Chart calculation is one area that often frightens off new astrology students - it’s seen as being “too mathematical.” Nowadays, we’re used to computer programs that will calculate planet positions to within a second - and most texts on hand calculation assume you want the same degree of accuracy. You don’t! How many people know their birth time to the nearest second? Nobody - it’s a meaningless figure. Most people only know their birth time to the nearest five minutes - which means that you really only need to know your Ascendant to the nearest degree, and your planet positions to the nearest minute.

This article takes you through step by step and shows you how you can draw up a birth chart by hand, given a birth date, time and location. To do this, you’ll need the following:

• A table of houses
• An ephemeris

In fact, you’ll see that calculating planet positions is the easy bit. The part that most people have difficulty with is calculating the Ascendant.

Calculating the Ascendant, Midheaven and house cusps

Calculating the planet positions