Your astrological birth chart or Janam Kundli is your life’s blueprint. It is your unique karmic map that shares the wisdom of your past, present, and future life. By analysing your birth chart, you can understand every aspect of yourself, your personality, your relationships and get excellent in-depth insights into what your soul desires to accomplish in this lifetime. A birth chart is a complex combination of various components or elements - planets, stars, zodiac signs, houses. And the most important thing to remember is that the entire chart must be taken as a whole. It abounds bits and pieces of information about you. You cannot consider just one part of the information and decide that it is the person's only defining factor.

By all means, one needs to read all the different information of each planet in its house and sign to get a complete and accurate picture.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to analyse a birth chart (be it yours or someone else’s) and get an insight into the most important components of the personality and overall life experiences?

But, when you look at your birth chart for the first time, you may find it to be complex and overwhelming to grab all the information. And that’s completely understandable because astrology takes hours, years, and even a lifetime to be fully explored and understood. An easy option is to find a professional Kundli astrology app, who you can consult online on a trusted app like that of Astroyogi.

However, reading a Kundli isn't that hard as it seems, as one has to understand some key aspects to study the houses and the positions of the planets.

Some of the basic steps one can follow while analysing a birth chart.

First of all, it is important to know that it requires your birth details - time, date, and birthplace to cast a birth chart. Then the birth details, placement, and state of the planets and zodiac signs in the Kundli are taken into account to give out predictions.

Understand the Houses, their significance, and what they represent

A birth chart or Kundli consists of 12 houses, and each house represents different aspects of your life along with physical traits, features, and interests. Therefore, any planet positioned in any of the houses influences its factors and gives results based on that account.

1st House - Self, Physical Features and Traits, Personality, Characteristics
2nd House - Wealth, Finances, Family, Primary Knowledge
3rd House - Communication, Skills, Hobbies, Younger Siblings
4th House - Happiness, Mother, Property, Land, Vehicle, Secondary Education
5th House - Creativity, Love and Affair, Progeny, Past Life Experience, Higher Education
6th House - Profession, Diseases, Enemies, Debt, Advocacy
7th House - Marriage, Spouse, Relationships & Long-Term Partnerships, Public Image
8th House - Longevity, Unexpected Events, Research
9th House - Luck, Father, Mentor, Beliefs, Religion, Long Distance Travel, Higher Learning
10th House - Job, Career, Profession, Karma or Actions
11th House - Income, Gains, Ambitions, Elder Siblings
12th House - Expenditure, Moksha, Liberation, Unseen realm

Identify all the nine planets.

Find out about the planets and what houses they are in. Planets influence our experiences of life that shape our personality. Below are the nine planets with their Vedic names.

The nine planets and their Vedic names:

Sun - Surya
Moon - Chandra
Mars - Mangal
Mercury - Buddha
Jupiter - Guru/ Brihaspati
Venus - Shukra
Saturn - Shani
Ascending Node of Moon’s Orbit - Rahu
Descending Node of Moon’s Orbit - Ketu

Find Your Lagna or Rising Sign or Ascendant

The first step is to locate your Lagna or Rising sign or Ascendant. The Lagna is the starting of the birth chart. It is the 1st house in the birth chart, and all the houses start from here arranged in an anti-clockwise formation till the 12th house. The thing to note here is that your Lagna is always associated with the 1st house.

The Ascendant Signs are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.

Look for the Sun and the Moon

The Sun and Moon in your Kundli represent the most basic and essential elements of the self. The Sun is responsible for your inner quality and traits, while the Moon is for your outer personality. The Sun represents your outwardly focused, expressive, and masculine side. The Moon represents your inwardly focused, reflective, and feminine side.

Once you have identified both the Sun and Moon, now find out what signs they are in. Identify what your sun sign and your moon sign is.

The house reveals the important areas of your life. And the signs indicate the characteristics that come through your personality and life experiences.

Understand the Lordships

Every house in your birth chart will fall in a zodiac sign. And each sign is essentially governed by one or two planet(s).

Planets and the Signs they Rule:

Sun - Leo
Moon - Cancer
Mars - Aries & Scorpio
Mercury - Gemini and Virgo
Jupiter - Sagittarius & Pisces
Venus - Taurus and Libra
Saturn - Capricorn & Aquarius
Rahu - Co rules Aquarius with Saturn
Ketu - Co rules Scorpio with Saturn

In conclusion

Of course, the process of reading a birth chart is complex and takes time. The point here is that it has to be done the right way. The practice is essential for comprehensive understanding as various factors, parameters, and details are to be kept in mind when reading a birth chart. To ensure that you get the most accurate interpretation of your birth chart, you should consult a professional astrologer. You can consult one on an astrology app like that of Astroyogi, which provides trustworthy consultation services. Moreover, if you don’t have a birth chart, you can create one easily on the Astroyogi app or live astrology app chat with astrologer who can create a personalised Kundli for you and give you in-depth insights.