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HORA is built on Western astrology, specifically the psychological tradition, which treats the chart as a map of who you are rather than a prediction of what will happen. Within that: HORA uses the Tropical zodiac, anchored to the seasons with Aries beginning at the spring equinox. It uses Placidus houses, which divide the sky into unequal sections based on the Earth's rotation at the exact birth time and location. Positions are calculated from an apparent geocentric perspective, from Earth's viewpoint, with a correction for atmospheric refraction.

Placidus is the house system at the foundation of HORA's astrological tradition. It divides the sky into 12 unequal houses based on the Earth's rotation at the exact time and place of birth. No two charts from different times or places produce the same house structure. It's a deliberate methodological choice, not a default.

HORA calculates four aspects, each within a 5° orb:

• Conjunction (0°): two planets occupy the same degree, fusing their energies into a single concentrated expression.
• Opposition (180°): two planets sit directly across the chart from each other, placing two principles in direct tension and calling for integration.
• Trine (120°): a flowing, reinforcing connection between planets sharing the same element, usually experienced as ease or natural affinity.
• Square (90°): a dynamic, pressurised contact between planets in conflicting modalities, strongly associated with drive, challenge, and growth.

Aspects are calculated across all planets and points in the chart. The sextile (60°) and quincunx (150°) are not currently included.

HORA uses a 5° orb for all aspects. This means two planets need to be within 5° of the exact aspect angle to be considered in aspect with each other.

The orb represents the zone of influence around a precise geometric angle. A tighter orb (closer to 0°) indicates a stronger, more concentrated expression of the aspect. As the orb widens toward 5°, the contact is still present but becomes more background in quality. At exactly 0°, the aspect is said to be partile and is considered the most potent.

HORA includes thirteen planets and points across Birth Chart, Transits, and Bonds:

☉ Sun: core identity and vitality
☽ Moon: emotional world and subconscious patterns
☿ Mercury: how you think, process, and communicate
♀︎ Venus: what attracts you and how you relate
♂︎ Mars: drive, ambition, and how you act
♃ Jupiter: where you expand and find meaning
♄ Saturn: where you build mastery through constraint
♅ Uranus: where disruption and awakening reshape the structure of life
♆ Neptune: where imagination, dissolution, and longing operate
♇ Pluto: where deep transformation and power dynamics play out
☊ North Node: the direction of growth in this lifetime
⚷ Chiron: your core wound and the path toward integrating it
AC Ascendant: how the world first meets you

A birth chart is a map of the sky at the exact moment of birth, calculated from date, time, and place of birth. It shows where every planet was positioned, which sign it occupied, and which house of life it falls in.

What a birth chart actually describes is harder to summarise neatly. It's not a personality test and it's not a prediction. It's closer to a blueprint: the recurring patterns, emotional tendencies, drives, and tensions that tend to show up throughout a person's life. Some of that is immediately recognisable. Some of it only makes sense in retrospect. Reading a chart well means understanding the whole picture, not just the headline placements, but how the planets relate to each other and which areas of life they're most active in.

Signs lists every planet and point by sign and house, with a full reading for each placement. House placement descriptions (what a planet means in its specific house) are available to subscribers.

Aspects shows the geometric relationships between planets in the natal chart: conjunctions, oppositions, trines, and squares, each with a keyword and a full reading.

Charts displays the full visual wheel of the birth chart: all planets and points in their positions across the 12 signs and houses, with aspect lines drawn between them.

An empty house just means no planet was in that part of the sky at birth. It doesn't make that area of life quiet or irrelevant. Most people have several empty houses and those parts of life are often very much alive.

Each house has a ruling planet: the planet that governs the zodiac sign sitting on that house's cusp. That planet carries the story for the house, regardless of whether anything is in it. If the 7th house of relationships has Sagittarius on its cusp, Jupiter is the ruler. Where Jupiter sits in the chart, what sign it's in, what house, what aspects it makes, describes how relationships tend to unfold: what they need to feel right, what they bring, where they tend to lead.

Empty houses also respond to transits. When a planet moves through an empty house, the themes associated with that house come into focus even without a natal planet there to anchor them.

A natal retrograde is a fixed part of the chart: a planet that was appearing to move backward from Earth's perspective at the moment of birth. It's not a current event or a temporary influence. It's just how that planet is placed.

