Chart shapes

Bowl

Half the chart occupied, half of it empty

The rule
All ten planets inside one half of the wheel
Read through one planet
No

What it is

Every planet within 180 degrees, leaving a clean empty hemisphere. Which half is occupied is the first thing to read: an eastern bowl, a northern one and so on each carry a different emphasis in the tradition.

The two planets at the ends of the occupied arc are called the rim, and the tradition reads them as the boundary of what the person works within.

How it reads

Self-containment. The occupied half is described as a complete world, and the reading associates a bowl with somebody who has what they need inside their own range and does not naturally look outside it.

The empty half is the more interesting part and the tradition is consistent about it: what is missing is what is sought. A bowl is usually written up as a person with a quest rather than as a person with a gap, and the houses left empty are read as the direction of that.

Where the bowl sits relative to the horizon matters as much as the shape. A chart with everything above the horizon and a chart with everything below it are both bowls and read very differently.

How common it actually is

Uncommon: 7.4 per cent of charts, about one in fourteen. Lower than most write-ups imply, largely because a bowl with any planet standing alone opposite it is counted as a bucket instead.

What to watch for

Treating the empty half as a deficiency. The tradition reads it as a direction of travel, which is a different claim.

Is your chart a bowl?

The birth chart tool names your shape along with the span it occupies and the widest empty arc. Bear in mind that the thresholds are a convention rather than a fact, so a different tool may reasonably give you a different word for the same chart. The hub prints the exact numbers this site uses.

Draw your birth chart freeThe thresholds, and how much they matterAspect patterns

The other shapes