Everyone has malefic planets and bad placements somewhere in their chart.

All the most beautiful people in the world still had Saturn somewhere in their chart. All the kindest people still had Ketu and Mars somewhere. So, everyone will hear some negative interpretations in a chart report or reading from an astrologer who isn’t just a sycophant.

If we are very worried about whether or not we are ugly, then even if the astrologer makes a very passing comment about a very sidelined aspect of your chart that indicates some ugliness, it might bother us for the rest of our lives. “But I am not ugly! (am I?)” If we are really confident that we are very moral people, any slight mention of immorality in a chart will confuse and trouble us deeply.

So, it is a matter of losing focus, and treating an ant hill as if it were Mount Everest.

You look at you chart and feel troubled by “all these malefic influences.” I look at your chart and have to try and figure out what you are even referring too. There are no “malefic influences” jumping off the page to me.

Because I am not you.

“But Saturn is my most prominent planet!”

Ok.

So?

You have a Gemini ascendant, so Saturn is the 9th lord (moral, doing good for others). So your most prominent planet is the 9th lord; and this lord is the host of Venus – in the 9th as the 12th lord. So, you are seeing “malefic influence” but I am seeing “self-restraint, self-sacrifice and love for others.”

“But I have Mars in Libra in the 5th House.”

“I watched your video on this. I am horribly selfish!”

Well, yeah, but… Mars itself is your 11th lord, and so its location on the 5th cusp is making the 11th house very very good (a lord aspect its own house causes the house to be excellent), so you are far from selfish – in fact you discipline your pleasures for the sake of others, because you are intelligent and warm-hearted (you have an excellent 11th house, by virtue of the 5th house influence on it).

“But I have a Benefic in the 3rd House…”

“Your videos stress that this is a bad placement. I am lazy and expect service from others!”

Yes, and I am sure that in some context you are lazy and expect service. We all have ways that we are weak and imperfect. BUT… this benefic in the 3rd is in EXACT mutual aspect with the Venus forming a raja-yoga between the 3rd and 9th house. So it means you are a philanthropist

Moon in Jyestha

“…so I am as lusty as Indra!”

Well I’m sure you are passionate and motivated, OK, but your Moon is aspected by the 9th lord and by Jupiter as well, so bear that in mind and dont let it spin into an image of moral bankrupcy.

Really what your Moon says to me is, “She wants to utilize arcana, psychology, metaphysics, etc. to accomplish goals she has her mind set firmly on, and these goals are very ambitious. She does not want to be an ordinary person.”

The Bottom Line

We simply have to learn enough astrology and have enough patience to read at least this far into charts, otherwise getting a clear picture from a birth chart is like expecting to understand the entire Lord of the Rings by reading one chapter from book one, a few pages from book two, and the back cover of book three.