Material Girl, Mystical World: The Now-Age Guide for Chic Seekers and Modern Mystics. Ruby Warrington

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СКАЧАТЬ in astro-speak, it’s so much simpler to describe myself as having my “Sun in Aries” than go into a whole riff about how I can be self-interested, but at the same time am deeply loyal; or how I’m a born entrepreneur, prone to risk-taking, with a warrior soul that really, truly, underneath all the ego BS, wants to save the world.

      For as far back as I can remember I have been fascinated with the way this mystical language just always seemed to make sense. That is, if I didn’t spend too long trying to wrap my head around the concept that each individual life on Earth is shaped by the position of the planets at our time of birth. But for me, how astrology works isn’t really the point (scientists versus mystics, remember?). I see it more as a tool for personal development, with which to interpret what, why, how, and when certain events, emotional states, and evolutionary processes are presenting in our lives. And all in the name of our evolution/karmic journey.

      Yes, astrology can also seem like an extremely navel-gazing pastime. But I think the desire to know yourself and the world you move through better is essentially a drive to be a better, more effective human being. Not that it’s there to be used as a scapegoat, either. Cultivating an awareness of the way certain astrological aspects could influence events is a very different beast to simply blaming all your shortcomings, your just-couldn’t-really-be-assed-to-go-there fuckups, on the stars. This is where the concept of “free will” comes into play, the idea that while we are undoubtedly children of the cosmos and part of the Universal grand plan, we still get the deciding vote as to how our lives play out.

      As my astrologer friends Tali and Ophira Edut, better known as the AstroTwins, put it, it helps to see your birth chart as kind of like your “factory settings.” The cosmic blueprint you’re working off in this lifetime.

      How you then go about constructing your life depends on all sorts of external factors, including the people you meet, the opportunities you’re presented with, and, ultimately, the decisions you make. But having that original blueprint on file to refer to is a great way to ensure that the foundations remain solid. As such, when you study the language of astrology as a tool for personal development, learning the basics of interpreting your own chart is a really great place to start. With this information at your fingertips, I guarantee you’ll be granted a whole new perspective on your life, your relationships, and, yes, your karmic destiny.

      It was the fabulous AstroTwins who lifted the lid on chart interpretation for me. Tali, who met and married her husband at Burning Man, studies shamanism in her spare time, and Ophira, whenever I visit her apartment in the East Village, has a pack of Angel cards out on the table. But they also write the horoscopes for ELLE and appear as regulars on The Real Housewives—in other words, they’re a pair of Mystical Girls, making some seriously magical waves in the Material World.

      Numinati alert! I thought when we first connected. (The “Numinati” being my affectionate term for my Numi coven.) And when I then discovered they were leading a Become Your Own Astrologer retreat in Tulum, Mexico, that summer, I knew I would move heaven and earth, not to mention all the freaking constellations in the zodiac, to be there.

      This is where I first got a proper handle on basic birth chart interpretation, using what the Twins refer to as the “three-part puzzle” for examining each “aspect”—or planetary placement in non-astro-speak—in a chart. More on this to come. It was also where I got my first taste of comparing two people’s charts (another of the Twins’ pet subjects)—in the process uncovering some home truths about my chart in relationship to my mum’s, for example, that have gone on to shape the way we understand and therefore communicate with each other, taking our mother-daughter connection to a whole other, more forgiving, level. Big stuff. And yet more fuel to my already burning astrological obsession.

      READING YOUR CHART

      So first up, it’s very important to understand that your Sun sign, which is the sign you read for when you check your daily horoscope, really only represents part of your nature, even though popular culture puts so much emphasis on it. But there are actually eleven planets at play in any one birth chart (including the Sun, Moon, and North Node, which aren’t technically planets, but which astrologers treat as such), each of which has a bearing on said chart. As such, you also have a Venus sign, a Mercury sign, and so on.

      And then there is your Rising sign, or Ascendant—the sign of the zodiac the Sun was rising in at the specific time of your birth—which also has a major role to play. Rising signs change every two hours, though, so it’s only possible to calculate your Rising sign if you happen to know, to the nearest two hours, what time you chose to come into the world. But if you don’t, never fear, it’s by no means essential for calculating your chart.

      Which, thanks to the aforementioned wonders of the Internet, you can do for free online. In fact, if you haven’t already, go and do it now at www.astrostyle.com, the online home of the AstroTwins, where there’s a link on the homepage for you to “Do your chart for free.” If you don’t know your specific time of birth, you can just enter 12 P.M. (this won’t affect the other planetary aspects). It might also be a good idea to print it out, so you can take some notes.

      Okay, got it? Good. And if you don’t have access to a computer right now, here’s what my chart looks like, to give you an idea:

      Pretty technical looking, I know, and I’m not going to go into too much detail here. But there are four things to focus on for now.

      First, see that circle in the middle? That’s you. Or, if you’re looking at my chart, that’s me. Hi! Yes, pretty egotistical, since IRL, the planets actually revolve around the Sun. But in our birth chart, we get to sit center stage.

      Now, look at the outer ring of the chart. This is the Zodiac Wheel, and as you can see it’s divided into twelve sections, one for each SIGN of the zodiac, as denoted by the twelve different symbols or “glyphs” in the right-hand columns of the table opposite—which you may recognize from when you read your horoscope or see your Sun sign written about. My chart begins in Sagittarius on the left (or East) at “9 o’clock,” where it says “A.C.” (for Ascendant).

      LEARNING NO. 1: The signs of the zodiac represent the different aspects of our personality, how we show up in the world and deal with situations.

      Next up, you’ll see that the middle ring is also divided into twelve sections. These are the different HOUSES of the chart, and they’re numbered 1 to 12, beginning, again, at the nine o’clock position on the left. Each house is “ruled” by the sign it intersects—so my First house is ruled by Sagittarius, my Second house by Capricorn, my Third by Pisces (just), and so on. As such, each house will be colored by the personality of the sign it’s ruled by.

      LEARNING NO. 2: The houses represent the different areas of life that we operate in—love, work, home and family, and so on.

      Finally, check out the symbols floating in the different houses. These represent the PLANETS, and the chart is essentially like a screengrab of their position in the solar system at the time of our birth.

      LEARNING NO. 3: The planets represent our motivation in life, the things that drive us to act.

      Basic chart interpretation lies in learning how these three elements interact with one another—planet, house, and sign—as they show up in different combinations in each and every individual birth chart. Here are a couple of examples to help explain what I mean.

      As СКАЧАТЬ