The Vedic mirror

Jyotish reads the Moon first, not the Sun. Ask an Indian astrologer for your sign and they will answer with the sign the Moon occupied, because in this tradition the Moon carries the mind and the Sun carries the soul's outer shape. If you have only ever been told a Sun sign, this is usually the reading that lands differently.

It also measures against the actual constellations rather than the seasons, using a correction called the ayanamsa. This page uses Lahiri, the Indian government standard. The two zodiacs have drifted about 24 degrees apart, which is why roughly four people in five get a different sign here than in the Western chart. Neither is wrong. They are measuring different things.

Nakshatra, or birth star

The sidereal zodiac divided into 27 rather than 12. Your birth star is the one the Moon stood in when you were born, and jyotish weighs it as heavily as the sign.

Lagna

The Vedic name for the rising sign, measured in the sidereal zodiac. The body you walk around in.

Rasi chart

The main chart, drawn here as the North Indian diamond. The top diamond is the first house and the houses run counterclockwise.

Rahu and Ketu

The two lunar nodes, where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's. Not planets but points: the direction of hunger, and what you are here to release.