Short answer
Read your chart in layers. Check the birth data, find the Lagna (Ascendant) and number the houses from it, place each planet by sign and house, see where each house's ruler sits, then add timing through the Dasha (planetary period) and transits from your Moon. Work one house at a time and note what you find before interpreting.
How ChiChakra reads this
ChiChakra uses the sidereal zodiac with the Lahiri ayanamsa and mean nodes for Rahu and Ketu. Use the same settings in any chart software you practise with, or your positions won't match our lessons.
Step by step
1. Check the inputs: date, exact time, place and timezone. If the time is uncertain, mark the Lagna as provisional.
2. Find the Lagna. Its sign is your 1st house; count the signs that follow as the 2nd to 12th houses.
3. Place the nine grahas (planets). For each, note its sign, its house and whether it is in its own sign, exalted or debilitated.
4. Trace the rulers. For each house, find the planet that rules its sign and see where that planet sits. This is how one area of life links to another.
5. Read the Moon sign and Nakshatra as a second reference point for mind and timing.
6. Add time. Note which Dasha and sub-period is running, then layer current transits counted from your Moon sign (Gochara).
7. Write a one-line summary for each house before forming a big picture, and never judge from a single placement.
Good to know
Practise on the charts of people whose lives you know well, with their permission. ChiChakra's personal birth-chart readings are coming; join the waitlist to hear first.