How to Really Read Your Constitution in the Natal Chart

The Human Constitution

From a traditional medical system perspective, the concept of the human constitution is at the root of a holistic approach. It is one of the primary ways we can look beyond a person’s symptoms and see the underlying causative factors that are unique to them. This is absolutely key because, as holistic herbalists, we want to treat the whole person, and we should be cautious about falling into the allopathic trap of treating the disease or symptom without considering the underlying root causes. 

Of course, there is a case to be made for addressing symptoms. Symptoms cause suffering, and as practitioners, we should relieve suffering to the best of our ability, though not in a suppressive way. There is a way to address a symptomatic pattern in a non-suppressive manner that is in accordance with the vital force.

So, how do we understand the person’s vital force? We must understand their constitution. It is important to understand a person’s constitution, disease, and symptoms, and then we can match our therapeutics to that complete picture. 

Why is this important? Because three different people can have the same symptom, each with a completely different underlying cause. Take a headache, for example. There are many types of headaches. Where is the headache centered? Is it occipital? Is it temporal? Is it frontal? Is it vertex? What is the quality of the headache — is it pounding and throbbing and explosive, is it dull and achy, or is it sharp and stabbing? Many factors contribute to headaches, and you can have three different people with three very different types of headaches that would receive completely different therapeutic courses of action based on those specificities. This is why, in many instances, people try herbs and they don’t work — the herbal formulation is not used in a way that takes into account the person’s constitution or the constitution of the symptom. Without that specificity, the herbs don’t work. This is why you can’t just have a headache formula that will universally work for everyone. It might work for some, but not for others. 

The constitutional model is at the root of most traditional systems of herbal medicine. The constitutional model of Ayurveda has its three doshas: vāta, pitta, and kapha. Because there are dual doshic types in addition to the 3 main types, there are seven total doshic combinations or seven constitutions. 

So you can have a pitta, kapha, or vāta constitution, and you can have pitta-vāta, pitta-kapha, vāta–kapha, or tridoshic constitution, vāta-pitta-kapha. I have correlated these seven constitutional patterns with the seven inner planets of astrology, as outlined in my book Evolutionary Herbalism. So seven planets correlate to seven doshic patterns. Sometimes one quality of one dosha is prominent, and another quality of another dosha is also present. For example, you might have the excess heat of pitta, but you have the dryness of vāta, and you have a pitta-vāta constitution.

Chinese medicine has a constitutional pattern based on the five elements. Traditional Greek medicine had its four humors, which, of course, are reflected in the Unani system. This is a universal understanding — that there are patterns in nature and in people that can be readily observed and understood as contributing factors to disease, and that, to treat the person holistically, we need to consider them.

In the Ayurvedic model, there is a core constitution (prakruti) that we have from birth. So we emerge into this world, take our first breath of life, and at that moment, in the astrological model, the celestial forces are impressed upon the person’s nature. Wherever the planets are currently, they stamp the person with their influence, psychologically, temperamentally, spiritually, and physically. The astrological archetypes, signs, planets, and elements all impress themselves upon the person and exert a strong influence over our nature. So in Ayurveda, this is called prakruti, the core constitution with which you are born. 

You can readily see this play out in kids — they embody their constitutional nature to the fullest because they haven’t (hopefully) put too many layers on top of it. The work of attempting to live a healthy lifestyle comes down to doing our best to live in accordance with our constitutional nature. Ideally, we don’t do things that will drive the constitution into a state of excess or deficiency, but rather maintain balance. It’s also important to learn how to do that without becoming neurotic about it. 

Many people become overly picky, sensitive, and even neurotic about maintaining balance. Some people say they have to eat at a very particular time of day, and they can never have any salt, or even a pinch of black pepper, or a dash of hot sauce on their food, or never eat a cold salad, etc. It’s great to understand these things, but it’s also good to enjoy your life and keep things in balance.

