Reference
Beyond the ten planets
A birth chart holds more than ten planets. The lunar nodes, Chiron, Black Moon Lilith and the four large asteroids are standard in modern practice, and two further points are calculated from the angles rather than observed. Here is what each one is, what it is read as, and how old that reading actually is.
Lunar nodeNorth Node, South Node
Not objects. The two places where the Moon's orbit crosses the plane of the Earth's orbit, which is why eclipses happen near them and nowhere else.
Minor bodyChiron, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta
Real objects that are not planets: a centaur, and four of the largest asteroids. All were discovered long after the tradition was formed, so their readings are modern by necessity.
- ChironThe injury that does not close, and what it made you able to doA centaur: catalogued as both asteroid 2060 and comet 95P
- CeresNurture, and what happens when it is withdrawnA dwarf planet, and the largest object in the asteroid belt
- PallasSeeing the pattern, and fighting with strategy rather than forceAn asteroid, one of the largest in the belt
- JunoWhat you require from a commitmentAn asteroid
- VestaWhat you give yourself to entirelyAn asteroid, the brightest in the belt and occasionally visible unaided
Calculated pointBlack Moon Lilith, Part of Fortune, Vertex
Arithmetic rather than astronomy. These are positions derived from other positions, so they depend entirely on an accurate birth time and are meaningless without one.
- Black Moon LilithWhat you will not apologise forThe empty focus of the Moon's orbit, so a point rather than a body
- Part of FortuneWhere the three most important points in the chart agreeA calculated point, not a body
- VertexThe encounters you did not arrangeAn angle: where the ecliptic meets the prime vertical in the west
How much weight to give these
Less than the planets, and the amount varies. The Part of Fortune is Hellenistic and has two thousand years of use behind it. Chiron was discovered in 1977 and its reading was written in the 1980s. The four asteroids entered general practice in the 1970s. None of that makes them worthless, and all of it is worth knowing before treating a Chiron placement with the same confidence as a Saturn one.
Every page in this section says when its interpretation enters the record, and the two calculated points show the formula used and where other software disagrees.
See where yours actually are
Every chart on this site now computes all ten of these alongside the planets, from the Swiss Ephemeris. The Part of Fortune uses the night formula for a night birth, which a surprising amount of software does not.