Vedic astrology, clearly explained
Learn your chart
Start with a question. These short guides explain the method, its limits, and a practical next step.
AI-assisted educational draft for Nakshatra. Not independently reviewed by a human astrologer.
Your chart in one picture
A birth chart is a map of the sky at the moment you were born. This is how to read one.
Each box is a sign
The twelve signs always sit in the same boxes, like a clock face. Only the planets and your rising sign move from chart to chart.
The number is the house
Your rising sign is the sign on the eastern horizon when you were born. It becomes house 1, and the others are counted from it. Each house is an area of life.
Planet names show where they were
A planet sits in the box of the sign it was passing through at your birth. Its box tells you its sign, and the number tells you the area of life it touches.
In this example the rising sign is Simha, so Simha is house 1, Kanya is house 2, and so on around the chart. The Sun is in house 1, Jupiter in house 9 and the Moon in house 4.
The nine planets
Indian astrology uses nine planets. Each stands for a part of you, and its sign and house show how that part shows up.
Sun
purpose and confidence
Your sense of purpose, confidence and how you shine.
Moon
mood and inner needs
Your moods, your inner needs and what helps you feel safe.
Mars
drive and courage
Your drive, courage and how you act when something matters.
Mercury
thinking and talking
How you think, learn, talk and handle details.
Jupiter
growth and guidance
Growth, good fortune, teachers and what you believe in.
Venus
love and enjoyment
Love, closeness, beauty and what you enjoy.
Saturn
discipline and responsibility
Discipline, responsibility and the slow work that lasts.
Rahu
ambition and restlessness
Ambition, hunger for something new and a restless pull forward.
Ketu
letting go and insight
Letting go, detachment and a pull toward what is inward.
Rahu and Ketu are not bodies but two points where the Moon’s path crosses the Sun’s; tradition treats them as planets.
Life chapters (dashas)
Tradition splits life into chapters, each ruled by one planet. The order never changes, but the length does: a Venus chapter lasts 20 years, a Sun chapter only 6. Your chart decides which chapter you were born into.
Start of the cycle120 years
- Ketu · 7 years
- Venus · 20 years
- Sun · 6 years
- Moon · 10 years
- Mars · 7 years
- Rahu · 18 years
- Jupiter · 16 years
- Saturn · 19 years
- Mercury · 17 years
Inside each chapter are smaller sub-periods ruled by the other planets, so the same planet can feel different from one stretch to the next.
The Moon’s month (tithis)
A tithi is a lunar day, set by how far the Moon has moved from the Sun. There are 30 in a month.
- Shukla paksha (filled dots): 15 days while the Moon grows, from New Moon to Full Moon. Traditionally good for beginnings.
- Krishna paksha (empty dots): 15 days while the Moon shrinks, from Full Moon back to New Moon. Traditionally good for finishing and letting go.
- Purnima is the full-moon tithi and Amavasya the new-moon one. The Vedic calendar widget on your dashboard shows which tithi today is.
Dictionary
Plain-English meanings for dasha, nakshatra, tithi, lagna and every other word in your chart. Searchable, A to Z.
Why does my chart differ between apps?
Compare the inputs and calculation conventions before comparing the reading.
What if my birth time is uncertain?
Keep what you know, make uncertainty visible, and avoid false precision.
How to read your current Dasha
Read life-period dates as part of a declared method, then separate them from predictions.
What a compatibility score cannot tell you
Use a traditional comparison to begin a conversation, without handing it the decision.
How Nakshatra calculates your chart
A plain-language account of birth inputs, astronomical positions, and traditional conventions.
How to read an AI astrology answer critically
Check the facts, sources, and uncertainty before deciding whether an answer is useful.
How do signs, planets, and houses fit together?
A simple way to read one placement as part of a chart, not as a verdict.
What is a birth Nakshatra?
Learn how the Moon’s position is mapped to a lunar mansion and used in traditional timing.
How to read planetary transits
See what a transit compares in your chart, and keep the interpretation in perspective.
What are divisional charts?
Understand what a Varga adds to a birth chart, and why it still depends on the same birth details.