How to read your own Birth Chart / Astrological Horoscope

My favorite website for making charts is astro.com. Simply go on Free Horoscopes and then Chart Drawing, Ascendent.
Put in all the data. If you don't know your time of birth the houses cannot be calculated (and therefore neither can the Ascendent, Descendent, Midheaven and IC) and the moon sign might be wrong since it changes every 2,5 days.

I will use my chart as an example. This is what it looks like:

A horoscope is a circular wheel which shows where the planets were placed at the time and place of your birth.

The chart shows the ten astrological planets placed within different pie-like sections of the circle.

These are the symbols of the planets:

☉ Sun
☾Moon

☿ Mercury

♀ Venus

♂ Mars

♃ Jupiter

♄ Saturn

♅ Uranus

♆ Neptune

♇ Pluto

I will not get into explaining the astronomy behind the chart or what each part stands for, I am simply trying to explain how you can see what sign and house placements you have!

What is a Planet in Astrology?

The planets are the parts of our psyche that animate us.
They are different psychological forces.
Venus, for example, shows how we express affection. Mercury shows how we think and communicate.
Every planet is a type of actor, a separate part within us, fulfilling a certain role.

Planets in the Signs

The very outer circle of the wheel shows the zodiac sign symbols.
Each of them takes in 30° of the circle, so the twelve signs take in equal parts of the 360° wheel.
When you look at the symbols for the planets in the chart, you can see a little blue line that indicates the exact point of their placement.
You can then see which sign the planet occupies or falls into.

Lets look at my moon, for example - this symbol is very easy to recognize. It is at the top of my chart and if you look at the little blue line next to it, you can see that its place is marked within the 30° sector that is Leo.
These are the symbols of the signs (they can look slightly different depending on the graphics and styles used in different chart calculators):

♈ Aries

♉ Taurus

♊ Gemini

♋ Cancer

♌ Leo

♍ Virgo

♎ Libra

♏ Scorpio

♐ Sagittarius

♑ Capricorn

♒ Aquarius

♓ Pisces

What is a Sign in Astrology?

The signs are all associated with certain traits and characteistics, as you probably know from basic zodiac sign descriptions.
If you were born on the 25th of March you are not just an Aries, it actually means the Sun was in Aries.
The sun is our conscious self-expression and our identity that is why most people highly identify with the sign that their sun is in.
But each planet is actually in a certain sign.
While the planets are parts of our psyche, the signs give them more individual traits, they color them in certain ways, the planets express themselves through the characteristics of a zodiac sign.
For example: Venus shows how we express affection and Taurus is associated with traits such as sensuality, so someone with Venus in Taurus might be a very touchy and physical kind of lover or friend.

Planets in the Houses

There are twelve houses just like there are twelve signs.

However, they aren't all equally sized, which has to do with the place and time of year of your birth.

The houses have no fancy names, they are simply numbered one through twelve.

The numbers in this chart are shown in the middle of the circle and you can see that these sectors are not the same as the signs.

The houses start at the left middle of the wheel and actually go counter-clockwise!

Lets take Neptune as an example. Thats the symbol that looks like a trident. Looking at its placement, you will be able to see that it falls into the part of the chart that is numbered '1' in the center of the circle.

Neptune is in the 1st house of my chart.

You can also see that the signs  and houses are independent from each other, meaning one house does not equal one sign.

The first house starts in Sagittarius.

Neptune and Uranus are in the first house but they are in Capricorn.

The sections of signs and houses are not the same.

What is a House in Astrology?

A house is an area of life or experience.
While planets are parts of our psyche and the sign they are in show which traits they take on, the house shows the area of life in which this primarily expresses itself.
The houses build the framework of the chart, because the two main axes are crucial points in the chart:

Ascendent: This is the point that starts the first house of the chart and lies opposite of the Descendent on the horizontal axis. It is our role, persona, mentality - our window into the world and how others perceive us.

Descendent: This is the point that starts the seventh house of the chart and lies opposite of the Ascendent on the horizontal axis. It describes how we see others, what we project onto them, what we are attracted to and seek in a partner.
IC: This is the point that starts the fourth house of the chart and lies opposite of the Midheaven on the vertical axis. This describes our roots, family, our home in the physical and soul sense - the foundation of who we are.

Midheaven: This is the point that starts the tenth house of the chart and lies opposite of the IC on the vertical axis. This shows where we are striving to go, who we want to become, what we want to achieve and contribute.

Summing up

Each planet is a part of our psyche that takes on the traits of the sign it is in and is focused on the area of life of the house that it is in.

You can also see that it is normal not to have a planet in every house or every sign.

Write down each placement and go from there - make more research about what these specific placements mean, what each planet, sign or house means,...

I hope this helped!

Marina