Many beginner astrologers start in entirely the wrong place: in natal chart reading they look at Chiron and minor aspects, in transits they check fast-moving planets to the outer ones or aspects to the cusps of cadent houses.
It is crucial to know how to identify the core. A natal chart contains an enormous amount of information: it holds the entire potential of a person. But this potential never manifests all at once. There are always leading planets, houses, and aspects. These are what you must learn to identify, while the rest should be used as supplementary material.
Astrology has its own hierarchy. All planets belong to different levels, and aspects differ in the strength of their expression. For example, the outer planets do not express themselves at all except through houses and aspects to personal planets. It is meaningless to begin chart interpretation with them. In predictive astrology, they manifest only through events; on the psychological or emotional level, you will not notice them. Therefore, do not look at Chiron’s transits to Pluto. If you are noticing processes unfolding, they are almost certainly transits to the fast-moving planets.
