The Moon's phase is how much of it was lit on the night you were born. That depends on the angle between the Sun and the Moon: new when they stand together, full when they face each other, and every shade in between. Astrologers read it as your shape in time. Whether you are built to start things, carry them, or finish them.

Not everything in a chart is a planet. The Ascendant is the sign that was rising in the east where you were born. The Midheaven is the point of the sky straight overhead. Both depend on the exact time and place. The Moon's nodes are the two points where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's. Chiron is a small body between Saturn and Uranus.

An aspect is the angle between two planets, as seen from Earth. Side by side. A third of the sky apart. Opposite. The closer the angle is to exact, the stronger it is read. Hard aspects put two planets in tension. Soft ones let them work together. The quincunx is the odd one: two planets that cannot quite see each other.

The houses cut the sky at your birth into twelve rooms, starting from the eastern horizon. Each one is read for a part of life: yourself, money, your mind, your home, and so on. The signs depend only on the date. The houses depend on the time and place too, which is why an exact birth time matters. We use the Placidus system, the one most Western astrologers use.

Patterns are shapes that several planets make together. Three bunched in one sign. A triangle. A T. They are read as the chart's large architecture, the places where its weight gathers. Most charts have one or two. Few have all of them. None is a fault.

The signature is the chart counted rather than read. How many planets in fire, earth, air and water. How many in the signs that start things, hold them, or change them. Which planet connects to the most others, and which to none. Counts are crude. They are also the quickest honest summary of a chart's temperament.