UO Books: What's Your Sign? A Guide to Astrology for the Cosmically Curious

Sanctuary, your favorite "daily guide to the universe," has written a book! Titled What's Your Sign? A Guide to Astrology for the Cosmically Curious, Sanctuary sets out to demystify the mystical and guides beginners and enthusiasts alike through the basics of birth chart astrology. "We worked with a talented team of astrologers who helped us refine the concept and approach for the book," says Haley Houseman, Sanctuary's Creative Director. "The book comes with extensive profiles for each sign, so you can get to know the ways the signs shape not just your sun sign, but also your other planetary placements. You’ll then be able to combine these profiles with your planets and houses, using these building blocks to gain a better understanding of your unique astrology.


Read an excerpt from the book below and make sure to order What's Your Sign? A Guide to Astrology for the Cosmically Curious when it hits shelves February 15, 2022!

Navigating Your Birth Chart

What is a birth chart? Great question! You win! Okay, fine, learning the basics of astrology is a little more involved than that. But asking the question is the first step, and the journey is fun and magical so yes, you have already won in a sense. So, winner, the answer to your question is that a birth chart is a kind of personal map that captures exactly what the sky looked like the moment you were born.

Your chart is unique to you. It is highly specific and describes the shape of cosmic relation not only where you were born, but when you were born— down to the precise minute you entered this world! Think of it this way: there are lots of people with your sun sign, but how many of them were born in that city, at that exact moment, with the precise combination of everything in your chart that conspires to give you your unique self?

Now we’re getting into why you might not perfectly relate to every other person who shares your sun sign. A birth chart captures your uniqueness. That is why we say that your sun sign is just the start! You only need to know your birthday in order to know your sun sign. To go deeper, you’ll need to know where you were born and the time you were born. As far as the time goes, you can round to the nearest half-hour if you need to. Not all of us know this info off the top of our heads, so take a second to text your parents or check your birth certificate to find out. We’ll wait (but tell your mom or dad we said hi!).

Okay, now that you have all the details on your grand entrance into this world you can put that info into a website or app (we’ve heard of this great one called Sanctuary Astrology that’s available for iOS and Android) and the chart it generates out is the celestial font of knowledge you’ll be drinking from.

Let’s talk about what you’ll do with all the cosmic knowledge you’re about to be the proud owner of— beginning with the planets. Each planet in our universe falls under the influence of a particular sign. The signs each go in order, starting with Aries and ending with Pisces, and they form a circle or wheel like a clock, each sign in it’s place. Think of that astrological wheel, laid flat against the dome of the sky and stars, wrapped around the Earth. Each sign has a slice of sky that it “rules.” This slicecorrelates roughly with the actual location of the constellation that names each of the twelve zodiac signs. When a planet falls in that section, they’re said to be “in'' that sign.

This is how you get your Sun in Scorpio, your Venus in Capricorn, and every other placement in your birth chart. Oh, and about those placements— not only does every planet have a sign assigned to it based on where it was in the sky when you were born, but we also have a handful of other placements that we’ll get into soon.

But before we dig into the placements, we need to mention houses briefly (though don’t worry, we’ll go deeper later, after you’ve had time to catch your breath). Any given birth chart is also organized by what astrologers call “houses”: 12 different zones stretched evenly across the 360 degrees of a natal chart. Each of these houses corresponds to different areas of your life, like your relationships, home life, and career path. Think of them as houses in a neighborhood—all your planets live in the neighborhood, nearby one another. They each have personalities specific to you (that’s the sign they occupy), but they “live” in that house, and arrange the elements of your love life or your relationship to money as they see fit, according to their special home. You might already know a little about houses if you know your rising or Ascendant sign, which was “rising” in the sky as you were born. That sign is always, always your first house, and everything in your chart works out from that point.

With all that info crammed into one little chart, you may be asking yourself: what can’t my chart tell me?! Well, a few things. Your birth chart can’t tell you whether or not you will get that promotion. It can’t tell you whether or not that cute barista likes you back. It also can’t tell you the weather next week, the meaning of life, when to use a semicolon versus just a colon, etc. It’s not that your birth chart is holding out on you—it’s just that your birth chart can’t take into account all of the myriad choices you get to make in life. Only you can decide what you’ll do with all the astrological influences that are at play in your life. Your birth chart is like a map of your spirit, psyche, and all the many destinies that are possible for you. Think of it like a of factory setting that you control, shape, and use to craft your own adventure.

What Astrologers Do

Phew. That’s a LOT of information. Don’t worry if you’re confused or overwhelmed. You’re not the only one! Most people, even astrology enthusiasts, don’t know everything about how to read all the information and nuances of their birth chart. But when a professional astrologer reads your birth chart, they understand how to put these pieces together. They know that the sign a planet is in is not even half the picture, and what house it lives in is very important. They can bring us lots of other information we can’t even begin to dive into.

To truly understand the full complexity of your chart, there is even more information in your chart to consider, like how the planets interact together at specific angles. (which astrologers call aspects). There is also the condition of the planet to consider; planets are at home in some signs, where they flow with natural ease and have to work a little harder in others. Don’t sweat these details. Getting a reading with a professional astrologer puts all this information in context, curated for your concerns and questions, far beyond a simple (albeit fun!) sun sign meme. We know it’s a lot, so we’re going to stick to the basics so you have a solid foundation. Then, if and when you chat with an astrologer, you can get the very most out of that conversation.