Enter your birth date, the most reliable time you have and your birthplace. The Astro data section of the chart shows two tallies, one by element and one by modality, built from the sign of every body with one fixed rule, so the same chart always gives the same count and two charts can be compared directly.
What to look for in your result
- The leading element and how far ahead it is; a lead of one or two points is a tilt, not a type.
- The leading modality, read the same way.
- Which bodies produce the count. The Sun or the Moon alone contributes 2 of the 19 points.
- Any element or modality with a low count. That is a fact about the distribution, not a deficiency in the person.
The tallies describe where the chart is concentrated. They do not rank the elements or say which one a person should have more of.
A worked example
| Element | Weighted count | Share of 19 |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | 7 | 36.8% |
| Earth | 6 | 31.6% |
| Air | 4 | 21.1% |
| Water | 2 | 10.5% |
| Modality | Weighted count | Share of 19 |
|---|---|---|
| Cardinal | 6 | 31.6% |
| Fixed | 11 | 57.9% |
| Mutable | 2 | 10.5% |
Demonstration birth: 1991-09-06 at 18:30 local time, Kyiv, Ukraine (50.4501° N, 30.5234° E), Europe/Kyiv at UTC+3, so 1991-09-06 15:30 UTC. Tropical zodiac, Placidus houses, Swiss Ephemeris 2.10.03. Full result and settings on How to verify your birth chart.
Fire leads the elements with 7 of 19 points, and Fixed leads the modalities with 11 of 19. The table below shows where every point comes from.
| Body | Sign | Element | Modality | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | Virgo | Earth | Mutable | 2 |
| Moon | Leo | Fire | Fixed | 2 |
| Mercury | Leo | Fire | Fixed | 1 |
| Venus | Leo | Fire | Fixed | 1 |
| Mars | Libra | Air | Cardinal | 1 |
| Jupiter | Leo | Fire | Fixed | 1 |
| Saturn | Aquarius | Air | Fixed | 1 |
| Uranus | Capricorn | Earth | Cardinal | 1 |
| Neptune | Capricorn | Earth | Cardinal | 1 |
| Pluto | Scorpio | Water | Fixed | 1 |
| North Node (true) | Capricorn | Earth | Cardinal | 1 |
| Chiron | Leo | Fire | Fixed | 1 |
| Lilith (osculating apogee) | Aquarius | Air | Fixed | 1 |
| Ceres | Scorpio | Water | Fixed | 1 |
| Pallas | Libra | Air | Cardinal | 1 |
| Juno | Capricorn | Earth | Cardinal | 1 |
| Vesta | Leo | Fire | Fixed | 1 |
Adding the weight column by element and by modality gives the two tallies above. The Ascendant, Midheaven, Vertex and Part of Fortune are not in the table because they are not counted.
How the distribution is read
In astrology the elements are read as broad temperaments and the modalities as ways of acting. A strong showing is read as a resource that comes easily, a weak one as something reached for deliberately. These are conventional reading cues, not measured traits.
| Element or modality | A conventional reading cue |
|---|---|
| Fire | Initiative, enthusiasm and a forward push |
| Earth | Practicality, patience and attention to the tangible |
| Air | Ideas, exchange and perspective |
| Water | Feeling, response and attachment |
| Cardinal | Starting things and setting direction |
| Fixed | Sustaining, holding and finishing |
| Mutable | Adapting, adjusting and moving between |
Read the count with the bodies behind it. A lead produced by several bodies sharing one sign says something different from the same lead spread across three signs of that element; the table above shows which case applies.
What birth-time uncertainty changes
The angles are not counted, so the birth time affects the tally only when a body changes sign during the day, never through the houses. The slow bodies are settled by the date alone. Mercury, Venus, Mars and Lilith can change sign on a boundary day, and the Sun changes sign on about one day each month, so on those dates the hour of birth decides where the weight of that body is counted.
The Moon is the body to check first. It carries a weight of 2 and moves up to about 15° a day (14.60°/day in the demonstration chart), so on many dates it changes sign at some hour, and with it 2 points move from one element and one modality to another. On the demonstration date the Moon stays in Leo from midnight to midnight local time at its speed at birth, so this tally is settled for the whole day. If your birth time is unknown, check the Moon first; see what an unknown birth time changes.
Questions
Which bodies are counted?
All 17 bodies of the chart: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, North Node (true), Chiron, Lilith (osculating apogee), Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta. The Sun and Moon carry a weight of 2 and every other body a weight of 1, for a total of 19. The Ascendant, Midheaven, Vertex and Part of Fortune are not counted.
Can I change the weighting or leave out the asteroids?
No. There is no setting for the weights or for the set of bodies, so every chart on NatalChart.AI is counted the same way and two charts can be compared directly. If you want a tally of the ten main bodies only, the positions table gives you the signs to count.
Why does another site give a different dominant element?
Different tools count different things: some use only the ten main bodies, some add the Ascendant and Midheaven, some weight the personal planets differently. Compare the included objects and the weights before comparing the results.
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