Master Your Birth Chart: Discovering Patterns and Themes in Astrology
Hello reader! Every week, I post the notes from this week’s episode of Maria Luz’s Conscious Curiosities podcast.
Tuesday’s main Substack post is also astrology related (I actually went back and edited the headline to reflect this), so you may find it interesting, as well, if you are here for the astrology content.
In this post:
The concept of themes in the birth chart
A few methods for identifying major themes
Examples from my chart/life
Ideas for further exploration
As I was thinking about what may be most useful to people as they up their astrology game, the idea of themes emerged. This is where the left brain meets the right brain, so buckle up!
We may not see it at first glance, but astrology is largely math, history, psychology, and sociology or perhaps sociobiology. I think a couple of things planted the seed for this episode:
The E.O. Wilson documentary on PBS. Wilson was a biologist who sort of kicked humans off of their pedestal by raising the idea that our biology drives much our behavior with others, much in the way of he observed this happen in the ant colonies he spent most of his career researching.
My herbalist program. Although most herbalists have an extensive library of books, a large part of this empowering information has been and continues to be passed on verbally, through storytelling.
I love the way Matthew Wood, whom the institute where I study is named after, describes this meeting of left and right brain: “…intuition refers to the ability to see the whole pattern one is examining”.
Patterns are repeatable, therefore there is mathematical logic underneath, however seeing the whole requires something additional.
If possible, look at your birth chart while I walk through this. In order to make this work, I have to operate on the assumption that you have listened to my previous episodes, or at least have a beginner understanding of astrological archetypes. However, I will also tell some stories that will help you get the gist of how to do this with your own birth chart.
I am going to leave the heavy math out of this episode so we don’t get bogged down in all the different aspects, aspects patterns, phasal relationships of the planets, etc. It would be too much to juggle, but we will use a bit of math later on.
Take a look at your chart - is there an overall pattern or lack thereof of the planets? Are they splattered pretty evenly through the wheel? Are they concentrated in the upper or lower hemisphere or left or right half? If something stands out to you, make a note. In general, if there is a concentration of planets in the upper hemisphere, this indicates a more public life, more in the lower, a more private one. More planets on the left indicates more focus on the self. More on the right indicates more focus on others. This doesn’t mean that every single day will reflect these themes, just the sum total over your lifetime.
Now see if there are houses or signs containing three or more planets. This configuration is called a stellium. Circle any of these on your chart. The energies associated with this sign or house will likely be a theme in your life. This information may also provide you with some validation or direction.
For example, when I was first learning this and noticed:
That I have a stellium of three planets in Virgo which includes …
The powerful Pluto in a conjunction with Mercury, and
My South Node also in Virgo (which makes a conjunction with my Sun in Leo).
This explained why one of my natural strengths (Pluto) is a very organized and analytical (Virgo) mind (Mercury). Because of the conjunction the South Node in Virgo to my Sun, it also explains why I have instinctively (South Node) selected and approached mental pursuits more like a Virgo than a Leo.
Write down any insights you have based on clusters in your chart.
Next, look at your Ascendant, or Rising sign, on your chart, and determine which planet rules it. You may also see an AS or ASC on your chart or table of placements, and that will give you the sign which was rising on the Eastern horizon at the time of birth from the location of birth.
The term “Ascendant” can mean a few different things to astrologers depending on the context. The Ascendant (or “Rising”) sign, is, as astrologer Steven Forrest puts it “how you dawn on people” and “how we express ourselves behaviorally”. While I will likely do an entire episode on the Ascendant, for today, lets focus on its planetary ruler(s). More from Steven Forrest:
The planet that happens to rule the Ascendant partakes of that same exaggeratedly active, behavioral quality. For that reason, it always aims the spotlight at where the person’s life is happening - what “theaters of behavior” are chronically emphasized in his or her biography.
Note that the way Hellenistic astrologers assigned rulership of signs began with the Moon and Sun at the house positions representing home (4th house, Cancer) and children, creativity (5th house, Leo) positions, then worked their way out to the visible planets (Mercury through Saturn) from nearest to furthest houses from the Moon and the Sun. Later, as empirical observation of the planets discovered by telescope showed affiliations to certain signs, those were added as co-rulers by modern astrologers.