What it tends to mean in practice is that the planet's energy moves inward rather than outward. Someone with Mercury retrograde natally often has a deeply internal thinking process. They've worked something through thoroughly before it comes out, which can look like hesitation from the outside but is really something closer to precision. Venus retrograde natally often produces a more unconventional or private relationship to desire, attraction, and what connection means. Mars retrograde natally can mean the drive turns toward self-mastery rather than outward push.

None of that is a difficulty. It's just a different expression of the same energy.

The natal chart is fixed, a snapshot of the sky at the moment of birth. The planets keep moving, and transits track where they are now in relation to that fixed map.

When a planet in the current sky makes an aspect to a natal placement, it activates the themes of both. Saturn moving through the 7th house tends to put pressure on partnerships: what they require, what they cost, what they're actually built on, what they cost, what they're actually built on. Jupiter crossing the Ascendant often marks a period of expansion, more opportunity coming in from the outside. Mars hitting natal Venus shifts how desire and attraction feel in the short term.

Transits don't tell you what will happen. They tell you what's being activated and in what way. Outer planets like Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto move slowly enough that their transits last months or years and tend to mark real structural periods in life. Inner planets move fast: the Moon can transit a house in hours, and produce the more day-to-day fluctuations in mood and focus.

Your Transits shows how the current sky relates specifically to your natal chart. When Pluto forms a trine to your natal Sun, that aspect exists because of where your Sun was placed at birth. Someone born with their Sun in a different sign won't have that contact. It's personal to your chart.

Global Transits shows what's happening in the sky right now for everyone, regardless of individual charts. Jupiter moving through Leo is a global event. Every person alive at that moment shares it. What differs from person to person is which house Jupiter falls in: for one person it might be activating the 10th house of career and public life, for another the 3rd house of communication and immediate environment. The transit itself is universal; where it lands in your life depends on your chart.

Both tabs update daily at midnight UTC.

Long Term covers the five outer planets, each spending extended periods in a given sign and house:

∙ Jupiter: approximately one year per sign
∙ Saturn: approximately two and a half years per sign
∙ Uranus: approximately seven years per sign
∙ Neptune: approximately fourteen years per sign
∙ Pluto: between twelve and thirty years per sign

Because these planets move slowly, their transits through a natal placement can remain active for months or years. They tend to mark structural periods of development rather than day-to-day shifts: reorganisation, sustained pressure, gradual transformation, or expanded perspective over time.

Short Term covers the five inner planets and luminaries, which move quickly through the zodiac:

∙ Sun: approximately one month per sign
∙ Mercury: two to three weeks per sign (longer during retrograde)
∙ Venus: three to five weeks per sign (longer during retrograde)
∙ Mars: six to seven weeks per sign (longer during retrograde)
∙ Moon: approximately two and a half days per sign

Short Term transits tend to colour mood, focus, and relational energy in the near term rather than produce lasting structural change.

Transits refresh daily at midnight UTC, so the readings always reflect the current planetary picture. Open HORA on any given day and what you see is what's actually happening in the sky.

HORA places transiting planets into houses using the Placidus natal chart. If you're used to a different house system, the house a planet falls in may differ. The planet's sign and degree will match standard ephemeris data. If the sign itself looks off, check the birth details in the profile.

R stands for retrograde. From Earth's perspective, the planet appears to be moving backward through the zodiac. It tends to slow or internalise the planet's energy rather than expressing it outwardly. All outer planets retrograde regularly.

Bonds reads two birth charts together using synastry, mapping how the planets in one chart land in relation to the planets in the other. It's not about whether two signs are "compatible" in a general sense. It's about the specific dynamic between two specific people.

Some connections have a lot of activation across both charts, lots of contact between the key planets, which tends to produce intensity and mutual engagement. Others have fewer contact points, which doesn't mean less connection, just a different character to how it feels. Bonds shows what's actually happening between two charts: where there's ease, where there's friction, what the connection tends to bring to the surface in both people.

The compatibility result and Cosmic Chemistry (the full synastry aspect readings) are available on the free version. Partner Vibes requires a subscription.

The same details as a birth chart: date of birth, birth time, and birth city for both people. Accurate birth times make a significant difference to the precision of the reading.

