Free Lot of Spirit calculator
Daemon Calculator: Find Your Daimon
Enter your birth date, time and place to find your daemon: the Lot of Spirit, the point the Hellenistic astrologers read for your mind, your intentions and the work you choose. You get its sign and house, the planet that rules it and how strong that planet is in your chart, plus your Lot of Fortune.
Roman OleksandrHellenistic astrologer · free tool · checked against the Swiss Ephemeris
How does the daemon calculator work?
The calculator finds the Sun, the Moon and your rising degree for the moment and place you were born, then counts the distance from the Moon to the Sun and measures it out from your rising degree. That is the recipe Paulus Alexandrinus gives for day births; for night births it is reversed, from the Sun to the Moon. Where the count stops is your daemon.
It then finds the planet that rules your daemon's sign, works out where that planet sits in your chart and judges it the way the old texts did: by its sign, its house, whether it can see the daemon and whether it belongs to your sect. It does the same count the other way round for your Lot of Fortune.
The positions come from the open-source Astronomy Engine library, running in your browser. Tested against the Swiss Ephemeris on charts from 1953 to 2024, both hemispheres, day and night, the results agree to within a hundredth of a degree. Houses are counted in whole signs from your rising sign, as the Hellenistic sources did.
How do you calculate the Lot of Spirit by hand?
You need three positions from any birth chart: the Ascendant, the Sun and the Moon.
Night birth: Spirit = Ascendant + Moon − Sun
The Lot of Fortune is the same sum the other way round.
- Turn each position into degrees of the zodiac: Aries starts at 0, Taurus at 30, Gemini at 60, and so on to Pisces at 330.
- Check day or night. Find your Descendant, the degree opposite your Ascendant. If the Sun lies between the Descendant and the Ascendant on the Midheaven side, it was above the horizon: a day birth. Otherwise it is a night birth. In whole-sign houses that is usually the 7th to the 12th house, but not always, so go by the horizon.
- Add and subtract. If the result is above 360, take 360 away; if it is below zero, add 360.
- Turn the number back into a sign and degree, and count the house from your rising sign.
| Point | Position | Degrees |
|---|---|---|
| Ascendant | 10° Libra | 190 |
| Sun | 25° Gemini | 85 |
| Moon | 10° Aquarius | 310 |
The Descendant is 10° Aries. The Sun at 25° Gemini lies between it and the Ascendant on the Midheaven side, so it was above the horizon: a day birth. Spirit = 190 + 85 − 310 = −35. Add 360 and you get 325, which is 25° Aquarius, the 5th house. Fortune = 190 + 310 − 85 = 415. Take away 360 and you get 55, which is 25° Taurus, the 8th house.
That is the picture behind the formula. By day, measure from the Moon forward to the Sun and lay the same distance out from the Ascendant. By night, measure from the Sun forward to the Moon instead.
Some programs and many modern books use the day formula for everyone, as Ptolemy did for Fortune. Valens, Paulus and Firmicus reversed it for night births, and so does this calculator. If another calculator gives you a different daemon and you were born at night, that is usually why.
How do you find your daimon? Paulus's own example
To find your daimon you need three positions from your birth chart: the Ascendant, the Sun and the Moon. Decide whether you were born by day or by night, measure the distance between the two lights and lay it out from the Ascendant. Paulus Alexandrinus worked one through himself around 378 CE, and his numbers still check out.
- Take the three positions. Paulus's example is a day birth with the Sun at 29° Pisces, the Moon at 29° Aquarius and the Ascendant at 11° Leo.
- Check the Sun against the horizon. The Descendant is 11° Aquarius, opposite the Ascendant. The Sun at 29° Pisces lies past it on the Midheaven side, so it was above the horizon. Pisces is the 8th sign from Leo: in whole-sign houses this Sun sits in the 8th and is still up, which is why the rule is the horizon and not the house.
- Count from the Moon to the Sun. By day the daimon runs from the Moon to the Sun. From 29° Aquarius to 29° Pisces is 30 degrees.
