What is a Natal Chart?
Posted by Shannon Cunningham on
Every planet, luminary, planetoid and asteroid in our sky was in a particular sign & at a particular degree at the moment you took your first breath. People sometimes ask me if it matters what time you were supposed to be born and no- it doesn't. It's all about the first breath.
In that millisecond of you joining the world, a snapshot of the heavens gets taken. This astronomical polaroid is referred to as your natal chart, or, as some like to call it, your blueprint.
It will please you to know that natal charts are like snowflakes- no two are the same. Each natal chart is distinctive and unique because everything in the sky is in constant motion and we’re all living at different longitudes and latitudes, so from one moment to the next, the snapshot changes.
Every planet in the sky represents a different and essential part of who you are. Sometimes the planets are in exalted signs. Sometimes they are in detrimental signs. Sometimes the planets make easy angles to each other and sometimes they make difficult angles to each other. Sometimes they are repressed and sometimes they are rocketed. It’s tres complex:)
Once you start to get that you are this, and not so much that, you can stop struggling to be something other than you are. I am a very Mutable person (that's a thing in Astrology- signs have certain qualities assigned to them- Mutable, Fixed and Cardinal- and each planet is in a certain sign when you are born) so learning who I truly am has been a g.d. odyssey. It’s what Shakespeare was talking about when he said, “To thine own self be true- it is the only way”. Simple words to mouth, but very difficult to live. Especially when you are wasting a bunch of time comparing yourself to others and trying to be like others and coming up short. Or, having a lot of innate gifts and skills and then comparing yourself to others, thinking you’re just “better”, and being a superior asshole.
We all have our foibles. Some of us are by nature bossy or emotionally detached or jealous (that’s mine) or judgmental and we come by these traits honestly. They are easier to deal with when the person you are working on them with, relationally, is sympathetic to our difficulty in making said traits move in a positive direction and god- WAY easier when they offer to assist!
Ideally, a natal chart should breed tolerance, patience and understanding, primarily for your self, and from there, it should start to circle outwards to include others. This is when Astrology works best. And this is why I love it.