The Chart Ruler — Captain of the Chart

By this point you're probably thinking, "There are ten planets, so what's the most important thing in my chart, then?" If you had to name just one, many astrologers point to the chart ruler. It's a planet like a captain that steers the whole chart.

The chart ruler is the ruling planet of the Ascendant (ASC). As you saw in the earlier chapter, every sign has a ruler — Aries is ruled by Mars, Taurus by Venus, Sagittarius by Jupiter, and so on. So which sign your Ascendant falls in decides your chart's captain.

Once you've found the captain, look at where it is and what it's doing — which sign (what color) it's in, which house (what stage) it's in, and what aspects it forms. Then a chart that looked scattered comes together into one direction.

For example, if your Ascendant is Sagittarius, your captain is Jupiter. If that Jupiter sits in Virgo in the 10th house (career), you can read it as "the big direction of life expands in work and achievement (10th house), carefully and diligently (Virgo)." That's why, when reading a chart, people always check the chart ruler right after the Sun, Moon, and Rising.