A diurnal daily chart is a type of personalized daily horoscope created using your exact birth time and location, but set for the current date. This chart is then compared to your natal chart to identify specific themes for the day.

Looking at your diurnal daily chart can help you understand, plan and navigate your day. It can:

• Reveal which houses of your chart are most emphasized today
  
• Provide clues about potential emotional patterns, mental focus, and energy levels
  
• Assist you in organizing your day-to-day activities
  
• Highlight both opportunities and possible setbacks for the day ahead

How are diurnal daily charts calculated?

To create a diurnal daily chart, take your birth time and place and create a transit chart for a chosen day (i.e., today). This chart is similar to a transit chart for the day, except it uses the time and location you were born, rather than the location you currently live in. This type of horoscope is very sensitive to birth time, so it cannot be used effectively if the native doesn’t know their exact time of birth. It’s generally recommended to use the exact time listed on the birth certificate or hospital paperwork. This chart is then compared in a bi-wheel to your natal chart to see the aspects made between the two.  I recommend using Astro-Seek’s Diurnal Chart Calculator for generating the chart.

Unlike a transit chart, there are three important points to read in a diurnal chart: the diurnal ascendant, the planet ruling the diurnal ascendant sign, and the diurnal midheaven (MC). Because these angles are recalculated each day, the chart reveals which areas of your life are being emphasized right now and how the current sky may affect your mood, focus, and priorities.

How to interpret diurnal daily charts

Diurnal ascendant sign and natal house: The sign and natal house where the diurnal ascendant falls indicate the potential themes for the day (based on the house) and how you may approach them (based on the zodiac sign). This typically applies for a few weeks at a time, as the diurnal ascendant takes approximately a month to move into a new zodiac sign.

For example, if your current diurnal ascendant is in Libra, which is in your 1^st house (per your natal chart), you may have an increased desire to socialize and connect with others, focus on your looks, style, or how you present yourself, and/or get involved in legal activities. If your diurnal ascendant is in Aries in your 4^th house, you may feel more motivated to get longstanding chores done at home or start DIY projects which you may have been avoiding, or you may be more willing to change things up and even consider a move.

Diurnal ascendant ruler (lord) condition: The condition of the ascendant ruler will determine if the day will overall be neutral, positive, or negative in nature. I like to use traditional rulerships to determine which planet rules the diurnal ascendant (e.g., the ascendant ruler for Aquarius would be Saturn), but others may use modern rulerships. Note that, unlike the natal chart, this ruler is not fixed and also changes every month whenever the diurnal ascendant moves into a new sign. The condition is determined by counting the number of supporting aspects to either transit or natal aspects (conjunctions, trines, and sextiles), counting the number of difficult aspects (squares and oppositions), and determining which is most prevalent.

For example, if your current diurnal ascendant ruler is the Moon and has more supportive aspects, you’ll likely feel more empathetic, nurturing, or intuitive that day. If the Moon has more difficult aspects than supportive ones, you may feel more sensitive, experience mood swings, or need more emotional support from others.

Diurnal ascendant aspects: The individual aspects made between the diurnal chart and natal chart are also considered if they are in contact with the diurnal ascendant. These aspects may last two or more days, so their effects may be felt at some point during the time period, and not necessarily every day.

For example, if your current diurnal ascendant is square Uranus, you may experience setbacks or minor inconveniences that could throw off your plans for the day. If your diurnal ascendant is trine or sextile to Mercury, your mind may feel sharper, you may be able to communicate more effectively or tackle cognitive activities with ease.

Diurnal Midheaven (MC) aspects: Similar to the diurnal ascendant aspects, the diurnal midheaven aspects are also considered when reading the diurnal daily chart. These aspects tend to highlight topics such as productivity, publicity, and work-related parts of your day.

How do diurnal daily horoscopes differ from other daily horoscopes?

The most common type of daily horoscopes are written for everyone under a zodiac sign, so their guidance is broad and usually too generalized for it to be useful. A diurnal daily chart, on the other hand, is very personalized since it maps how today’s sky at the hour and minute of your birth interacts with your own natal chart (birth chart). This makes the guidance more precise, showing what specific themes are most likely to affect you, which in turn helps you navigate the day with more information. 

However, diurnal daily charts are not the only personalized horoscope technique. Another personalized type of daily horoscope utilizes the current transit chart and assesses the planetary aspects in relation to your natal chart. Although very useful, this method can seem more repetitive day to day when compared to the more dynamic diurnal daily horoscopes, and may not capture the timing of events as well. 

I highly recommend combining transit-to-natal horoscopes and diurnal daily horoscopes to get the best overview for the day. For more detailed information on this technique, refer to The Art of Forecasting by Sophia Mason