Astrology as a Means of Self-Care: How One’s Natal Chart Can Guide Self Care

Not only can your natal chart say quite a bit about you, but it can also tell you the best way to take care of yourself… Even if you don’t believe in astrology, what’s the harm in trying out some new ways to keep your mind and body at their best?

By: Tiangelique Dunigan

Yeah, it’s me again, your local Colour Magazine astrology person. The last time you heard from me, I was raving about Pluto and its effect on generations. Well, this time, I’ve got something more personal, more individual for you. Let’s talk about self-care!

In recent years, the term self-care has really gained some popularity. Self-care is the concept of caring for one’s self through actions and behaviors that promote wellness. Taking care of yourself is really important, and if you’re into astrology, you can really use it to your advantage to make your self-care routine or plans really effective.

Before we can really delve into the self-care conversations, let’s cover some of the basics you’ll need to know. You have the 12 zodiac signs: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. You also have the 12 houses, which is basically how the solar system and the zodiacs are divided (12 segments or sections). Each house is ruled by a sign and a theme related to that sign. For the purposes of our convo today, you only really need to know the signs that rule your 4th house, 5th house and your 6th house. Here's why these specific houses are important:

• Among many other important things, the 4th house is the house of home, security, and stability. The sign that rules our 4th house lets us know the things we need to feel safe and what would best fit the environment we create for ourselves at home.

• The 5th house is the house of joy, pleasure and one’s overall spirit. The sign that rules our 5th house lets us know how we find joy and pleasure in life. It also rules creativity which isn’t entirely important in this case but if you want to find a way to spice up your self-care routine/plans you can get creative and look at the sign of your 5th house to see how creativity looks for you.

• The 6th house is the house of health and wellness. For the purpose of this article, its most important associations are health, daily routines and service. The sign that rules our 6th house lets us know the best way to set routines for ourselves and potential shortcomings and advantages (depending on what's in that house and how it's aspected) when it comes to our health.

Now that we know the basics, here’s how we can channel the energy. I’m gonna expose my self here and drop my placements to provide an example to help explain.

• 4th House ruler: Cancer

• 5th House ruler: Leo

• 6th House ruler: Virgo

So for example, with a 4th house is ruled by Cancer, a really comfortable home environment, preferably warm and/or nicely decorated home environment would be beneficial. It would also be of benefit to have places with privacy to emotionally and socially recharge. Having these things would make someone with a Cancer-ruled 4th house feel the most secure and at home. With a 5th house ruled by Leo, participating in hobbies are a great way of caring for self. A 6th house ruled by Virgo indicates a need for keeping stress in check. Mental unwellness has a way of manifesting physically (especially in the stomach) in people who have Virgo as the ruler of their 6th house. Having a planned routine for self-care would be really beneficial, although, it would also be a good idea to not do the same thing each time. Have a plan, but do different stuff sometimes. Abstaining from doing work during scheduled self-care time is also a good idea.

So now you’re probably asking, “what about me?” or “what about my placements/chart?” Well, as much as I would like to give a breakdown for all 12 signs in every house mentioned above, I don’t think I’ve got that kinda time. So I’m going to tell you how to figure out some of these things for yourself…

First, you need to pull a natal chart on yourself, if you don’t know yours already. You’ll need some info. You need to know the city you were born, the day, year and also the time you were born. If you don’t know your birth time, that’s okay! Most people don’t. We can still work with all of the other information.

A natal chart looks like a pie with 12 different slices in it and on outer part of the circle, there are different sections labeled with a zodiac sign. In the center of your chart there should be numbers, and if not, look at the horizontal line on the eastern side of your chart. That's your Ascendant/1st house! You can count the wedges counterclockwise from there and figure out the remainder of your houses. Each line at the beginning of a house lands on a sign on the outer part of the circle. That's called a cusp and it lets you know what sign rules each house. Look at the signs on the cusps for the 4th, 5th and 6th house and search for what themes are associated with those signs and apply them liberally. Now, you can also look at the planets that are there too, but that's another conversation for another day. I recommend Cafe Astrology, Timescapes (the free version please! I am not a paid actor and this is not a paid ad), and Astromatrix to start if you're a beginner.

If you’re not a beginner in astrology, see if you can draw some more specific conclusions… Beginner or not, see if you can find a way to connect some of the things you’re seeing, for example, someone with my placements could plan self-care days and focus on hobbies that make them happy for one day and focus on rest another day. Or, maybe only apply one in your life. This is all up to you! You know you best. And fair warning, everything may not work the way you want. There could be aspects in your chart that can have a profound effect on something else in your chart. It’s usually trial and error in the beginning and that’s okay. The more you learn, the easier it becomes to see what works and what doesn’t! No worries and no judgment here :)

Whether you believe in astrology or not is again your choice, but hey, you might find something useful out of this no matter what. Everyone can benefit from learning a little more about themselves and everyone could benefit from figuring out ways to better take care of themselves! Checking with yourself and making sure you are at your best is super important, especially in the kind of world we live in now (fast-paced, forever evolving, always moving). Always take care of yourself. I hope this gives you something to look into!