Help with reading my chart please

If possible, I was wondering if someone could help me interpret my chart?

My first question is, how do I find my dominant planet? At CafeAstrology it speaks a lot of dominant planets, but I'm not sure how to tell what's dominant in my chart.

One thing that strikes me is that at one point it is telling me Saturn in House III can mean that I end my life in poverty, but Jupiter in House VIII means I have a chance to rise above my natal chart through the help of a figure in a higher position of authority.

Another thing that strikes me is I've heard, from someone who once looked at my chart, that I'm pretty much destined to live a hard love-life and never really be satisfied.

Any interpretations are welcome on any of this.

Hi ichugbutter,
This post sounds like a lecture. Please don't take it that way. Please know I do write this in a spirit of intended helpfulness - even if some underlying frustrations about this board recently has, I must admit, popped out in the following words (in no way aimed at you .)
First of all, if ever you ask somebody about your chart and they give you some quick and pat answer about the condition your life is determined to take - you are destined to be impoverished, you are destined to be unhappy in love - that person is either:
A) the very, very rare true master at astrology, certainly a genius and probably psychic, who understands clearly that time is not linear as we experience it but One, and can look into your chart and expand her consciousness to take in, all as a whole, your present, future and past --- but this kind of person, I strongly suspect, would have the intelligence not to come out and say such a stupid thing; Or
B) Much more likely, thinks they have astrology down but has fundamentally misconceived the whole affair. Better to crack fortune cookies or search cheap oracles on the Internet than try to use astrology that way.
In other words, I call BUNK!
It's not about the "good" or "bad" karma weighing over you, written into your chart, punishing you with poverty or a bad love life. It's about the question of meaning and purpose - of who you are, what you will experience in life and why your soul will encounter such things. It's not "Am I damned to be impoverished?" but "What are the meanings and purposes of my experiences with poverty in this life? Where I encounter poverty, my own or otherwise, what am I being shown? How should I react? Is this about self-mastery? Making myself riches out of rags? Is this about empathy? Am I learning here about the pains of the all-too-many impoverished humans on the planet? Am I supposed to be asking social questions about it? Is an experience with poverty supposed to make me cry out "Wait, why do we make this happen?" (Poverty, after all, isn't some "Act of God" that we aren't culpable for.)
I think the chart asks us to think in this way - not to use it as a fortune telling tool.
(After all, if everybody - or even half - of the people with Saturn in the third house fell into poverty in their later years, that would make for some impressive statistics. Scientists would start looking at astrology in a different way. But it just doesn't happen.)
So... I suggest you start again with a clean slate and no preconceived notions of what your chart says. You'll get a better, deeper sense of things by spending some time on this board, asking some specific questions about your chart and paying close attention to what the right people say and why they say it. Over time, like a 3-D picture that you've been looking at in 2-D, deeper perspectives start to emerge.

And now, just to break it up so this doesn't become one long post, I'll try and offer something quickly regarding the other questions you've asked in a later post (after Cypocryphy's).

ichugbutter said:

If possible, I was wondering if someone could help me interpret my chart?

My first question is, how do I find my dominant planet? At CafeAstrology it speaks a lot of dominant planets, but I'm not sure how to tell what's dominant in my chart.

One thing that strikes me is that at one point it is telling me Saturn in House III can mean that I end my life in poverty, but Jupiter in House VIII means I have a chance to rise above my natal chart through the help of a figure in a higher position of authority.

Another thing that strikes me is I've heard, from someone who once looked at my chart, that I'm pretty much destined to live a hard love-life and never really be satisfied.

Any interpretations are welcome on any of this.

Click to expand...

There is a certainly a way to predict a general tendency of your life. You would have to take into consideration many factors. I can say that you, as a person, are reserved and tend to have few friends. You would not be considered a buoyant personality, and probably view yourself as being strange and different from others. Because of this, you will have some difficulty in forming relationships. You also have a triplicity influence that can cause fickleness resulting from romantic fantasy. When you do find someone, that person is probably going to be the breadwinner. Relationships should not be exceedingly difficult once you form them, but there will be a tendency to stray or to become discontent.

It would be wise for you to not speak first when you get angry. Take time to cool down or else you could say something that will cause wounds not easily forgotten. It's very easy for you to lose your cool. You are also out-of-touch with your emotions. You tend to try to intellectualize, having deep rumination(s) that lead toward confusion.

You do have some admirable qualities, such as a competitive spirit, and you should excel at writing or have a love thereof. You should have some musical talent . . . . singer?

ichugbutter said:

My first question is, how do I find my dominant planet? At CafeAstrology it speaks a lot of dominant planets, but I'm not sure how to tell what's dominant in my chart.

