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Everything you need to understand your True Stars chart — from the real sky to the soul stats that make you, you.
The Real Sky: The 2,000-Year Correction
True Stars doesn't show you where an ancient calendar says the planets should be. It shows you where they actually were among the stars the moment you arrived. If you had looked through a telescope at the minute of your birth, this is exactly what you would have seen.
Most Western astrology relies on the tropical zodiac, a system that was frozen in time nearly 2,000 years ago. Around 150 AD, the Greco-Egyptian astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, working out of Alexandria, published the Tetrabiblos. That single book became the foundation of Western astrology for the next two millennia. Ptolemy made a fateful decision: he tied the zodiac to the seasons instead of the stars, anchoring 0° Aries to the March equinox rather than to the actual constellation of Aries. At the time this barely mattered, because the equinox point and the constellation still roughly overlapped. But Ptolemy knew about precession, the slow wobble of Earth's axis that Hipparchus had discovered centuries earlier, and he chose to ignore it. He "paused" the zodiac, locking it to the equinoxes and letting the stars drift away.
And drift they did. Over the past 2,000 years, precession has shifted the tropical frame roughly 24 degrees away from the actual constellations, almost an entire zodiac sign. When a tropical chart claims your Sun is in Aries, the Sun was physically in Pisces that day. The labels stayed still. The stars moved on. Every mainstream horoscope app, newspaper column, and "what's your sign?" conversation is based on Ptolemy's frozen snapshot, a map that hasn't matched the sky since the Roman Empire.
That's why True Stars exists. Your birth chart should reflect the real sky, not a 2,000-year-old approximation. We correct for this drift using the Lahiri ayanamsha, a precise astronomical measurement of exactly how far the tropical frame has precessed from the stars. This is the same correction that Vedic (Jyotish) astrology has used for thousands of years to stay in sync with the heavens, long before Ptolemy decided to abandon the stars for the seasons.
We go even further. Instead of dividing the sky into twelve equal 30-degree boxes (another Ptolemaic simplification), we use the IAU constellation boundaries: the official, physical borders of the ecliptic constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union since 1930. Constellations are their actual sizes. Virgo spans about 44 degrees while Scorpius covers only about 7. And yes, we include the 13th constellation the Sun physically passes through: Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer, sitting between Scorpius and Sagittarius. Tropical astrology has quietly ignored it for centuries.
Your chart should show you the universe as it actually was, not as a Roman-era astronomer decided it should be forever.
The Planets
13 celestial bodies in your chart
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The Planets
13 celestial bodies in your chart
Each planet represents a different dimension of your life. The constellation it occupies colors how that energy expresses itself.
The Constellations
13 real star groups on the ecliptic
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The Constellations
13 real star groups on the ecliptic
These are the 13 constellations the Sun actually passes through. Unlike the tropical zodiac's equal 30-degree signs, these are the real star groups — each with its own size and character.
The Houses
12 areas of life in your chart
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The Houses
12 areas of life in your chart
Houses divide your chart into 12 areas of life using the Porphyry system, where the Ascendant and Midheaven define the four angles and the intermediate cusps are calculated by trisecting each quadrant. Planets in a house bring their energy into that area of your life.
The Nakshatras
27 lunar mansions
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The Nakshatras
27 lunar mansions
The 27 nakshatras are lunar mansions — ancient star-based divisions that give far more detail than constellations alone. Each spans 13.33 degrees and has its own ruling planet, symbol, and spirit animal. Your Moon's nakshatra is especially important in Vedic astrology.
Soul Stats
Goal, Nature, Mind, and Body
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Soul Stats
Goal, Nature, Mind, and Body
Each nakshatra carries four qualities that describe its deeper nature. Together, these Soul Stats paint a picture of what drives you, how you relate to others, how your mind works, and how your body operates.
Goal (Purushartha)
The four aims of human life in Vedic philosophy. Your nakshatra's purushartha reveals your soul's primary motivation.
Nature (Gana)
Three temperament types that describe how you interact with the world around you.
Mind (Guna)
Three fundamental qualities of consciousness that shape how your mind operates.
Body (Dosha)
Three Ayurvedic body types that describe your physical constitution and health tendencies.
Aspects
5 geometric relationships between planets
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Aspects
5 geometric relationships between planets
Aspects are geometric relationships between planets based on the angular distance between them. When two planets form an aspect, their energies interact — sometimes harmoniously, sometimes with tension.
Transits
How today's sky affects your chart
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Transits
How today's sky affects your chart
Transits are the current positions of planets in the sky compared to where they were when you were born. They show how today's cosmic weather affects your personal chart — like a weather report for your life.