No. 25 · Free
7th house calculator: find your descendant sign
Your descendant is the point on the western horizon at the moment you were born, exactly opposite your rising sign. It opens the 7th house, the house of partnership, and astrology reads its sign as the kind of person you meet across the table. It needs your birth time, because it moves through a whole sign in about two hours.
Your descendant
The descendant sits opposite the rising sign, on the western horizon, and opens the house of partnership.
The record
Enter your birth date, time and place, then press the button. You get your descendant sign and degree, the 7th house cusp, the ruler of the sign with its house and the planets in your 7th house.
Accuracy: the descendant is the Ascendant plus 180 degrees, and the Ascendant and the house cusps agree with the Swiss Ephemeris to within a fraction of an arcminute (1900 to 2099).
Enter your birth date, time and birthplace. The calculator gives your descendant sign and degree, the 7th house cusp in Placidus, whole sign, Koch or equal houses, the ruler of that sign and where it sits, and any planets in your 7th house.
Want every planet and house at once? Open the full birth chart calculator
The descendant in each sign, in short
Aries
A descendant in Aries is read as a pull toward partners who are direct, energetic and quick to act. The work is to meet that drive halfway and keep a partnership from turning into a contest.
Taurus
A descendant in Taurus is read as a taste for steady, loyal, sensual partners who value comfort and keep their word. The lesson is to enjoy the stability without confusing it with standing still.
Gemini
A descendant in Gemini is read as a pull toward curious, talkative partners who keep things light and varied. The lesson is to value the conversation and still make room for depth and commitment.
Cancer
A descendant in Cancer is read as a taste for caring, protective partners who make a home out of a relationship. The lesson is to receive care without handing over your own independence.
Leo
A descendant in Leo is read as a pull toward warm, generous, proud partners who bring color to a relationship. The lesson is to give praise freely and claim your own share of the light.
Virgo
A descendant in Virgo is read as a taste for practical, attentive partners who show love through help and detail. The lesson is to welcome the care without letting it turn into constant criticism.
Libra
A descendant in Libra is read as a pull toward fair, gracious partners who care about harmony and balance. The lesson is to name what you want, since this sign finds it hard to disturb the peace.
Scorpio
A descendant in Scorpio is read as a taste for intense, loyal partners who want depth and complete honesty. The lesson is to trust without testing and let closeness grow at its own pace.
Sagittarius
A descendant in Sagittarius is read as a pull toward adventurous, frank partners who share a belief or a horizon. The lesson is to keep the freedom and still stay for the ordinary days.
Capricorn
A descendant in Capricorn is read as a taste for mature, dependable partners who take commitment seriously. The lesson is to let warmth sit beside duty and to ask for it out loud.
Aquarius
A descendant in Aquarius is read as a pull toward independent, unconventional partners who often begin as friends. The lesson is to allow the space they need and still say what you need back.
Pisces
A descendant in Pisces is read as a taste for gentle, imaginative, devoted partners who sense your moods. The lesson is to keep clear boundaries so that compassion does not turn into rescuing.
§ 01
What is the descendant?
§ 01
What is the descendant?
The ascendant is the point of the ecliptic rising over the eastern horizon at the moment you were born. The descendant is the point setting on the western horizon at the same moment, exactly 180 degrees away. If your Ascendant is at 12 degrees Virgo, your descendant is at 12 degrees Pisces. Together they form the horizon axis, the line that separates the sky above the horizon from the sky below it.
In astrology the ascendant describes how you meet the world, and the descendant describes who you meet. It is the point where the chart turns outward, from I to you, which is why astrologers use it for close one-to-one relationships.
§ 02
What does the 7th house cover?
§ 02
What does the 7th house cover?
The descendant is the cusp, the starting edge, of the 7th house. Astrologers read this house as the house of partnership: marriage and committed relationships, but also business partners, close collaborators and open rivals, anyone you deal with face to face as an equal. The sign on its cusp is read as the style of those relationships.
Planets inside the 7th house add their own themes. A planet there is read as something you tend to find through other people, or see in them first, before you recognize it in yourself. Venus in the 7th house is read as a gift for partnership, Saturn there as a slower, more serious approach to commitment. These are traditions to think with, not verdicts.
§ 03
The ruler of your descendant
§ 03
The ruler of your descendant
Every sign has a ruling planet, and the ruler of your descendant sign is read as the planet that steers your partnerships. Its sign shows the setting and its house shows the area of life where relationships tend to play out. Traditional astrology uses the seven visible planets only, so Scorpio is ruled by Mars, Aquarius by Saturn and Pisces by Jupiter. Modern astrology gives those three signs a second ruler: Pluto, Uranus and Neptune.
The calculator shows both rulers when they differ, and says in which sign and house each one stands in your chart. Treat the traditional ruler as the older and steadier reading and the modern one as an extra layer.
§ 04
Descendant, 7th house cusp and house systems
§ 04
Descendant, 7th house cusp and house systems
The descendant is always the Ascendant plus 180 degrees, so in Placidus, Koch and equal houses it is exactly the 7th house cusp. Whole sign houses start every house at 0 degrees of a sign, so the 7th house begins at 0 degrees of the descendant's sign and the descendant itself sits somewhere inside it. In every system the sign on the 7th cusp is the descendant sign.
What changes between systems is which planets fall in the 7th house and which house the ruler occupies. A planet near the edge can move between the 6th, 7th and 8th house when you switch. The calculator lets you try all four. Near the polar circles Placidus and Koch cannot be drawn, so equal houses stand in and the tool says so.
§ 05
Why does the descendant need your birth time?
§ 05
Why does the descendant need your birth time?
The ascendant travels once around the zodiac every 24 hours, so it changes sign about every two hours, and the descendant moves with it. Two people born on the same day in the same city can have descendants in different signs, and a birth date alone says nothing about it. That is why the calculator does not guess at noon: without a time it shows no houses at all.
If you do not know your time, a birth certificate or hospital record is the best source, or a parent's memory of the hour. A few minutes of error rarely changes the sign, but close to a sign change ten or fifteen minutes can. The rising sign calculator is the companion tool.
§ 06
How the descendant is calculated
§ 06
How the descendant is calculated
The calculator works out the sidereal time at your birthplace and the true obliquity of the ecliptic, then the Ascendant with the standard formula; the descendant is that longitude plus 180 degrees. The planets come from the VSOP87 theory and Meeus's lunar series, and the house cusps follow the usual Placidus, Koch, equal and whole sign rules. We check the houses against the Swiss Ephemeris, and they agree to within a fraction of an arcminute.
Everything is computed in your browser, and the tool is free. To see the descendant among all your planets and aspects, open the birth chart calculator; to set a partner's chart beside yours, try the compatibility calculator.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate my descendant?
Take your ascendant and add 180 degrees: the same degree in the opposite sign. If you rise at 12 degrees Virgo, your descendant is 12 degrees Pisces. The ascendant needs your birth date, exact time and birthplace, so the calculator asks for all three.
What is the 7th house in astrology?
The 7th house starts at the descendant and is read as the house of partnership: marriage, committed relationships, business partners and open rivals. Its sign and any planets in it describe the style of those relationships.
Do I need my birth time for the descendant?
Yes. The descendant changes sign about every two hours, so without a time it cannot be placed. The calculator shows nothing house-based when no time is given, rather than guessing.
Is the descendant the same as the 7th house cusp?
In Placidus, Koch and equal houses, yes: the cusp is exactly the descendant. In whole sign houses the 7th house begins at 0 degrees of the descendant's sign. In both cases the sign is the same.