Read Your Chart Without the Jargon

Planets, signs, houses, and the big three, explained as actors, costumes, and a stage. The one guide that ties everything else together, and where to actually start when you open the diagram.

The fastest-moving point in your chart changes every two hours and depends on your exact birth time. What it means, and how Hellenistic astrologers found it with water clocks.

The Moon changes signs every two and a half days and rules your inner life. The part of you that shows up at 3am, and why it's often the most accurate placement in the chart.

Your star sign is only a third of the picture. What each of the big three placements actually tells you, and how to read all three together.

The full list of sign dates, why the cusp moves a day from one year to the next, and what to do if you were born on the edge between two signs.

Headlines keep claiming your star sign has changed. The 26,000-year wobble behind it, first measured by Hipparchus, and why your tropical sign is exactly where it should be.

The farmhand who became a ram, and the first sign of the zodiac. Cardinal fire, ruled by Mars, built to go first.

The Bull of Heaven and the Age of Taurus. The steady, sensual, immovable earth sign ruled by Venus.

The Great Twins and the inseparable brothers Castor and Pollux. The quick, curious air sign ruled by Mercury.

The crab, the Moon, and the constellation that named the Tropic of Cancer. Tender, protective, deeply private.

The great lion of Babylon and the star they called the King. Radiant fixed fire, the only sign ruled by the Sun.

The Furrow, the harvest star Spica, and the precise mutable earth sign that runs Mercury's workshop.

The scales built from a scorpion's claws, weighed at the equinox. Cardinal air, ruled by Venus, made for partnership.

The scorpion that killed Orion, guarded by the red royal star Antares. Deep, loyal, fixed water.

The archer whose arrow points at the scorpion's heart, guarding the centre of the galaxy. Mutable fire, ruled by Jupiter.

The sea-goat of Ea, unchanged in the sky for 4,000 years. Cardinal earth, ruled by Saturn, built to last.

The Babylonian Great One pouring the flood, and the sign that got a new planet in 1781. Fixed air, and far more immovable than its reputation.

Two fish tied by a cord, pulling in opposite directions. Mutable water, and the faint constellation that now holds the spring equinox.

The twelve houses are the areas of life your chart is divided into. What each governs, and why they need your exact birth time.

Ten wanderers, from the racing Moon to thirty-year Saturn and beyond. What each planet represents and why speed is the secret.

Most of your chart survives without a clock. What you keep, what you lose, and how to hunt down your missing birth time.

Why two calculators can give the same planets different houses, and how a publishing accident chose the modern default.

He caught the Earth's wobble, catalogued the stars and invented the brightness scale still in use. Almost none of his writing survives.

Real compatibility goes far beyond two Sun signs. How synastry works, which planets matter most, and why "incompatible" is the wrong word.

Which signs match and why, through the elements and qualities, plus per-sign guides to the best and hardest matches.

Put the theory to work. Enter two sets of birth details for a free synastry reading on how the two of you actually fit.