Element and Modality Analysis
Astrology has four elements (Fire, Earth, Air, Water) and three modalities (Cardinal, Fixed, Mutable). Reading the Sun sign alone gives you half the picture. Here we weigh your whole chart. Sun, Moon and Ascendant count for three points each, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Midheaven for one. Out of fifteen points, your element and modality distribution, your synthesis sign and your shadow sign emerge.
Birth date, time and place
The Ascendant and Midheaven depend on the time of birth, so time and place are required. If you are not sure of the exact time, your closest guess is fine.
The calculation uses nine points. Sun, Moon and Ascendant carry 3 points, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Midheaven carry 1 point. Total 15 points. Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Chiron are slow and generational, so they sit outside this individual count.
The element and modality picture is the first layer of the chart. In a full reading, the planets speak with their houses and aspects. A lack is never a wall, only a direction.