- Lay it out from the Ascendant. Paulus adds the 11 degrees of the Ascendant to make 41 and counts that on from the start of Leo: "it left off at 11 degrees of Virgo. This is the Lot of Spirit."
- Read the sign, the house and the ruler. 11° Virgo is the 2nd sign from Leo, the place of livelihood, and its ruler is Mercury. The next step, which Paulus leaves to the reader, is to find Mercury in the chart and judge it.
The same chart puts the Lot of Fortune at 11° Cancer, the 12th sign from the Ascendant, the place the old texts call the Bad Daimon. Put 11° Leo, 29° Pisces and 29° Aquarius into the day formula above and you get both lots to the degree (Introductory Matters, ch. 23, pp. 45 to 46).
What is the daemon (daimon) in astrology?
The daemon is the Lot of Spirit, a calculated point the Hellenistic astrologers read for the mind: intentions, character and the work a person chooses. In Greek a daimōn was a guiding spirit, the inner companion that shapes a life. Heraclitus put it in one line: "A man's character is his daemon."
The idea is older than astrology. In the Myth of Er at the end of Plato's Republic, every soul chooses its life and its daimon before birth, and the daimon guards it and sees that life through. When the astrologers named a point after the daimon, they were pointing at that guiding intelligence in the chart.
Paulus Alexandrinus calls Spirit "lord of soul, temper, mindfulness, and every power," while its twin, the Lot of Fortune, covers the body and circumstance. Vettius Valens went further: "predictions about specific activities are to be derived from Daimon and its houseruler." So when the old texts asked what someone would do with their life, they looked here.
What does daimon mean? From Socrates to the astrologers
A daimon, in Greek, is a guiding power between the gods and a person that shapes how a life goes. Socrates said a divine sign had spoken to him since childhood. The astrologers took the word for two things in the chart: a calculated point, the Lot of the Daimon, and a pair of places, the Good Daimon and the Bad Daimon.
Socrates spoke of a daimonion, a divine sign: a voice that had come to him since childhood, stopping him when he was about to go wrong and never pushing him forward (Plato, Apology 31c to d). Agrippa, writing in the sixteenth century, still held him up as the man who honoured his daemon "in honesty, and sanctity" (Three Books of Occult Philosophy III.22, English edition of 1651).
Agrippa gives every person three good daemons. One is holy and comes from God. One belongs to your profession: the stars give it, and it changes when your work changes. The third is the daemon of the nativity, "which is called the Genius", and it comes "from the circuits of the Stars, which were powerfull in his nativity". His advice could stand at the top of this page: "know thy good Genius". When your work agrees with it, he says, life is "more peaceable, happy, and prosperous"; when it goes against it, life is "laborious".
The Renaissance kept the idea alive. Marsilio Ficino wrote to a friend that every person has at birth "one certain daemon, the guardian of his life, assigned by his own personal star" (quoted in Benson Bobrick, The Fated Sky, Part Two).
The astrologers' daimon is more practical. Vettius Valens tied it to the Sun, "the cosmic mind and divinity" that "arouses men's souls to action", and used it to time "employment or rank" (Anthology IV.4, pp. 71 to 72). He calls it Intelligence and the Intellectual Place (Anthology II, p. 28; V.10, p. 107). Firmicus calls it "the essence of the soul" and reads from it "professions and material goods" (Mathesis IV.18, p. 137). So in your chart the daimon is less a spirit that visits you than the place that shows what your mind is set on and the work it chooses.
Lot of Spirit, Lot of the Daimon, daemon: are they the same?
