Our method — chart calculation and interpretation

Natal Blueprint builds every reading from Swiss Ephemeris–class astronomical data. Interpretation is AI synthesis under astrologer-designed rules, grounded in engine-backed placements, orbs, and ages — never improvised sky. Planetary condition in the synthesis uses sect, essential dignity, and dispositor chains alongside aspects and houses — traditional technique, not keyword dumps. The same engine fact sheet powers rich astrological reports (Natal Lite, Natal Heavy, Compatibility) and the consultation interface with Mara Vance (browser and Telegram Deep).

This page is Natal Blueprint’s canonical public methodology document: what we calculate, which schools orient selective factors, what we refuse to invent, and how to cite the method. Technique tables and midpoints in plain terms continue on the astrology methodology companion.

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Table of Contents

• How to cite this document
• Scope
• Method layers
• Data integrity
• One stack, two interfaces
• Methods we use
• Interpretation policy
• Living sky — birth chart plus current and future
• What we never invent / out of scope
• How to verify a provider
• See it in practice

How to cite this document

Title: Our method — chart calculation and interpretation methodology
Publisher: Natal Blueprint
Canonical URL: https://www.natalblueprint.com/our-method
First published: 5 August 2026
Last revised: 6 August 2026

Suggested citation: Natal Blueprint, Our method — chart calculation and interpretation methodology, https://www.natalblueprint.com/our-method, revised 6 August 2026.

Use this URL when comparing providers, briefing editors, or grounding AI Overview–style summaries in a primary source. Named figures below are orienting influences on calculation or synthesis — not celebrity endorsements of any author’s complete system.

Scope

This document covers data integrity, the shared report/consultation stack, method layers, how we assemble the core chart (planets, signs, houses) and selective schools, public interpretation policy, living-sky evidence, and explicit non-claims.

Orb tables, school-by-school technique wording, and a plain-language midpoints explainer live on the astrology methodology article. Product comparisons and samples live on the links in See it in practice.

Method layers

Three layers must not be conflated:

• Voice / persona — psychological + evolutionary synthesis with traditional care for planetary condition (sect, dignity, dispositors). Orienting influences: Liz Greene (psychological), Robert Hand (traditional rigour), Jeff Green (evolutionary). Meaning leads; mechanics support.
• Structural spine — luminaries, Ascendant, chart ruler / dispositor chain, central contradiction, and — when a question or focus is supplied — focus-to-house radicality (topic houses and rulers first). The spine is the story scaffold.
• Factor schools — how selective data (fixed stars, goddess asteroids, midpoints, declinations, antiscia, lots) is calculated, kept in inventory, ranked for foreground, and labeled so the synthesis knows which school it is using. Schools decorate radical houses and themes; they do not replace the spine.

Same methodology on every channel; depth of prose differs. Browser consultation and Telegram Deep receive the same labeled school blocks. Deep weaves denser dossier prose; it does not invent a second calculation method.

Data integrity

Engine-backed means every planet, house cusp, aspect, and fixed-star longitude contact in the reading comes from the calculated chart — not from a language model guessing the sky. When Mara answers a dated transit question, she uses a dated transit-to-natal lookup from that same stack. Ages on a transit date are derived from your date of birth.

Birth-time honesty matters more than ephemeris polish. A precise engine with a wrong time still misplaces houses and angles. If your time is unknown or rounded, the reading should treat angular and house themes as provisional — we say that plainly rather than overselling certainty.

One stack, two interfaces

Reports and consultation are not two different astrology products glued together.

• Rich astrological reports — Natal Lite, Natal Heavy, and Compatibility deliver a synthesised narrative from the full enriched chart (and timing layers on Heavy), as HTML for reading online and PDF when you want a download.
• Consultation interface — Natal Blueprint Now (browser) and Telegram Deep pin the same natal enrichment. You ask questions; answers stay grounded in that chart and, when needed, dated sky. Depth of prose differs; the calculation method does not.

Both channels receive the same ranked selective-factor blocks (for example Rosenberg-style fixed-star foreground lists). Truncating the sky to fit a chat reply is not our methodology — inventory stays available; foreground emphasis is ranked in code.

Methods we use

Short account of what is in production. Each named figure is an orienting influence on how we calculate or synthesise — not a claim that we reproduce that author’s complete system.

