With Mum playing a part in the drama, probably. Moon also rules memory and imagination, not just Mum and emotions… 

Feel the vibe, keep the question marks hanging, keep wandering through the chart, follow its roads, cross the bridges, keep moving…  Looking at the whole architecture. Think like a spider, because it’s a web.

There is much more in this example chart of course, but you see the way to proceed. 

My last recommendation is to simply be polite with your subconscious mind and with the astrological angels that only want to help. 

Ask, let the questions hang for a while and trust.  Open a book at a random page, look through the window, forget about it and come back later. 

The chart I used as an example is John Nash’s, genius, mathematician, Nobel Prize. He also struggled with schizophrenia and believed he was communicating with extraterrestrials. 

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrologer, storyteller, writer

Would you like to learn with me? I offer one to one classes - or small groups. How about a low cost “spontaneous reading” to try and see? 

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How to read a chart. Where is the Earth? Why is it the Moon?

The Moon is mother, says the astrologer. 

The Earth is our mother. Traditional cultures with roots have been saying it since ancient times. In Greece she was called Gaia.

Where is the Earth in the chart? The usual answer is that it’s at the centre, half way between Ascendant and Descendant, where the horizon crosses the meridian.

 The Earth is where we are looking at the Heavens from, we can’t see it over our heads moving from sign to sign! 

Some chart types, for instance on Astrodienst, include a small circle at the centre. That’s where we are.

Here is another answer: Where is the Earth? It’s the Moon! 

This is not to be taken literally. I’m not that confused. 

Let me explain:

Traditional cultures with roots have been saying, since ancient times, that we are children of Heaven and Earth. 

There is a fundamental duality in us. We are spirit and matter, we are body and soul, we are from above and we belong below. The planets must express this fundamental duality if they are talking about us. But, of course,  the Earth is nowhere to be seen up there! 

But look. The Sun is a Sky wanderer. The Moon is close to the Earth. The Sun is Father, the Moon is Mother. They are the Yin and the Yang, they tell us about the fundamental duality. 

So, is it Sun and Moon, or Heaven and Earth? 

Such a question could be asked by someone with an overactive left-brain, and a sleepy right-brain, the one that understands metaphors. It’s both! It depends on the mood of the storyteller.

The Moon changes, she waxes and wanes, she dies and is reborn. Her phases reflect the phases of mortal life. She is our mirror. Nature, tides and plants do what she does.  She means home, influence of the environment, emotions and instincts, generation. Along with the first house, she means something about our body. Yes, she means Earth. 

The Sun looks immortal by comparison. Always round, always radiating light and warmth, it’s the most potent source of life and energy we know, and if it’s a source, it’s like God. It’s  Spirit bursting out in Heaven.

Now, when we are reading a chart, it doesn’t help to think that the Sun is a symbol of the Ultimate Source… unless we connect it with the idea that there is a divine spark within us, a creative spark that is busy creating ourselves from within. For more about the Sun, read The Sun is the Heart of the Chart.

All the efforts and aspirations to become who we want to be, our dreams and ideals, our callings belong to the Sun. This immortal part is not vulnerable. Only its creation is, that lives in the flesh, in the Moon’s realm.    

In another post, “Self or Ego, what is the Ascendant?", I used the metaphor of a submarine -a metaphor for the Ascendant - driven by a pilot - The Sun - used to explore the depth of an ocean - a metaphor for life on earth. 

Seen from the lightness and freedom of the spirit world, incarnating on Earth can be compared to getting down to the bottom of an ocean; the soul in the body can feel imprisoned, like in a submarine. 

How we appear on earth, with a body and a temperament, is shown by the Ascendant and the First House. Our goals and intentions, our life purpose and the heroic journey of becoming who we want to be is shown by the Sun.

Thus, the fundamental duality can be symbolised by the Sun versus the Ascendant, or by the Sun versus the Moon. Symbols are flexible. What if we consider the three of them together? Ascendant, Sun and Moon are the “Big three”, the most fundamental indicators in a birth chart.  

As part of a Sun-Moon-Ascendant Trio, the Moon is the soul, or psyche.

