Birth chart reading: what the planets actually say about you

Yes, the two names mean the same thing: a snapshot of where the planets stood at the moment of your birth, seen from your birthplace. We calculate the ten planets, the Ascendant, the North Node, Lilith and Chiron, and place each one in its sign and house. The numbers add up quickly: fourteen objects across twelve signs and twelve houses give more than 2,000 possible placements, and your chart holds fourteen of them at once, so two people with the same Sun sign can have very different charts. Newspaper horoscopes use the Sun sign alone.

Fill in the form at the top of this page. We also find the coordinates and the local time zone, with any summer time that applied when you were born, and calculate the positions with the Swiss Ephemeris. Houses follow the Placidus system. The chart is free and opens once you've answered two short questions and given an email address. The written report starts at £9.99.

You're in good company: in England and Wales the time usually isn't on the birth certificate, though Scotland records it. Most planets hardly move in a day, so their signs and the aspects between them hold. The Moon is quicker, twelve to thirteen degrees a day, and on the day it changes sign only the hour decides which. The rising sign and the houses, on the other hand, require the time, because the rising sign moves on roughly every two hours. Our guide How to find your birth time lists where to look, and a birth time rectification can work the hour out from events in your life. Without a time, the report says which conclusions depend on it.

All ten planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto), plus the Ascendant, the North Node, Lilith and Chiron. Each is read in its sign and house: Venus in Scorpio in the 8th house describes a very different way of loving from Venus in Taurus in the 7th. Basic covers the Sun, Moon and Ascendant, the personal planets, Jupiter and Saturn, with three to five key aspects for each of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars. Pro covers all fourteen, the aspects of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars — the tense ones such as squares and the easy ones such as trines — and patterns such as a Grand Trine, T-Square or Kite.

Twelve sectors of the chart, each tied to an area of life: the 1st to identity and the body, the 2nd to money and resources, the 7th to partnership, the 10th to career and public image. A planet's house shows where its influences play out, so Mars in the 10th pushes hard at work and Neptune in the 7th tends to idealise partners. The cusps depend on the exact time and place of birth; we use Placidus houses.

It's prepared automatically after payment, from your own placements and the aspects between them. Pro usually takes about five minutes, anywhere between four and eight. It appears in your account on the site and arrives by email as a PDF at the same time, so you can open it on your phone straight away.

Yes. Astrology is easier to understand with your own chart in front of you than with theory alone. The best place to start is the report; then go a level deeper with our guides: How to read your birth chart, Your big three in astrology and our guide to the astrology houses and their meaning. You'll be reading about placements you already know are yours.

A calculator gives you the positions, where each planet is and in which sign and house, and leaves the meaning to you. Our own astrology calculator is a free tool that does exactly that. The written interpretation explains what each placement means for you and then how they work together: the effect of Mars in Virgo alongside Saturn in the 10th house in your chart, for example. Pro runs to 18 sections and 40+ pages.