Aries: Mars
Taurus: Venus
Gemini: Mercury
Cancer: Moon
Leo: Sun
Virgo: Mercury
Libra: Venus
Scorpio: Mars, Pluto
Sagittarius: Jupiter
Capricorn: Saturn
Aquarius: Saturn, Uranus
Pisces: Jupiter, Neptune
Once you have identified the planet(s) ruling your Ascendant sign, identify the sign, house, and anything notable about it. I will use mine as an example. My Ascendant is at 0°48’ Scorpio, which means it is ruled by Mars and Pluto.
Mars is in Leo in the 10th house, making a conjunction to my Sun and South Node, also both in the 10th house. This tells me that themes having to do with my core essence (Sun), leadership or self-expression (Leo), and inherent abilities (South Node) showing up in the area of career or legacy (10th house) will be significant in my life.
Of course, I am greatly distilling down the meanings of all of this info, but even this very superficial analysis is accurate when I review themes in my life thus far. I will go through the same process for Pluto and then explain just how these themes have been prominent in spades!
As I mentioned, Pluto is conjunct Mercury in Virgo in my chart. They are in the 11th house, which is related to groups. The energy of Mercury is around perception, and in Virgo it analyzes and categorizes. Pluto tends to intensify whatever it touches, and from an evolutionary astrology lens, I can see that my soul has been working on this Pluto and Mercury pair for many lifetimes, so it will be especially strong.
So what has this chart rulership blueprint yielded in my life?
One very literal example is that for many years in my career (10th house) I was a leader (Leo) of organizations (11th house) whose work was analytical (Mercury) and detailed (Virgo). Even the title of my graduate degree lines up literally: Master’s (10th H) in Organizational (11th H) Leadership (Leo, 10th H).
My South Node was really anchoring me into where I have excelled in past lives, as someone leading others through complex, left-brained work, which means it also meant for me to learn lessons in order to find my spirituality (North Node in Pisces).
Ultimately, I replaced my family of origin’s conditioning with a spiritual family of sorts (NN inPisces in the 4th house). The theme continues to unfold in my life, as I focus more on the legacy aspect of the 10th house, self-expressive aspect of Leo, service aspect of Virgo, learning aspect of Mercury, and break from the status quo aspect of the 11th house.
When I began studying astrology, the sign of Pisces was uncomfortable and difficult for me to understand. If I had learned astrology earlier, I perhaps would have pondered why I was so heavily anchored to being one way, and perhaps made it a point to learn about spirituality and feel into Pisces energy. There are many other things in my chart pointing to hidden gifts for fluency with Pisces type energies such as psychic abilities and being able to help others heal and transform.
This is why I would love for young people to understand their charts, because for many of us, our souls may have created some pathways of inertia in order for us to bust out of them and evolve. And aside from this “higher purpose” way of leveraging the chart, there are super practical pieces of information gleaned, which I discuss in the episodes on the personal planets. However, I am proof that it is never too late to use astrology to break through any limitations you may have unconsciously placed on yourself!
Another useful way to glean patterns is to look at the relationship of your Sun and Moon to one another. Did you know you can tell if you were born under a Full Moon or a New Moon and every phase in between just by eyeballing (and then following up with a little math) your chart?
Let’s start with the Full Moon. If your Moon sits across from your Sun, this means you were born in the Full Phase of the Moon. This makes you a bit of a werewolf! No, really, because if you think about it, your ego self (Sun) and emotional self (Moon) are in opposite signs (called sign polarities) and in an aspect called an opposition, therefore the energies of the signs do not easily understand one another or blend readily. This can make for an individual who is flipping back and forth between extremes, or feeling naked because the Sun is always shining a light on their emotional self.
Another way one can use the Sun-Moon phase is to understand the relationship of the mother and father leading up to the birth. So a Full Moon would indicate opposition between the two, perhaps a case of opposites attracting and then not actually working in partnership at the time of the birth.
I have to sneak in some math now. Astrology is very geometric, so dust off your knowledge of circles. You will remember that circles have 360 degrees. Each sign has 30 degrees of that zodiacal circle, so 12 houses x 30° = 360°. With me?