The psyche is an intermediary. She has a foot in the eternal world of Spirit, and a foot in the changing and mortal world of Nature. She is a medium. She rules over dreams, not the solar dreams of who we want to be, but the watery dreams, the messages. The Moon rejoices in the Third House. In our sleep, in our daydreams, in the flow of our thoughts and feelings, sometimes in a blurred way, sometimes clearly, we are connected with the great sea, whilst living in this body. 

Jung would talk about the function of intermediary of the Anima or Animus between the conscious ego and the collective unconscious. 

Again, the left-brains may be irritated, and ask: “So, the messenger, is it the Moon, or is it Mercury?”

They can work together! The Moon provides a flow of emotionally charged pictures, and Mercury articulates words to describe them. Thot, the Egyptian God of learning and writing, to which Hermes became assimilated in Hellenistic times, was God of the Moon. 

In this body, energies flow, or get blocked at times, causing diseases. If the Sixth House is more powerful than the First and the Moon, we may need some healing. Check also the Sun for the heart, upper spine and vitality. 

The Moon is Mother. Mothers are women, and women are witches, aren't they? They gather in a clearing in the middle of the woods to dance bare feet under the Moon when she’s full. They know the plants and they know how to bind, because they care for tribes and families.

They belong to the Earth and they extend invisible roots into the psychic dimension, where the light of the Moon reflects that of the Sun. 

Applying this to the metaphor of the submarine, the Sun is the driver, it is us, with individuality,  intention and purpose. It is the Heart. 

 The Ascendant is the submarine, with an emphasis on its outermost layer. The Ascendant says something about how we appear, with our body and face, behaviours and temperament, and how we interact with the surrounding world.  

The Moon is the flesh of the submarine and its Mama. (You know how submarines reproduce). The submarine’s Mama is outside and inside. Outside, it’s another submarine, which belongs to a whole family of submarines sharing characteristics, and it’s the environment where sustenance is found. Inside, it’s all the maintenance, health and safety systems, including the desire to have babies. 

The Moon is the psychic world that mediates the Sun-Ascendant connection. She is Earth and more…

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrologer, Storyteller, etc.

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The Sun is the Heart of the Chart

Some people don’t relate to their Sun sign. It’s annoying! The Sun is the most important and the most influential of all the indicators. 

Astrology is a language of metaphors. For instance, the Moon has been a symbol for women since prehistoric times. One obvious connection is that both Moon and women go through monthly cycles. So women are like the Moon or vice versa.

So let’s look at the sky. What is the most important thing up there? 

The Sun is the most powerful, the most visible, the most influential of all the indicators in the birth chart. It is the most essential of all the heavenly bodies, for us.

So how come some people don’t relate to their Sun sign? 

A way to answer this question is to look for dominant energies. The Sun may be the king but sometimes kings have powerful ministers. 

 A planet conjunct to an angle of the chart, or very emphasized by aspects from the Sun, Moon and personal planets can become so dominant that its influence eclipses that of the Sun sign, and also of the Moon sign and Ascendant.  

Another way to become dominant for a planet is to rule over many other planets or points like the Ascendant or the Moon nodes. If there are, for instance, three planets in Virgo and the Ascendant and the South Node are in Gemini, Mercury becomes very important, even if the Sun is not in one of these two signs. 

So what happens then?

If, let’s say, Venus is dominant, even if the person is neither Taurus nor Libra, they will display Venusian traits, which will make them rather Taurus like, or Libra like - or a bit of both. Let's say Venusian. 

If Mars, Jupiter or Saturn are dominant, I think it's very important to remember that these three planets traditionally rule two signs each. 

If Mars is dominant in a chart we can expect Aries like traits, and Scorpio traits as well. When Mars is taking action boldly and energetically, Mars expresses its Aries side. But when Mars is waiting in ambush, resisting in the face of adversity or thinking of a strategy it's more like Scorpio. The sign in which Mars is placed and the overall balance of elements should give clues as to how this Mars is more likely to express. 

In all cases Mars dominant in the chart of someone with a soft sign like Cancer or Libra will give the person traits which are not part of the stereotypical description. 

Now stereotypes are just stereotypes. What is essential is deeper.

There is another and complementary way to explain why some people don't relate to their Sun sign: it is to say that they haven't understood what their sign is about. 

When you read standard descriptions of Sun signs, they describe how people born with this Sun sign are. Virgos are supposed to be fussy, picky, neat and organised. A good deal of them are, but there are also messy Virgos. So let's drop this idea of Sun signs as immutable characters, all cast in the same mould, as fixed in their ways as Greek marbles. 

