Natal Chart

What it is

A natal chart (also called a birth chart) is a snapshot of the sky at the exact moment and place of your birth: which zodiac sign each of the ten classical planets (sun through Pluto) occupied, which of the twelve houses each planet fell into, which sign was rising on the horizon (the ascendant), and the angles (aspects) between planets. A full natal chart needs three inputs — birth date, birth time, and birth location — because the houses and ascendant both depend on the exact time and place, not the date alone.

A chart with only date-based information (like most "planet in sign" overviews, including free ones online) covers real ground — the planet's sign placements are date-derived and don't need a birth time — but it is not the complete picture a professional astrologer means by "natal chart," since that includes the time-and-location-dependent pieces too.

Worked example

Someone's sun in Leo and moon in Capricorn are both derivable from their birth date alone. Their ascendant, their house placements, and exact aspect angles all need the birth time and place as well — two people with an identical sun-and-moon combination can have completely different houses and ascendants depending on when and where in the day they were born.

What Mystica's engine actually computes

Mystica's Birth Chart reading is a planet-in-sign reading: it covers what each of the ten planets means placed in each of the twelve signs, using only your birth date. It does not compute houses, ascendant, or aspects, since those need birth time and location as inputs this reading does not currently take — this page is the honest map of what "natal chart" covers in full versus what Mystica's own reading covers today.