You would then start at your Sun and move counter-clockwise to your Moon and add up the degrees (alternatively, you can go clockwise and subtract that amount from 360).
In my case, my Sun is at 27° Leo and my Moon is at 18° Aries. So, there are 3 degrees of Leo, 30 degrees each for Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, plus 18 degrees of Aries, which = 3+210+18= 231°. This falls into the Waning Gibbous phase, and a trine aspect.
I won’t go further into aspects in this episode, but if you are already familiar with them, you would want to note the separation in terms of degrees and also the aspect.
And what life themes can this information reveal? Know that in evolutionary astrology, I would read the phases between all planets in order to gain an understanding of the soul’s intention in this life.
However, for a general theme, I would refer to Steven Forrest’s The Book of Water (I pulled the earlier quotes from this book), or to my astrologer friend Narayana Montufar and her book Moon Signs. This little book is packed with information on your natal moon sign, house placement, phase, progressed moon, and more. I was gifted this book by my niece and daughter and loved it so much, I scheduled an initial moon reading with Narayana and have had additional readings with her. I could gush on an on.
For each moon phase, I will provide Steven Forrest’s evocative descriptor of the personality associated with it plus just the key words from Narayana’s book corresponding to each phase. I encourage you to check out both of their books for the complete description. The Moon phase personality descriptors in both of these books reminds me of Tarot and the cards which are associated with your birthday. You can discover yours on the Labryrinthos website. These key words and Tarot birth cards will likely tie in with other themes you discover in your chart.
New Moon (0 - 45° ahead of the Sun)
Steven Forrest (SF): The Teacher
Narayana Montufar (NM) Keywords: instinctual, initiating, creative, spontaneous
Waxing Crescent (45° - 90° ahead of the Sun)
SF: The Extremist
NM Keywords: growth, activation, manifestation, expansion
First Quarter (90° - 135° ahead of the Sun)
SF: The Crusader
NM Keywords: action, inventive, challenging, building
Waxing Gibbous (135° - 180° ahead of the Sun)
SF: The Helper, The Lover
NM Keywords: evaluation, gestation, analytical, perfection
Full Moon (180° - 225° ahead of the Sun)
SF: The Human Being
NM Keywords: peak, awareness, fulfillment, opposition
Waning Gibbous (225° - 270° ahead of the Sun)
SF: The Shaman
NM Keywords: dissemination, teaching, service, revealing
Third/Last Quarter (270° - 315° ahead of the Sun)
SF: The Pilgrim
NM Keywords: integration, crisis, readjustment, creativity
Balsamic/Waning Crescent (315° - 360° ahead of the Sun)
SF: The Mystic Wanderer
NM Keywords: recharging, preparation, closure, surrender
Using these concepts and keywords for my natal moon phase, as I was born under a waning gibbous moon, my life path will look like that of a Shaman, and involve some aspects related to the keywords. My Tarot birth cards are The Moon and The Hermit. These themes reflect the Virgo-Pisces polarity I am meant to explore, as well as my abilities to access energies and other realms as a Shaman does.
You know, I remember when I was in High School, there was a book we used to figure out which professions we would be matched with. I can’t remember how that book worked, but now I am wondering if they somehow used astrology?! Anyway, even if you did something like that or the Myers-Briggs or another sort of personality quiz, you will find endless depth in exploring the nooks and crannies of your birth chart. I hope these concepts and examples will be useful to you as you explore your own chart and reflect upon the patterns and themes you find there.
If I had to pick one next step that may prove complementary to what I have described here, perhaps it would be to explore the nodes of the moon in your chart by sign and house.
The North and South Nodes, respectively, get at the experiences and skills we bring to this life and the experiences and lessons we are meant to have in order to integrate it all together for our evolution. I love Elizabeth Spring’s books and you may be able to find some of her old podcast episodes, or Jan Spiller’s book Astrology for the Soul.
And of course, if you want to look at your personal evolutionary astrology or even experience a past life and conversation with your soul, you can do that with me as your guide.
Thank you for reading, and you are now empowered to be consciously curious about themes in your birth chart!
Interested in a personal astrology consultation or past life hypnosis? Use code ASTROHYP for 20% off or email me (info@marialuz.online) if you are low on money but high on interest!