How to Read Your Horoscope in 5 Easy Steps

This practical workbook shows you how to stop reading books (except this one) and start reading charts. It will navigate you through the complexity of the cosmos to understanding you own birth chart in five easy steps.

Chrissie Blaze is a professional astrologer, columnist, author and speaker, and lives in Los Angeles.

"The cosmos speaks to us in mysterious ways. Astrology is a language to interpret these cosmic mysteries. The solar system is our college; the planets and constellations our teachers; the horoscope our syllabus and examination paper. When we graduate we will live more fully and travel beyond the stars."

You are unique and your horoscope proves it. There is not one other person anywhere on else on earth who has a horoscope quite like yours. Your horoscope is a gift you were given at birth and is your guidebook for life.

The word astrology is derived from Greek, Astron (Star) and Logos (talk). It’s Star Talk — in other words it’s a language. Astrology is the influence of the planets on human behavior and its language describes this influence. It is the language used by the cosmos to speak to us, which it does every second of every day. It is not a language of words but a visual language of symbols that communicate at a deeper level than words. This is why it’s better to read your horoscope than just to read books about it. Symbols are powerful and deeply rooted in the collective unconscious. The reason why international corporations like McDonalds and Mercedes Benz use globally recognized symbols is that they evoke certain feelings and associations more directly than the words themselves.

When you look at your horoscope what you are actually seeing is a slice of the cosmos. If you could take a tuning fork to your horoscope you would find that the energy of that cosmic slice vibrates to your own personal energy pattern. Your horoscope is you, from an energy perspective.

Anna is a clairvoyant who can read your aura just by looking at you. It’s uncomfortable at times because you can’t keep any secrets from her, especially when she’s on form! Just by looking at you, Anna can tell your mood and your health, as well as give an interpretation of your personality and what is happening in your life. In a similar way an astrologer looks at the energy pattern of your horoscope to give an interpretation. Just as a clairvoyant is employing her psychic powers so too does an — astrologer, though in a different way. The clairvoyant reads your aura through the patterns and colours she sees while the astrologer reads the energy pattern of your horoscope through the planets, signs, houses and the relationships these make with one another.

Your horoscope, the chart drawn up for the moment of your birth, is a blueprint for your life and destiny. It is a guide or a road map through the highways and byways of life. It is also your karmic pattern and shows what your soul has agreed to take on before you were born.

It may seem difficult to believe that even a tiny baby is an emerging soul with lessons to learn. It’s not for us to say whether this innocent child was Jane Doe or Joan of Arc but, by reading her horoscope, we can see her potential and what she could achieve in this life. After all, who you are today is more important anyway than who you might or might not have been in the past.

Astrologers don’t believe we’re here for just one life before we go to heaven. We believe life is a long journey through many lifetimes. Reincarnation and karma are, therefore, twin concepts used in astrology. These laws of the cosmos govern our thoughts and actions. This is not a new thought. It has been said in different ways by different people throughout the ages. Newton said in his Third Law of Physics: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." The Lord Buddha gave a similar teaching over two thousand years prior to Newton. In the New Testament we find the teachings of Jesus as: "...whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." In these modern times, the Beatles summed up karma when they said: "The love you take is equal to the love you make."

The karma we are constantly creating every second of every day is worked out over lifetimes. If you take an honest look back over your life now, you will probably agree it took you a long time to learn something and to change in the light of it. Sometimes we literally get knocked over the head before we realize what we are supposed to be doing with out lives. An old college friend, Michael, was about to embark on a lucrative investment career when a car accident landed him in hospital for several weeks. It gave him a chance to rethink his plans and his life. He realized his heart wasn’t in his previous career choice and he later became a doctor and joined Medicines san Frontiers where he now works saving lives in war-torn areas.

We are gods in the making, unaware of our divinity. Our home and school is the solar system and Mother Earth our current classroom. Everything we do takes place within the beautiful mystic backdrop of the cosmos. Even our thoughts will delicately touch the remotest star in the galaxy and that remote star will also touch us.

In astrology, we are concerned with the influence of the planets in this solar system. The touch of these magnificent living entities is beneficent, urging us to evolve on our journey back to God. As we have free will, we can choose to ignore the planets’ subtle, delicate energies and move out of sync with the natural flow and order of life. If we do we move away from our destiny.

Instead of blaming the planets for our misery we can use them as marvelous tools. Once we learn the mystical language of astrology as portrayed in our horoscopes, our path is revealed. We can unlock our potential, understand our karmic relationships and learn how and when to act. Astrology is a tool not a crutch. Once you develop an active, reliable, high intuition you will no longer need it. However, for most of us, it’s extremely helpful.

Although you may hear otherwise, astrology is not fatalistic. The planets incline but they do not compel and nothing is inevitable. You can choose to overcome difficulties and limitations rather than succumbing to them. You can use astrology to help you manage your negative karma and use your positive karma more powerfully.

