Solar arc directions calculator
Solar arc directions take the whole birth chart and move it forward by a single amount: the distance the progressed Sun has travelled from its birth position, which is close to one degree for every year of life. Every planet, every angle and every point advances by that same arc, keeping the chart intact and sliding it along the zodiac.
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Solar arc directions
Because everything moves together at about a degree a year, the arithmetic is easy to feel. At forty, the chart has moved roughly forty degrees; a planet that stood forty degrees short of an angle at birth arrives on it at about forty years of age. That directness is why solar arc is the method astrologers reach for when they want to date something.
Only the aspects the directed chart makes to the BIRTH chart are read, and only within a degree — which, at a degree a year, is a year either side of exact. Directed points aspecting each other move as a block and never change their relationship, so there is nothing there to read.
The conjunctions matter most: a directed planet arriving on a natal planet or angle is the classic solar arc event. Directed Saturn on the natal Sun, or directed Uranus on the Ascendant, marks a year that tends to be visible from the outside as well as from within.
This calculator directs the chart to any date you choose and lists everything in orb around it with the date each contact perfects, from two years before the date you pick to three years after.
The planets are directed whatever your birth time. The angles are not: the Midheaven and the Ascendant depend on the time and the place of birth, and directions to the angles are the sharpest thing the method does — so an unknown birth time removes the best of what solar arc has to offer.
Solar arc says when, and says it well. It is much less good at saying what: a directed contact names a year and a pair of symbols, and the meaning comes from what those symbols are doing in the birth chart and what the rest of the sky is doing at the same time.
Questions people ask
What are solar arc directions?
Every point in the birth chart moved forward by the same arc — the distance the Sun has progressed from its natal place, roughly a degree for each year of life. The directed chart is then read against the birth chart.
How fast is the solar arc?
About one degree a year, which is why a directed contact stays within a degree of exact for roughly a year either side. The precise rate is your own progressed Sun, so it varies a little from person to person.
Which aspects are read?
Directed to natal only, and above all the conjunction. The directed points keep their positions relative to one another, so aspects among them say nothing that the birth chart did not already say.
Do I need my birth time?
Not for the planets. For the Ascendant and the Midheaven yes, and directions to those two angles are the most precise thing solar arc offers.
Solar arc or secondary progressions?
Both, usually. Solar arc dates cleanly because everything moves at one rate; progressions carry more detail because each planet keeps its own speed. They are read together, and a year both of them mark is a year worth looking at.
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