Our Methodology
Every figure on Daily Alignment is calculated, not written by hand. This page states the method behind each one, the tradition it comes from and the source it is checked against. The traditions describe; they do not predict.
The day
Free for everyone, on Today and in the Calendar.
農曆Lunar Calendar
Months begin on the day of the astronomical new moon in China Standard Time (UTC+8). The month containing the winter solstice is the eleventh month. In a year of thirteen months, the first month without a principal solar term is the leap month.
日柱Day Pillar
The sixty-day stem–branch cycle counted continuously from a fixed anchor (7 January 2000 = 甲子), applied to your local calendar date.
節氣Solar Term
The twenty-four terms begin when the Sun reaches each 15° of ecliptic longitude. Times are the exact astronomical moments, shown in your timezone.
建除Day Officer
The month branch comes from the solar month (寅 begins at Lìchūn, 315°). The day whose branch equals the month branch is 建; the officers follow in order. On the day a major term begins, the month changes and the officer repeats.
生肖關係Animal Relationships
Today's day branch compared with the eleven others using the fixed tables of Six Harmonies (六合), Three Harmonies (三合), Six Clashes (六冲), Six Harms (六害), Six Breaks (六破) and the Punishments (刑).
五行Five-Phase Correspondence
The element of today's heavenly stem and its traditional colour: Wood green, Fire red, Earth yellow, Metal white, Water black.
月相Moon
Phase from the Sun–Moon angle at local noon (eight phases); illumination from the Moon's lit fraction; tropical sign from the Moon's ecliptic longitude, with the exact time it changes sign if that happens today.
Planetary Hours
Daylight (sunrise to sunset) and night (sunset to next sunrise) are each divided into twelve equal hours. The first hour of the day belongs to the planet of the weekday; the rest follow the Chaldean order Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. Jupiter and Venus, the classical benefics, are marked as favourable.
Number of the Date
Every digit of the month, day and year added together, then reduced by adding digits; 11 and 22 are shown as master numbers.
Your layer
With Membership, from the details you give: full name at birth, date, time and city of birth.
星盤Birth chart
Tropical zodiac. Apparent geocentric positions of the Sun, Moon and eight planets at the moment of birth, from astronomy-engine, the same library as Today.
The birth time is local clock time at the birth place, converted to UTC with that place’s historical time zone rules, so daylight saving and older offsets are respected.
Rising sign, Midheaven and houses need both a birth time and a birth place. Without a time they are left out, never guessed: the planets are taken at local noon, and when the Moon changes sign during the birth day both possible signs are shown.
Houses are whole-sign houses from the Rising sign. Natal aspects use orbs of 8, 6 and 3 degrees, two degrees wider when the Sun or Moon is involved. Transits are today’s planets in conjunction, sextile, square, trine or opposition to the natal points within 3 degrees.
四柱Four Pillars and Day Master
The year changes at Lichun (the start of spring, solar longitude 315 degrees), each month at one of the twelve major solar terms, and the day at civil midnight. The hour pillar follows the five-rats rule; without a birth time there is no hour pillar.
The Day Master is the heavenly stem of the day pillar.
個人My Layer on the calendar
For any date it compares three things: the day’s element with your Day Master (companion, support, expression, effort or pressure), the day animal with your own day and year animals (the same harmony and clash tables as Today), and your Personal Day number.
The tone shown (good, mixed or careful) is a simple sum of those three, shown openly. It is a reading aid from tradition, not a prediction.
數Your numbers
Pythagorean numerology. Life Path and Birthday come from the date of birth; Expression, Soul Urge and Personality from the full name at birth. Master numbers 11, 22 and 33 are kept.
Maturity is Life Path plus Expression. Karmic Lessons are the numbers missing from the name; Hidden Passion is the most frequent one. Personal Year, Month and Day are reduced to 1 to 9.
Your full name at birth is stored only with your Membership and is never shown back or shared: only the numbers are.
合Compatibility
Built from the same functions as your own chart: Sun, Moon and Rising side by side, the closest aspects between the two charts, both Day Masters through the five phases, the links between both year and day animals, and both Life Paths.
Daily Alignment does not publish a compatibility score. It lists the harmonies and tensions the traditions name and leaves the weighing to you. Nothing about the other person is stored.
Sources and credits
astronomy-engine by Don Cross (MIT licence): positions of the Sun, Moon and planets, new moons, solar terms, sunrise and sunset.
GB/T 33661-2017, Calculation and promulgation of the Chinese calendar: the rules of the lunar calendar.
The Dhammapada, translated by F. Max Müller (1881): the daily verse.
Birth places: GeoNames (geonames.org), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, through the urja-atlas package: about 69,000 places with their historical time zones.