THE BIRTH CHART
The fifteen arrows
Every digit of a birth date sits in a fixed cell of a three-by-three grid. When three cells in a line are all occupied, that line makes an arrow of strength. When all three stand empty, it makes an arrow of weakness.
There are eight lines through the grid — three rows, three columns, two diagonals — and fifteen named arrows between them. The left column has only a strength: a date missing 1, 2 and 3 together is very nearly impossible.
The rows each sit inside a single plane, so their arrows describe a concentration in one mode of expression. The columns and diagonals cross all three planes, so theirs describe a circuit — something carried from thought to feeling to action, or failing to be.
The percentages below are counted across every date from 1930 to 2025. On each arrow’s own page they are broken down by decade, because the blended figure is badly misleading for most people — one of these arrows is carried by 100% of those born in the 1950s and 2.3% of those born in the 2000s.
Arrows of strength — the line is full
- The Arrow of Determination1–5–927.4%You do not stop, and you have never been sure whether that is a virtue.
- The Arrow of Spirituality3–5–72.1%You have always suspected there was more to it, and you were not wrong.
- The Arrow of Intellect3–6–98.7%Your mind is your best instrument, and you rely on it more than is good for you.
- The Arrow of Emotional Balance2–5–84.9%You are steady in the exact moments other people come apart.
- The Arrow of Practicality1–4–78.7%You can be relied on, and you have quietly built your identity on that fact.
- The Arrow of the Planner3–2–120.3%You see the whole sequence before anyone else has agreed there is a problem.
- The Arrow of Will6–5–41.8%You have a spine, and most people find out about it later than they would have liked.
- The Arrow of Activity9–8–78.0%You are always doing something, and you have never asked why.
Arrows of weakness — the line is empty
- The Arrow of Procrastination1–5–92.6%You already know. You have known for years. That is rather the point.
- The Arrow of the Questioner3–5–723.5%You take nothing on trust, and it has cost you some things worth having.
- The Arrow of Poor Memory3–6–99.8%You forget, and you have built an entire personality around apologising for it.
- The Arrow of Hypersensitivity2–5–811.6%You take everything personally, and being told not to has never once helped.
- The Arrow of Confusion1–4–72.6%You have too much going at once, and you always have.
- The Arrow of Frustration6–5–425.3%The distance between what you imagined and what you got is where you live.
- The Arrow of Passivity9–8–711.0%You wait. You have always waited. Something was supposed to begin by now.
You have read about it. Now have it read.
None of this is worth much in the abstract. Give the teacher the day you were born and he will tell you which of these you actually carry.
DRAW MY LATTICE →