What a natal chart shows
What does a natal chart show? In short, it shows all that we must tolerate: the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is shows our prārabdha karma and our svabhāva, the deep impressions giving rise to our state of being—neither of which are to be identified with if we are to realise our full and creative potential as loving and loyal instruments of the Supreme. As such, the natal chart shows the state of nature we have been given to deal with, the lot we have to work with as “gardeners” in the Lord’s employ.
So long as we mistakenly identify ourselves with the nature of our lot, we are affected and thus ruled by it. Simply reacting to karma as per the dictates of “our” nature, we become nothing more than part of the natural current itself, a puppet expressing the ebb and flow of its ever-transforming qualities.
By learning to renounce such reactive identification, we learn to remain unaffected, making ourselves available to the response ability of superior consciousness. This does not free us from the nature we have to work with, it is not a means of escape, but it gives us the perspective needed to cultivate that nature in a way which is beneficial, beautiful, and pleasing to the Whole.
The difference between an animal and a gardener, both of whom spend their days effecting change in nature, is that the gardener does so with a vision inspired by the one under whom they are employed. Simply reacting to the affect of nature, the animal remains a part of nature. The gardener, however, lifted by this vision, remains unaffected and responds to nature, working with it objectively to cultivate, as well as possible, a reflection of the vision.
The natal chart is an astrological schema, a kind of tool or yantra, for conceptualising the nature to be worked with. The study of astrology helps us to objectify nature so that we may see it with dispassion. As we see reflected in the chart the patterns of nature we experience, we are gradually reminded that we are not those patterns but the observer of those patterns. It is this subtle shift of consciousness that forms the basis of our participation in human being. Without it, we are really nothing more than glorified, clever animals. Our charts are not meant to be identified with, but rather the opposite; they are meant to help free us from such identification.