What these three points are
Modern astrology looks beyond the Sun, Moon and planets to a few extra points that many readers like to add to a chart. This tool names the sign of three of them at the moment you were born.
Chiron is a small icy body that circles the Sun between Saturn and Uranus, taking about fifty years for one orbit. It was found in 1977 and named for the centaur of Greek myth who was wounded, became a healer and taught the heroes. Astrologers read it as a tender spot that, handled with care over a lifetime, becomes a source of understanding for others, which is why it is often called the wounded healer.
Black Moon Lilith is not a body at all. It is the point on the Moon’s path that lies farthest from the Earth, called the lunar apogee. The version here is the mean apogee, which moves steadily. Astrologers read it as the untamed, unapologetic part of a person: what you will not compromise on, and where you resist being told who to be.
The North Node is one of the two points where the Moon’s path crosses the Sun’s path, the ecliptic. It moves backwards through the zodiac, taking about eighteen and a half years to go round. Modern astrologers read it as a direction of growth, and its opposite, the South Node, as the familiar habits we lean on. The tool uses the mean node and tells you the South Node sign as well.
How slowly each one moves
Chiron spends between about a year and a half and eight years in a sign, because its orbit is far from circular, and it can go backwards for several months a year. The North Node changes sign about every year and a half. Lilith changes sign about every nine months. So most people can be given a sign without a birth time, and on the rare day when one of the points changes sign, the tool shows both signs and the time of the change.
How the tool finds them
Your birth time is turned into a universal time using the time zone in force at your birth place on that date, daylight saving included. Chiron’s tropical longitude comes from a table made with the Swiss Ephemeris asteroid file, with a position every ten days and a smooth curve between them. It agrees with NASA’s JPL Horizons service to a few thousandths of a degree. Lilith and the North Node are the mean positions from the standard formulae for the Moon’s mean apogee and mean node, which depend on the date only.
Mean and true points
Many chart programs offer a true node or a true (osculating) Lilith instead. The true node swings back and forth around the mean node by up to about a degree and a half, and the true Lilith can differ from the mean by several degrees. If one of your points lies within about two degrees of a sign boundary, a chart made with the true point may show the neighbouring sign. Neither is wrong; they are different definitions.
How to read the result
Treat each sign as a theme to reflect on, not a verdict. A Chiron in a sign describes a sensitive area, not a flaw. A Lilith sign describes where you hold your ground, and a North Node sign where growth is said to feel most rewarding. These are modern Western ideas, not part of classical Vedic astrology, and astrology as a whole is a tradition of reflection rather than a proven way to predict character or events.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Do I need my birth time for Chiron, Lilith and the North Node?
Usually not, because each moves slowly. If one changed sign on your birth date, the tool shows both signs and the time of the change, so a birth time settles which one applies.
↳ Is this the true node or the mean node?
The mean node, which moves steadily. The true node wobbles around it by up to about a degree and a half, so a point very close to a sign boundary can differ between the two.
↳ Which Lilith is this?
Black Moon Lilith, the mean lunar apogee. Astrologers also use other points called Lilith, including an asteroid and the true apogee, so a different tool may give a different sign.
↳ Does a Chiron placement mean I have been wounded?
No. Chiron is read as a sensitive theme that many people share and that can become a strength. It is an interpretation for reflection, not a diagnosis or a prediction.
↳ Which zodiac does the tool use?
The tropical zodiac of Western astrology, measured from the March equinox. A sidereal chart would place each point about 24 degrees earlier, usually in the previous sign.