It was during the coffee break of a workshop I was conducting on Aspects in Astrology that I had the revelation. The room was buzzing with students talking in rapid-fire sentences and with great gusto about Squares, sextiles, septiles and sesquiquadrates. I was fielding questions from five people simultaneously when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aimee Grant in tears. I turned to her, slightly relieved to be out of the line of fire, when she suddenly screamed: "J cant stand any more of this. I must be stupid. I just don’t understand anything!" This silenced the room and everyone turned to stare in horror at poor Aimee. I could almost see the collective thought pattern, "Poor Aimee, yes, indeed she must be pretty stupid." However, what dawned on me, as the teacher, was that I was in fact the stupid one. I had assumed everyone understood the jargon and in fact it then turned out that Aimee was not alone and half the class didn’t either.

Since that fateful class I have tried to demystify astrological jargon and symbols as a key to teaching beginners’ astrology. Astrology is a complex subject because it’s a study of the cosmos. Like any subject — from quantum physics, to computers, to chemistry, to algebra to Mandarin Chinese or Arabic — much of the complexity is related to the jargon and the symbols. When you first look at any of these subjects, you won’t have a clue what they mean until you learn the symbols.

If you persist in your study of astrology, you will soon get used to glyphs, houses, aspects, transits and even sesquiquadrates just like you understand strange words like the internet, websites, google and e-mail. There is, however, a learning curve. I can’t miraculously implant those squiggles, symbols and unpronounceable words in your brain; you will have to learn them. If you’re new to astrology, it will require some effort to learn the jargon and decipher the symbols (unless you naturally have the mind and inclination of a cryptologist). The aim of this book is to present them as painlessly as possible, and so help you to understand your horoscope. After all, this is your gift from the cosmos given to you at birth, so why not use it?

After spending over twenty-five years teaching I have learned at least two things. The first is that nobody likes being talked down to. Secondly, nobody likes you to talk over their heads. In How to Read Your Horoscope in 5 Easy Steps, | aim to share with you on a level with which we both feel comfortable. Although this book is for the novice astrologer, I have friends who have studied astrology for years and enjoyed it. It is like playing the piano; it never hurts to keep practicing the scales. Personally, I can never resist reading yet another beginner’s book, even though I’ve studied astrology now since I was fourteen, which I have to admit is over forty years.

One piece of good news is that constructing horoscopes (also known as birth charts or natal charts) is now easy compared to when I first studied astrology. This was in a bye gone era — pre-computers. This was not without challenge for me, as I am neither a brilliant-mathematician nor predominantly left-brain. In the good old days, we had to draw horoscopes by hand using logarithms and this level of difficulty was like a veil through which only the most motivated passed. (Having more motivation than analytical acumen, I did complete my formal training in astrology at the Faculty of Astrological Studies in London.) Now everyone has access to astrology and can construct a chart within seconds.

This is one example of the simplification of the mysteries previously only available to the elite, now taking place in this Age of Aquarius.

The Astrological Ages represent changes of consciousness and each lasts about 2,150 years. The previous Age was Pisces, and Jesus was the Avatar of this Age. This great Master of Love demonstrated to humanity lessons associated with Pisces — love, sacrifice and service. According to Luke 22:10 and Mark 14:13, Jesus said: "A man will meet you carrving an earthen pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he goes in." and to change in the light of it. Sometimes we literally get knocked over the head before we realize what we are supposed to be doing with out lives. An old college friend, Michael, was about to embark on a lucrative investment career when a car accident landed him in hospital for several weeks. It gave him a chance to rethink his plans and his life. He realized his heart wasn’t in his previous career choice and he later became a doctor and joined Medicines san Frontieres where he now works saving lives in war-torn areas.

We are gods in the making, unaware of our divinity. Our home and school is the solar system and Mother Earth our current classroom. Everything we do takes place within the beautiful mystic backdrop of the cosmos. Even our thoughts will delicately touch the remotest star in the galaxy and that remote star will also touch us.

In astrology, we are concerned with the influence of the planets in this solar system. The touch of these magnificent living entities is beneficent, urging us to evolve on our journey back to God. As we have free will, we can choose to ignore the planets’ subtle, delicate energies and move out of sync with the natural flow and order of life. If we do we move away from our destiny.

Instead of blaming the planets for our misery we can use them as marvelous tools. Once we learn the mystical language of astrology as portrayed in our horoscopes, our path is revealed. We can unlock our potential, understand our karmic relationships and learn how and when to act. Astrology is a tool not a crutch. Once you develop an active, reliable, high intuition you will no longer need it. However, for most of us, it’s extremely helpful.

Although you may hear otherwise, astrology is not fatalistic. The planets incline but they do not compel and nothing is inevitable. You can choose to overcome difficulties and limitations rather than succumbing to them. You can use astrology to help you manage your negative karma and use your positive karma more powerfully.

**Contents and Sample Pages**