◇ Free Kite Pattern Calculator: Is There a Kite in Your Chart?

Umbriel's free Kite calculator checks your birth chart for a Grand Trine with a fourth planet opposite one corner, and shows the head, the tail and every orb.

A Kite is a Grand Trine with a tail. Take three planets 120° apart, then add a fourth planet opposite one of them, 180° away and so 60°, a sextile, from each of the other two. The fourth planet is the tail, the corner it faces is the head, and the other two are the wings. Joined up, the four make the diamond of a kite.

The idea is that the tail gives a Grand Trine somewhere to go. The opposition to the head supplies tension, and the two sextiles let the tail feed both wings, so the easy circuit of the trine gets a direction and a task. It is read as talent with a focus, which is why some astrologers prefer a Kite to a bare Grand Trine.

Umbriel reports a Kite instead of the Grand Trine inside it, never both. If a Grand Trine has two possible tails you will see two Kites that share their trine planets.

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, 60 have at least one Kite at these orbs: 1.5 per cent.

At the wider orbs of the chart's own aspect lines (opposition 8°, trine and square 7°, sextile 5°, quincunx 3°), 103 would have one: 2.5 per cent instead of 1.5. 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.

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: trine 6°, opposition 6°, and sextile 4°. 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.

A real chart: Benicio del Toro, born 19 February 1967. The page in Famous charts casts the chart for noon, because the records those pages come from hold no birth time, and this example does the same and leaves the Moon out. Cast that way, the nine planets from the Sun to Pluto make a Kite: Venus, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus.

Venus 24°44′ Pisces, Jupiter 25°49′ Cancer, Neptune 24°21′ Scorpio, Uranus 23°19′ Virgo.

• Venus trine to Jupiter1°05′ from exact, limit 6°
• Jupiter trine to Neptune1°29′ from exact, limit 6°
• Venus trine to Neptune0°23′ from exact, limit 6°
• Uranus opposite Venus1°26′ from exact, limit 6°
• Uranus sextile to Jupiter2°31′ from exact, limit 4°
• Uranus sextile to Neptune1°02′ from exact, limit 4°

The tail is Uranus, opposite Venus at the head; the wings are Jupiter and Neptune.

These orbs are measured at noon. The Sun moves about a degree a day, and Mercury, Venus and Mars can move more, so a figure that includes one of them can shift by half a degree or more with the real hour of birth. With the Moon left out this is the chart of nine planets, and the figure is the same whatever the hour, so it is as firm as an example can be without a birth time.