⚻ Free Yod Calculator: Is There a Finger of God in Your Chart?

Umbriel's free Yod calculator checks your birth chart for a Yod, the narrow triangle astrologers call the Finger of God, and shows which planets form it and how close each aspect is to exact.

A Yod is a triangle with a long point and a short base. Two planets sit 60° apart, a sextile, and a third sits 150° from both of them, a quincunx. Drawn on the wheel it is a slim arrow, which is where the other name comes from: the Finger of God, or Hand of God. The planet at the tip is the apex.

The idea behind the reading is that a sextile is an easy, cooperative angle, while a quincunx joins two signs that share neither element nor modality, so the two planets at the base are each asked to adjust to the apex and never quite match it. That is how astrologers describe the apex: the planet the shape keeps pointing at, the one that is asked to do something. It is a way of describing a chart, not a proof of anything.

Two cautions are worth having. The quincunx is the weakest of the aspects used here and has the narrowest orb, so a Yod is only as sound as its two 150° legs. And the word is applied loosely: some astrologers accept orbs of 5° or more, and a Yod found that way is a different claim from one found at 3°. Umbriel states its orbs and keeps to them.

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, 362 have at least one Yod at these orbs: 8.8 per cent.

At the wider orbs of the chart's own aspect lines (opposition 8°, trine and square 7°, sextile 5°, quincunx 3°), 400 would have one: 9.7 per cent instead of 8.8. 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: sextile 4°, and quincunx 3°. 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: Meryl Streep, born 22 June 1949. 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 Yod: Sun, Saturn and Jupiter.

Sun 0°52′ Cancer, Saturn 1°35′ Virgo, Jupiter 0°31′ Aquarius.

• Sun sextile to Saturn0°43′ from exact, limit 4°
• Jupiter quincunx to Sun0°21′ from exact, limit 3°
• Jupiter quincunx to Saturn1°04′ from exact, limit 3°

The apex is Jupiter; the base is Sun and Saturn.

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.