Yes: one point under several names, calculated the same way in Paulus and Valens. The Greek astrologers called it the lot of the daimon. Translators turn daimōn into Spirit, keep it as Daimon, or use the Latin spelling daemon, so the name you meet depends partly on the translation and partly on the tradition.
| Author | Name used | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Dorotheus of Sidon, 1st century (Arabic version, tr. Benjamin Dykes) | Lot of Religion | Read with Fortune for a child's upbringing. Dykes notes it is "the Lot of Spirit or Daimon" (Carmen I.9, p. 72). |
| Vettius Valens, 2nd century (tr. Mark Riley) | Daimon, Lot of Daimon | "Mental activity", in his list of the places; he also calls it Intelligence (Anthology II, pp. 28 and 30). |
| Paulus Alexandrinus, around 378 (tr. Robert Schmidt) | Lot of Spirit | "Lord of soul, temper, mindfulness, and every power" (Introductory Matters, ch. 23, p. 44). |
| Firmicus Maternus, 4th century (tr. Jean Rhys Bram) | Part of the Daemon | "The essence of the soul". Abram, he says, called it the Part of the Sun (Mathesis IV.18, p. 137). |
Ptolemy is missing from the table because he uses only one lot, Fortune, as S. J. Tester points out (A History of Western Astrology, p. 94). And if you read Firmicus in Bram's translation, the day count for the Daemon is printed from the Sun to the Moon, the same as for Fortune. Bram's own note says the text is confused at this point and that Paulus counts the other way (note 66 to Mathesis IV.18). This calculator follows Paulus.
The same word also names two places, which adds to the confusion. The 11th sign from the Ascendant is the Good Daimon and the 12th is the Bad Daimon, and Tester notes that lots and places may sometimes have been confused because they shared names like Daimon (p. 29). Your daimon, the lot, can fall in any house.
What does my daemon's sign mean?
The sign of your daemon describes the character of your intentions: how your mind moves, what it reaches for and the kind of work it chooses. Read it with the planet that rules the sign, which often says even more.
Lot of Spirit (Daimon) in Aries
A mind that starts things. Aries is a cardinal fire sign ruled by Mars, so your intentions move fast and want a first step, not a plan. You choose work where you can compete, build or break new ground. The Sun is exalted here, which gives the will real force. The risk is starting more than you finish.
Lot of Spirit (Daimon) in Taurus
A mind that wants something to show for it. Taurus is a fixed earth sign ruled by Venus, so your intentions settle slowly and then hold. You choose work you can touch, keep and improve: money, land, food, craft, beautiful things. Patience is the gift; the risk is staying with a plan long after it stopped feeding you.
Lot of Spirit (Daimon) in Gemini
A mind that needs two of everything. Gemini is a mutable air sign ruled by Mercury, so your intentions run on words, ideas and exchange. You choose work that keeps you learning, talking, writing or trading. You can hold several directions at once; the risk is spreading the will too thin.
Lot of Spirit (Daimon) in Cancer
A mind led by what it protects. Cancer is a cardinal water sign ruled by the Moon, so your intentions start from feeling and from the people you count as yours. You choose work that feeds, houses or looks after someone, or that carries a public mood. Your will rises and falls in tides, and that is how it works, not a flaw.
Lot of Spirit (Daimon) in Leo
A mind that wants to be seen doing what it does. Leo is a fixed fire sign ruled by the Sun, the planet the daemon belongs to, so here the daemon sits at home in its own light. You choose work with your name on it: leading, performing, creating, holding authority. Pride drives you and can also blind you.
Lot of Spirit (Daimon) in Virgo
A mind that improves things. Virgo is a mutable earth sign ruled by Mercury, which is also exalted here, so your intentions work through detail, analysis and skill. You choose work where precision matters: editing, healing, accounting, crafting, fixing systems. The gift is a useful mind; the risk is never calling the work finished.
Lot of Spirit (Daimon) in Libra
A mind that weighs. Libra is a cardinal air sign ruled by Venus, so your intentions form in relation to other people, to fairness and to balance. You choose work that negotiates, designs, judges or brings people together. Saturn is exalted here, which gives a sense of justice and the patience for agreements. Your will often works best through partnership.
