Each year the sun crosses over the 12 constellations of the Western zodiac. Each zodiac sign correlates with a particular time of year and is traditionally associated with particular character traits, inclinations, strengths, and motives.  Astrologers look closely at the zodiac’s orientation and how planets are distributed among the signs in order to gain greater insight into an individual’s personality and destiny.

The fast-moving "personal planets", the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars, are believed to provide insight into your individual character traits.  The slow-moving outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto, more broadly reflect characteristics common to entire generations of individuals. Astrologers look closely at the positions of the planets and their relationships with one another. Planetary Portrait charts also include additional points commonly used in modern astrology for interpretation. These are Chiron, The north node, the part of fortune, the AC (Ascendant) and MC (Midheaven).

Astrologers take note of aspects- particular angles that form between planets, as captured in the snapshot of your birth chart. Planetary Portraits charts feature the five most important major aspects: conjunction (0 degrees), square (90 degrees), trine (120 degrees), opposition (180 degrees), and sextile (60 degrees). These special angles indicate planetary themes and energies that are either complementary (soft) or conflicting (hard), and suggest areas of tension and flow in one’s personality and life experiences. On a Planetary Portraits astrology chart soft aspects are represented by solid lines and hard aspects by dashed lines.

The 12 houses present distinct areas of human experience outlined from birth (house1) to death (house 12). By noting the planets in each house, astrologers determine which areas of life deserve special attention. In certain houses particular drives, represented by planets, are considered more easily expressed and encountered than others. Houses containing soft or hard aspects hint at whether certain experiences may be dominated by a sense of tension or flow. In charts created with unknown birth times house information is necessarily omitted.

Detailed versions of Planetary Portraits charts feature a list of the exact positions of each planet and point (bottom left), as well as an Element and Modality table that categorizes the 10 planets by element (air, fire, water, and earth) and modality (cardinal, fixed and mutable). Learn more about these terms in the Planetary Portraits Free Horoscope Guidebook.