Your birth-sign is the sign in which the Sun was placed on your birthday. This marks your deep character, the stamp of your most fundamental energies and potential for spiritual growth. However, there are other very important signs, including your Ascendant or rising sign, Moon sign and the signs of the other planets and sensitive points in the chart, such as the Part of Fortune and the Moon's nodes. Your birth chart, or horoscope, is usually shown in the form of a wheel, symbolising the cycles periodically undergone by all living things on this planet. The symbols ("glyphs") displayed stand for the astrological signs, planets and other chart factors representing forces which may affect your life at any given time. Each of these astrological factors represents a coded set of drives in your sub-conscious. Drives may be activated and brought to your awareness by circumstances in your life, presenting you with a range of choices. Of course, your choices are to a considerable extent limited and determined by your character, which is itself revealed through an understanding of the symbols that make up the chart.