Getting Started

This is a companion guide to Episode 24 of Parts & Charts: The IFS and Astrology Podcast

All collages made by Chelsea Owens | Guide written by KP Kaszubowski

Prerequisites:

• Get exact birth time (rising sign changes every ~2 hours), location, and date

• I like to use this site to cast the birth chart: https://horoscopes.astro-seek.com/birth-chart-horoscope-online

• And if you’re following Hellenistic tradition (what Chani uses), be sure to adjust the “House system” to “Whole Sign”

  

• Trust this is ethical work: birth data is sensitive information.

• These are simply trailheads! Your client is the only one who really knows their lived experience :) And a Sun in Gemini is expressed as uniquely as the person.

The Three Things to Look At

1. Chart Ruler (via Rising Sign)

What it is: Every rising sign has a planetary ruler. That planet sets the tone, rhythm, and fashion of how someone moves through life.

How to find it:

• Aries or Scorpio rising → Mars
• Taurus or Libra rising → Venus
• Gemini or Virgo rising → Mercury
• Cancer rising → Moon
• Leo rising → Sun
• Capricorn or Aquarius rising → Saturn
• Sagittarius or Pisces rising → Jupiter

What to notice:

• Where the chart ruler lives in their chart (which house)
• How that planet approaches life (its nature)

Example applications:

• Venus-ruled person (Taurus/Libra rising) with feedback issues → likely about disconnection; they're wired for connection
• Mars-ruled person (Aries/Scorpio rising) with feedback issues → may need clearer delineations; Mars separates to examine
• Saturn-ruled person (Cap/Aquarius rising) → fear may feel like weight on the chest
• Mercury-ruled person (Gemini/Virgo rising) → fear may show up as thought loops
• Sun-ruled person (Leo rising) → fear may involve lack of choice or visibility
• Moon-ruled person (Cancer rising) → fear lives in the body, may feel like anxiety

2. Day vs. Night Chart (Sect)

How to determine:

• Sun in top half of circle chart = Day chart
• Sun in bottom half of circle chart = Night chart
• (If sun is in 1st, 7th, 8th, or 12th house—check exact degrees with someone who knows)

What it means:

Day Chart (Sun as primary luminary):

• More conscious/external processing
• More "approaching" energy
• Lives more in the light of awareness

Night Chart (Moon as primary luminary):

• More intuitive/unconscious access
• More "allowing/arising" energy
• Lives more in the receptive current

Clinical applications:

• Day chart client struggling to access feelings → encourage breath, body work; they tend toward mental/conscious processing
• Night chart client struggling to access specific emotions → encourage allowing vs. forcing; let things arise
• Not about one being "better"—it's about how they naturally receive and process

3. Mercury (Communication & Translation)