Chart Settings in Hermes: Choose Your Systems and Save Your Preferences

HERMES / 01

Build a chart around your method.

Zodiac · Houses · Personal preferences

Changing a house system and changing the zodiac answer different questions. To make a useful comparison, you need to know which setting you changed—and where you saved that choice.

The Chart Settings panel in Hermes brings these decisions together. This guide separates the seven controls, then explains how to keep the combinations you use regularly.

Start with one question

“How does this chart look in Whole Sign?” and “What changes when I use a sidereal reference?” are separate comparisons. If you change both settings at once, the differences are harder to trace.

Keep the date, time and location fixed for your first exercise. Change one control, inspect the result and record the choice. When studying another tradition, keep the source and the reason for that choice in your notes too.

The seven controls

Controls placed together can still serve different purposes. Rotating house cusps and choosing a transformation anchored to 0° Aries are separate operations. If a control becomes unavailable in a particular mode, check the selected mode and the chart details before continuing.

What the option counts include

Hermes brings together the following calculation choices:

• 2 lunar node methods: True Node and Mean Node.
• 48 house-menu choices: 9 main, 23 specialist and 16 point-based options.
• 12 cusp settings: Normal and 11 rotations.
• 2 zodiacs: tropical and sidereal.
• 48 ayanamsa choices: 47 built-in references and one custom option.
• 19 transformation choices: Normal and 18 transformations.
• 10 coordinate or viewing modes, including Normal.
• 5 personal preset slots.

The 48 house-menu choices include derived and special arrangements; they are not 48 independent base algorithms. The five preset slots hold your own combinations, rather than five factory-defined school profiles. Check the menu in your installed version alongside this list.

Choose the zodiac and house system separately

Two separate guides explain what these choices mean: Tropical and Sidereal Zodiacs and Placidus, Whole Sign and the main house systems. Here we only look at where to set them in Hermes.

The zodiac control selects the zodiac reference used to express positions. The house-system control selects the method used to construct the houses. Do not assume that changing one requires changing the other.

To study house systems, hold the zodiac fixed in your first comparison. For sidereal work, record the ayanamsa as well. “Sidereal” alone leaves an important choice unspecified.

Keep node calculations and transformations distinct

True Node and Mean Node are the two choices in the lunar node field. The transformation menu also contains draconic options using mean or true node references. Record each selection by name; do not assume how a preference in one control carries into every other mode.

You can leave the transformation at Normal for an ordinary chart study. When investigating a transformation, keep a record of the source view before changing that control. You will then have a clear starting point for comparison.

Four reasons to save—or apply—a choice

Trying a house system on an open chart does not, by itself, tell you what the next new form will use. If you want to change new-form defaults, use the relevant action and open a new form to check the result.

Organise your five personal presets

The Presets panel contains five numbered slots. Select a slot, edit its settings and save the combination to that slot.

Keep a note of what each slot contains—for example, “Preset 2: Tropical · Placidus · True Node.” After recalling a preset, read the controls again. Remembering its number does not replace checking the preferences.

Try a comparison you can repeat

Open a sample chart and record its date, time and location. Hold the zodiac, node method, ayanamsa, transformation and coordinate mode fixed. Compare Placidus with Whole Sign, leaving the cusp setting at Normal in both views.

Record which cusps or planetary house placements change, rather than simply writing “the chart changed.” Then return to the starting choice. This is a proposed exercise; it does not assume a calculated result for a particular chart.

Try one comparison next

You do not need to explore every option in one sitting. Establish the combination you use regularly, investigate one question and keep a record you can return to.

The companion walkthrough calculates the same sample data in Placidus and Whole Sign. Further articles on zodiacs, nodes, ayanamsas and tradition-specific choices will join the series as their research is completed.

Specialist house choices such as Sunshine (Makransky), the Huber Age Point and Octotopos are being prepared for the next Hermes release; the specialist houses guide explains where to find them and what they are for.

The screenshots and numerical inventory here record 16 October 2026. The next release adds Makransky, bringing the house menu to 49 choices (9 main + 24 specialist + 16 point-based).

Product visuals: Hermes 2.4.2, macOS, 16 October 2026. Charts use synthetic sample data. Menu counts follow the local product inventory dated 16 October.