Free Agathos Daimon calculator

Good Daimon Calculator: Your Agathos Daimon and Bad Daimon

Count back from your rising sign. One sign behind it is your Bad Daimon, the 12th place. Two signs behind it is your Good Daimon, the 11th, the Agathos Daimon of the Greek astrologers. Enter your birth date, time and place to find both, the planets in them and the planets that rule them, read line by line from Paulus and Valens.

Roman Oleksandr
Hellenistic astrologer · free tool · checked against the Swiss Ephemeris

How to find your Good Daimon and Bad Daimon

Hellenistic astrologers counted houses as whole signs, starting from the rising sign. The sign rising at your birth is your 1st place. The sign just before it, the one that rose an hour or two earlier, is your 12th: the Bad Daimon. The sign before that is your 11th: the Good Daimon.

So the rule is short. One sign behind your rising is your Bad Daimon. Two signs behind it is your Good one. With Leo rising, Cancer is your Bad Daimon and Gemini your Good Daimon. With Pisces rising, Aquarius is your Bad Daimon and Capricorn your Good Daimon.

The calculator above does the counting for you and goes further: it lists the planets in each place, reads them by whether you were born by day or by night, and finds the planet that rules each sign.

Why the old astrologers called them good and bad

A daimon, in Greek, is a spirit, often the one that watches over a person's fortune. The Greek word for happiness, eudaimonia, means having a good daimon; its opposite, kakodaimonia, means having a bad one. The astrologers gave these two names to the two places just above the eastern horizon.

The names run through the whole tradition. Paulus of Alexandria calls the 11th "Good Divinity, the place proper to Zeus" and the 12th the "true place of Kronos", called "Evil Spirit" (Introductory Matters 24, pp. 55 to 56, tr. Schmidt). Valens heads two chapters "The Place of the Good Daimon" and "The Place of the Bad Daimon" (Anthologies II.5 to 6, tr. Riley). Firmicus gives the Latin: Bonus Daemon or Bonus Genius for the 11th, Malus Daemon for the 12th, which "the Greeks call Cacos Daemon" (Mathesis II.16, II.17 and II.19, tr. Bram).

Ptolemy kept this pair and treated them differently. In his chapter on the length of life he counts "the House of the Good Daemon" among the places that can govern the length of life, and rules out "the House of the Evil Daemon" (Tetrabiblos III.10, pp. 273 to 275, tr. Robbins). Fifteen centuries later William Lilly still opens his twelfth house with "This is malus Daemon" (Christian Astrology, Book III, 1647).

Why one is good and the other is not

The old texts give three reasons. The first is geometry. Firmicus says the 11th is "in sextile aspect" to the rising sign, so it sees it, while the 12th is "a passive house because it is not aspected to the ascendant" (II.19.12 to 13, p. 51). The second is the sky itself: Ptolemy says stars in the sign that rose just before the Ascendant are dimmed by "the thick, misty exhalation from the moisture of the earth" (III.10, p. 275). The third is the planets that own them. The 11th is Jupiter's place and the 12th is Saturn's, in Paulus and in Firmicus alike.

The Good Daimon: the 11th place

Paulus gives the 11th "the determination that concerns alliance and patronage", and calls it "indicative of good expectations" (p. 55). Friends, allies, patrons, the people who open doors, and hope itself: what you are working toward and the help you get on the way. Lilly's list for the 11th, in English, runs the same way: "Friendship, support of Friends", "Hope, Comfort, Promotion by commendation of Friends".

It is a place that protects. Valens writes that benefics in the Good Daimon, "located in their proper places and in their proper faces", "make men illustrious and rich from youth", and that even malefics joined to it "cannot do any evil" (Anthologies II.6). Paulus is stricter: for him Mars by day and Saturn by night still bring losses here. The two authors disagree, and the calculator shows you both.

The Bad Daimon: the 12th place

For Paulus the 12th "gives signs for the determination that concerns sufferings, childbirth, enemies, male slaves, and quadrupeds" (p. 56). Firmicus finds there "the nature of enemies and the character of slaves" and "defects and illnesses" (II.19.13, p. 51). Read in modern terms: hidden opponents, the people who work under you, animals, and the labour and strain that nobody else sees.

Valens is the harshest of the three. Malefics in the Bad Daimon "cause great wounds and traumas", and "benefics found in this Place will not bestow their benefits" (Anthologies II.5 to 6). He is just as plain about the rulers of your rising sign, your Lot of Fortune and your daimon when they fall here: they make people "unfortunate and disgraced" (Anthologies II.5). Elsewhere (II.20) he judges your daemon's ruler by where it stands from your Lot of Fortune. I go through both in my Substack post, linked below.

The 12th is not only trouble. Paulus says Saturn, by day and in a masculine sign, "alone rejoices in this place", and makes people who "prevail over their enemies" (p. 56). It is the place of work done in private: research, retreat, care given out of view. A planet here is not wasted. It works where people do not look.

Each planet in the Good Daimon and the Bad Daimon

Paulus goes planet by planet through both places (Introductory Matters 24, pp. 55 to 57). Two things change his reading: whether you were born by day or by night, and, for Mercury, whether the planet stands clear of the Sun. The calculator applies both.

The Sun

In the Good Daimon, the Sun shows "one who has sprung from an esteemed and wealthy father", and a life in which property comes "quite easily" as time goes by. In the Bad Daimon Paulus reads distance from the father ("the father lives abroad"), or his trouble or early loss, and a modest, hard-working start. Both lines are about origins more than outcomes.

