Progressions and Solar Arcs
See how your birth chart has unfolded by a chosen date: secondary progressions (a day for a year), solar arc directions and the dates when they become exact.
Your Rising sign depends on the exact time and place of birth, because the Ascendant moves through all twelve signs over the course of a day. An accurate birth time therefore makes the calculation more precise. If you don't know your birth time, the calculator still shows your Sun and Moon but leaves out the Rising sign and houses.
Progressions and Solar Arcs
Your progressions
Bi-wheel
Birth chart inside, progressed or directed planets outside. Lines show aspects within 1°.
Positions
| Point | Natal | Progressed | Solar arc |
|---|
Aspects to the birth chart
Orb 1°. Applying aspects are still getting closer.
Progressed lunation
The angle of the progressed Moon from the progressed Sun. One cycle takes about 29.5 years; the eight phases follow Dane Rudhyar.
Exact dates
Secondary progressions: one day after birth equals one tropical year of life. Solar arc: every point moves by the distance the progressed Sun has travelled. The progressed Midheaven moves by the solar arc and the progressed Ascendant is derived from it for the birthplace. Tropical zodiac, Placidus houses of the birth chart.
What are progressions and solar arcs?
Both techniques show how the birth chart develops over a lifetime. Unlike transits, they are personal: they are calculated from your own birth moment, so nobody else has the same progressions.
Secondary progressions
Each day after your birth stands for one year of your life. Your progressions at 30 are the real sky of the 30th day after you were born. The progressed Moon moves about one degree a month and is the most visible timer.
Solar arcs
All points of the chart move forward by the same arc as the progressed Sun, roughly one degree a year. A solar arc aspect lasts about a year and astrologers usually read it within one degree of exactness.
How to read them
Start with progressed and directed planets making exact aspects to your natal planets and angles, then with sign changes and the phase of the progressed lunation. They describe slow inner themes rather than single days.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need my exact birth time?
- For the Ascendant, Midheaven, houses and exact dates, yes. Without it you still get the progressed planets as ranges for your birth day and the aspects that hold all day.
- What is the difference from transits?
- Transits are the current sky compared with your birth chart and are the same for everybody on a given day. Progressions and solar arcs are calculated from your own birth moment.
- Why is the progressed Sun the same as the solar arc Sun?
- The solar arc is defined by the movement of the progressed Sun, so the two are identical. The same holds for the Midheaven, which this calculator progresses by the solar arc.