Save time and energy reading charts

Whether or not you believe fully in astrology or past lives or other branches of metaphysics or woo, I'll tell you a chart reading cheat that works every time: the person you are reading for will display properties relating to their south node ruler's position and aspects in their chart. So all you have to do is find the south node (it's the U shaped icon that's opposed to the horseshoe), look at what sign it's in, then remember what the traditional/ancient ruler of that sign is (versus modern ruler), then find that planet in the chart by sign and house, and this will give you a TON of data as to how that person actually behaves. You don't have to take my word for it: try it yourself. Go through your chart rolodex if you have one. Look up charts of notorious famous people if you don't.* This is the work of Steven Forrest, further perfected by Tom Jacobs.

Some notes on this:

• Any aspect that is not a conjunction will represent repetitive patterns of people in their lives that either help or hinder them, again by sign and house. Let's say you find the south node ruler in the 4th house in Capricorn and it is getting squares from the 1st house in Libra. That means that they're the type of person who is probably conservative in behavior, responsible, and whose emotional currency centers around respect (Capricorn) who is concerned with home, hearth, family, and emotional security (4th house), and will have frequent run-ins with assertive/aggressive/self-interested types (1st house) that make a lot of noise about fairness/balance/harmony/equality (Libra)...or maybe those people are artists or work as therapists, or they're lawyers (Libra, Libra, and Libra).

  • A conjunction to the south node ruler is fusion. For example: the south node ruler is the moon, but the moon is conjunct Mars. Well, the moon is all about acting based on feelings and sometimes intuition, but the addition of Mars means that they're going to like to move fast and either be irascible or try to fight you.

• You'll also want to read the south node by sign and house location, as this will tell you how this person is conditioned to behave a lot of the time. In fact, if you're serious about reading charts, start with Pluto, then the nodes, then this trick, but I'm sharing this trick so you can see that it works.

• There are a lot of books and theories about this, but I'm just telling you the mechanics so that you can look for yourself.

• Use the mean node rather than the true node, especially if the nodes are very close to 0 or 29 degrees of a sign. I've misinterpreted charts using true node and when I switched to mean node, a whole world of information opened up that I wasn't seeing before because I was reading the wrong damn sign.

  • Other reason to use the mean node: it's the one that's been used for centuries, so the wisdom we are using here has been honed over a lot of time. Modern computing has enabled us to know with more precision EXACTLY where the nodes are, but the knowledge about the nodes is based on the mean node, not the true node. There can be a 2° difference between the two.

This is one of the main reasons why you'll find a person with a sun sign that doesn't act like that sun sign: if their south node ruler is in a very different sign or if they have a train wreck of planets conjunct (next to) their south node in a very different sign. The slowest moving Aries I know has her south node ruler in Taurus, for example. I'm one of the most antisocial Aquarians you'll meet, and my south node ruler is in Scorpio, conjunct Pluto. I know the world's most detached and cerebral Pisces, whose south node ruler is in Aquarius. A lot of the time when you see a mismatch like this, like if they're a fire sign and the south node ruler is in a water sign, they'll have more difficulty believing in astrology because they don't identify with a lot of the behavior that is typical of their sun sign.  People with their sun in Gemini and south node ruler also in Gemini have no problem being a proud Gemini. Same if their south node ruler is in Libra or Aquarius: all are air signs, and air signs tend to like similar things and behave in airy ways. Make sense?

Give it a whirl.

XO,J

*This is another great way to learn: study the charts of famous people and read their biography or watch a documentary about them to see what transits they were taking when they had big life events occur.