Modern Western Psychological
The default reading voice in StarBind - tropical zodiac, Placidus houses, and a Jungian-flavoured psychological lens. The chart speaks in terms of growth, integration, and self-knowledge rather than fate.
Lineage
Modern Western Psychological astrology is a 20th-century synthesis. Dane Rudhyar's The Astrology of Personality (1936) introduced humanistic astrology, framing the chart as a developmental map rather than a fixed verdict. Liz Greene and Stephen Arroyo extended the Jungian thread through the 1970s and 80s, weaving archetypal psychology, shadow work, and individuation into chart interpretation. This is the dialect most contemporary apps, magazine columns, and Western practitioners speak.
Defaults
| Knob | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Zodiac system | Tropical | Aligned to the seasons; vernal equinox = 0° Aries |
| Houses | Placidus | Time-based house division; the dominant Western system |
| Lunar nodes | Mean Node | Smoothed long-term average; matches most widely-used reference tools |
| Black Moon Lilith | Mean Apogee | Smoothed orbital point |
| Outer planets | Included | Uranus, Neptune, Pluto carry full aspect weight |
| Chiron | Included | Treated as a wound-and-healing axis |
| Saturn/Pluto conjunctions | Neutral | Heavy but not destabilising |
| Vertex axis | On | A "fated encounter" point, modern addition |
Who it's for
You want a reading that sounds like contemporary therapy - planets as archetypes, aspects as tensions to integrate, and the chart as a developing self rather than a fixed fate. If you've read Rob Brezsny, listened to Chani Nicholas, or worked with The Inner Sky, you're already speaking this dialect.