Top

How to Read Your Vedic Birth Chart in 5 Easy Steps

How to Read Your Vedic Birth Chart in 5 Easy Steps

microgen/Getty

Wondering how to read your Vedic birth chart? For starters, obtain an accurate jyotish chart.

Your Vedic birth chart is a unique karmic map that shares the wisdom of life—past, present, and future.

Your chart holds the key to understanding who you are on a mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual body level. Your chart also shares intimate secrets about your healing and transformation process.

Jyotish is the Vedic science of astrology. It takes hours, years, and even lifetimes to fully explore and understand. Here, I reveal five basic steps for starting to peel back the layers of your own https://www.spiritualityhealth...

Note: A Vedic birth chart must be created by a qualified jyotishi who has access to accurate jyotish software. An exact birth time, birth date, and location are needed in order to create an accurate chart.

How to Read Your Vedic Birth Chart

Step 1. Identify Your Rising Sign

Using the North Indian Style diagram shown here, notice where the first house is in your own chart. This is also where your rising sign is located. The small number in the first house indicates your rising sign. What is your rising sign?

1 = Aries; 2 = Taurus; 3 = Gemini; 4 = Cancer; 5 = Leo; 6 = Virgo; 7 = Libra; 8 = Scorpio; 9 = Sagittarius; 10 = Capricorn; 11 = Aquarius; 12 = Pisces.

Step 2. Find Your Sun and Moon

Moving counterclockwise around the chart, locate the first through the 12th houses. What houses are your Sun and Moon in?

SU is the abbreviation used for Sun. The Sanskrit abbreviation is SY for Surya.
MO is the abbreviation for the Moon. The Sanskrit abbreviation is CH for Chandra.

Step 3. What Are Your Sun and Moon Signs?

Now that you have identified the houses that your Sun and Moon are in, identify what signs they are in. Remember, the numbers in each house indicate the signs. What is your Sun sign? What is your Moon sign?

Step 4. Identify All Nine Planets in Your Chart

Use the common abbreviations below to identify the nine planets. What houses are they in?

AS = ascendant, your 1st house. MO = Moon. SU = Sun. SA = Saturn. ME = Mercury. MA = Mars. VE = Venus. JP = Jupiter. Ra = Rahu. Ke = Ketu.

Step 5. What Are Your Planetary Signs?

Once you identify the planets and what houses they sit in, the next step is to determine what signs each of the nine planets are placed in. Where do your Saturn, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Rahu, and Ketu sit in your own chart?

Remember, this process takes time. Go slow and remember to breathe! At first, just stick to the identification process. Meaning-making comes next.

Understanding Your Vedic Birth Chart

Truth be told, understanding the basic principles of how to read a Vedic birth chart is very different than being able to find meaning in the many elaborate pieces, which requires integrating the many layers of the jyotish chart with your own understanding. This is where time, study, meditation, and contemplation are essential. For those who want to practice and increase their skills, you will need to be diligent in your studies. Reading books, taking classes, and spending time studying charts is essential.

Perhaps the most important part of learning and growing through jyotish wisdom, however, is studying your own Vedic birth chart.

This karmic map is your reference point for all other understanding—even understanding other charts. Your jyotish chart is the core of your own awareness and will help you unlock your own inner knowing. First and foremost, study your own chart and use it as a reference for understanding yourself in relation to the world.

As the Vedic texts state, “Aham Brahmasmi”—I am the totality. For more information on Vedic astrology, read: “Why Western Astrology Is Inaccurate.”

S&H looks at the areas of life represented by the twelve houses of Vedic astrology.


This article on how to read a Vedic birth chart by Swati Miller was first published here. Ayurveda Next Door is an online lifestyle magazine for wellness and inspired living. You'll find healthy recipes, diet and lifestyle tips you'll love and wisdom from ayurvedic practitioners around the world. Immerse yourself in a lifestyle of health with Ayurveda and complementary modalities. Search our database of practitioners, centers, and schools and discover the Ayurveda community around you.

*This article is relevant for reading a North Indian Style chart only.

Enjoying this content?

Get this article and many more delivered straight to your inbox weekly.