So you have your core constitution, prakruti, and then as you live and interact with the world, maybe you eat a little too much ice cream, and you are a couch potato, which aggravates kapha. Or maybe you eat too much cold, dry food, and don’t get enough sleep, and run around anxiously, and aggravate vāta. Maybe you’re angry all the time, eating hot, spicy foods, which aggravates pitta.

What ends up happening is you put layers on top of your core constitutional nature. Maybe there are times when the vital force is suppressed, or maybe there are times you contract some sort of disease or illness. Perhaps your environment and habits are less than ideal for you, and layers accumulate on your core constitutional nature, which Ayurveda calls vikruti, your assumed constitution.

Vikruti is a pathological pattern, or, to make it sound a little less scary, a relative state of imbalance. Sometimes it’s very mild, sometimes it’s more severe. This is a key understanding — you have a core constitutional nature, and you have an assumed constitutional nature, which is where you are now in relation to that core constitutional nature.

For those of you who are in the world of astrology, that sounds quite a bit like the difference between a natal chart and a transit chart, don’t you think? Your natal chart is the snapshot of the moment of birth, and the celestial and terrestrial influences that have stamped themselves upon you. The natal chart represents your core constitution. But of course, the solar system and the universe don’t stop just because you were born (though we might like to think they do!). Everything keeps moving and changing. Everything is in constant flux, and that is what we refer to as the transit. 

If you create a transit chart for yourself today, you would have your natal chart in the middle, and on the outside, there would be a dial that shows where all the planets are right now. With these two charts, you can see how the planets’ current positions are affecting you right now and how that compares to your natal chart. In essence, you’re seeing the vikruti. It is the current state in comparison to the core state.

You could also argue that progressed charts represent vikruti. I don’t use progressed charts often, and I mostly use transits because the natal chart and transits usually give me everything I need to know.

Your Sun Sign is Not Your Constitution

There is an incredibly common point of confusion among people studying astro-herbalism and constitutions. People hear about the constitutional pattern of a sign of the zodiac, for example, they hear that Geminis tend to be slender, nervous, and anxious — in Ayurvedic terminology, a little more vāta in nature, with ectomorphic physiology. So someone learns about that, and they say, “I’m a Gemini, and I don’t match that at all. That’s not my constitution; this whole system must be bunk.” The problem with that line of thinking is that your Sun sign is not your constitution. 

In the West, we tend to think that everything in astrology revolves around the Sun. While, in some ways, this is true because the Sun is the gravitational center of our solar system, the other planets and the signs are important too. There are some instances where the Sun and the sign it is tenanting have a little more importance in a man’s constitution, while the Moon sign might play a stronger role in a woman’s constitution. However, those factors are low on the list of areas to check to determine the constitution of a person through the astrological chart.

When deciphering your constitution, the most important place to begin is with the rising sign. When you look at your chart, the rising sign is on your left side, which is the Eastern horizon. The rising sign represents the quality of the force that is rising up and outward from you — this is the energy you emanate. Everything has to filter through the rising sign to be expressed, which is why the rising sign is typically thought of as your ego. It is the part of you that interfaces with the outside world and how you interact with it. You could also think of it as the personality, or the root persona, the root of that word means “to mask.”

Your Sun is your essence. It’s the core of who you are, and yet on top of that, you have a mask, a personality that you use to interact with the world. The mask is not a problem. It isn’t a problem to have an ego or a personality. But ideally, there will be congruence between your personality or ego and your spirit, with who you truly are.

The Sun is the central core self or the spirit, and the rising sign is the quality of the personality that interfaces with the world. When you first meet someone, what you see when you’re interacting with them is their rising sign. It isn’t until you really get to know that person on a deeper level that you enter into deeper conversations about who that person really is, what they value, and what’s important to them — their core nature that answers the bigger question of, “Who are you?”

