Draconic Chart Calculator

A draconic chart is a second version of your birth chart. It uses the same planets and the same birth moment, but the zodiac starts from a different place. In an ordinary chart the zodiac starts at 0° Aries, the spring equinox point. In a draconic chart it starts at your north node, the point where the Moon's orbit crosses the Sun's path.

"Draconic" comes from the dragon that old astronomy pictured swallowing the Sun and Moon at eclipses, with the nodes as its head and tail. Because the nodes mark where eclipses happen, they have long been treated as a kind of frame for the chart.

Many astrologers read the draconic chart as a picture of deeper motives, sometimes called the soul's intention, while the natal chart describes how you show up day to day. This is interpretation, so treat it as one more angle on yourself.

Every position is moved by the same amount: take each planet's longitude in your natal chart and subtract the longitude of the north node. The result is the planet's draconic longitude. If the answer is negative, add 360°.

Here is an example in plain words. Say your north node is at 15° Leo, which is 135° around the zodiac, and your Sun is at 10° Scorpio, which is 220°. Subtract: 220 − 135 = 85°. Aries covers 0° to 30°, Taurus 30° to 60° and Gemini 60° to 90°, so 85° is 25° Gemini. Your draconic Sun is 25° Gemini.

The north node itself always lands on 0° Aries, since it is subtracted from itself. This calculator uses the true node, so the numbers can differ by a degree or two from charts that use the mean node.

Vela lights three points on the plate, and the result lists every planet beside its natal sign.

• Draconic Sun: read as the core drive underneath your everyday identity.
• Draconic Moon: read as emotional needs that may sit below the surface.
• Draconic Rising: the draconic version of your Ascendant. It needs a birth time and place, because the Rising sign changes about every two hours.

Compare each draconic sign with its natal sign. When they match or share an element, astrologers often say the inner and outer sides agree. When they differ, the gap is where the reflection starts.

Tropical astrology, the system used in most Western charts, starts the zodiac at the spring equinox. Sidereal astrology starts it from the fixed stars, which currently puts every planet roughly 24° earlier. Draconic astrology starts it from the north node.

The sidereal shift is nearly the same for everyone born around the same time. The draconic shift depends on where your north node was at birth, and the node takes about 18.6 years to go around the zodiac. So two people with the same Sun sign can have different draconic Suns. The natal sign shown next to each draconic one is the tropical sign.

The draconic chart is a symbolic technique, and this calculator is for reflection and entertainment. It will not predict events, and astrologers disagree about how much weight it deserves.