An astrological chart is a picture of the sky from the perspective of someone standing on earth. Your chart is a picture of the sky with you as the center of the universe. The universe revolves around you. While not scientifically accurate, this perspective is personally accurate. You are the center of the chart. This is called the geocentric (earth centered) perspective. At this point, I must caution you not to get caught up in the apparent contradiction between this discussion and currently accepted science.
    Astrologers know that the earth goes around the sun.  Remember that we are talking about how the sky looks as viewed from earth.  As an example, we will discuss retrograde planets (at a future date).  From earth, planets look like they are going backwards from time to time.  When this happens, it is called retrograde motion.   Astrologers know that planets do not actually go backwards, it just looks that way from earth.  It is the same with the sun and the moon.  Astrologers refer to them as planets, although scientifically they are not planets. Remember that we are using concepts that have been handed down for thousands of years. These concepts still work, as you will soon see, even though the terminology sounds unscientific at times.

The Signs

The path of the sun around the earth is called the ecliptic (about 23 degrees offset from the equator).  It is divided into 12 sections.  Each section is named for a star constellation that it contains.  The order of the signs runs counterclockwise.

Signs of the Zodiac

ARIES	TAURUS	GEMINI	CANCER	LEO	VIRGO
LIBRA	SCORPIO	SAGITTARIUS	CAPRICORN	AQUARIUS	PISCES

The Houses

The astrological chart is divided into 12 pie shaped sections called houses. Each one of these houses corresponds to an area of your life.  The houses are simply numbered from 1 to 12, counterclockwise.

Listed by speed of motion

MOON	MERCURY	VENUS	SUN	MARS	JUPITER	SATURN
		URANUS	NEPTUNE	PLUTO