How to Read a Birth Chart to Live Your Best Life

Mercury: This demonstrates the way in which you communicate, your intellect, and your reasoning.

Venus: This is the planet of love, sex, beauty, and money. Knowing your placement leads to a better understanding how you love, want to be loved, dress, decorate, and surround yourself with beauty.

Mars: The planet of aggression, this placement also dictates your actions and desires.

What do the outer planets and asteroids mean? 

Unlike your personal planetary placements, the outer planets have a greater effect on a societal scale. Because these luminaries are farther away from Earth, with a wider reverberation, they are oftentimes called “generational planets” as they orbit more slowly and occupy certain signs for lengthier periods of time. This means that many people born around the same time as you will have the same placements in their birth chart, whereas the rising sign changes every two hours and the sun changes every 28 days. Look at the sign and house that each of the following planets occupies in your birth chart analysis to better understand these aspects of your life….

Jupiter: The planet of luck, fortune, optimism, and expansion. This planet’s sign and house help you understand where you can find abundance.

Saturn: The planet of karma, rules, dedication, restriction, and structure.

Uranus: This placement helps you understand big changes, shake-ups, or sudden alterations to yourself or your life.

Neptune: The planet of imagination, dreams, and delusions.

Pluto: This placement helps you understand where secrets, the unseen aspects of life, taboo, transformation, obsessions, and power fit into your life.

Asteroids, on the other hand, are not planets, but they are studied by astrologers to give even further insight into a person’s life and personality. For example, Chiron is known as “the wounded healer” in someone’s birth chart and gives great insight into the challenges and inner turmoil that one must overcome in this lifetime. Juno, another asteroid, helps us to understand the qualities that someone desires in their life partner. Asteroids are a great way to get to know yourself in an intimate way and realize certain future goals, your personal path of spirituality, insecurities, and so much more.

Although the best way to understand your birth chart is by having a one-on-one session with a professional astrologer, don't let this deter you from self-studying! Learning more about your natal placements in your birth chart will help you unlock aspects of yourself and your life that may have been overlooked and untapped. As always, use astrology as a fun and additional tool to self-discovery than a rigid rulebook. And stay curious!

Meghan Rose is a Los Angeles–based spiritual adviser, intuitive tarot card reader, and author whose work bridges the magical and the material to create real change. Rose acts as a guide for her clients to help them navigate relationships, career, and everything in between. Learn more at themeghanrose.com and follow her on Tiktok, Instagram, and Twitter.