Lot of Spirit (Daimon) in Scorpio
A mind that goes underneath. Scorpio is a fixed water sign ruled by Mars, so your intentions are intense, private and hard to shake once set. You choose work that deals with what others avoid: research, crisis, other people's money, medicine, secrets. The gift is depth and nerve; the risk is holding on too tightly.
Lot of Spirit (Daimon) in Sagittarius
A mind that aims far. Sagittarius is a mutable fire sign ruled by Jupiter, so your intentions are tied to meaning, belief and the bigger picture. You choose work that teaches, travels, publishes or explores. The gift is vision; the risk is the arrow that never lands because a better target appeared.
Lot of Spirit (Daimon) in Capricorn
A mind built for the long climb. Capricorn is a cardinal earth sign ruled by Saturn, with Mars exalted here, so your intentions are practical, ambitious and measured in years. You choose work with structure and responsibility: management, building, institutions, anything meant to last. It often starts slow and hard and gets better with age.
Lot of Spirit (Daimon) in Aquarius
A mind that stands slightly outside. Aquarius is a fixed air sign ruled by Saturn, so your intentions are principled, systematic and often ahead of the people around you. You choose work with groups, systems, science, causes or technology. The gift is independent thought; the risk is a fixed idea that refuses to bend.
Lot of Spirit (Daimon) in Pisces
A mind that dissolves borders. Pisces is a mutable water sign ruled by Jupiter, with Venus exalted here, so your intentions are intuitive, devoted and moved by what others feel. You choose work in care, faith, art, music, the sea or the hidden side of life. The gift is compassion and imagination; the risk is losing your direction in someone else's.
What does the house of my daemon mean?
The house of your daemon shows where your mind naturally goes: the part of life your intentions keep returning to and where your choices carry the most weight. Read it together with the sign it is in and the planet that rules that sign.
- Lot of Spirit in the 1st house. Your mind is set on your own life: the body you live in, how you carry yourself, the direction you choose. You lead with who you are. Work it points to: work that carries your own name and face.
- Lot of Spirit in the 2nd house. Your mind turns to means: earning, building something that keeps you, and what you value enough to hold on to. Work it points to: work that earns directly: business, finance, trade, anything you build up and keep.
- Lot of Spirit in the 3rd house. Your mind works through words and close ties: study, writing, siblings, neighbours, short journeys. The old texts call this the house of the Goddess, the place of private devotion. Work it points to: writing, teaching, media, local work, anything that carries a message.
- Lot of Spirit in the 4th house. Your mind turns homeward: family, parents, land, roots, the foundations under everything else. Work it points to: property, land, family business, home-based work, history and the past.
- Lot of Spirit in the 5th house. Your mind is drawn to joy and making: children, pleasure, the things you create for love. The old texts call this house Good Fortune. Work it points to: creative work, children, entertainment, anything made for pleasure.
- Lot of Spirit in the 6th house. Your mind is set on work done day by day: craft, service, health, the routines that keep a life running. Work it points to: service, health, craft, employment, solving daily problems for others.
- Lot of Spirit in the 7th house. Your mind is set on other people: partners, marriage, agreements, the person across the table. Work it points to: partnership, clients, counselling, contracts, dealing with the public.
- Lot of Spirit in the 8th house. Your mind goes to the deep end: shared money, inheritance, crises, and what remains when something ends. Work it points to: other people's money, insurance, research, crisis work, endings.
- Lot of Spirit in the 9th house. Your mind goes far: teachers, faith, philosophy, study, travel and foreign places. The old texts call this the house of the God. Work it points to: teaching, law, religion, publishing, travel, work abroad.
- Lot of Spirit in the 10th house. Your mind is set on action in the world: career, reputation, the work you are known for. Work it points to: public career, management, reputation, the role you are known for.
- Lot of Spirit in the 11th house. Your mind goes to friends and hopes: allies, groups, benefactors, the future you are working toward. The old texts call this house Good Spirit. Work it points to: networks, groups, causes, patrons, work done with allies.