Yes. When no birth time is available, HORA assumes 12:00 noon and calculates the partner's Ascendant and houses from that. Their rising sign and house placements will show, but should be treated as approximate for the same reason they would in a personal chart: those points shift significantly across the day, so without a real birth time they're indicative rather than confirmed.

Aspects involving the partner's Ascendant and Moon are included too, but worth reading with some caution. If their actual birth time is different from noon, the Ascendant degree changes, which can affect which aspects are in orb. The Moon moves about 13 degrees a day, so a sign boundary birth could mean the Moon sign is off by one.

The label is derived from the Discepolo method: a compatibility scoring system developed by Italian astrologer Ciro Discepolo, built on statistical analysis of over 2,100 couples drawn from the Gauquelin research archives.

How the score is calculated

The method evaluates aspects between five key points across both charts: the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Venus, and Mars. Points are assigned as follows:

  ∙ Sun square or opposition Sun: 8 points (+ 3 if within 2° orb)
  ∙ Sun conjunct Moon, either direction: 8 points each (+ 3 if within 2° orb)
  ∙ Any aspect between Sun, Moon, or Ascendant across both charts: 4 points each
  ∙ Both Suns in the same modality (Cardinal, Fixed, or Mutable): 5 points, only if no Sun–Sun aspect already scored
  ∙ Any aspect between one person's Venus and the other's Mars: 4 points each

What the score reflects

One of the method's most significant findings contradicts the traditional assumption that easy aspects make for better partnerships. Discepolo's research found that couples whose Suns form squares or oppositions are statistically more represented among lasting relationships than chance would predict. Dynamic aspects generate ongoing mutual engagement. They are not a warning sign.

The result also reflects whether dynamic aspects (squares or oppositions) are present in the synastry, not just the total score. The same point total carries a different character depending on whether the activation is driven primarily by harmonious or dynamic contacts.

Score breakdown

The Destiny sign column indicates whether at least one square or opposition exists between the two Sun signs. In Discepolo's research, this Sun-Sun dynamic aspect was the single strongest statistical marker of lasting partnerships. Its presence shifts the character of the connection and changes the label at every score range.

Score	Destiny sign	Label
0 – 8	No	Delicate
0 – 8	Yes	Karmic
9 – 13	No	Balanced
9 – 13	Yes	Transformative
14 – 18	No	Aligned
14 – 18	Yes	Meaningful
19 – 22	No	Powerful
19 – 22	Yes	Exceptional
23+	No	Exceptional
23+	Yes	Destined

A higher score means more points of mutual activation across the charts. How that activation is experienced depends on both people. The label describes the nature of the connection, not its outcome.

Cosmic Chemistry maps the specific cross-chart aspects between two people: for example, one person's Sun square the other's Jupiter, or one Mercury conjunct the other's Chiron.

Each aspect describes a particular dynamic that operates between the two charts. A square between Sun and Pluto might surface themes of power and transformation. A Venus trine Moon often produces natural emotional ease and affection. A Mercury opposition Saturn can create a persistent push-pull around communication and structure.

Get to Know Your Partner reads the other person's chart on its own, separate from the compatibility reading, but who they are independently. How they tend to love, how they communicate, what drives them, how they process emotion, how they show up to the people around them.

It's useful in a specific way. A lot of friction in relationships comes from assumptions about why someone behaves the way they do. Their chart can offer a different frame: not an excuse for anything, but a clearer description of what they're actually working with. That kind of context changes the conversation.

Right now, Bonds is designed for romantic partnerships. It reads the synastry between two people with the depth that dynamic really deserves. More relationship types are on the way!

Cosmic Heads-Up sends you a push notification when a significant sky event is approaching: retrogrades, planetary ingresses, major transits, and more, so you're informed before a shift happens, not after.

Retrogrades, planetary ingresses (a planet moving into a new sign), significant personal transits, and other notable sky events.

Notification settings are managed through your device settings.

HORA is free to use, with ads. A subscription removes ads and unlocks deeper readings across Birth Chart, Transits, and Bonds.

HORA is free to download. A subscription unlocks premium features across Birth Chart, Transits, and Bonds.


Prices shown in USD. Local currency pricing is displayed at checkout in the App Store or Google Play.

