Chart Shape Calculator
Your chart shape is the pattern your ten planets make around the wheel, are they bundled into one corner, split across two poles, or scattered evenly all the way round? Marc Edmund Jones named seven of these patterns. Enter your birth details to find yours, free.
We use your city to find the timezone and coordinates, so your local birth time maps to the exact sky overhead.
What is a chart shape?
Long before anyone counted aspects one by one, the American astrologer Marc Edmund Jones noticed something simpler: the way the planets are distributed around the wheel tells a story on its own. Are they crowded into one slice, or strung out around the whole circle? Jones grouped these distributions into seven planetary patterns, and they remain one of the first things many astrologers read when they open a new chart.
The logic is geometric. We sort your ten planets by their position on the 360° wheel, measure the empty gaps between them, and find the single largest gap. What's left (the arc your planets actually occupy) is your span. A tight span means concentration; a span that wraps almost all the way around means your energy is spread thin and wide. The size and placement of that biggest gap is what separates one shape from the next.
This is a structural read, not an exact science. Astrologers genuinely disagree about the edge cases, exactly how wide a gap must be to isolate a Bucket's handle, or whether a borderline chart is a Bowl or a Locomotive. We use the classical Jones thresholds and show you the raw numbers (your span and largest gap) so you can see the call for yourself.
The seven chart shapes
Bundle
Your planets gather inside a single slice of the wheel — a tight, concentrated focus. Energy pools rather than scatters: you channel everything into a narrow band of life, specialised and self-contained. The risk is tunnel vision; the gift is real depth where you choose to put your attention.
Bowl
Your planets fill one half of the wheel, leaving the other empty. You carry a sense of being self-contained and on a mission — holding something the empty half seems to lack. Often there's a felt incompleteness that quietly drives you toward what lies on the open side.
Bucket
Most of your planets cluster like a bowl, but one lone planet sits opposite as the handle — the spout through which the whole chart pours. That single body becomes a focal outlet and life's-purpose lever: where your concentrated energy finds its release and direction.
Locomotive
Your planets occupy two-thirds of the wheel with one empty trine — a driving, self-motivated engine. The planet leading clockwise out of that empty space pulls the train forward. You tend to feel a lack you're determined to fill, generating your own momentum and problem-solving drive.
Seesaw
Your planets split into two groups facing each other across the wheel. You live in dialogue between opposing pulls — weighing, balancing, seeing both sides before you act. At your best you mediate and integrate; under strain you can feel pulled apart by competing demands.
Splay
Your planets form a few uneven clumps with irregular gaps — a strong, individual signature that refuses a neat template. You resist being categorised, with several distinct centres of gravity. Sharply defined interests and a robust sense of self, expressed on your own idiosyncratic terms.
Splash
Your planets spread evenly all the way around the wheel. Your energy and interests scatter widely — many talents, broad curiosity, a finger in many pies. The gift is versatility and range; the work is focus, so that breadth becomes mastery rather than a scattering of half-finished things.
How to read your result
Start with the shape itself, then look at the two numbers beneath it. Your occupied arc is how much of the wheel your planets cover: under 120° is a tightly-focused Bundle, around 180° is a self-contained Bowl, roughly 240° is a driving Locomotive, and a near-complete circle is a wide-ranging Splash. Your largest gap is the empty stretch that shapes everything, a single big gap creates a Bowl or Locomotive, while two large gaps facing each other create a Seesaw.
Two shapes hand you a single standout planet. A Bucket has a lone handle sitting opposite its cluster, the spout the whole chart pours through, often a life-direction lever. A Locomotive has a leading planet that pulls the train clockwise out of the empty trine, generating its own momentum. When your chart has one, we name it: it's frequently the most telling placement in the whole picture.
Treat the shape as a temperament sketch, never a prediction. A Bowl person isn't fated to anything; they simply tend to feel self-contained and quietly mission-driven, holding something the empty half of their chart seems to lack. The detail (what that mission is, where it plays out) comes from the individual placements, the houses they fall in, and the aspects between them.
Frequently asked
What is a chart shape in astrology?
A chart shape describes how your ten planets are distributed around the 360° wheel of your birth chart. Astrologer Marc Edmund Jones grouped these patterns into seven types (Bundle, Bowl, Bucket, Locomotive, Seesaw, Splay, and Splash) each suggesting a different way your energy and focus tend to organise themselves.
Do I need my exact birth time to find my chart shape?
Not strictly. Nine of the ten bodies barely move across a day, so a date-and-city chart usually lands on the right shape. The exception is the fast Moon, which can drift roughly six degrees in twelve hours, enough to nudge a borderline pattern. If you have your exact time, add it for the most reliable result.
What are the seven chart shapes?
Bundle (everything packed into a third of the wheel), Bowl (planets filling one half), Bucket (a bowl plus one lone handle planet opposite it), Locomotive (two-thirds occupied with one empty trine), Seesaw (two opposing groups), Splay (irregular individual clumps), and Splash (planets spread evenly all the way around).
Is the chart-shape method exact?
It's structural, not exact. The classical thresholds are well-established, but astrologers genuinely debate the edges, how wide a gap must be to isolate a Bucket handle, or whether a borderline span reads as a Bowl or a Locomotive. We use the traditional Jones method and tell you the span and largest gap so you can see the call for yourself.
What does my chart shape actually tell me?
It's a high-level read on how your focus is organised, concentrated in one area, split between two poles, scattered widely, or driven by a single standout planet. It's a reflective lens on temperament and emphasis, not a prediction. The detail lives in the individual placements, houses, and aspects underneath.
Keep reading your chart
Your chart shape is the first glance. To see the structure beneath it, look at where your planets pile up, which planet runs the whole chart, and the exact angles they make to each other.
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