The Rising Sign and The Constitution

The Sun is who a person really is, but that gets filtered through their rising sign, which powerfully influences the body and the constitution. The rising sign reflects the nature of a person’s body — the qualities, shape, structure, face, eyes, skin, hair, etc., and the inside of the body too. It is not simply the physiognomy of what a person looks like, but also physiological in the sense of the state of the body’s interior. Are there any organ systems or tissues that tend to be excessive or deficient, strong or weak, or have a tendency towards having health problems?

This is what makes the rising sign critically important for medical purposes. In Ayurveda, we have pitta dosha, for example, which is mainly the Fire element. In astrology, the three fire signs of Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius express the pitta quality in three different ways. We also have Mars and the Sun. These are all related to pitta qualities, but what you get here is a much more nuanced way in which that fiery quality expresses itself.

It’s not to say you can’t figure out the way a person embodies and expresses pitta through traditional assessment techniques, but through the natal chart, you can see these insights right there in front of you, and that can be very helpful to guide your therapeutic strategies.

Determining the Constitution Through the Natal Chart

The first thing to determine when looking into a person’s chart is the rising sign. This is the sign of the first house. On the chart, you’ll see “AC,” which stands for ascendant. What sign is the ascendant in? That is the rising sign. 

Next, look at the element of the rising sign. Is it Earth, Water, Air, or Fire? Then look at the mode: is it Cardinal, Mutable, or Fixed? Finally, there is a planet association, so look at the planet associated with the rising sign. I call this constellation of forces that come together to generate a sign’s specific qualities and characteristics its energetic architecture. 

Each sign governs a particular area of the body, starting with Aries in the area at the top of the head and running down the body, with Pisces at the bottom of the feet. All of the internal organs, systems, and tissues have correlations to the signs of the zodiac. So, looking at the architecture of the sign gives you a lot of clues to the constitutional nature of a person. 

If a person has Gemini rising, we can look at the fact that Gemini is composed of the Air element in the Mutable mode. Mutable is changeable, which is a vāta quality. Gemini is governed by Mercury, the planet of swiftness and communication. It rules the lungs, the nervous system, the pairs of organs, the arms, hands, speech, communication, and the mind. So our Gemini rising person might be quite active and movement-oriented, because they tend to embody the Gemini constitutional picture, even if their Sun is in Taurus. When they hear the descriptors of the Taurus constitution, they think, “That’s not me at all. I’m not solid, dense, stubborn, or reliable. I’m much more flighty.” This is because they have Gemini on the ascendant. 

So, step one is to look to the sign that is rising. Step two is to see if there are any planets in the first house or, more importantly, if there are any planets conjunct or next to the ascendant. The sign is just the general area, but if there is a planet rising, that specific quality is rising up and out of you, so that will take precedence over the sign. That planet becomes a more important constitutional ruler than the sign itself, so that is a very important piece to look for. 

Here’s an example: a person has the Moon rising conjunct their ascendant. The Moon can manifest in a couple of different constitutional patterns: the full Moon type and the new Moon type. The full Moon type is more phlegmatic, watery, and damp. They tend to hold onto their fluids, and as such, they can also hold onto their waste products; they tend to accumulate things easily. They may have a larger constitution, maybe a teardrop-shaped body that is thicker and waterier, and the disposition is tender, mothering, and very nurturing, with a kapha-like constitution. 

The opposite is the new Moon type. What is the nature of the new Moon? It is basically invisible. The new Moon constitution tends to be thin, very reserved, quiet, and internal, and perhaps in their own imaginary world. They like to read books or make art. They may be slender, anxious, nervous, and more vatā-like. 

It’s important to note that these constitutional patterns are not dependent on whether a person was born on a new or full Moon. It has more to do with whether the Moon is in a place of strength or weakness, which you may be able to determine by looking at its sign placement and its interaction with the other planets. 