There's no free trial currently, but the free version includes birth chart placements, aspects, the chart wheel, and transit overviews. Plenty to explore before subscribing!

On iOS, tap Subscription Plan from the Profile screen and select Redeem a Code at the bottom of the paywall. On Android, tap Subscription Plan and follow the prompts to enter the code.

Payment is handled directly by Apple or Google using whichever method is linked to your account. HORA doesn't process payments directly.

Yes. Go to Profile, tap Subscription Plan, and select the preferred option. On iOS this opens an App Store prompt directly. On Android, the current subscription needs to be cancelled first; once the billing period ends, the new plan can be selected from the paywall. Changes take effect after the current billing period ends.

Apple and Google both send renewal reminders before the billing date. To avoid being charged for the next period, cancel at least 24 hours before renewal.

Subscriptions are managed through the platform used to subscribe. On iOS, go to Apple ID settings and select Subscriptions. On Android, open Google Play, tap the profile picture, and go to Payments & Subscriptions. Cancelling stops the next renewal but access continues until the end of the current billing period. Note: cancelling a subscription doesn't delete the HORA account. These are two separate actions.

Cancelling stops the subscription from renewing at the next billing date. Access to premium features continues until the end of the current billing period. After that, HORA switches to the free version automatically: the account, all profiles, and all charts remain exactly as they were. Nothing is lost.

Subscriptions are tied to the individual Apple ID or Google account used to purchase. Each person wanting access to premium features needs their own subscription.

Payments are managed entirely by Apple or Google. Refund requests should be submitted directly through their respective support channels.

If there's an underlying access issue or technical problem, contact hello@horastars.com first and the team will do their best to help.

Go to Profile, tap Account Settings, then Change Password.

Go to Profile, tap Account Settings, then Change Email Address.

Tap Edit Profile from the Profile screen.

Yes! Sign in with the same account credentials on any device to access the same chart data and profiles.

From the Profile screen, tap the sign-out icon in the top right corner.

Go to Profile, tap Account Settings, then Delete Account. Deleting the account removes all data associated with it permanently. To use HORA again after that, a new account would need to be created from scratch.

This is different from cancelling a subscription, cancelling stops the next billing cycle but leaves the account, profiles, and charts completely intact.

Important: deleting the account does not automatically cancel an active subscription. Cancel the subscription through Apple or Google first. Otherwise it will continue to renew.

Yes. HORA is built with privacy as a baseline. Birth data, account details, and usage information are stored on secure, encrypted servers. HORA is registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and operates in full compliance with UK GDPR. Only the data necessary to provide the service is collected. None of it is sold, shared commercially, or used for advertising. The right to access, correct, or delete personal data can be exercised at any time directly from within HORA, or by contacting hello@horastars.com.

No, never. Birth data and account information are used exclusively to calculate and display astrological readings within HORA. It is never sold, shared with third parties, or used for advertising, profiling, or any commercial purpose outside the platform.

First check the birth details in the profile. A 15-minute difference in birth time can shift house placements significantly.

If the houses look different from other astrology software or websites, the most likely cause is a different house system. HORA uses Placidus; many other tools use Whole Sign. This is expected, not an error.

If planet signs and degrees also differ, check whether the other app uses the Sidereal zodiac rather than Tropical. These produce different sign placements and aren't directly comparable.

If none of the above explains it, contact hello@horastars.com with the full birth details: date, time, and location.

Go to Profile and tap Subscription Plan to confirm the subscription shows as active. If it does and content is still locked, close HORA fully and reopen it. If the issue continues, contact hello@horastars.com.

Check the internet connection, close HORA fully, and reopen it. If the problem continues, check the App Store or Google Play for any available updates. If it still isn't resolving, contact hello@horastars.com with your device type and a description of what's happening.

On iOS, open the App Store, tap the profile picture, and scroll down to see pending updates. On Android, open Google Play, tap the profile picture, and go to Manage Apps & Device. Enabling automatic updates in device settings means HORA will update in the background whenever a new version is available.

There are two ways to get in touch.

In HORA: go to Profile and tap Support. Fill in your name, email address, and a description of the issue and it goes straight to the team.

By email: write to hello@horastars.com directly. Include your device type, a description of the issue, and screenshots if helpful.