Click to expand...

There's no one clear system for sorting out which planets carry greatest weight. I know there's a common site online that calculates dominate planets, signs and houses for people (is it CafeAstrology?) and I have no idea what equations they use for it. Zarathu - a poster on this site and longtime astrologer - uses a system called Astrodynes to rank the power and friction of planets, and I can't do that calculation either (though if you run PCs there's a program on the web to download if you want). Greybeard - another poster and longtime astrologer - has stressed the "leading planet" in the overall shape and structure of the chart, which I think in your case might be Mars, but since you have a sort of panhandle shaped chart I might be wrong.

A common way of finding the strongest planets is following a dispositor chain. You have two planets in the sign that they rule: Venus in Libra and Pluto in Scorpio. All the other planets will dispose to signs in a chain that will eventually lead back to these two (and the chain to Venus involves more of your planets.)

In my life I have noticed that the planets near the cardinal angles of my chart - Ascendent, Descendent, I.C. And M.C. (1st, 7th, 4th and 10th house cusps) - are very powerful in shaping my psyche. That gives Mars, Uranus and Saturn a lot of power in your chart. When it comes to your outer personality, because Mars is rising (conjunct your Ascendent) the energies and traits associated with that planet will be very pertinent to your life.

So you have a lot of candidates there, and it depends on what system you want to use.

At this point, other astrologers, better than I (I'm no astrologer) will hopefully chime in and begin to solidify some things.

But let me give just one peice of initial analysis anyway - and despite my qualification that I'm no astrologer, I think this is a deep theme in your chart and so I suspect it is or will be in your life. And it goes to the point about love life, in a way, being perhaps an illustration of my earlier post, where I tried to suggest it's not a question of "Will I have a bad love life?" for example, but the deeper question of your experience with relationships in general.

Quick, Initial Bit of Analysis:
I started my astro-education with the lunar nodes, which I think is a bit like jumping to Grade 12 math when you're still in kindergarten. But I still find the nodes are the most intuitive place for me to start, though it might not be for others. Your North Node is in Aries, but in the 7th house, which is the house associated with the opposite sign of Aries: Libra. Which makes your South Node in Libra in the 1st house (the house associated with Aries). More, the planet that rules Aries - Mars - is rising (1st house) and Venus is in the sign it rules, Libra.
There's too much I could write just to explain what those concepts all mean, put together like that. But I strongly suggest you start thinking abotu your chart by thinking about how it is calling you to balance Mars and Venus, Aries and Libra, 1st and 7th house, and all the things they stand for.
Aries and Libra (and the 1st and 7th house) can be thought of as poles on a single axis. (Think of a spectrum with pure Aries on one end and pure Libra on the other.) the theme of this axes is Self and Other. What is me and what is them? How do I relate with other individuals but stay true to myself. In fact, with North Node Aries in seventh house I'd say that's a great question to start with when thinking about the themes of this chart. How do I both live in equitable relationships were we all get what we owe yet stay true to my own individual wants and needs. This theme suggests a strong diplomatic streak but the need to learn greater self-assertion.

But of course, every chart is profoundly complex with numerous themes seemingly waiting to be discovered, some harmonious, others seemingly contradictory or having nothing to do with each other.
I only suggest a place to start, but I do think the Aries-Libra axis is a big one for you, and balancing Mars and Venus.

Also... (as one thing in an astrology chart leads to another, and another, and another..) that Venus of yours is in the 2nd house, traditionally associated with Taurus. And your Moon is in Taurus. Taurus and Libra are both traditionally associated with Venus... So even as I harp on about Aries-Libra, I think the Taurean aspects of Venus will be prominent in you as well. That too, though in a different way, also, would tend to run against your Mars.

I'd start with homework on Mars and Venus, and the signs they rule (Aries, Libra, Taurus) with a close eye on that balancing act with the nodes in Aries/Libra, 1st/7th.

BitchDragon, first, thank you for your helpfulness it is much appreciated. The person who read my chart did take her time, and perhaps it is on me and me being left with much confusion and trying to figure the rest out on my own. Regardless, now is the time for me to try to look at this on my own, and your advice is so absolutely welcome!

I'll check Astrodynes out, but I think I'd agree with you on Mars just given the general predispositions of my nature. I've begun looking at the Mars / Venus thing, and thank you for a good place to start with it. May I contact you if I have further questions?

Cypocryphy, when you talk about the triplicity influence, are you talking about the Mars and Venus thing? I apologize, I'm still very very new to this. I do a have a temper about as short as a my pinky finger nail, but I've learned over the last four years to reign that sucker in. It's my Achilles' heel, so far as I have come to know it. THank you so very much for helping me out!