Seven Steps to Interpret Natal Chart Quickly

July 9, 2025

Seven Steps to Interpret Natal Chart Quickly

To read an astrology chart is to learn how to speak a language of symbols, draw interconnections, and unveil layers of meaning. If you are a beginner or an intermediary student of astrology wondering where to start your natal chart analysis from, you may benefit from the outline of an algorithm that will take you quickly to the heart of a chart.

To get a quick first impression from a natal birth chart, I use techniques of both the Ancient Hellenistic Astrology and more modern approaches. These seven steps that I have outlined aren’t the complete kit of tools for a natal chart reading, but can serve as preparatory work to build the backbone of the interpretation and get a glimpse into the main messages woven in the chart. This is what I would recommend you do in the first ten minutes after you open a person’s chart:

Step One: Where are most of the planets located? Is this a night or a day chart?

Let’s start with the overall distribution of planets in the chart. Is there a focus on a certain area of the chart – a stellium of more than three planets in a given house? Where is the bulk of the planets situated – in the Eastern or the Western sphere, in the upper hemisphere or in the lower hemisphere? A cluster of planets in a certain area or a comparatively even distribution of the planets in the different houses gives us a preliminary feeling about the personality characteristics. For instance, piling up of planets in the upper hemisphere indicates a person focused on external achievements. A pattern of having the majority of the planets located in the lower hemisphere points to a more introverted or private person, preferring to stay within one’s more intimate circle of friends and family. Similarly, a person with many planets in the Eastern hemisphere is an individualist, but also more subjective in one’s way of thinking compared to someone with prevailing number of planets in the Western hemisphere, who would be more relationship-oriented and capable of higher objectivity and consideration of others’ views.

Is the person born in daytime or during night? If the Sun is below the horizon (below the Ascendant-Descendant line), the chart is a night one. If the Sun is above the horizon, then the person is born in daytime and we need to keep this in mind when we move through the analysis of the planets’ way of acting, as described in next steps.

Step Two: Angular planets

The second step in my approach is checking if there are angular planets in the natal chart. The angularity endows planets with the power and the stimuli to manifest and materialise their qualities and influence. Angular planets on the Medium Coeli (MC) or Ascendant (ASC) are the strongest, followed by planets on the Imum Coeli (IC) and the Descendant (DSC). However, sometimes a planet on the IC could be stronger than a planet on the ASC or the MC, depending on additional qualities, such as essential dignity or a phase. For instance, a planet heliacally rising or setting, placed in the 4^th house or the 7^th house may turn out the strongest planet in a chart.

In the Ancient Astrology, the strongest planet was called the Almuten Figuris, which some translate as the Chart Ruler. I note that the Almuten Figuris is a different notion from the ruler of the Ascendant, which modern astrology sometimes sees as being the ruler of the chart. The Almuten Figuris is the planet with the greatest dignity in the chart in the sign and degree positions of the Sun, the Moon, the Ascendant, the Part of Fortune and the Prental Syzygy. This planet will be the captain of the ship that a person is in during one’s entire life and will take charge of getting the person to one’s final destination and goals.

The presence of several angular planets in a chart may often lead to a clash, as each of them will try to dominate. As a result, the person can have numerous but clashing interests, which could lead to hesitation between different vocations or paths in life. Or it could be simply a person with contradicting features of the character. For instance, someone having both Mars and Venus angular could be most of the time a Venusian, kind and polite person, but has occasionally sudden outbursts of anger that shock people with their unpredictability and fierceness.

An angular placement of the two lights – Sun and Moon, is already a very strong indicator for rank and power, especially if both have planets in the role of the so-called Doryphoros (“Spear-Bearer”). However, I am not going to delve into the Doryphoros analysis in this article. Angular placement of only one light, especially if it is the sect light – Sun for the day charts and Moon for the night charts, is also a very strong factor showing leadership qualities, albeit to a lesser extent compared to someone with both of the lights in angular houses.

Step Three: Ruler of the Ascendant

Look at the Ascendant sign, its degree and its ruler. The location in a house of the Ruler of the Ascendant shows which area will be of utmost importance and focus for the person throughout one’s entire lifetime. For instance, a person with Ascendant in Aries and Scorpio will have Mars as the ruler of the Ascendant. If Mars is in the 1^st house, the person will be very self-centred, looking to achieve one’s own goals and crafting one’s own and independent path.

If Mars is in the 2^nd house, the person will inevitably have the making-money topic rubbed on one’s face all the time.

The ruler of the Ascendant situated in the 3^rd house will indicate someone focused on communications, teamwork, multiple skills development, frequent travelling, possibly making an own business using one’s own skills.

The ruler of the Ascendant in the 4^th house points to a person very focused on one’s family and acquisition of land and houses.

In the 5^th house, the person will be into self-expression activities, he or she will be creative, entertaining and possibly childish.

In the 6^th house, the person would go through lots of contention and stress in one’s life, I’d recommend such a person to develop a healthy routine, learn about health regime and have pets.

The Ascendant ruler being in 7^th house signals a person overly invested in one’s relationships, to a point where one may lose identity and feel identified with the partner. Or this could be a person who identifies as being the partner of someone. On the positive side, this makes the native skillful with negotiations, commerce and work with clients.

Ascendant ruler in the 8^th house will signal that the person will go through multiple crises and reversals in life, someone whose life can never be boringly idle. Every time one’s life situation becomes too stable, the person will subconsciously or consciously sabotage it and cause a crisis in order to continue one’s initiation.

