Ruler of Your Chart

Wikipedia, medieval astrologer

Although today in the west we practice Sun-Centered astrology, astrologers up until the early 20th century focused on the Ascension Sign.  And today when astrologers refer to the Ruler of a Chart, they are talking about the ruler of the Ascension Sign.  So let me show you a shortcut to reading a chart by focusing on the Ruler (ruling planet) first and playing a game of six degrees of separation or connecting the dots.  I don't remember which book I learned this trick, but you can play with it by using your natal chart. 

Don't have a natal chart? Go to http://www.astro.com and create a free chart for yourself by plugging in the details of your birth.  Here's a hint, if you live in the northern part of the earth, such as the northern US, Canada, northern Europe, etc... the Equal House system works best for a natal chart.  I live in Washington State and use this house system for my charts.

I am pasting a fake chart I made for one of my workshops.

The Ascension Sign for this chart is Libra so the Ruler is Venus.  So now we look for Venus in the chart by house and sign.

Venus is in Virgo (ruled by Mercury) in the 11th House (ruled by Aquarius).  And Uranus (also ruled by Aquarius) is in Libra (ASC).

So let's look for Mercury since it has an association to Virgo.  Mercury falls at 7 degrees Cancer, which is a nurturing and mother type Mercury.  Mercury falls in the 9th House (ruler Sagittarius) which has to do with higher education, religion, philosophy, long distance travel, and idealism.

So already we know we have a Venususian type who seeks beauty and balance in the world, and would feel fussy about these things as she tries to perfect the world around her with Venus in Virgo.

She might communicate this through a teaching profession at a higher education setting such as a university or she might do this through world travel, cultural anthropology or religion.  Her communication style (Mercury) is motherly and she is concerned about food issues and probably children and mothers.  This could be a cultural anthropologist again with Uranus in Libra and Venus falling in the Aquarius House, but she would fall on the humanitarian side of this.  I place cultural anthropology under Sagittarius, but it also has Aquarius elements.

Next let's look at the Sun's Ruler which is Cancer represented by the Moon which falls in the Scorpio (Pluto), in the 1st House (Aries/Mars). 

This is a fiery and watery place for the Moon, doubly so and with the Cancer Sun, this women runs again into the theme of mothers, children, nourishment, and she's identifying with it strongly since the Moon falls in her first house of identity.  Perhaps her personal story of her life led her to her work.

Finally, let's look at the ruler of the Moon which in this case is Pluto which falls in the 12th House ruled by Neptune/Pisces.  Pluto falls in the sign of Libra so here is someone represented by a generation or subgeneration seeking balance or transformation through balance and beauty.  This is a person who might have a problem with confrontation or darker people, especially mentally ill people or those in prison or hospitals.  She would struggle with bringing perfection to these situations so she could feel safer in the world, but could just as well end up controlling and manipulating situations from behind the scenes.  She might escape through addictions of one kind or another or play the role of martyr or victim, especially when she feels burned out.

So there you go, by coming up with the three rulers of this chart, you have a pretty impressive picture of this "fake" person who at some point might become a character in one of my novels.  And you can keep playing the association game further by going through all the planets in the chart and Chiron, find their rulers and where they are in the chart and so on.  Each time you connect more of the dots the image of the person (you read for) grows more clear.

First practice this with your own chart and you will be surprised at the intriguing nuggets that come up, stuff you never considered previously.  We are all complex and none of us will ever know all the nuances in our charts.  So have some fun this weekend.