Placements Overview

Placements Beyond the Planets. Alongside the ten planets, a chart contains a number of other meaningful spots. These are sensitive points and minor bodies that are not planets, yet they still carry real significance and add depth to a reading. This section gathers those placements together. Like the planets, each one is read by the sign and house it occupies. Some are physical objects. Chiron is a small icy body that orbits between Saturn and Uranus. Others are calculated points with no body at all, marking significant places in the chart's geometry. Black Moon Lilith is the empty focus of the Moon's orbit. The North and South Nodes are the two points where the Moon's path crosses the path of the Sun. The seven Hermetic lots, the Lots of Fortune, Spirit, Eros, Necessity, Courage, Victory, and Nemesis, are points worked out from the positions of other bodies. The Vertex is a sensitive angle on the western side of the chart. These points fill in detail that the planets alone do not capture. They speak to themes such as wounding and healing, instinct and shadow, karmic direction, fortune, desire, and fated encounters. Each entry that follows explains one of them in turn.