Practical Magic: A Beginner's Guide to Crystals, Horoscopes, Psychics, and Spells - Nikki Van De Car 2017

How to Create a Natal Chart
Astrology
Casual Clairvoyance

For a real, in-depth natal chart—one that calculates angles of ascension and how the signs and planets interact with each other—go to the professionals (and there are lots of websites that will do your chart for free). But you can dive in yourself for just a taste and to take a look at how the signs influence the houses.

Draw three concentric circles on a piece of paper. Using a ruler, divide the circle into twelve equal parts, like slicing a pizza into twelve pieces.

Determine your ascendant sign. This sign is whatever was rising over the horizon on the date and at the exact time of your birth. Find it by looking it up in an ephemeris (a chart that tracks the positions of celestial bodies at any given time) or by looking it up online. Position this information at eight o’clock on your chart. This is your First House (The House of Self).

Follow the natural order of the signs (see here) as you fill in each of the remaining eleven spaces. So if you had Aries in your First House, you would put Taurus in the Second House, Gemini in the Third House, and so forth.

What does all this tell you? If you’re a Libra, but your ascendant sign is Gemini, then that might explain why the characteristics of Libras have never seemed to accurately describe you, because you’re really a combination of both. If you’ve got Pisces in your Second House (The House of Worth), then you might have a better understanding of why you’re always loaning people money. If your Fifth House of love is ruled by Taurus, you’ll know why you are always so stubborn, getting into fights with those you adore the most.

Or it might tell you nothing you don’t already know, and so it may just be a fun exercise—something to do on a rainy day.

Turn to here to fill in your own natal chart.