⇩ Free Descendant Sign Calculator
Umbriel's free Descendant calculator finds your Descendant, the cusp of your seventh house, with its sign and exact degree, from your birth date, exact time and place.
Free, no account, no email. Runs in your browser.
14160+ people cast their chart here in the last 30 days.
No account, no email. The Descendant is the point exactly opposite your Ascendant, the degree that was setting in the west as you were born, so it needs the time and the place, and without them Umbriel says so rather than guessing.
- What you'll needBirth date, exact time and place
- What you getYour Descendant sign and exact degree, the planet that rules it and where that planet sits, any planet on the Descendant, and the aspects to it
- CostFree, no account required
What the Descendant is
Your Descendant is the degree of the zodiac that was setting on the western horizon at the moment and place of your birth. It is the cusp of your seventh house, and it sits exactly opposite your Ascendant: if you rise in Aries, your Descendant is in Libra, and so on round the wheel, always the sign across from your rising sign, at the same degree. Traditional astrology reads it for the other person: partnership, marriage, the open opponent, the kind of people you are drawn to meet halfway and the qualities you look for in them rather than in yourself.
Deeper.a cup-of-tea read
Because it is a point on the horizon rather than a planet, the Descendant moves fast: the whole zodiac passes through it once a day, so it changes sign about every two hours and changes degree about every four minutes. That is why it needs your exact birth time and your birthplace. A birth time off by twenty minutes moves the Descendant by about five degrees; a time that is only a guess can put it in the wrong sign altogether. Umbriel will not approximate it. Without a time it gives no Descendant, and tells you so.
What makes the Descendant more than a mirror of the Ascendant is what sits around it. The planet that rules the Descendant sign, and where that ruler falls in your chart, is traditionally read as the shape your partnerships take. A planet within a few degrees of the Descendant is read as the figure you keep meeting in others. And in every quadrant house system the Descendant is the seventh house cusp exactly; in whole-sign houses the seventh house begins at 0° of the sign opposite your rising sign, and the Descendant degree sits somewhere inside it, still worth knowing to the minute.
How Umbriel computes it
Deeper.a cup-of-tea read
Your Descendant is the ecliptic degree on the western horizon at your birth moment, seen from your birthplace. Umbriel first turns your birth time into UT through the IANA time-zone database, works out the local sidereal time from that and your longitude, and from the sidereal time, your latitude and the obliquity of the ecliptic computes the Ascendant, the degree rising in the east. The Descendant is that degree plus 180°, read as a sign (the longitude divided by 30) and a degree (the remainder). It depends on all three of date, time and place, which is why Umbriel asks for the time rather than assuming noon: an assumed time gives an exact-looking answer that is simply wrong. The ruler of the Descendant sign is taken from the traditional rulerships, its position from the chart, and any planet within a few degrees of the Descendant is named, along with every aspect to the point and its exact orb.
What's in your result
Deeper.a cup-of-tea read
- Sign and exact degreeTo the degree and minute. The Descendant moves a degree every four minutes, so the minute of birth matters.
- The ruler of the DescendantWhich planet rules the sign on your seventh house cusp, and where that planet sits in your chart, the placement traditional astrology reads for the shape of your partnerships.
- Planets on the DescendantAny planet within a few degrees of the point, traditionally read as the figure you keep meeting in others.
- Every aspect to itEach contact with its exact orb, and whether it was applying or separating.
- The Ascendant beside itYour rising sign and degree, since the two are one axis and are read together: who you present and who you look for.
- How sure it isIf your birth time came with a doubt, how far the Descendant could move within that window, and whether it could cross into the next sign.
Don’t know your birth time?
Deeper.a cup-of-tea read
Know it roughly? Give the time and say where it came from (a certificate, a parent’s memory, or something rough like “early morning”), and your chart tells you what could change within that window.
Don’t know it at all? Umbriel does not fill the gap with a guess. Tick “I don’t know the time at all” and it checks your whole birthday, hour by hour, then tells you two things: which placements are the same whatever time you were born, as exact as they would be if you knew the minute, and which are down to two signs, both named, so you know what a parent’s memory would settle.
The Ascendant, the Midheaven and the houses are left out rather than approximated. A birth time is the one thing they cannot be computed without, and an approximate Rising sign that looks exact is worse than no Rising sign at all.
Common questions
Can I find my Descendant without a birth time?
No, and Umbriel will not pretend otherwise. The Descendant moves through the whole zodiac every day, so it needs the time and the place. If you know the time roughly, give it and say how rough it is, and Umbriel shows how far the Descendant could move within that window. If you do not know it at all, it leaves the Descendant out rather than guessing.
What does the Descendant mean?
It is traditionally read for the other person: partnership, marriage, the open opponent, and the qualities you look for in people you meet halfway. Where the Ascendant is read as how you come across, the Descendant is read as who you draw in. Best held as a prompt to think with, not a rule about you.
Is the Descendant always opposite the Ascendant?
Yes, exactly. It is the same axis seen from the other end: the Ascendant is the degree rising in the east and the Descendant is the degree setting in the west, 180° apart. So your Descendant sign is always the sign opposite your rising sign, at the same degree.
Is the Descendant the same as the seventh house cusp?
In every quadrant house system (Placidus, Koch, Regiomontanus, Porphyry, Campanus and the rest) yes, exactly. In whole-sign houses the seventh house is the whole sign opposite your rising sign, beginning at 0°, and the Descendant degree sits somewhere inside it. In equal houses the seventh cusp is the Ascendant degree plus 180°, which is the Descendant again.
Is this Descendant calculator free?
Yes: sign, degree, ruler, planets on the point and aspects, with no account and no email, calculated in your own browser.
What if I don’t know my birth time?
Umbriel checks your whole birthday hour by hour and separates what is certain from what is not. Placements that are the same whatever time you were born are shown as exact. Placements that changed sign during the day are shown as two named signs, so you know what a parent's memory would settle. The Ascendant, the Descendant, the Midheaven and the houses are left out rather than approximated. They cannot be computed without a time, and an approximate angle that looks exact is worse than none.
Do I need an account or an email address?
No. There is no sign-up, no email capture and no free trial. Enter your details and the result is drawn in your own browser.
Go deeper
Every one of these is a page in its own right, written out one at a time.
Related free tools
Next doorMidheaven CalculatorUmbriel's free Midheaven calculator finds your MC, sign and exact degree, from your birth date, time and place.Prints in the head of this page, all public domain except where stated: The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis, Peter Paul Rubens, 1636, Art Institute of Chicago; Urania's Mirror, Sidney Hall, 1825, Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons; armillary sphere, printer's tailpiece, 1750, Bibliothèque nationale de France. Ground: anonymous lace-paper valentine, mid 19th century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0).
Further down the page: James Thornhill, Neptune and Amphitrite Flanked by Jupiter and Juno, Art Institute of Chicago. The next-door print comes from that page's own head. The pointing hand: a pointing hand, after a medieval manuscript margin (line art by Jerimee).
Umbriel offers every system here as a set of prompts to think with, never as a statement of fact about who you are. Take what's useful, leave the rest.