- Lot of Spirit in the 12th house. Your mind turns inward: solitude, hidden work, what you carry privately, and the people you help or struggle with out of view. Work it points to: behind-the-scenes work, institutions, retreats, private practice.
A daemon in the 1st, 4th, 7th or 10th sits on an angle, one of the four pivots of the chart, where the old astrologers read a lot as most active.
What does the ruler of my daemon show?
Every sign has a planet that rules it, and that planet manages the affairs of anything placed in the sign. Valens read a person's work from the daemon together with its ruler, so the ruler often says more than the daemon's sign. Four things decide how well it can do the job:
- Its sign. In its own sign or its exaltation it is strong. In its detriment or fall it has to improvise.
- Its house. On an angle (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th) it is most active. In the 6th, 8th or 12th, the houses that cannot see your rising sign, it works out of view or against resistance.
- Whether it sees the daemon. A ruler that aspects the daemon's sign can manage it directly. One in aversion runs things from another room.
- Sect. In a day chart Jupiter and Saturn behave better; in a night chart Venus and Mars do.
The calculator checks all four and writes them up under your result.
The Sun as ruler Rules Leo
With the Sun ruling your daemon, your mind gets its way by being visible. It wants authority, recognition and a role others look to: leadership, public office, performing, anything that puts you at the centre. Fathers and figures of authority tend to play a part in the story.
The Moon as ruler Rules Cancer
With the Moon ruling your daemon, your mind gets its way through care and timing. It reads moods, follows needs and changes with them: work with the public, families, food, homes, travel, anything that runs in cycles. Mothers and the people you look after tend to shape the story.
Mercury as ruler Rules Gemini and Virgo
With Mercury ruling your daemon, your mind gets its way through skill with words and numbers. It learns, explains, calculates, writes and trades: teaching, writing, accounting, commerce, code, any craft that needs a quick hand and a quick head.
Venus as ruler Rules Taurus and Libra
With Venus ruling your daemon, your mind gets its way through pleasure, beauty and relationship. It persuades rather than pushes: art, design, music, fashion, hospitality, diplomacy, anything that makes life sweeter or brings people together.
Mars as ruler Rules Aries and Scorpio
With Mars ruling your daemon, your mind gets its way through effort and nerve. It cuts, competes, builds and takes risks: sport, surgery, engineering, the military, starting a business, any work that needs fire and a sharp edge.
Jupiter as ruler Rules Sagittarius and Pisces
With Jupiter ruling your daemon, your mind gets its way through wisdom and trust. It teaches, advises, judges and expands: law, education, religion, publishing, consulting, any role where people come to you for good counsel.
Saturn as ruler Rules Capricorn and Aquarius
With Saturn ruling your daemon, your mind gets its way slowly, through structure and endurance. It builds, manages, conserves and takes responsibility: institutions, property, science, history, anything that has to last. Results come late and stay.
What is the Good Daimon? The 11th and 12th places
The Good Daimon, Agathos Daimon in Greek, is the old name for the 11th sign from your Ascendant, where Jupiter rejoices, and the Bad Daimon, or Kakos Daimon, is the 12th, where Saturn rejoices. They are places in the chart, not the lot: find yours, with the planets in each place read from Paulus and Valens, in the Good Daimon calculator. What Valens says when the ruler of your daimon falls in the Bad Daimon is in Good Daimon, Bad Daimon, the second post in my daemon series.
What is the difference between the daemon and the Lot of Fortune?
The daemon and the Lot of Fortune, also called the Part of Fortune, are mirror images: the same three ingredients, counted in opposite directions. Fortune belongs to the Moon and describes the body, money and what happens to you. The daemon belongs to the Sun and describes the mind, the will and what you set out to do. The calculator shows both and how they relate.
How your daemon and Fortune relate
- Same sign: what you set out to do and what life brings you point the same way. It happens near a New or Full Moon.
- Opposite signs: what you want and what happens to you pull in opposite directions. It happens near a half Moon.
- Trine or sextile: your choices and your circumstances cooperate.
