About Stars at Birth

Who makes it

Stars at Birth is made by Atelier Holly, the Stockholm studio of artist Holly Biörklund. The studio turns birth charts into art prints, designed by Holly and made to order from each person's birth details. This site is where you can explore the charts themselves: your own, and those of people you admire.

Where the birth data comes from

A birth chart is only as good as the birth time behind it. A difference of a few minutes can move the Rising sign and every house, so we only publish charts whose times have a documented source.

• Birth time and its reliability: Astro-Databank, the reference collection of birth data kept by Astrodienst, which grades every time with a Rodden rating. We record the facts (date, time, place and rating) and link to the entry; the biographies there are theirs, and we don't copy them.
• Date and place: cross-checked against Wikipedia and Wikidata. If the sources disagree, we leave the person out.
• Life facts in the readings: well-documented events from reputable biographies and the press, written in our own words.

What the Rodden rating means

The Rodden rating, devised by the astrologer Lois Rodden, says how reliable a birth time is.

• AA: from a birth certificate or birth record.
• A: from the person themselves, their family or a close associate.
• B: from a biography or autobiography.
• C: caution: the source is unknown or vague.
• DD: dirty data: two or more conflicting times.
• X: no time known.

Our charts use AA or A times only, so the Rising sign and houses can be trusted. That is why some very famous people are missing: there's no reliable time for them yet.

How the charts are calculated

Charts use the tropical zodiac and Placidus houses, calculated with the Swiss Ephemeris through the Astrologer API, the same engine as the free birth chart reader on atelierholly.com. Each chart has been checked against the Astro-Databank entry.

How the readings are written

Each reading is drafted with the help of AI (Claude, by Anthropic) from the chart and the person's documented life, then checked by hand against the sources: no invented quotes or events, no guesses about anyone's health or future, nothing unkind. Astrology is a way of looking at a life, not a fact about it, and the readings are written in that spirit. Your own free reading is written by the same AI, from your chart, as you wait.

Corrections

If you spot a mistake in a date, a time or a fact, write to hello@atelierholly.com and we'll check it and correct it.