How we calculate your report
Last updated
Your birth chart
Planet positions. We calculate the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets with the astronomy-engine ephemeris. Before using it, we compared it with Swiss Ephemeris, the reference used by most astrology software, at 2,000 moments between 1920 and 2030. The largest difference for any planet was 0.34 arcminutes, which is about one hundredth of a degree.
Zodiac and houses. We use the tropical zodiac and the Placidus house system.
Time zone. Your time zone is set from your birthplace and birth date using a historical time zone database. Daylight saving time, wartime time and old local time rules are applied as they were on the day and in the place you were born. You pick your birthplace from a list, so we never guess between two towns with the same name.
If you don't know your birth time. We calculate your chart for noon on your birth date. Houses and your Rising sign depend on the exact time, so we leave them out rather than show you something unreliable. The Moon moves about 13 degrees a day; if it changed signs on your birth date, your report says so.
Your Destiny Matrix
The Destiny Matrix is a modern system based on the 22 major arcana of the Tarot. Every number in it comes from your birth date by arithmetic: the digits of the day, month and year are added and reduced until each position holds a number from 1 to 22. It is not an old tradition and it is not astronomy. Your birth time and birthplace play no part in it, so we don't ask for them.
How the text is written
Your report is assembled by our software from a library of interpretations written for Esotorium: a separate text for each planet in each sign and house, each aspect, each year-ahead transit, and each arcana in each matrix position. The software picks the texts that match your chart and puts them in a fixed order. No astrologer writes your report by hand, and we don't claim one does.
Your Natal Blueprint is about 35 pages as a PDF (about 25 without a birth time); your Destiny Matrix Reading is about 20.
Delivery
Your report is sent as a PDF by email within 24 hours of payment; most reports arrive much sooner. The email contains a download link that works for 7 days. If it hasn't arrived within 24 hours, check your spam folder and write to hello@esotorium.com. We reply within 24 hours.