How do I know if my chart is a day chart or a night chart?

Look at the Sun. If it is above the horizon — in the seventh through twelfth whole-sign places, or more precisely above the Ascendant–Descendant line by degree — the chart is a day chart. If the Sun is below the horizon the chart is a night chart. Births close to sunrise or sunset need an exact birth time.

Which planets are diurnal and which are nocturnal?

The Sun, Jupiter and Saturn are diurnal; the Moon, Venus and Mars are nocturnal. Mercury is diurnal when it rises before the Sun and nocturnal when it sets after it.

What is the sect light?

The luminary that rules the chart's sect: the Sun in a day chart, the Moon in a night chart. Many techniques are counted from it, including the Lot of Fortune and the triplicity lords.

Is Saturn worse in a day chart or a night chart?

In a night chart. Saturn belongs to the day sect, so in a night chart it is the malefic contrary to sect and its hard aspects are the most damaging in the chart. By day Saturn is more restrained and Mars becomes the planet to watch.

Sect: day charts and night charts

The first thing a Hellenistic astrologer settles about a chart, before reading a single planet.

What sect is

Every birth chart is a day chart or a night chart. If the Sun was above the horizon at the moment of birth the chart is diurnal; if it was below, nocturnal. That single fact sorts the seven planets into two teams — the ancient word is hairesis, a sect or party — and decides which of them are working with the chart and which against it.

The sect of the day: the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn.
The sect of the night: the Moon, Venus and Mars.
Mercury joins whichever side it is on: rising before the Sun as a morning star it is diurnal, setting after the Sun as an evening star it is nocturnal.

The luminary of the chart's sect is its sect light — the Sun by day, the Moon by night — and much of the tradition is reckoned from it: the Lot of Fortune, the triplicity lords, the order of the decennials.

Why it matters

The two benefics and the two malefics do not act alike in every chart. Jupiter is the benefic of the day and Venus the benefic of the night; Saturn is the malefic of the day and Mars the malefic of the night. A planet in a chart of its own sect is steadier and more generous; a planet in a chart of the contrary sect is harsher. So in a day chart Mars is the planet to watch, and in a night chart Saturn is. The same square from Saturn is one thing in a night chart and a much milder thing by day.

Ptolemy and Valens go further and give each planet three conditions in which it rejoices:

It belongs to the sect of the chart (Jupiter in a day chart, Venus in a night chart).
It stands on the same side of the horizon as its own light — diurnal planets above the horizon by day and below it by night; nocturnal planets the reverse.
It is in a sign of its own gender — the masculine (fire and air) signs for the diurnal planets, the feminine (earth and water) signs for the nocturnal.

A planet that meets all three is as much at home as it can be; one that fails all three is out of sect in every way, and the reading says so.

How Occult Astrology shows it

The chart page marks the chart day or night at the top, colours each planet in or out of sect, and lists the three conditions for every planet in the Dignities & sect section. The reading opens with the sect light and the rising sign, because that is where every reading in the tradition begins.

Questions

How do I know if my chart is a day chart or a night chart?: Look at the Sun. If it is above the horizon — in the seventh through twelfth whole-sign places, or more precisely above the Ascendant–Descendant line by degree — the chart is a day chart. If the Sun is below the horizon the chart is a night chart. Births close to sunrise or sunset need an exact birth time.
Which planets are diurnal and which are nocturnal?: The Sun, Jupiter and Saturn are diurnal; the Moon, Venus and Mars are nocturnal. Mercury is diurnal when it rises before the Sun and nocturnal when it sets after it.
What is the sect light?: The luminary that rules the chart's sect: the Sun in a day chart, the Moon in a night chart. Many techniques are counted from it, including the Lot of Fortune and the triplicity lords.
Is Saturn worse in a day chart or a night chart?: In a night chart. Saturn belongs to the day sect, so in a night chart it is the malefic contrary to sect and its hard aspects are the most damaging in the chart. By day Saturn is more restrained and Mars becomes the planet to watch.

Occult Astrology reads a birth chart the way the Greek-language astrologers of antiquity did. Cast a chart and compare it with a Vedic and a modern reading of the same sky.

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