To many astrology seems like a vague and simplistic hobby. While many are familiar with horoscopes and birth signs, the more complicated side of astrology is often ignored. For example do you know how your astrology birth chart reads?

An astrology birth chart or natal chart is a map of the sky showing where all the planets of our solar system were located at the exact moment of your birth. The Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto all play a significant role as messengers of the universe and in your personal destiny.

Therefore, it is important to know the exact time, the precise hour and minute of your birth if you are to get an accurate calculation. You will find the four most important points on the astrology birth chart are the The Sun, The Moon, The Ascendant and the planet ruling the ascendant. This involves the 12 zodiac signs and their 10 modern ruling planets.

Chances are if you decide to get your astrology birth chart calculated on your own you will receive a lot of strange squiggles, lines and symbols to interpret. Interpreting those markings is a complicated practice and takes many years of study. This is why people interested in astrology search for professionals who can read and explain these complexities.

Before the advent of the Internet, astrological birth chart readings involved a cost to calculate and more to interpret. Today, there are now many free online tools that can assist you not only with calculating your astrology birth chart but also in providing you a clear explanation of the data.

It is important to note, however, that free services sometimes come “cheap.” That means that some online tools and services make errors in calculating astrology birth chart data from very minor errors which could distort some facts, to major errors that could compromise the entire reading.

Likewise, astrology searchers can make mistakes in entering data and thus throw off the entire reading by something as small as entering in an incorrect time zone. Many software programs have taken care of this problem by automatically choosing the correct time, location as well as other relevant information. Many software programs and online services make it a point to present a user-friendly product to the customer, thereby simplifying the entire process from the collection of information to the final interpretation of the symbols. Calculating an accurate astrology birth chart is largely dependent upon a user entering in the precise information needed. Of course there is no software or online service capable of fixing a typist’s mistakes. But if the information provided is accurate, then calculating and interpreting astrology birth charts has never been easier.

Astrology matching is so interesting, despite how the field of astrology is challenged for not being a “real” science. For those of us who follow what is unfairly called a “pseudoscience”, the technique of astrology matching does more than entertain; it informs and assists.

We consult books that help us identify who we are according to where the planets were when were born; we consult other books to study the potential mate’s personality characteristics; and we study even more books to identify and understand compatibility. Of the above kinds of books, some focus, that is specifically on astrology matching. These works, written by psychics, astrologers, and other practiced professionals in the parapsychological or metaphysical fields, include information on the couple’s compatibility based on each person’s likes, dislikes, habits, and traits, and involving the “chemistry” or interpersonal dynamics that likely exist in a relationship between the two persons.

A couple of great astrology matching books come to mind - Linda Goodman’s Love Signs and The Secret Language of Relationships: Your Complete Personology Guide to Any Relationship with Anyone, by Gary Goldschneider and Joost Elffers.

In Linda Goodman’s Love Signs, a book that has been around for decades, the esteemed astrologer considers the astrology matching between every two signs and every gender combination. So, for example, you can read about the Leo woman and the Capricorn man or the Leo man and the Capricorn woman, etc., learning about work, sex, friendship, and love relationships between the two signs.

In Goldschneider and Elffers’ The Secret Language of Relationships… the same cross-referencing is available, only by small segments of birthdates. For example, you would first consult the inside-cover grid to find your birthdate and your mate’s, which may, say, fall between February 8-15 and July 3-10, respectively. You then go to the corresponding page number and read the specifics of astrology matching dynamics for your particular relationship: you will find what the relationship’s strengths and weaknesses are, what this relationship is best for (work, love, friendship, sex, or marriage), and what this relationship is best for (also whether it is worst as a work, love, friendship, sex, or marriage relationship).

Of course, as one who is biased in favor of such astrology matching books, I will say both books are dead on. I have consulted the books after a break-up, only to find that my excessive spending and his frugality were the clashing factors that contributed to the erosion of an otherwise ideal relationship. I have consulted the books to confirm I have a weakness for hard-working and sexy Caps, while my true loves are and have been those who are in the heady and humanitarian astrological realm of the Aquarius sign.

But I will not address further the notions that astrology or astrological match-making are fluffy, unscientific disciplines. I have proven to myself the opposite is true, and will leave your assessment up to you. If anything, I trust you will be intrigued.