How the Machine Works

1. It calculates

• Your sun sign comes from where the Sun really was on your birth date, using astronomy-engine, an open-source astronomy library. With no birth time, the machine checks your whole birthday in every time zone on Earth. If the Sun changed sign that day, it tells you you're on the cusp instead of guessing.
• Your numbers use Pythagorean numerology, written down in the code: your life path from your birthday, and the name numbers from the letters of your name. Master numbers 11, 22 and 33 are kept whole.
• Your Chinese zodiac starts each year at Lunar New Year, worked out from the new moons and the December solstice, so a January or February birthday lands on the right animal.
• The sky the night you arrived: the Moon's phase and how much of it was lit, and which planets were moving backwards in the sky that day.
• Calendar facts: the weekday you were born, its old rhyme, and how many days you've been alive.

Same birthday and name in, same card out. Nothing is random.

2. It reads from a library

Every sentence on a card comes from the machine's own library of lines, written and checked before any card is printed. Each sign and number carries a set of traits; your signs and numbers are blended, and the machine picks the lines for the traits that come out strongest in you. No chatbot writes your card on the fly.

Every trait is written as a pair, a gift and a challenge, so the hard truths come from the same place as the compliments.

3. It checks its own work

Before a card goes out, a checker recomputes every number, confirms every line exists in the library, and scans for anything the machine isn't allowed to say. If a card fails, it doesn't go out: a person checks it by hand, within 24 hours.

4. What it doesn't do

• It doesn't predict what happens to you. The Machine's Forecast gives themes and moods (when, and what kind), never outcomes.
• It doesn't claim to be psychic, and it doesn't claim to know your secrets. Facts are stated as facts; hunches are labelled as hunches.
• It doesn't treat astrology or numerology as science. They are traditions, and the card says so.

More on that: For Entertainment. Found a wrong date or a bad sum? It gets fixed and logged on Corrections.