Reading a birth chart slowly
A chart is a sky at a minute, at a place. Lagna, Moon, the nine grahas, the houses, the dasha. Then, and only then, a sentence.
Start with the minute. A chart without a clock is a Moon sign and a guess at everything else. Start with the place, because sunrise and the ascendant move with longitude. Then read the lagna, the Moon's sign and nakshatra, and the nine grahas in their signs and whole-sign houses. Rahu and Ketu are opposite each other. If a drawing shows them in the same house, the drawing is broken.
Dignity, own sign, exaltation, debilitation, is a traditional label on a planet's sign. Retrograde is a speed, vakri, not a moral failure. The Vimshottari dasha is a clock started from the Moon's nakshatra, 120 years of planetary periods. The one running now is the only one that is a present tense. The others are a timeline.
The sentence comes last, and it should be able to point at a row in the table. Traditional guidance on the chart page is phrased as tradition. It is not a verdict on your marriage, your illness, or your debts. Those need people who are qualified in those rooms. A pandit who will not stay in his room is not more spiritual. He is less careful.