Guides
A place to keep reading
These pages stay useful after the calculation is done. They explain the terms on the charts and almanacs, how the numbers are formed, and how to read a result without leaving Inner Light for a second definition.
Vedic astrology
Kundli, Lagna, Nakshatra, houses, Grahas, dasha, and the sidereal frame.
- What is a Kundli?A Kundli is the Vedic birth chart: a map of the sidereal sky at a birth date, time, and place, usually drawn as the D1 rashi chart.
- What is Lagna?Lagna is the Ascendant: the zodiac sign rising on the eastern horizon at birth, and the starting point of the twelve houses in a Vedic chart.
- What is a Moon sign?The Moon sign is the zodiac sign occupied by the Moon at birth. In Vedic astrology it is central to Nakshatra, dasha, and compatibility.
- The 27 NakshatrasNakshatras are the 27 lunar mansions of Vedic astrology. The Moon spends about a day in each, and that placement starts the dasha clock.
- The 12 housesThe twelve houses are the life areas of a chart, counted from the Ascendant. They give planets a field in which to act.
- The nine GrahasGrahas are the nine planetary factors of Jyotish: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu, and Ketu.
- What is Vimshottari Dasha?Vimshottari is the 120-year dasha system of Vedic astrology. It starts from the Moon’s Nakshatra and unfolds as Mahadasha and Antardasha periods.
- What is Lahiri ayanamsha?Lahiri ayanamsha is the offset used to convert tropical longitudes into the sidereal zodiac most widely used in Indian astrology today.
- Sidereal vs tropical astrologyTropical astrology follows the seasons. Sidereal astrology follows the stars. They share the same planets and differ in where 0° Aries is placed.
- What is Manglik Dosha?Manglik Dosha, or Mangal Dosha, is a condition counted from Mars in certain houses from Lagna, Moon, or Venus.
- What is Ashta Koota?Ashta Koota, or Guna Milan, scores eight factors from two Moon signs and Nakshatras, totaling 36 points.
- How to read a Vedic birth chartA practical order for reading a Kundli: Lagna, Moon, Sun, then planets, signs, houses, and the relationships among them.
- What are Yogas in Vedic astrology?In a birth chart, yogas are named planetary combinations. They are distinct from the daily Yoga limb of the Panchang.
- Nakshatra directoryAll 27 lunar mansions: ruling planet, signs spanned, and four padas.
Panchang and muhurta
The five limbs of the day, Rahu Kala, and Choghadiya.
- What is Panchang?Panchang means five limbs: Tithi, Vara, Nakshatra, Yoga, and Karana — the traditional daily almanac of Hindu astronomy.
- What is Tithi?Tithi is the lunar day: a 12° step in the elongation between the Moon and the Sun, fifteen in the bright fortnight and fifteen in the dark.
- What is Yoga in Panchang?Nitya Yoga is one of the five Panchang limbs: 27 named combinations from the sum of the Sun’s and Moon’s longitudes.
- What is Karana?A Karana is half of a Tithi. There are eleven named Karanas; the sequence fills the lunar month.
- What is Rahu Kala?Rahu Kala is a weekday portion of daylight, inauspicious for beginning certain activities.
- What is Choghadiya?Choghadiya divides daylight and night into eight named periods each, used in the traditional muhurta system for choosing a time to begin.
Western astrology
Natal charts, aspects, synastry, and transits.
- What is a rising sign?The rising sign, or Ascendant, is the zodiac sign on the eastern horizon at birth. It begins the house circle in a natal chart.
- What is a natal chart?A natal chart is a map of the tropical sky at birth: planets in signs, houses from the Ascendant, and the major aspects between them.
- The major aspectsAspects are angular relationships between planets. The five majors are conjunction, opposition, trine, square, and sextile.
- What is synastry?Synastry compares two natal charts by the aspects between them, and, in the Vedic layer, by Ashta Koota from the two Moons.
- What is a transit?A transit is a planet in the sky now, forming an aspect to a point in the natal chart. It is a timing technique, not a second birth chart.
Numerology
Life Path, name numbers, personal cycles, and the Lo Shu grid.
- What is numerology?Numerology assigns meaning to numbers derived from a name and a birth date. Inner Light calculates Pythagorean and Chaldean profiles from those inputs.
- How is a Life Path number calculated?The Life Path number is the digit sum of the full birth date. It is the overall path of the life.
- What is a Destiny number?The Destiny or Expression number is the digit sum of every letter in the full name, using the selected Pythagorean or Chaldean chart.
- What is a Soul Urge number?Soul Urge is the digit sum of the vowels in the name. Personality is the sum of the consonants. Together they split Destiny into inner and outer.
- What is a Personal Year?A Personal Year is calculated from the birth month and day plus a target year. Personal Month and Day nest inside it.
- What is the Lo Shu Grid?The Lo Shu is a 3×3 square of the digits 1–9. In this calculator, each cell repeats that digit once for every time it appears in the birth date.
- Pythagorean vs Chaldean numerologyPythagorean numerology maps letters to 1–9. Chaldean, in Cheiro’s chart, maps letters to 1–8. Date numbers are shared; name numbers change.