So anyways, the other week we started to look at chart shapes.

It’s another technique in our toolbox that lets us know quite a bit about the motivations and challenges of the person in front of us before we even begin to look at the planets and aspects.

We’ve already looked at the Bundle or Wedge…let me introduce you to the Bowl…

The Bowl

Very similar to the bundle, in this chart, all planets cover between 4-6 signs or 180 degrees of the zodiac…that’s half of the zodiac.

This is another focused and highly motivating pattern, but can also be frustrating as the person is constantly feeling that something is missing, yet has a determination to fill what’s not there- to find the substance. Sometimes that missing half is found in someone else- whose planets fill up the empty spaces in your chart.

If you’ve got all your planets covering half of the chart, it stands to reason that one hemisphere or another will be emphasised. If you need to, go back to Toolbox 1 and 2 for refreshers here.

With a bowl pattern in your chart, regardless of the amount of fixed energy you have, you’ll probably be relatively stubborn- although you might prefer to call that focused, or self-contained, or compelled.

Bowl people like missions and need to not only make a contribution; but also be seen to be making a contribution, and acknowledged for the personal sacrifices involved in making that contribution, chasing that ideal, fighting for that cause. Whatever it is, your whole self becomes invested in it.

To get a little more technical, the two planets at either end of “the bowl” are known as the rim planets. Sometimes these may be in opposition, but if the distance between the first and the last planet is closer to 150° than 180°, they won’t be.

Having said that, the closer that these two rim planets are to being opposite each other, the greater the influence the bowl pattern will have on your life.

If you already know a bit about the planets and the motivations of the planets, you might want to pay special attention to the lead planet in the arrangement. Some texts will refer to this as the “cutting planet.” Whatever house this planet is in will be a very important part of life for you.

To find it, work anti-clockwise from the blank space in the chart until you hit a planet. There it is.

Some examples?

Check these ones out. The examples below are of some seriously focused individuals- try Salvador Dali, Roger Federer, Jimi Hendrix and Abraham Lincoln. Also with bowl charts? Justin Bieber and George Bush Jnr- I wonder just what void they’re trying to fill?

Slightly (and I mean slightly) too wide are the charts of Sigmund Freud and Coco Chanel.

Anyways, have a look at the charts below. See if you can work out which hemisphere/quadrant is most emphasised in these people, and what It could mean. That’s the best thing about celebrity charts- there’s a lot that’s on public record.

Also see if you can pick which is the lead planet in these arrangements.