- Square: they push against each other, which can become an engine.
- No aspect: they run on separate tracks, and joining them is part of the work.
The Lot of Fortune in each house
- Fortune in the 1st house. Your circumstances turn on you: your body and your own initiative are where your luck starts.
- Fortune in the 2nd house. Your fortune runs through money and possessions: livelihood comes through what you earn and keep.
- Fortune in the 3rd house. Your fortune runs through siblings, neighbours, messages and short journeys: luck travels close to home.
- Fortune in the 4th house. Your fortune runs through home, family and land: what you inherit and where you live shape your life.
- Fortune in the 5th house. Your fortune runs through children, pleasure and making things. The old texts call this house Good Fortune.
- Fortune in the 6th house. Your fortune runs through work and routine: what happens to you comes through daily effort and service.
- Fortune in the 7th house. Your fortune runs through other people: partners, marriage, clients and open rivals shape what happens to you.
- Fortune in the 8th house. Your fortune runs through other people's resources: inheritance, debts, shared money and turning points.
- Fortune in the 9th house. Your fortune runs far: travel, foreign places, teachers, faith and higher learning.
- Fortune in the 10th house. Your fortune is public: career, reputation and the people above you shape what happens to you. A strong place for visible luck.
- Fortune in the 11th house. Your fortune runs through friends, allies and patrons. The old texts call this house Good Spirit.
- Fortune in the 12th house. Your fortune runs out of view: solitude, hidden labour, institutions and what you carry privately.
Is the Lot of Spirit your life purpose?
It is the closest thing the old astrologers had to one. Modern astrology often points to the North Node or the Sun sign. The Hellenistic astrologers read purpose and profession from three places together: the daemon for what your mind wants, its ruler for how you go about it, and the 10th house for the work you are seen doing.
In that period the Moon's nodes were read mainly for eclipses. Reading the North Node as the soul's path is a 20th-century idea, which I go through in the North Node article. Your Sun sign is shared with everyone born in the same month. Your daemon changes sign every two hours or so, which makes it one of the most personal points in your chart.
What is zodiacal releasing from Spirit?
Zodiacal releasing is the timing technique Vettius Valens sets out in Book IV of the Anthology. Released from your daemon, it describes career, reputation and the direction of your life. Each sign gets a period of years: 15 for Aries and Scorpio, 8 for Taurus and Libra, 20 for Gemini and Virgo, 25 for Cancer, 19 for Leo, 12 for Sagittarius and Pisces, 27 for Capricorn and 30 for Aquarius. Your life moves through these chapters one sign at a time, starting from your daemon's sign, with shorter chapters nested inside the long ones.
Some chapters are peaks, when what you have been working toward comes into the open. Which ones is read from your Lot of Fortune, so the two lots work as a pair. Long chapters also hold what Valens calls the loosing of the bond: a sudden change of direction that people often recognise later as a turning point.
The dates are easy to compute. Reading them is the work: a chapter means little until it is set against the rest of your chart. Releasing from your daemon is part of my Profound Birth Chart Reading, read together with the rest of your chart.
Why does the daemon need a birth time?
The daemon needs a birth time because it is counted from your rising degree, which turns through the whole zodiac every day. It moves about one degree every four minutes and changes sign roughly every two hours. A birth time that is half an hour out can move it by seven or eight degrees. Your birth time also decides whether you were born by day or by night, and the two use opposite formulas. If you were born within a few minutes of a sign change, the calculator says so.
Common questions
Is this a Lot of Spirit calculator? Yes. The daemon, or daimon, is the Lot of Spirit. The calculator finds your Lot of Spirit and your Lot of Fortune, each with its sign, house and ruler.
Is the daemon the same as the Lot of Spirit? Yes. The Greek texts call it the Lot of Daimon or the Lot of Spirit, and Firmicus calls it the Part of the Daemon. Part of Spirit, from the Latin pars, is the name medieval astrologers used. It is one point, calculated the same way, and it is not the 11th house, which the old astrologers named Good Spirit.