The Moon

In the Good Daimon, "especially when the birth is at night", the Moon shows a mother who is "esteemed, wealthy, and well-off", and a native who is well-off too when the Moon applies to a benefic. In the Bad Daimon Paulus reads a mother of low standing in his world, and a struggling start; with a malefic in aspect, a mother whose health was fragile.

Mercury

In the Good Daimon, as a morning or evening star, Mercury makes "those who have their living from writing", who "increase their living as time goes by" and "participate in knowledge". In the Bad Daimon Paulus first lists "thieves" and "deceivers", then adds: "sometimes it will make secretaries, schoolmasters, interpreters or advocates" (p. 57). A mind that works behind the scenes, for good or ill.

Venus

In the Good Daimon, Venus makes people "happily married, decorous, orderly, wanting nothing", with good fortune that grows, "especially if it is not scrutinized by the ray of the malefics". In the Bad Daimon she makes people "tormented by feminine excuses" and lost in "mental suffering", the "amorous" (p. 57): love that costs peace of mind, often kept private.

Mars

In the Good Daimon, Mars depends on your sect. By day it brings "reduction of life, loss of things, changes of place and accidents"; by night it brings "many good things" and makes people "deemed worthy of honor by the masses". In the Bad Daimon Mars troubles servants and animals and "supplies treacheries from servile persons" (p. 56).

Jupiter

In the Good Daimon, its own place, Jupiter by day or by night "magnifies life and sets it in eminence and in acquirement", makes people "more triumphant over enemies", and "for the most part" keeps them "free from harm and suffering" (p. 55). Valens adds a fortunate native with a good income and many children. In the Bad Daimon Jupiter brings "rebellions of enemies, litigations with those of least account, and diminution of one's patrimony", but is "good and helpful" for servants and animals (p. 56).

Saturn

In the Good Daimon, Saturn of your sect, that is by day, makes people who "attain their ends as time goes on", if "more idle in their work". By night it brings "diminution of what was formerly possessed" (p. 55). In the Bad Daimon, by day and in a masculine sign, Saturn "alone rejoices in this place": it makes people who "prevail over their enemies" and are "proudly confident in their own work" (p. 56).

How to read your result

Start with the summary line. The calculator calls each place helped, tested, mixed, quiet or, for the 12th, active or working out of view; "Saturn at home" means Saturn sits in the 12th by day in a masculine sign, the one case Paulus welcomes there. These are short labels for what Paulus and Valens say, not grades for your life.

Then look at sect. If you were born by day, Saturn is the easier of the two malefics and Mars the harder; by night it is the other way round. That one fact flips the reading of Mars and Saturn in the Good Daimon.

An empty place is read through its ruler. Find the planet that owns the sign and the house it sits in. A Good Daimon ruler on an angle (the 1st, 4th, 7th or 10th) brings friends and support into plain view; one in the 6th, 8th or 12th brings it slower and quieter. The ruler of the Bad Daimon shows which part of life carries the 12th's hidden work.

Read the hard lines as weather, not fate. The old authors wrote in extremes, for clients who wanted to know the worst. A malefic in the 12th tells you where strain gathers so you can plan for it. Nothing on this page predicts illness, injury or death, and nothing here should be read that way.

Then put it in context. The 11th and 12th are two places out of twelve. Your Lot of Fortune, your daemon and the ruler of your rising sign all weigh more in a full reading.

Common questions

What is the Agathos Daimon in astrology? Agathos Daimon, Greek for Good Daimon or Good Spirit, is the old name for the 11th place: the second sign before your rising sign, in whole-sign houses. Paulus calls it the place proper to Zeus, where Jupiter rejoices, and gives it alliance, patronage and good expectations.

What is the Bad Daimon? The Bad Daimon, Kakos Daimon in Greek, is the 12th place: the sign just before your rising sign. Paulus gives it sufferings, childbirth, enemies, servants and animals, and calls it the true place of Kronos, Saturn. It is a hidden place, not a curse: it shows where effort and strain happen out of view.

How do I find my Good Daimon and Bad Daimon? Count back from your rising sign. One sign behind it is your Bad Daimon, the 12th; two signs behind it is your Good Daimon, the 11th. With a Leo rising, Cancer is your Bad Daimon and Gemini your Good Daimon. You need your birth time, because the rising sign changes about every two hours.

What if there are no planets in my 11th or 12th house? Then the place is read through its ruler, the planet that owns the sign. Where that planet sits in your chart shows where the place's business happens. Empty places are common, and an empty place is not a missing part of your life.

Which planet is best in the Good Daimon? Jupiter. Paulus says that in the 11th Jupiter rejoices beyond all the stars and, by day or by night, magnifies life and sets it in eminence and in acquirement. The one planet Paulus welcomes in the Bad Daimon is Saturn, by day and in a masculine sign.

Is the Good Daimon the same as the daemon or Lot of Spirit? No. The Good Daimon is a place, the 11th sign from your rising sign. The daemon, or Lot of Spirit, is a calculated point that can fall in any house. The two share a word, daimon, and nothing else; the daemon calculator finds the lot.

Why does another site put different planets in my 11th or 12th house? Usually because it counts houses with Placidus or another quadrant system. This calculator uses whole-sign houses, the method of Paulus and Valens, where the 11th and 12th are whole signs. A planet near a house cusp can change house between the two systems.

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