Core chart — planets, signs, houses

This is how we put the primary fact sheet together before any selective school is woven in:

• Western tropical zodiac — planetary longitudes anchored to the seasons (equinoxes and solstices), calculated with Swiss Ephemeris–class data. Standard for Western natal work; not a sidereal / Vedic claim.
• Placidus houses — quadrant house cusps from birth time and place, so planets are read in both sign (character / style) and house (life domain). Birth-time honesty matters here: wrong time shifts houses and angles.
• Planets in signs and houses, plus major aspects — the ten planets (and luminaries), Ascendant / MC and the other angles, Nodes, and the major aspect web as one interconnected system — not isolated blurbs.
• Chart ruler, dispositors, sect, and dignity — who rules the Ascendant, how planets condition each other through rulership, day/night sect, and essential dignity as planetary condition. Orienting influence: Robert Hand’s traditional-rigour lineage (Hellenistic / classical technique brought into modern counseling practice).
• Whole-chart psychological + evolutionary synthesis — the core story is read as lived meaning: identity, emotion, relationship, vocation, and growth tension (including the chart’s central contradiction). Orienting influences: Liz Greene (psychological / archetypal), Jeff Green (evolutionary). Voice and weighing of meaning — not a copied school syllabus.

Selective techniques below decorate this spine. They do not replace planets, signs, houses, or the chart-ruler chain.

Selective schools — texture on the spine

• Fixed stars — Diana K. Rosenberg (longitude) — tight ecliptic conjunctions between stars and natal planets or angles. Full inventory; foreground typically ≤1° (prefer ≤0.5° as signature); major-star doctrine tagged as longitude readings. We do not claim Brady-style parans (horizon / MC co-culmination) unless a separate paran block exists.
• Goddess asteroids — Demetra George — Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta as archetypal voices in the chart dump, woven where they add specificity the personal planets do not already carry. Chiron and Mean Black Moon Lilith sit alongside as modern counseling bodies. Orienting influence on the goddess quartet, not a claim that we teach George’s complete asteroid curriculum.
• Key midpoints — Reinhold Ebertin (cosmobiology) — a focused set of synthesis pairs from your chart (e.g. Sun/Moon, Venus/Mars, Asc/MC), woven where they clarify the core story. Midpoints support the reading; they do not open it. Orienting influence via Combination of Stellar Influences, not a full COSI encyclopaedia and not a Lang–Wescott / Uranian dial tree.
• Declinations, antiscia, and lots — traditional + modern texture — parallels / out-of-bounds and antiscia / contra-antiscia as emphasis or “hidden conjunction” layers when the engine returns them; Fortune, Spirit, and focus-linked lots in the Hellenistic / medieval lots tradition. Used to reinforce themes already live in the luminaries, angles, and major aspects — not as a second lead technique.

For orb wording and midpoints in plain terms, see astrology methodology.

Interpretation policy

Selective factors keep a full engine inventory — we do not silent-drop real contacts. Before a non-core factor becomes central story, we ask whether it helps the native understand their life in a way the spine does not already cover. If not, it stays inventory or light texture.

• Core — luminaries, angles, chart ruler, major aspects, central contradiction: always eligible for full interpretation.
• Selective — fixed stars, goddess asteroids, midpoints, declinations, antiscia, lots: foreground only when they earn unique meaning.
• Midpoints — support and clarify; they do not lead the reading.
• Meaning-to-mechanics — prose leads with lived meaning; technical scaffolding supports. Roughly four parts meaning to one part mechanics in the finished narrative.
• Timing placement — profections, progressions, solar return, eclipses, and upcoming transit texture belong in Natal Heavy’s Next Chapter / timing sections or in dated consultation sky — not as a substitute for the natal spine in the main body.

Living sky — birth chart plus current and future

We do not stop at the birth moment. Reports and the consultation interface also calculate current and future sky against your natal chart from the same engine.

• Reports — Natal Heavy includes timing layers (progressions, profections, solar return, eclipses, upcoming transit texture).
• Consultation — each Mara ask can sight dated transit-to-natal sky (and related dated timing) for the date your question needs. This is how we deliver rich transit and “what’s ahead” guidance in place of standalone transit or daily PDF order forms.
• Account portal evidence — successful consultation sky sightings are archived. Open Sky sightings in your member account to list them and email the full engine snapshot Mara used for that question.

