✶ Free Grand Sextile Calculator: Is There a Star in Your Chart?

Umbriel's free Grand Sextile calculator checks your birth chart for six planets spaced 60° apart round the whole circle, the six-pointed star, and says plainly when there is none.

A Grand Sextile, also called the Star of David, is six planets spaced about 60° apart round the whole zodiac. Each neighbouring pair is a sextile, each planet is trine to two others and opposite one more. Joined up it is a six-pointed star: two Grand Trines laid over each other, with three oppositions through the middle.

It is an extreme shape. It needs six of the ten planets to fall almost evenly round the circle, and the Sun, Mercury and Venus can never be far enough apart to supply three of the six on their own. We looked for one: every day at 12:00 UT from 1 January 1700 to 31 December 2099 (146,097 days, the ten planets, the Moon at noon), and not a single day makes a Grand Sextile at these orbs.

Astrologers who report a Grand Sextile in a chart have usually widened the orbs to 8° or 10°, which finds more of them and is a different claim. Umbriel keeps the same orbs as every other figure here, so most people will see a plain none, and that is the true answer for nearly every chart.

Each aspect is judged on its own orb. Nothing is added up, the Sun and Moon get no extra orb, and the limits are the same for every planet. Every limit is at or below the orb the chart's own aspect lines use, so each aspect in a figure is also a line on your chart. Umbriel never widens an orb to produce a result. If nothing fits, the answer is none, and a figure that is only just outside an orb is shown on its own, marked as not counted.

In Umbriel's collection of 4,135 famous charts (born 1600 to 2014), cast for noon on the birth date with the Sun to Pluto and the Moon left out, because the collection holds no birth times, none has a Grand Sextile at these orbs.

At the wider orbs of the chart's own aspect lines (opposition 8°, trine and square 7°, sextile 5°, quincunx 3°), 0 would have one: 0 per cent instead of 0. The orb choice alone moves the answer, which is why this page prints its own.

That is a count of famous people, not of births: the collection leans towards the twentieth century, and because Jupiter to Pluto move slowly, a whole birth cohort can share a figure made of them. A fair sample of everyone would differ.

In the scan of every day at 12:00 UT from 1 January 1700 to 31 December 2099 (146,097 days, the ten planets, the Moon at noon), no day makes one. A daily grid at noon can miss a window of a few hours, so that is what was measured, not a promise that it never happens.

Umbriel casts the ten planets, Sun to Pluto, for the moment of birth with the same engine as the rest of the app, then tests every combination of planets against the shape. A figure counts only if every aspect in it is inside its own orb: sextile 4°, trine 6°, and opposition 6°. Each aspect is judged on its own orb. Nothing is added up, the Sun and Moon get no extra orb, and the limits are the same for every planet. Every limit is at or below the orb the chart's own aspect lines use, so each aspect in a figure is also a line on your chart.

The Ascendant and Midheaven are left out because they need an exact birth time and place; the lunar nodes, Chiron and the asteroids are left out to keep one clear rule. Adding any of them would find more patterns, and every pattern found that way depends on a choice that is not made here. Umbriel never widens an orb to produce a result. If nothing fits, the answer is none, and a figure that is only just outside an orb is shown on its own, marked as not counted.

The place of birth does not matter for this, because the planets stood at the same longitudes wherever you were born. What turns your clock time into a moment is the time zone, which is why the form asks for a UTC offset and not a city. Use the offset that was in force on the birth date, daylight saving included. The place of birth does not change where the planets were, so Umbriel asks for the time zone, not the town.

With no birth time the Moon is the first thing to move. The Moon travels about 13° a day, so with no birth time it could have stood anywhere in a span of about 26°, and any figure that includes it depends on the hour. The Ascendant and Midheaven need an exact time and place, so Umbriel does not use them here at all.

The closest the sky came: 29 July 2013 at 12:00 UT. At the orbs on this page it is not a Grand Sextile (the search found none). Allow every orb to widen to opposition 7°, trine 7° and sextile 5° and six planets fall into the star:

Moon 3°48′ Taurus, Jupiter 7°27′ Cancer, Venus 8°23′ Virgo, Saturn 5°11′ Scorpio, Pluto 9°37′ Capricorn, Neptune 4°43′ Pisces.

• Moon sextile to Jupiter3°39′ from exact, limit 5°
• Moon trine to Venus4°35′ from exact, limit 7°
• Moon opposite Saturn1°23′ from exact, limit 7°
• Jupiter sextile to Venus0°55′ from exact, limit 5°
• Jupiter trine to Saturn2°16′ from exact, limit 7°
• Jupiter opposite Pluto2°10′ from exact, limit 7°
• Venus sextile to Saturn3°11′ from exact, limit 5°
• Venus trine to Pluto1°14′ from exact, limit 7°
• Venus opposite Neptune3°40′ from exact, limit 7°
• Saturn sextile to Pluto4°25′ from exact, limit 5°
• Saturn trine to Neptune0°29′ from exact, limit 7°
• Pluto sextile to Neptune4°54′ from exact, limit 5°
• Pluto trine to Moon5°49′ from exact, limit 7°
• Neptune sextile to Moon0°55′ from exact, limit 5°
• Neptune trine to Jupiter2°45′ from exact, limit 7°

That is what a loose Grand Sextile looks like, and why Umbriel does not count it: 2 of its 15 aspects fall outside this page's limits, the widest being Pluto sextile to Neptune, 4°54′ from exact against a limit of 4°. It is shown here as an honest near miss, not a pattern.