Natal Charting Ascendant Calculation, Horoscope `map of the hour’

You will have come across the terms natal chart and birthchart at various times, and before we move on any further we ought to take a very brief look at this. A natal chart is a map of the heavens at the moment of the birth of a subject, an enterprise, a country or anything else that comes into manifestation. The very word horoscope means `map of the hour’. The natal chart describes the character of the person or enterprise in question.

Up to now, we are looking at techniques that don’t require any real astrological know-how at all, but from this point onwards you really do need to be able to put together and understand a birthchart. For those of you who are beginning to get into real astrology, here is a recap on birthcharts or, as astrologers call them, natal charts.

Natal Charting Where to begin

Before you consider doing any kind of serious predictive work, you must be able to put together a natal chart and interpret it. As soon as you can do this reasonably proficiently, you can seriously think about moving on to predictive work. The good news is that natal charting is not difficult. In addition to this, most people begin to pick up the simplest form of predictive techniques quite naturally while learning natal charting. If you have no astrological knowledge at all, I suggest that you hang on to this until you have passed this hurdle. A further point is that you cannot fail to become absolutely fascinated by natal interpretation, so it is definitely not to be thought of as some kind of penance that has to be paid before getting to the interesting stuff.

A Recap on Natal Charting

A natal chart, often known as a birthchart, tells an astrologer all about the character of their client. This is a picture of the sky at the moment of a person’s birth and it is set for the date, time and place of his or her birth. The starting-point of any natal chart is the ascendant. This is the point directly to the left of the chart (where nine o’clock would be on a clock face). The ascendant gives the astrologer a good deal of information on the childhood and background of their subject and also of the early programming that went on in their life. The 12 astrological houses are marked around in an anti-clockwise direction from the ascendant. These houses can be of equal size, or they can be arranged in ways that reflect the shape of the earth and are therefore unequal in size. There are many methods in use, but if you are just getting into astrology stick to the equal house method. You may never bother with any of the other methods, but, if you decide to have a go, try either the Placidus or the Koch systems and see how you like them.

The signs that the Sun, Moon and planets occupy all show how these heavenly bodies influence our nature, while the houses reveal how these planets are put to use. For instance, a subject who has Mercury (the planet that rules his ability to think) in the sixth house in Aquarius would be quick, clever and rather detached in their approach (Aquarius). They would use their mind for some form of analytical work and they would be happy in a world of contracts, figure-work and details. They may be a bit short on sympathy and the ability to empathize with others, because their mind would be cool and scientific and their tongue quick and sarcastic. Mercury in Cancer in the twelfth house would belong to someone whose thinking processes were diametrically opposite to the person with the previous placement, that is, kindly, sympathetic, emotional and, oddly enough, rather businesslike.

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