Birth Chart Interpretation Plain & Simple

by Andrea Taylor

A Quick and Easy Guide to Reading Your Birth Chart Concise, beginner-friendly, and with nothing left undone, this practical book teaches you how to interpret a natal chart with ease. You might be intimidated by the complexity of your chart, but this book makes it simple―all you need is your date, time, and location of birth. Using a method perfected over many years of teaching and counseling, Andrea Taylor guides you through the signs, planets, houses, aspects, angles, nodes, and more. This modern book shows how your chart's components work together to create your unique self. Explore the elements, motivations, planetary conjunctions, and quadrants in your chart. Discover how your Saturn placement reveals your karmic destiny and how the south and north nodes reflect your life path. You'll also learn how to choose your best career, create successful relationships, and compare two charts for compatibility. All this and more is in Birth Chart Interpretation Plain & Simple―with no math required.

Genres: Witchcraft

240 pages, Paperback

Published February 8, 2022

Reviews

[Natalie all_books_great_and_small · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Birth Chart Interpretation Plain and Simple is exactly what the book promises to be, although it starts off nice and simple and progresses at an even pace getting gradually more tricky. The book gives great, clear, and easy to follow information, and I enjoyed using this book to follow my own birth chart and was astonished with all the information I discovered.
This is a great book to start off with and is broken up so you can stop at any point and go back to it again later. I suggest reading this cover to cover and doing your birth chart as you go along.

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one long, black and white book without illustrations. You are supposed to plug in your exact time, date and location of birth into any web page that tells your sun, moon and planetary signs, and then come back and see what it means about you.

As always with these books, it was wildly inaccurate about me and the loved ones I looked up. If you follow this kind of thing and believe in it, it's a fairly thorough book and I guess it will be helpful in that regard.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book via Net Galley.

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I recently read “What’s Your Sign?” by the creator of the astrology app, Sanctuary. I had a lot of high hopes for that book. This one, Birth Chart Interpretation, is what I wanted that Sanctuary book to read.

It promises to be a simple guide to interpret your own birth chart and it does deliver on this.

While the start of the book is beginner, it does get more advanced as you go on. This seems to be the method you want to take when your reader learns more and more about their birth chart.

[LittleRead · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always wanted to explore and learn about birth charts, but the math would turn me off. This book promised no math required, so I gave it a read. I’m so glad that I did. The book is clear, conciser and easy to understand. It may have even paved the way for me to read a heavier book on the topic in the future, but for now, I’m happy with discovering who I am and how all the pieces fit together in my chart.

[Avory Faucette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beginning astrology books tend to be cookbook style, used as a reference for looking up specific placement. I was hoping this one might help folks looking to interpret their charts with a little more depth, but despite relatable writing I think a beginner would risk falling into some sign stereotypes and absolutes, learning techniques but not understanding their context.

Starting with elements and modalities tackles signs from first principles, which I love! But when each (sun) sign is described, a tendency towards deterministic language could lead a reader to mistrust their own valid understanding of a sign. Opinions many astrologers would disagree with are stated as fact. Planetary placements are cookbook-style, and descriptions for different planets aren’t always distinct. Some signs get harsher treatment, leaning towards stereotypes I hope we get away from in astrology. Taylor paints clear pictures, but they’re polarizing and can be overbroad.

A strong emphasis on romantic love surprised me a little. Moon sign descriptions for example, are mostly about love. Conservative assumptions show up throughout, reinforcing a gender binary and the norms of heteronormative marriage. Some takes are downright regressive, like suggesting it’s your fault if a Leo moon cheats on you.

There are certainly interesting takes included! But they’re scattered unevenly throughout, and a newbie may find it hard to develop a meaningful relationship to the material. Unusual techniques aren’t called out, and I found the way some aspects are described downright strange. Huber School techniques like age point and the family model are included, as well as an evolutionary astrology understanding of Saturn and the nodes.

Sections on career and relationship are stronger on synthesis, plus a section interpreting Abraham Lincoln’s chart as an example. But you don’t learn how to prioritize (“the big three,” for example, doesn’t come up). You can learn interesting ideas from this book, but don’t read it as a sole astro source!

(ARC provided through NetGalley for review.)

