Planet Earth Astrology

Nascita Montuschi provides down-to-earth, personal consultation and teaching in astrology for self-understanding, by phone and internet or face-to-face.

What is a Birthchart?

Although we have known for centuries that the Moon goes round the Earth and the Earth, along with other planets, round the Sun, it seems to us from here that the Sun, Moon and planets are all circulating the Earth. Astrology assumes this Earth-centred, subjective viewpoint to create a picture of how these movements relate to us. Your birthchart is a plan of the positions of these heavenly bodies, seen from the time and place you were born. We don’t yet know how it is that such a picture can yield meaning, but astrologers reliably find that it does; according to our experience, people really are like their birthcharts.

What is it for?

In psychological astrology, such as I teach and practise, getting to know your birthchart is a way of getting to know yourself better. A typical comment, quoted from an evening course, is, ‘I know it, but when I see it in the chart I really know it’.

The experience is not exactly like looking in the mirror, though. The birthchart seems to provide a symbolic picture of the whole psyche, including potential we have yet to use and possibly some energies we have trouble recognising and directing.

Getting to know your chart can help you make friends with parts of yourself that haven’t yet found a role in your life. It can help you be confident in taking decisions that are right for you and finding how you can develop.

Seeing your psyche apparently reflected in planetary patterns is also an uncanny experience with value in its own right. What you make of this connection is up to you.

Is each Birthchart Unique?

Each chart is a unique portrait of planetary energies at work in a time and place. Someone born at the same time and place will have the same chart, although a few minutes or miles can make a significant difference. A birthchart is infinitely more individual than the Sun-sign astrology of popular magazines and newspapers, which divides the whole human race into only twelve categories.

So am I supposed to be the same as my twin, or someone born in the next minute, in the next bed?

No, astrology is not as deterministic as that. You are highly likely to share characteristics but just as likely to have developed them differently. Twins, possibly from a need to be themselves, often seem to have divided the possibilities of the chart between them and identify with different areas – so they may have a whole new self to discover.

Do I have to learn astrology to get anything from it?

No, certainly not. Any good consultation with an astrologer will yield insights and give you plenty to think about. I am very happy to do one-off consultations and that’s all many people want. However, as great benefit has come to me from really knowing my own chart, I am delighted to pass this on by working over time with anyone who wants to use this tool for themselves and reflect independently on their chart.