If you don’t have any planets conjunct the ascendant and you just have the rising sign, one way you can get more information is to look to the planet that rules that rising sign. In the example of the person with Gemini rising, Gemini is ruled by Mercury. So, have a look at where Mercury is in the chart. Mercury’s placement is connected back to the ascendant. In some instances, the sign that Mercury is tenanting might actually be more of the constitutional ruler. Maybe someone has Gemini rising and feels like they don’t fit that picture because they aren’t thin, anxious, or talkative. Maybe they are more solid. Maybe you look and see that Mercury is in an Earth sign like Taurus. Or maybe it’s in Virgo (also an Earth sign), which is a strong placement for Mercury, because Mercury also rules Virgo. But Virgo is an Earth sign. So you may see the constitutional nature of the sign that the planet ruling the ascendant is tenanting.

Let’s say Cancer is rising. We know that the Moon rules Cancer. So have a look, where is the Moon? Maybe the Moon is in Sagittarius, and therefore the constitution is more Sagittarian. It isn’t always the rising sign that gives you those qualities; it might actually be the sign that its ruling planet is in. But you can see that the rising sign is like the doorway. It’s the key that guides you and shows you where to look. 

Then, you might ask yourself if that planet is in a place of weakness or a place of strength. Let’s say you have Aries rising, which is ruled by Mars, and Mars is in Capricorn — its sign of exaltation. Mars really likes to be in Capricorn because Capricorn wants to work, climb the mountain, and achieve something great. Mars gives the energy it needs to do that. So Mars is very happy there, and that’s a strong placement. 

In another example, let’s say Aries is rising, but this time Mars is in Libra. That is a sign of detriment because Aries and Libra are in opposition. So that would be a weaker placement for Mars. In that case, it is less likely for the constitutional pattern to be of that sign because there’s an incongruency between the qualities of Mars and Libra, which makes it less likely for that to be impressing itself upon the constitution.

Situations That May Take Precedence In Determining the Constitution

There are a few situations in someone’s chart that might take precedence over even the rising sign as the constitutional ruler. 

If there’s a stellium, which is five or more planets in a single sign, that might trump the ascendant. 

A stationary planet happens when a planet is moving forward and is getting ready to go retrograde, then slows and stops, then goes retrograde, then slows and stops again. This is when it is stationary. Then it goes direct at either of those stationary periods. If someone is born with a stationary planet, that planet is just sitting there, and it’s really strong, so that can be a constitutional ruler. 

Another situation that can take precedence over the rising sign is a predominance of planets in a single element. If someone has 90% of their planets in fire signs, but they have Taurus rising, those fire signs might become much more powerful for the constitutional ruler.

The modes are another thing you may consider. Say you have all Cardinal or all Mutable signs, that might give you some valuable information. A predominance of modes is not as strong an indicator as the elements, but it is something to consider.

One thing to watch out for, though, is when, for example, someone has a lot happening in the Fixed mode, and you might think that because it is fixed (think: inertia, stability, solidity), that it is similar to kapha. But Aquarius is a Fixed sign, and Aquarius is not kapha at all. It is an Air sign, and it’s very vāta: cold, dry, tense, thin, weak, deficient.

A Health Aspect of Prime Importance in Medical Astrology

The rising sign holds the key to understanding the constitution, and as we just discussed, the constitution and the rising sign are the energy that rises out of you, determining your personality and your characteristics that, in turn, influence another very important area of the chart for medical purposes — the sixth house. Your personality determines how you act and what you do on a daily basis. The rising sign and the first house form a very important relationship to the sixth house, which is referred to as the house of health. It is also referred to as the house of servants or service.

By correspondence, the sixth house is associated with Virgo, and it concerns mundane reality and day-to-day life. It represents the nitty-gritty details of your daily life and has a lot to do with the work you do. It relates to skilled labor, apprenticeship, and learning a skill from someone, which you use to do your work. It forms an interesting relationship in the Earth trine, where it feeds back to the second house and Taurus, which relates to money, finances, and resources, and that also feeds into your 10th house, which has to do with your greater works in the public eye. 

So, the sixth house is that which you do every day, your habits and patterns, your rhythms, and these all determine your state of health. So the rising sign and the sixth house form what’s called a quincunx, which is a 150-degree relationship between signs. That 150-degree relationship is one of the most important medical aspects in a chart because it shows areas of weakness. 

