Solar arc directions for beginners
Move everything by the same amount. Simpler than progressions, and it wakes up the outer planets.
3 min read · Published 30 August 2026
The short answer
Solar arc direction advances every point in the chart by the same amount: the distance the progressed Sun has moved, which is roughly one degree per year of life. Because everything moves together, planets that barely progress at all under secondary progressions become active. At about a degree a year, a solar arc contact is accurate to within roughly a year, making it one of the more specific timing techniques.
How it works
Take the arc your progressed Sun has travelled since birth — about one degree for each year of life — and add that same arc to every point in the chart.
So at 30, everything in your chart has moved forward roughly 30 degrees: planets, angles, house cusps, calculated points.
The consequence is that Pluto, which under secondary progressions barely moves in a lifetime, travels a degree a year like everything else — so outer planets form contacts they otherwise never would.
The arithmetic is simple enough to do by hand, which is part of why the technique persisted before software.
Solar arc versus secondary progressions
| Secondary progressions | Solar arc | |
|---|---|---|
| What moves | Each planet at its own progressed speed | Everything, by the same arc |
| Outer planets | Effectively fixed | Move a degree a year like everything else |
| Moon | Moves fastest, about 1° a month | Moves at 1° a year like everything else |
| Complexity | Different speeds to track | One number applied to everything |
| Best for | Emotional chapters via the Moon | Specific-year timing across the whole chart |
The two are complementary rather than competing. Progressions give you the fast-moving Moon; solar arc gives you the outer planets. Practitioners who use both look at progressions for texture and solar arc for timing.
Which arc
There is a disagreement worth knowing about. The standard method uses the actual progressed Sun's motion, which varies slightly because Earth's orbit is elliptical — the Sun moves marginally faster in January than in July.
The Naibod method instead uses a fixed mean rate of about 59 minutes 8 seconds of arc per year, ignoring the variation.
Over a lifetime the two diverge by a fraction of a degree, which matters at one-degree orbs. As with progressed angles, a tool should say which it uses, and most do not.
Reading it
- Directed to natal. The standard technique: a solar arc planet contacting a natal position. The natal chart stays fixed as the reference.
- Tight orbs. One degree is standard, sometimes half. Wider orbs destroy the technique's main advantage.
- Watch the angles. A solar arc planet reaching the Ascendant or Midheaven is treated as significant, since the angles are the chart's most sensitive points.
- Conjunctions carry most weight. Solar arc work leans heavily on conjunctions, with oppositions and squares secondary.
AsterNym does not compute solar arc. It computes secondary progressions and states the method used, and solar arc is a straightforward hand calculation from the progressed Sun figure shown there — add the arc to any natal position.
Common questions
- What is solar arc direction?
- A technique that advances every point in the chart by the same amount — the arc the progressed Sun has travelled, which is roughly one degree per year of life. Everything moves together, including the outer planets.
- How is solar arc different from secondary progressions?
- Progressions move each planet at its own progressed speed, so the Moon moves fast and the outer planets barely at all. Solar arc moves everything by the same arc, which makes outer planets active but slows the Moon to a degree a year.
- How accurate is solar arc timing?
- With everything moving about a degree a year and a typical orb of one degree, a contact is active for roughly a year. That makes it more specific than slow outer-planet transits, which is why it is valued for timing.
- What is the Naibod arc?
- An alternative method using a fixed mean solar rate of about 59 minutes 8 seconds of arc per year, rather than the Sun's actual progressed motion, which varies slightly because Earth's orbit is elliptical. The two diverge by a fraction of a degree over a lifetime.