A birth chart, also called radix, is the snapshot of the sky at the minute of your birth, calculated for your place of birth. It shows in which zodiac signs and houses sun, moon and planets stood, which signs were just rising on the eastern horizon and at what angles the celestial bodies stood to each other. "Radia is Latin and means root: This map is the starting point for everything else in astrology, from the interpretation of your personality to the transits that touch you today.

What you need for the calculation

You need your date of birth, your place of birth and, if you know it, your time of birth. Enter the time as it is written in your documents, for example on the birth certificate. Time zone and summer time are calculated by the computer for your place of birth and your year of birth itself, even for years when the clocks went differently than today. If the search for a place does not find a very small place, choose the next larger one nearby or enter the coordinates. For the horoscope few kilometers make hardly any difference.

If you don't know your birth time

Then you choose "Time unknown" . The sun and most planets stand in the same sign all day, their aspects also remain the same . At the time hang the Ascendant and the twelve houses, because the Ascendant changes the sign about every two hours . Without time therefore the computer places the houses on the sunrise of your birthday . This gives a coherent picture but does not replace the exact time . If you know them only about , calculate once with the earliest and once with the latest possible time . If both show the same Ascendant , it is fixed .

What your radix shows you

At the top is your cosmic signature: zodiac sign, Moon sign and Ascendant, the three cornerstones of your horoscope. Among them follows the table of all celestial bodies with degrees, signs and houses: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, with Chiron, Moon nodes, Lilith and the Lucky Point. The aspects show at which angles the planets stand to each other, such as conjunction, square or trine. From several aspects emerge aspect figures, larger patterns such as a Great Trigon or a T-square that particularly shape a horoscope. With the transits you see how today's sky touches your radix.

Placidus or cook

The houses divide the sky into twelve areas of life, from the first house that stands for your appearance to the twelfth, the house of retreat and the unconscious. Where the boundaries between the houses lie, the house system determines. In the computer you switch between Placidus and Koch. Placidus is the most widespread in Western astrology, our analyses interpret it. By changing only the house borders shift; zodiac signs, moon and ascendant remain the same.

How exactly is calculated

The basis are astronomical tables with the positions of all celestial bodies for each day from 1600 to 2050. From this the calculator calculates the positions for the minute of your birth, for the arc minute exactly. The whole calculation runs in your browser, so the result appears immediately.

Interpretations and individual analysis

For each position you can open an interpretation. Part of it is free, all further interpretations including aspects and aspect figures you unlock once, they remain permanently in your account. If you want to understand how the individual parts of your horoscope interact, you read your radix as a whole in the Individual analysisThe hidden book of your life.

Read more: Illustrate birth chart · Understanding Ascendant · Calculate your Davison chart · Calculate Astromap