A simplified way of thinking about it is that the first house is your rising sign. The nature of your ascendant, your constitution, tends to generate a particular weakness in the body — an area where you are prone to having health problems. When you get sick, this may be the area of the body where you get sick. It could lend insights into potential problems that you might face in the future. Those potential problems can be revealed in the sixth house. However, if you use a whole sign house system, you get a very specific pattern in terms of the relationship between the signs of the zodiac. 

We were talking earlier about a person with Gemini rising. If you apply 150 degrees, a really simple way to do this is that your quincunx signs are always the sign on either side of the opposite sign. So if you have Gemini, opposite Gemini, you’ll find Sagittarius. Right before Sagittarius is Scorpio, and after Sagittarius is Capricorn. So the two signs that quincunx Gemini are Scorpio and Capricorn. If you have Gemini rising, Scorpio will be the sixth house ruler, the house of health, and that indicates an area of weakness. 

Studying these patterns of relationship can be very interesting, as they can provide a lot of insight into the body’s inner workings. Consider the following example. The Gemini constitution is more vāta in nature — tall, thin, cold, dry, tense, anxious, nervous. What’s interesting here is that, in Ayurveda, vāta governs the lungs and the large intestine. Gemini rules the lungs and the respiratory tract. Scorpio, the 150-degree relationship, rules the colon. 

The way I understand this quincunx is that the anxiousness, nervousness, and excess energy of Gemini lacks rhythm. It lacks consistency and tends to be anxious and nervous, so its nervous system stimulation is more sympathetic, which will affect detoxification. Scorpio is the quality of what removes things from the body. It’s your detoxification system, basically, it is the organs that eliminate things from the body, the colon, the bladder, and the pores of the skin. So we might see problems with elimination. There might be constipation, or the opposite of that, diarrhea, or loose stools. There might be irritation of the bladder nerve, incontinence, and urinary difficulties. There might be excess sweating, skin conditions like acne, and things that affect the pores of the skin, due to elimination.

So that’s the Gemini–Scorpio quincunx. This is a way of understanding the relationship between a person’s constitution and their predispositions to disease, as well as the health problems they might face in daily life. And this is a really powerful pattern to study.

You can do a very similar thing with the sixth house that you do in the first house, as described earlier. First, you would just observe what the sixth house ruler is. Then you consider the areas of the body that the sign governs. As mentioned with Scorpio, it’s the bowel, bladder, and reproductive system. There might be some libido issues with that quincunx. The Gemini anxiousness can sometimes affect libido, because Scorpio governs the genitals. Also, looking elementally, Scorpio is a water sign, so maybe something is going on with the water element. So you look at the sign ruling the sixth house. More importantly, if you have a planet in the sixth house, that planet becomes a more important factor to consider, and that might trump the qualities and characteristics of that sign. If there is no planet in the sixth house, you would look at the planet that rules the sixth house sign.

In this case, with Scorpio, I would look to where Mars is located, which is the traditional ruler of Scorpio. Even though Pluto is the modern ruler, that doesn’t change the fact that Mars has powerful correlations to Scorpio. As a side note, because Pluto was only recently discovered, at least in the timeline of astrology, we haven’t seen the entire rotation of that planet around the entire zodiac, so we’re still learning about Pluto. From a medical perspective, our understanding is still being sorted out. So I rely on Mars a lot for Scorpio. But you can look at Pluto as well, and that can give you more insight.

Ask yourself, is the planet that rules the sixth house sign in a sign of detriment or weakness, or is it a sign of exaltation? Does it have harmonious trines and sextile aspects, or is it more challenged with squares and oppositions? These are all things to consider to give you a more nuanced understanding of what’s going on in the sixth house. 

Hopefully, these considerations will get you started looking at constitutions through the natal chart and considering health issues. This is just the beginning, but working with the rising sign is an excellent place to start!

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