If we come across a messy Virgo, a shy Leo, a silent Gemini, a sleeping Sagittarius… Instead of thinking that they are not how they should be, let's ask:

"What is the Sign about?" 

The messy Virgo may be intellectually very sharp. Their mind may be the most organised mind you'll ever come across. If you could visit their mental world... you would realise the description of the textbooks applies, but in their head, not in their house. 

It's possible that in the chart, the Sun or Mercury are afflicted by challenging oppositions or squares from other planets, and this generates disturbances. So to deal with the threat of chaos, Virgo separates their own universe into two distinct boxes. In one box, chaos wins. Investing energy in this box is of no use, let's be pragmatic and practical. In the other box, order is firmly established and maintained. That is the best possible use of the energy.

Take some distance and you'll see that this Virgo is really a Virgo even if the living room is an abomination.

With Virgo there is a strong urge to discriminate, analyse and organise. But it won’t be expressed exactly in the same way for every single Virgo. 

My father is a shy Leo. I've seen him many times being the silent one in family gatherings. He is nothing like the boisterous and egocentric stereotype of Leo. He is a Libra Rising - so Venus becomes his chart ruler and Venus is conjunct Pluto and conjunct the MC. This brings a very strong Plutonian influence. Other placements in his chart are not supportive of Leo energy - rather the opposite. Sun conjunct Neptune, Mars in the 12th house for instance.

So rather than asking "What is a Leo like?" Let's ask "What is Leo about?". In short, Leo is about self expression, it is about showing, sharing the light. Being at the centre and radiating energy. 

In my father's case, this was a challenge for him. He had to try hard to be at least a little bit like a Leo. Still he was a Leo. With another Sun sign, he could have been shy, and it would not have been such a challenge for him. He would have accepted it more easily. One day he showed me some self help books in the style of the fifties. “How to overcome shyness” - “Handbook for emotional people”. The Leo urge in him made him try, and I’m sure he tried hard. He fought like a lion. 

 If life is a school, my father had enrolled in the Leo school - but he was still far from the PhD. In all schools there are beginners, intermediates and more advanced students. 

Now, my father was not a complete beginner at the Leo school. He managed to spend his entire professional life on a stage. He was a maths teacher. He was sharing his light. He was making demonstrations on the blackboard. When a maths teacher demonstrates that something is true, he is right, and if you have something else to say on the topic, you are wrong. Students had better shut up and listen. 

My father had a trumpet. He didn't play very often but he had one. He didn’t look like a stereotypical Leo but if you look more closely you find the Leo energy at the heart of the mix. 

To understand what the signs are about, we can remember the stereotypes, but we also need to remember to be a little more subtle about them. The key question is: what is this energy about? 

Let me give you another example: Libra. The stereotype is that this sign suits women better than men, because Libra is all about relationships. In life, romantic partnerships, marriage or long term relationships are certainly a huge topic, but is Libra about that and only that? 

Libra is a cardinal sign. We have a contradiction, because we read in textbooks that cardinal signs are focused on initiating, starting, taking action.... And Libra has a reputation of struggling with decision making. Libra hesitates, that’s the stereotype! It’s the opposite of Aries, Cardinal and Fire, the typical action guy. 

But let’s remember that Libra is Air. Thinking is part of Libra’s field of expertise. As a Cardinal sign, Libra initiates a thinking process. The symbol of Libra, the scales, is an instrument of measurement. You weigh the pros and the cons. You compare. You oppose. You notice how things or people contrast. You perceive nuances. You compare contrasts with other contrasts...  You do that in your mind, then you may join a debate society. You may aspire to sit in parliament and initiate bills, or plead as a barrister. Or maybe you're taking delight in solving equations. In an equation, there are two terms and a relation between these two terms.  

Libra is actually as dynamic and energetic, in the Air, as Aries is in the heat of the Fire. 

So it is possible to be born a Libra Sun and to seek balance between opposites in other areas than romantic relationships. 

That’s all for today. Trying to understand what every sign is about in the great fabric of life is philosophy. It’s deep meditation, it’s contemplation. It’s a lifestyle at the end of the cosmic day. 

Jean-Marc Pierson 

Astrologer, storyteller, philosopher with a homepage.
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