Astrology, tarot, palm readings and portraits worked out from
where the planets actually are and what you actually answer, not from a paragraph
written last month for everybody who shares your star sign.
Real sky positions
Built from your answers
No account needed
Dream Reading
Tell it what you dreamt, then choose whose tradition reads it:
Thai, Chinese, Islamic or Hindu. Four of the oldest systems for reading a dream,
and four different answers to the same night.
How it works
A reading of your own in four steps, and most of them are one answer.
1. ChoosePick a reading. Ten of them run all the way through for nothing.
2. Add detailsA birth date, a question, or a photograph of your hand. Never an account.
3. Get your readingComputed in this page, in a few seconds, from the real sky.
4. Come backThe sky moves. Most of these say something different tomorrow.
Real insights, for a more meaningful you
Ancient wisdom for modern life.
HalfKnown works the old methods properly: the actual positions of
the planets at the minute you were born, the cards you actually drew, the creases
actually on your hand. Nothing is a prediction, and every page says so.
Why this one is different
Three things you can check before you believe a word of it.
Start your journey
Find out what today actually says.
Your horoscope for today, worked out from where the planets are this
minute. Free, no account, about a minute.
Open beta. Every reading is free while the site is new, including the ones
that will be paid later. Nothing here asks for a card.
Every reading
Was that any good?
One line, if you have one. It may end up on the front page.
No address, nothing that identifies you.
How it works
Someone sent you this. It is free and it takes about a minute.
Is Mercury Retrograde?
For entertainment
A couple of details.
Which one are you?
Your Sun sign, the one everybody means. If your birthday is on the edge of two, pick the one you were told.
Which two signs?
No birth time needed for this one. If you know the exact moment for both of you, the full synastry reading is far more specific.
The moment, as exactly as you have it.
Filled in from your last reading. Change anything if this one is for somebody else.
Date of birth
MonthDayYear
An hour out can move the Rising sign. Midday is a fine guess.
And where.
Filled in from the date and the city, daylight saving included. Change it if you know better.
Now theirs.
Your hand is measured. The reading is the distance between it and somebody else's, which means we need one more hand.
Want tomorrow's card?
A card a day, read for your sign. Follow and it turns up in your feed tomorrow morning.
Your reading is already saved on this device, under Saved in the corner.
By continuing you accept the and the . Every reading on this site is for entertainment.
Before you hold your hand up
Thirty seconds of setup makes the difference between a reading and a guess.
Use the hand you write with. Hold it flat and relaxed with the fingers slightly apart, square to the camera, with the light in front of you rather than behind.
The photo is measured on this phone and never sent anywhere.
This needs the camera.
On a phone this opens your camera. Nothing is uploaded either way.
Would you rather show us than describe yourself?
Take one photo. Your phone measures it and throws it away.
Only a few words travel, the same kind the questions produce. The photo itself never
leaves this device.
Do not close this page
halfknown.app
Your portrait is ready
Created for entertainment. Nothing here is a prediction, a diagnosis, or advice to act on.
People who took this also took
The small print
What do you want to ask?
Your readings
Judge the sheet, not the individual portraits. If they look like they came from different artists, the style lock needs work.
Nothing yet. Readings you open are listed here.
Answered from the actual position of the planet right now, with the next window and the date it closes.
What retrograde actually is
Mercury never moves backwards. What happens is that Earth and Mercury are travelling at different speeds on different orbits, and three or four times a year the geometry is such that Mercury appears, from here, to slow, stop and track backwards against the stars for about three weeks. Then it appears to stop again and resume.
It is a real, computable, entirely predictable optical effect. Every other planet does it too. Mercury gets the attention because it does it most often.
How this answers the question
It computes Mercury's apparent motion today rather than reading a date off a list somebody typed up, and it gives you the next window and when it ends.
No birth details, no questions, nothing to enter. The answer is the same for everybody, because it is a fact about the solar system rather than about you.
What it is taken to mean, and what it is not
Traditionally the period is associated with communication, contracts, travel and anything mechanical: messages that go astray, agreements that need rereading, plans that need remaking. That is the folklore, and it is worth knowing because a very large number of people act on it.
There is no evidence that any of it happens. No study has found an effect on communications, travel, markets or anything else, and the most likely reason the period feels real is that once you know it is happening you start filing ordinary mishaps under it.
Both of those things are true at once, and a site that tells you only the first half is selling you something.
How Mercury reads in each sign
Mercury in Aries You say it before you have finished thinking it, and defend it afterwards.
Mercury in Taurus You think slowly and out loud only when finished, which people read as agreement.
Mercury in Gemini You think in tangents and get there, though nobody can follow the route.
Mercury in Cancer You remember how it felt, not what was said, and you are usually right about the first.
Mercury in Leo You state things. It sounds like confidence and is sometimes only volume.
Mercury in Virgo You take the argument apart properly, including the parts nobody asked about.
Mercury in Libra You can see both sides so clearly that you struggle to commit to one out loud.
Mercury in Scorpio You do not ask the easy question. People find this unnerving and useful.
Mercury in Sagittarius You go straight to the point and leave the tact to somebody else.
Mercury in Capricorn You only say the thing you can back up, which makes you slow and hard to argue with.
Mercury in Aquarius You are three steps ahead and bad at showing your working.
Mercury in Pisces You explain by image and analogy, which works beautifully until precision is required.
Questions
How often does it happen and how long does it last?
Three or four times a year, for roughly three weeks each time.
What is the shadow period?
The weeks either side, when Mercury is crossing the same stretch of sky it will cover again. Some astrologers extend the effect across it. It has the same evidence base as the rest of it.
Should I avoid signing a contract during it?
Read the contract carefully, which is good advice in any three weeks of the year. If a deal only works when a planet is in the right place, the problem is the deal.
Do other planets go retrograde?
All of them except the Sun and Moon. Venus and Mars do it less often and for longer, and almost nobody mentions them.
