▭ Free Mystic Rectangle Calculator: Is There One in Your Chart?

Umbriel's free Mystic Rectangle calculator checks your birth chart for four planets forming two oppositions joined by trines and sextiles, and shows which planets form it and the orb of each aspect.

A Mystic Rectangle is four planets that form a rectangle on the wheel: two oppositions, with the planets joined along the short sides by sextiles, 60° apart, and along the long sides by trines, 120° apart. Going round the rectangle the angles alternate sextile, trine, sextile, trine, and the two diagonals are the oppositions.

The word mystic is the traditional flourish. The practical reading is balance: the two oppositions pull, and the trines and sextiles give each pull a way through. Astrologers describe it as a steady, workable pattern, with an outlet built into the tension. As with every shape here it describes geometry, and does not decide anything about a life.

It needs four planets in the right places at the same moment, so it is rare, and it is easy to find by accident with wide orbs. At Umbriel's orbs it is the work of a few planets in a few degrees.

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, 28 have at least one Mystic Rectangle at these orbs: 0.7 per cent.

At the wider orbs of the chart's own aspect lines (opposition 8°, trine and square 7°, sextile 5°, quincunx 3°), 76 would have one: 1.8 per cent instead of 0.7. 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: opposition 6°, trine 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: Channing Tatum, born 26 April 1980. 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 Mystic Rectangle: Mercury, Venus, Pluto and Neptune.

Mercury 19°24′ Aries, Venus 20°23′ Gemini, Pluto 19°57′ Libra, Neptune 22°23′ Sagittarius.

• Mercury opposite Pluto0°32′ from exact, limit 6°
• Venus opposite Neptune2°00′ from exact, limit 6°
• Mercury sextile to Venus0°59′ from exact, limit 4°
• Pluto sextile to Neptune2°27′ from exact, limit 4°
• Mercury trine to Neptune2°59′ from exact, limit 6°
• Pluto trine to Venus0°26′ from exact, limit 6°

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.