Enter your birth details above and this free calculator shows your Vedic Moon sign, or rashi, with its degree and your birth nakshatra and pada. It sets your Western tropical Moon sign beside it, with the ayanamsa for your birth date, so you can see exactly where and why the two differ. Your Moon sign is the zodiac sign your Moon occupied at birth, and it is the single most important placement in Vedic astrology, more so than the Sun sign that Western astrology centres on.
How this calculator works
Your Moon is placed in your own browser by our ephemeris, using the Lahiri ayanamsa and read from tables calculated from NASA JPL DE440, which agree with it to within a few seconds of arc for births from 1899 to 2075 (outside those years a compact series is used, good to about a minute of arc, and the result says so). The time zone in force at your birth place on your birth date, including daylight saving, is applied automatically. The working is done in your browser. Once your email is confirmed, the birth details you enter and the headline of the result are kept with it, so that our emails can fit your chart (see the privacy policy).
The calculator works out your Moon’s tropical longitude, the Western measurement used from the point the Sun crosses the equator each spring, and then subtracts the ayanamsa, currently about twenty-four degrees, to arrive at the sidereal longitude the Vedic tradition uses. Both signs are shown side by side, with the ayanamsa value used for your birth year stated plainly, so the gap between the two is visible rather than left for you to work out.
Without a birth time, the calculator uses midday. If the Moon changed its sidereal sign on your date of birth, it shows both possibilities and the clock times of each rather than picking one.
Reading your result
Because the ayanamsa is about twenty-four degrees and each sign spans thirty, most people’s Vedic Moon sign is one sign earlier than their Western Moon sign. If the Moon sat in the last six or seven degrees of its tropical sign, the two systems give the same sign, because subtracting the ayanamsa leaves it inside that sign. It is never two signs earlier. If you have only ever seen your Western Moon sign, this is usually the reason a Vedic reading names a different one; both are correctly calculated, they are simply measuring against different reference points, the fixed stars for the sidereal zodiac and the seasons for the tropical one.
Where traditions differ
The ayanamsa itself is the genuine point of difference. This calculator uses Lahiri, the ayanamsa adopted by the Indian government’s own Calendar Reform Committee and the most widely used in Vedic practice, but it is not the only one: Raman and Krishnamurti, among others, use slightly different values, usually within a degree or so of Lahiri. For most Moons this makes no difference to the sign shown, but for a Moon near a sign boundary, within roughly a degree of it, a different ayanamsa can shift the sidereal sign by one, which is why two Vedic sources occasionally disagree on the same birth chart.
What it cannot tell you
This calculator names your Moon sign and gives your birth nakshatra and pada in one line of the result. It does not describe the nakshatra (its lord, deity, gana or naming syllable; the nakshatra calculator does that), and it does not give your dasha sequence, which follows from the same Moon placement and has its own calculator on this site. It also does not weigh your Moon sign against the rest of your chart, the house it falls in and the aspects on it, which shape how it actually plays out. For that, see the free kundali tool.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What is the difference between my Moon sign and my Sun sign?
Your Sun sign is the sign the Sun occupied at birth, and it is what Western astrology and most horoscope columns use. Your Moon sign, the sign the Moon occupied at birth, is what Vedic astrology treats as central, since the Moon moves quickly and marks your birth chart far more precisely than the Sun, which changes sign only once a month.
↳ Why is my Vedic Moon sign different from my Western Moon sign?
Because the two traditions measure the zodiac from different starting points. Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac, fixed to the seasons, while Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, fixed to the actual stars. The gap between them, the ayanamsa, is currently about twenty-four degrees, usually enough to place your Vedic Moon sign one sign earlier than your Western one.
↳ Which ayanamsa does this calculator use?
Lahiri, the ayanamsa set by the Indian government's Calendar Reform Committee and the one most widely used in Vedic astrology today. Other ayanamsas exist and are used by some traditions, and the calculator states the Lahiri value used for your specific birth year so you can compare it against another source if needed.
↳ Do I need my exact birth time to find my Moon sign?
Usually not. The Moon takes about two and a quarter days to cross one sign, so most birth times on a given date fall well inside the same sign. The exception is when the Moon changes sign on your date of birth, which the calculator checks for and will flag by showing both possibilities.
↳ Is my Moon sign the same as my rashi?
Yes. Rashi is the term used in Vedic astrology for the sidereal Moon sign, and it is what is meant when someone asks for your rashi rather than your zodiac sign in the Western sense.
↳ How do I find my Moon sign by date of birth?
Enter your birth date and place above, and the time if you know it. The calculator places the Moon, subtracts the Lahiri ayanamsa and gives your Vedic Moon sign with its degree, your birth nakshatra and pada, and your Western Moon sign beside it. It is 100% free. The first time you use a tool on this site we ask for your email and confirm it with a code.
↳ What does my Moon sign say about me?
Vedic astrology reads the Moon as the mind, so the Moon sign is taken as the base of your emotional temperament and the way you respond to life. It is also the sign from which transits such as Sade Sati are counted. The house and aspects of the Moon in your full chart shape how it plays out, which the free kundali shows.
↳ What is the difference between Moon sign and rising sign?
The Moon sign is the sign the Moon occupied at birth, and it changes about every two and a quarter days. The rising sign, or Lagna, is the sign rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth, and it changes about every two hours, so it needs an exact birth time. The ascendant calculator finds it.
↳ Is the Moon sign used for Sade Sati and transits?
Yes. Sade Sati runs while Saturn passes through the sign before your Moon sign, the Moon sign itself and the sign after it, and Jupiter's transit is read by its house from your Moon sign. Both use the sidereal rashi this calculator gives. The Sade Sati calculator works it out from your birth details.
For your nakshatra, dasha sequence and full chart built from the same Moon position, see the free kundali tool.