[sinag · Rating 1 out of 5]

1/5 stars!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book has a lot of beginner friendly information when it comes to astrology and natal chart. However, as someone who is an intermediate astrologer, I find some information in this book to not align with what's the general consensus about astrology and from what I believe in. It is not wrong, per se, because we are entitled with our own opinion and beliefs, especially in our practice. But, in my personal opinion, I disagree with some of the author's points in this book. One point that I disagreed with is when the author pointed out that the Sun is the most important part of our natal chart which is false because it is the Rising sign, as it is the one that sets the placement of signs and their degrees in each houses, making our natal chart unique to us as individuals. Another thing is grouping Jupiter and Saturn to inner planets which in this book he called personal planets, and that is not the case usually for this since both of those planets are deemed and established as outer planets. And there's more other than that. But, what I find really irritating and annoying in this one is that the author's basis doesn't even had an explanation or something. Because I wouldn't mind having different opinions with anyone over anything (unless the topic or opinion supports or actively hurts other people), but in this book, the author just stated his opinion without even expounding as to why that is. For me, this book lacks of reason and the why. It is full on statements that is not backed up by anything, even personal interpretation. This is a no for me. I wouldn't even recommend this to beginners because of the lack of explanation. We are supposed to be interpreting here, but the author didn't even teach or mention skills or patterns needed for us to look for when interpreting. I requested this book thinking I'm going to get at least new information or other perspective with regard to reading natal charts, but all I got is mess and a rant review.

[Delacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book outlined things simply as described in the title. It worked well when you followed it along with your website based birth chart. If you want a paper book to reference then this may met your needs. Since this was geared to beginners, there wasn't anything very revolutionary in this write up, and the information shared in the book is readily available online. There were a few things in the book that I wasn't overly impressed with. Some of the signs were presented very one dimensional and focused on one aspect (eg Capricorns are presented mostly from a career/work focus) and its disheartening to continually have this lack of depth in the signs. A few things I found to be presented in an unclear manner, and I had to reread them a few times to get the gist. While there were a few spots where the author suggest tips for reading charts, the majority of the info presented pretty much just repeated the blurb in online chart explanations. I think this book did increase some of my knowledge about birth charts. Overall, and easy to follow introductory guide. *I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and this is my voluntary and honest review.

[Danni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for giving me this eARC to review.

This really did help me figure out my birth chart as it was plain and simple (like the title says). Now that I can actually look at my birth chart and not be utterly confused, I think I can do more in-depth research as this felt like it was a good starting point. I will say that it is always best to use more than just one reference for this sort of thing.

[JadersCorner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was not impressed, seemed very cut and paste from any google search. Does not help interpret personal chart in depth as said. Just how to read a chart in general which can be googled. Basic not as advanced as author claims.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book that is exactly what it says. The information is laid out in a clear and simple way that is easy to understand.
I really enjoyed finding out about my own birth chart as well as my hubby and kids.

[Ileana Renfroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW! What a great detailed instructional book.

Birth Chart Interpretation Plain & Simple is exactly as the title suggests. Easy to follow and one you should really read.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC of, Birth Chart Interpretation Plain & Simple, by Andrea Taylor. This is a really good book on birth chart interpretation. I learned a lot and it was an easy to read.

[Alejandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a great manual to understand astrology and everything related to our birth chart. This book is very useful for those who have little knowledge of astrology and are interested in learning

[Kara Rowley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

[Mags (mbooksbycandlelight) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is basically a manual, it has so much information. If you are someone with very little knowledge of astrology and only a passing interest, as I was when I started reading this, this book may be to much for you. It has so many details to pay attention to and if you want any of it to make sense you need to keep your birth chart right next to you and reference it often. Even then you’ll probably find yourself reading passages again and again trying to make sense of it. Basically, if you’re not into research this may not be for you. I for one quite enjoy studying so I found this fascinating, even though I’m sure quite a few things just went right over my head. Definitely recommend this for people with a bit of a more solid interest in astrology. It took me a long time to make my way through the book, so if you’re looking for something that will keep your interest for a long time this may be a good option. Overall, I liked it, it was interesting, and I definitely learned a lot.

I received an eArc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Raylin Weathersby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think everyone should read this book to understand your birth chart. I learned so much about myself within a few hours then i did the last 22 years.