Ascendant ruler in 9^th house gives self-righteous people, people with strong belief systems, no matter whether these are related to philosophy, religion, spirituality, or a political or scientific ideology. I call these people the crusaders, willing to convince anyone else in their own beliefs.

Ascendant ruler in the 10^th house is a high rank position, showing a person dedicated to one’s profession, visible in public and ambitious to reach a higher place in the hierarchy. It could be also a person with the skills to have own business.

Ascendant ruler in 11^th house is the opportunist. This is the mediator person, focused on creating connections with other people. Those people are very invested in friendships, as well as in the communities they belong to or that they form.

Ascendant ruler in the 12^th house will manifest as a more discrete and solitary person, staying away from the crowds and having a rich inner world. However, the 12^th house is the house of hidden enemies, so the person is one’s own biggest enemy due to self-sabotages. Spiritual, scientific or art work in isolation could become the best tool for expression of one’s own inner world.

Step Four – Aspects to Ascendant

The ruler of the Ascendant provides orientation about which area in life one is mostly invested in. The next step is going through the Ascendant degree and the aspects that other planets make to it. I use the traditional aspects with an orb of up to 6-7 degrees, but I also include quincunxes with an orb of up to 1 degree. The planets relating to the Ascendant by a degree aspect will indicate what kind of events the native has experienced and identified with during the childhood and earlier years (which is the perspective of the Uranian Astrology). For instance, an aspect from Mars in the 4^th house to the Ascendant degree, may indicate turbulent events in the family that have affected the person in childhood and that have left an indelible mark on one’s identity with all the repercussions related. Check also which houses the planets in aspect to the Ascendant rule – these houses interfere in the person’s identity mosaic. If Mars is the ruler of the 2^nd house and has a trine to the Ascendant degree, then we can safely suggest that the person is actively working to have a stable financial situation in this lifetime and this is part of his own sense of who he/she is.

Step Five – Malefic and Benefic Planets

Contemporary psychological astrology has almost banned the usage of terms such as malefic planets, but the non-pronouncement of a given word does not extinguish the phenomena it indicates. A malefic planet will not become less malefic just because we put on rose-coloured glasses to seek something good about it and refuse to see its nature in a more objective way.

If the chart is of a day birth, the most benefic planet will be Jupiter and the most malefic planet – Mars. The houses which Jupiter rules and in which it is located will tend to be areas of life where things overall happen easily. Conversely, the houses ruled by Mars and the house where Mars is located will identify the areas of life posing the greatest challenges for someone.

In a night chart, Venus will be the most benefic planet and Saturn – the most malefic. This means that Venus-ruled houses will be the ones of most ease for the person, while the Saturn-ruled houses will be the most difficult areas of life.

Step Six – The Moon Phase

The phase of the Moon gives a lot of information about the person’s mode of acting in the world. A person with a rising in light Moon will be more willing to immerse in the world and deal with worldly affairs, while a person with a waning Moon phase will be maturely aware of the world’s futility and less inclined to directly clash with those. A First Quarter Moon will outline a person impulsively rushing into all kind of challenges and actively fighting with them, while a person with a Balsamic Moon will be very introverted, interested in one’s own inner and solitary world rather than in the hustle and bustle of the outer world and other people.

Step Seven – Phases of Other Planets, Essential Dignity

Similarly to the Moon, other planets have also their heliacal phases in relation to the Sun, which modify their mode of action. Use only the traditional planets (up to Saturn) for this analysis. The general rule is that the Morning Star planets (placed before the Sun in zodiacal order, the ones which will rise on the Ascendant before the Sun) have a more ideational orientation and manifest their nature in a more spiritual way, while the Evening Star planets are more accommodated to the material reality and show more practical manifestation of their innate qualities. There are authors who distinguish between the inner planets – Venus and Mercury, and the outer planets – Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in regards to their position to the Sun, some of them arguing that Venus and Mercury feel better and perform better in their Evening Star position, while the other three planets allegedly prefer to be in the Morning Star position, but I will leave this discussion out of the scope of this post. I will only add now that my astrology experience has shown people with Venus and Mercury as Morning Stars as more intellectually-oriented, thus able to pick a Venusian or a Mercurian profession, while people with Venus and Mercury as Evening Stars tend to be less focused on intellectual endeavours and prefer to deal with the matter.

A planet close to the Sun will very likely be invisible or combust. A combustion is a major debility for a planet, unless the Sun is in its essential dignity – in Leo or Aries, or unless the planet itself is in its rulership or exaltation sign. In that case, the negative influence of the combustion is mitigated and the planet can still account for the themes it is in charge of. Normally, a combusted planet is seen as being hampered to deliver on its natal promises.

Afterwards, focus on the essential dignity table of all the planets. A planet in rulership and exaltation will have the capacity and dignity to perform in a very positive way in the person’s life, provided that it is in angular house in particular. A planet in triplicity or term will have less power to manifest its innate characteristics to the highest possible level, but these dignities will still provide green light for a favourable manifestation of most of the planet’s qualities. A planet in face or a perigrine planet has less power and its ruler will instead have a stronger say on whether the deeds and areas ruled by those planets will turn out to the good or the bad of the person. Planets in detriment and fall indicate difficulties for the person to integrate and use correctly their qualities and strengths, as well as potential issues in the houses, ruled by those planets.

Once you complete those seven steps, you can proceed with the analysis of the aspects of the planets and track the rulership of the houses by rulership, exaltation and detriment and fall. However, these steps are already moving beyond the first-glimpse tips and will be the topic of another post.