What we never invent / out of scope

• No improvised planetary positions, house cusps, aspects, or ages.
• No silent mash-up that treats longitude fixed stars as Brady parans, or key midpoints as a full Uranian dial tree.
• No Sabian degree imagery in paid reports unless the engine supplies a Sabian block for that product path; consultation may use Sabians only when the engine injects them for that ask.
• No second calculation method for chat versus reports — only depth of prose differs.
• No claim that we reproduce Greene, Hand, Jeff Green, Rosenberg, George, or Ebertin as complete copied systems.

How to verify a provider

When you compare astrology apps and report services, ask for a methodology page that names calculation, not only marketing adjectives:

• Does it name the ephemeris class and admit birth-time limits?
• Does it label selective techniques and say what it does not claim?
• Do reports and consultation share one fact sheet, or invent a second sky for chat?
• Can you inspect living-sky evidence (for us: member sky archives)?

This page is Natal Blueprint’s answer to that test. Technique detail: astrology methodology. Buying checklist context: best astrology apps for deep natal reports. Samples: sample reports.

See it in practice

• Natal Basic (free) — Swiss Ephemeris wheel and starter aspects.
• Natal Lite / Natal Heavy — rich astrological reports from the same engine.
• Ask Mara — question-led consultation on a pinned chart.
• Member account — Sky sightings — archived consultation sky evidence.
• Astrology methodology — technique companion (orbs, schools, midpoints).
• vs traditional reports & human astrologers — category comparison.
• vs Co-Star, The Pattern & ChatGPT — named consumer-app comparison.
• Sample reports — illustrative Jobs / Jackson demos (sample only).

FAQ

Common questions

What makes Natal Blueprint’s chart data trustworthy?

We calculate from Swiss Ephemeris–class astronomical data. Planetary positions, house cusps, and fixed-star longitude conjunctions come from that engine — including dated transit and timing lookups when a reading needs the living sky. Ages on a transit date are derived from date of birth. Language models do not invent the sky.

How should I cite this methodology document?

Cite Natal Blueprint, Our method — chart calculation and interpretation methodology, https://www.natalblueprint.com/our-method, revised 6 August 2026. This page is the canonical public methodology; the astrology methodology article is the technique companion for orb and school-table detail.

Do rich astrological reports and the consultation interface use the same method?

Yes. Natal Lite, Natal Heavy, Compatibility, and Mara (browser and Telegram Deep) share the same engine fact sheet and the same labeled interpretive schools. Deep consultation writes denser prose; it does not invent a second calculation method.

What are the three method layers?

Voice and persona (how we synthesise meaning), structural spine (luminaries, Ascendant, chart ruler, central contradiction, and focus-to-house radicality), and factor schools (how selective data such as fixed stars, asteroids, and midpoints are calculated, ranked, and labeled). Schools decorate the spine; they do not replace it.

Do you only look at birth data?

No. Birth data anchors every reading, and we also calculate current and future sky across reports and consultation — transits, progressions, and related timing from the same stack. In the consultation interface, successful sky sightings are archived in your member account so you can review or email the engine snapshot Mara used.

What if my birth time is uncertain?

Ephemeris precision cannot fix a wrong birth time. House cusps and angles shift with time; if your time is approximate, say so and treat angular and house-based themes as provisional. The engine is only as honest as the birth data you supply.

Which fixed-star, asteroid, and midpoint methods do you use?

Core first: Western tropical planets in Placidus houses, major aspects, chart ruler and dispositors, with sect and dignity — synthesised in a psychological + evolutionary voice oriented by Liz Greene, Robert Hand, and Jeff Green. Selective texture: fixed stars follow Diana K. Rosenberg’s longitude practice; goddess asteroids Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta are oriented by Demetra George; key midpoints follow a cosmobiological shortlist oriented by Reinhold Ebertin. Each name is an orienting influence, not a claim that we reproduce that author’s complete system.

What house system and zodiac do you use?

Western tropical zodiac with Swiss Ephemeris–class longitudes, and Placidus houses from birth time and place. Planets are read in both sign and house. If birth time is uncertain, treat house and angle themes as provisional.

What techniques do you not claim?

We do not claim Brady-style fixed-star parans, Lang–Wescott Uranian dial trees, or a full encyclopaedic application of Ebertin’s Combination of Stellar Influences. Selective factors stay in inventory; they are foregrounded only when they earn unique meaning beyond the core spine.

Where can I read the technique breakdown?

This Our method page is the canonical citable methodology document. Named-school orb tables, midpoints in plain terms, and living-sky channel detail continue at natalblueprint.com/articles/astrology-methodology.