Free tool · tropical zodiac · ten bodies · checks degrees, not sign labels
Yod calculator
A Yod is three planets in a long, narrow shape: two of them about 60° apart (a sextile), and each of those two about 150° from the same third planet (a quincunx). That third planet is called the apex. This calculator finds the apex and shows all three aspects with their actual degrees, so you can check them yourself. It needs a recorded birth time.
Check three pairs, not the shape of a drawing:
- The two base planets are about 60° apart (sextile).
- The first base planet is about 150° from the apex (quincunx).
- The second base planet is also about 150° from the apex (quincunx).
A Yod isn’t a talent test, a sign that you’re chosen or a fate verdict. It’s a geometric pattern between three planets, and the calculator reports only the degrees.
Example: a fictional chart
This is Lunara’s invented sample chart, not your chart or a real person’s: 1 January 1990, 12:00, London, the same fictional chart as the sample reading.
Between its ten bodies it has 3 sextiles and one quincunx, but no planet is a quincunx to both planets of a sextile pair, so it has no Yod. A Yod needs all three pairs to line up at once.
Check your chart
Your details are used to calculate this chart and aren’t saved or added to the page address. If you choose to buy a reading, the details needed to write it are stored with your order.
What counts as a Yod here
Three different planets where the calculation finds all three aspects: one sextile between the base planets and a quincunx from each of them to the apex. The calculator checks degrees, not signs. Sign matching alone doesn’t decide it: planets in signs that look right can miss by a few degrees, and a planet near the edge of a sign can still count.
Lunara’s chart allows 4.4° either side of 60° for a sextile and 3.2° either side of 150° for a quincunx. When the Sun or Moon is one of the pair, the allowance grows by 1.5° (once, even for the Sun and Moon together). When Uranus, Neptune or Pluto is one of the pair, it shrinks by 0.5° (also once). A pair with a luminary and one of those outer planets gets both adjustments. Each pair is first matched to its nearest aspect angle, so a pair more than 3° short of 150° is read as a 144° biquintile, not a quincunx. The table shows the allowance used for each pair.
These are this site’s settings, not a universal rule. Another calculator may use stricter or wider orbs, or add the nodes, Chiron or the angles, so its answer can differ from this one.
A prompt, with or without one
Astrologers often describe a Yod as two things that fit together while asking a third to adapt. You can use that idea as a reflection whether or not your chart has one. An invented example: “My work routine and plans with friends fit; rest keeps getting squeezed.”
The two things I can keep: ___
The one adjustment I can try this week: ___
Write it wherever you like; this page doesn’t ask for or keep your answers. It’s a reflection, not a reading of your chart or a promise of any result.
Read more: grand trine calculator · major aspects calculator (conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition; it doesn’t list quincunxes) · how to read a birth chart.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the apex of a Yod?
- The apex is the planet that is about 150° from both of the other two. Those two are about 60° from each other and form the base. In the result, the apex is listed first and each quincunx row names it.
- Is a Yod rare?
- This page doesn’t give a prevalence figure, because how often one appears depends on the orbs and points a calculator uses. Rare or common, a Yod doesn’t say anything about how special, lucky or unlucky someone is.
- Why does another site show a different Yod, or none?
- Calculators use different orbs, and some include extra points such as the nodes, Chiron or the Ascendant. A quincunx near the edge of its orb can count on one site and not on another. This page uses Lunara’s settings, listed above, and only the ten bodies. Signs alone don’t decide it either: the degrees do.
- What does it mean if I don’t have one?
- Only that no three of your ten bodies meet all three conditions within these orbs. It doesn’t mean anything is missing from your chart, and the prompt on this page works without a Yod.
- Why does it need a recorded birth time?
- The Moon moves about 12° to 15° a day, so whether it makes a sextile or quincunx can change between morning and evening. Slower planets usually keep the same aspects all day, but this page doesn’t guess: it won’t fill in midnight or noon. The full chart’s houses also depend on the exact time. Without a recorded time, see the guide to a birth chart without a birth time.
Method: Lunara’s central Swiss Ephemeris calculation, tropical zodiac, geocentric. Yods come from the same pattern detection as the free birth chart, limited here to Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto; nodes, Chiron and the chart angles are left out. Each of the three aspects comes from the same aspect calculation. Geometry paraphrased from Cafe Astrology’s aspect patterns page (cafeastrology.com/articles/aspectpatterns.html). Text written with AI assistance. A Yod is a symbolic pattern in astrology, not a prediction, diagnosis or measure of how your life will go.