Words we use on the chart

The sign and degree rising on the eastern horizon at birth. Sets the house framework.

Twelve life-area sectors. Calculation needs time, place and a house system (Placidus by default).

The degree allowance within which an aspect counts as active.

Comparing two natal charts to read a relationship.

Sensitive points we include alongside classical planets, nuance many gift buyers want in the composition.

The highest point of the chart, the zodiac degree culminating at birth. With the Ascendant it is the other axis that depends on the exact time, and it is usually read as public ground: work, reputation, what others see of someone from outside.

The convention that divides the twelve houses over identical planetary positions. Placidus, Whole Sign, Koch and others give different results, and none of them is «the right one»: they are ways of dividing. What is not acceptable is failing to say which was used, so the certificate declares it.

The tropical zodiac anchors the signs to the equinoxes and is what Western astrology uses. The sidereal anchors them to the visible constellations. The gap is currently about twenty-four degrees, nearly a whole sign: it is the usual reason someone reads that «their sign is a different one».

The tables of planetary positions for any given instant. It is the most mechanical part of the calculation and the part that varies least between serious providers; errors are rarely here and almost always in the time zone.

The five major aspects: zero, one hundred and eighty, one hundred and twenty, ninety and sixty degrees. Conjunction and opposition are the most intense; trine and sextile are described as flowing; the square is the one that demands. The chart draws them at different weights and colours according to orb.

A planet that, seen from Earth, appears to move backwards against the stars. It is an effect of perspective rather than a real change of direction, and it is marked on the chart with the usual symbol.

A transit is where a planet is today compared with the natal chart. A solar return is the chart of the moment the Sun comes back to the exact degree it held at birth, once a year, near the birthday. Both are readings of time; the natal chart is not.

A chart built from the midpoints of two natal charts, treating the relationship as a third person. It is not what we draw: we prefer synastry, where each person stays recognisable in the piece.