Vela

Birth chart calculator

Your free birth chart

Enter your birth date, time and place. Vela draws an accurate chart wheel and reads your Sun, Moon, Rising and your whole chart signature in an honest, psychology-informed voice: a lens for reflection, never a prediction. Free, no account needed.

Local clock time. The rising sign needs this.
Can’t find it?
New to this? Placidus is a good default; it’s what most modern charts use, so yours will match what you see elsewhere.
What is a house system, honestly?

Your chart divides the sky into twelve “houses”: areas of life like home, work, and relationships. Astrologers have never fully agreed on where to draw the twelve boundaries, so there are several systems. Your planets and signs are identical in all of them; the only thing that changes is which house a planet sits in.

Placidus is the modern standard (most apps and books use it). Whole Sign is the oldest system: each house is one entire sign, which many people find clearest to learn with. Equal draws twelve even 30° rooms from your Ascendant. None of them is “wrong”; try your chart in two and notice which reading gives you more to think about. The plain-language guide →

How to read your birth chart

A birth chart can look like a lot at once. Here is what each part is, in the order worth reading it, so the wheel above becomes something you can actually think with.

The Big Three: Sun, Moon and Rising

Your Big Three are the fastest way in. Your Sun is the core you are growing into; your Moon is your inner weather; your Rising is how you meet the world. Read together, they say more than any one alone.

The chart signature

Before the detail, Vela reads the whole chart’s balance: which element it leans towards (fire, earth, air or water) and which it lacks, its modality (cardinal, fixed or mutable), its chart ruler (the classical ruler of your rising sign and where it sits), and the shape your ten planets make on the wheel. It is the gestalt you feel before you name a single placement.

The placements: planets in signs and houses

Each planet sits in a sign (how it expresses) and a house (the area of life it colours). Vela links every placement to a plain-language reading, so you can follow, say, your Venus or Mars into its own page.

The aspects: how the planets talk

Aspects are the angles between planets: the conversations inside the chart. A trine tends to flow, a square tends to grate, and both have something to teach. Vela lists your closest aspects with their orbs.

Want the long version? Read how to read a birth chart in full, or see how Vela reads the sky honestly.

Frequently asked

What is a birth chart?

A birth chart, also called a natal chart, is a map of the sky at the exact moment and place you were born: where the Sun, Moon and planets sat against the twelve zodiac signs, and how they relate to each other. Astrologers read it as a portrait of temperament and pattern, never a script for what will happen.

Is a birth chart the same as a natal chart?

Yes. "Birth chart" and "natal chart" are two names for the same thing: the chart cast for your birth. Some people also call it a star chart or an astrology chart. Vela computes all of it from the real positions of the sky.

Do I need my exact birth time?

For the full chart, yes. Your Sun, Moon and planets by sign hold without a time, but the Rising sign, the houses and the Midheaven all turn on the exact minute. If you do not know your time, tick the box and Vela casts an honest partial chart rather than inventing angles it cannot stand behind.

Is the birth chart calculator free?

Yes, and no account is needed. The chart wheel, your Big Three, the full table of placements, your aspects and your chart signature are all free. A membership adds a personalised daily reading of today’s sky against your own chart.

How do I read my birth chart?

Start with the Big Three (Sun, Moon, Rising), then read the chart signature for the overall balance, then look at where each planet sits by sign and house. Vela writes a reflective line for each, and the guide below walks you through every part of the wheel.