The image on the left shows a typical Vedic birth chart, a unique map of an individual that tells all about your past, present and future. This chart covers all aspects of life, personal, emotional, financial, marital, physical, spiritual, familial and so on. Understanding the basics of the chart is one thing, interpreting it is wholly another. In this article, we would explore how to cast a chart and what its different elements are.

DTP – the three major inputs

The three basic elements you need to form a chart are date, time and place of birth of a person. With these, any reliable astrology software can be used to create a chart. You can sign up with Indastro to create a chart of your own. It takes minutes!

What are houses, signs, and planets?

Houses: There are 12 houses in a horoscope. The diamond shape on top middle of the image below represents the first house, also known as the Ascendant. You can spot the house by finding “As” written in it. The first house or Ascendant begins with the degree of the sign that is rising on the eastern horizon at your time and place of birth. Rest of the houses follows in anti-clockwise motion. While the houses are not marked in a typical chart like above, you could look into the image below for your understanding.

Zodiac Signs: There are 12 signs in a horoscope. Signs are marked using numbers in a birth chart. 1 represents Aries followed by rest of the signs in the following sequence – Taurus (2), Gemini (3), Cancer (4), Leo (5), Virgo (6), Libra (7), Scorpio (8), Sagittarius (9), Capricorn (10), Aquarius (11) and Pisces (12).

Planets: There are 9 planets in a horoscope. Planets are given in abbreviated form in the chart. In the first house, Mo stands for Moon, and Ju stands for Jupiter. In rest of the houses, you can spot different planets – Rahu (Ra), Mars (Ma), Mercury (Me), Venus (Ve), Saturn (Sa), Sun (Su) and Ketu (Ke).

How to identify your Moon sign, Sun sign, and Rising sign?

Moon Sign: The sign where Moon is posited in the birth chart at the time of birth is called the Moon sign. In the above case, Moon sign is Sagittarius (represented by the number 9 in first house where Moon is placed)

Sun Sign: Sun sign is the sign where Sun is placed at the time of birth. In the case above, it is Cancer represented by the number 4 in 8th house.

Rising Sign: Rising sign is also called the Ascendant but do not confuse it with the “As” that is written in the first house as the first house is also called the Ascendant. The whole zodiac can be seen moving through the day if we consider Earth as a fixed point.  This means that all the zodiac signs can be seen moving in a 24 hours duration. The sign that is rising on the eastern horizon changes every 2 hours since there are 12 signs and 24 hours in a day. Rising sign or Ascendant is the sign that is rising on the eastern horizon at the time of birth, and it can be spotted in the first house in a horoscope. In the chart above, Sagittarius is the rising sign.