I’m starting to share with friends and family about my new endeavors as a professional Astrologer… and… finding myself responding to quizzical looks on people’s faces with a gentle, “No, this is not Divination.” (Smile.) What I do is read – and decode – people’s Birth Charts and then translate the wisdom contained therein. I’ve always loved and been good at learning languages. Astrology is just another language that I’ve taken on. “Think of me as a translator,” I say.
What am I translating? The beautiful map that your Soul chose for you to explore in the adventure of this lifetime on Planet Earth: your Birth Chart.
Well, what exactly is a Birth Chart?
Your Birth Chart is the “snapshot” of time and space taken at the exact moment and location of your birth, i.e., your Soul’s map.
My teacher, Veronica Dornsmith, in her Soul Map Mandalas curriculum, came up with the helpful analogy of a theatrical play, complete with actors, props, costumes, scripts, and stages. The Planets of our Solar System are your actors. The Signs of the Zodiac are the different props/scripts/costumes those actors use. And the 12 Houses are the different realms of our psychological life. The Planets (actors) show what energy is being activated. The Signs (props/scripts/costumes) show how that energy is being filtered. The Houses (stages) show where in your life these energies are being played out.
Every Birth Chart has 12 Houses, though astrologers “divide the sky” differently depending on which House System they choose to use. Every Birth Chart has all the Planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, etc.) and as asteroids and other important celestial bodies are discovered, we can map those onto the Chart as well. Every Birth Chart has all 12 Signs (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, etc.). But where all these elements are placed and exactly how the energies get played out – that is what’s unique to each and every one of us.
Born in June and know yourself as a Gemini? That’s your Sun Sign, the Sun having been passing through the constellation of Gemini on the day of your birth. But the Moon and all the other Planets were somewhere up there in the sky too, amidst any of the 12 constellations of the Zodiac. If the Moon was in Capricorn or if it was in Cancer at the moment of your birth, you will have very different kinds of inner needs and ways of expressing your emotions. And maybe you were born with Saturn, Mercury, Venus and Mars all clumped together in the region of the sky where the constellation of Taurus happened to be at that time: this will have a significantly strong influence on your personality–in fact, potentially as much if not more than that Gemini Sun. In other words, your Sun may be designated as the lead role in this play that is your life, but the other planets are supporting actors and at times, may actually take center stage for the majority of it!
And that, my friends, is NOT the kind of stuff that will be found in the traditional newspaper daily horoscope!
For those interested, there is an endless rabbit hole of fascinating information that can be gleaned from the close examination of one’s Birth Chart. It is my passion – my sheer delight – to do exactly that with clients… helping them come to increasingly deeper understandings of why and how they do what they do, and empowering them with mindful, informed choices to shift what and how they do it.
Beyond generalized astrological predictions, I wanted to explore the specifics of my own chart. I was amazed by how Willamarie’s work introduced a whole new dimension in addition to my psychological explorations and on-going spiritual practice. Bringing the disparate aspects of my living experience to light through Willamarie’s readings enabled me to prioritize my studio work and clarified a way forward for this stage of my life.
– J. W., Artist (Galisteo, NM)
If you’d like to learn more about your own unique Birth Chart, book a Reading with me here!
Image above is the Birth Chart of David Bowie, public domain.
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