Daemon or daimon: which spelling is right? Both. Daimon is the Greek word written in Latin letters; daemon is the Latin spelling, which Firmicus's translator uses, and Agrippa's English translation of 1651 writes Demon. Valens's translator Mark Riley writes Daimon. In the astrologers, Daimon, Daemon and Spirit all name the same lot; Agrippa's Demon is the guardian spirit itself.
What is the Agathos Daimon? The Greek name for the 11th place from your Ascendant, the Good Daimon, where Jupiter rejoices. It is a place in the chart, not the lot. Its counterpart is the 12th place, the Kakos Daimon or Bad Daimon, where Saturn rejoices.
Is this the His Dark Materials daemon? No, but it is the same word. In Philip Pullman's novels a daemon is a person's soul in animal form. He borrowed the old Greek daimon, the guiding spirit. This calculator finds the astrologers' version: the point in your birth chart that shows your mind, your intentions and the work you choose.
Why does another calculator give me a different daemon? Usually for one of three reasons. It may use the day formula for night births. It may count houses with Placidus or another quadrant system instead of whole signs, which can change the house but not the sign. Or it may use the sidereal zodiac, which usually puts the daemon one sign earlier.
What if I was born around sunrise or sunset? Then it matters whether the Sun had risen or set, because day and night births use opposite formulas. The calculator checks this and warns you if the Sun was within about a degree of the horizon. If it was, read both results.
What if I don't know my birth time? Then the daemon cannot be found reliably, because it moves about one degree every four minutes and changes sign roughly every two hours. See how to find your birth time first. If you know it only roughly, rectification can narrow it from the dated events of your life.
Which planet rules my daemon? The traditional ruler of its sign: Mars for Aries and Scorpio, Venus for Taurus and Libra, Mercury for Gemini and Virgo, the Moon for Cancer, the Sun for Leo, Jupiter for Sagittarius and Pisces, Saturn for Capricorn and Aquarius. The calculator also shows where that planet sits in your chart and how strong it is there.
Is a daemon in a difficult house bad? No placement is good or bad on its own. The old texts judge a lot by its ruler: a daemon in a difficult house with a strong ruler that sees it often does better than one in a good house whose ruler is weak and in aversion.
What if a planet is in the same sign as my daemon? That planet colours your intentions directly. Venus or Jupiter there eases the way. Mars or Saturn adds pressure, which is often what makes people good at their work.
Does my daemon change over my life? The daemon in your birth chart stays where it is. What changes is which part of the chart is active: zodiacal releasing from the daemon and the yearly profections move through the signs as the years go by.
Does this use the tropical zodiac? Yes, the tropical zodiac with whole-sign houses, the way most Hellenistic astrologers practise today. If you use the sidereal zodiac, the sign will usually be one earlier.
Is my birth data stored? No. The calculation runs in your browser. Only the town name goes to a free place-lookup service to find its coordinates and time zone.
Sources
- Paulus Alexandrinus, Introductory Matters, ch. 23 and 24, tr. Robert Schmidt, ed. Robert Hand (Project Hindsight).
- Vettius Valens, Anthology, Books II, IV and V, tr. Mark Riley.
- Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis II.16, II.17, II.19 and IV.18, "The Part of the Daemon", tr. Jean Rhys Bram (1975), with Bram's note 66.
- Dorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum I.9, tr. Benjamin N. Dykes (2019).
- Heraclitus, Fragments, tr. G. T. W. Patrick (1889).
- Plato, Republic X (617e), the Myth of Er; Apology 31c to d.
- Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy III.22, tr. J. Freake (1651).
- William Lilly, Christian Astrology, Book III (1647).
- S. J. Tester, A History of Western Astrology, pp. 29 and 94.
- Benson Bobrick, The Fated Sky, Part Two (Ficino).
- Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos III.10, tr. F. E. Robbins (Loeb, 1940).
- Don Cross, Astronomy Engine, open-source astronomy library.