/api/astro/traditional/sect/1 creditSect
Whether a chart is diurnal or nocturnal, and everything that follows from it. Sect is the first question traditional astrology asks of a chart and it changes almost everything after: which luminary leads, which benefic and which malefic are working with the chart rather than against it, and which triplicity rulers apply. By day the Sun leads, Jupiter is the benefic of the sect and Mars the malefic out of it; by night all of that reverses. Decided by the Sun's actual ALTITUDE rather than by house placement, so the answer does not depend on a house system. The altitude is returned, so a borderline chart is visible instead of arriving as a bare label. For each planet: whether it is in its own sect, whether it is above the horizon, and whether it is in hayz — in sect, in the matching half of the sky, and in a sign of matching gender, the strongest condition the tradition recognises. Mercury takes its sect from which side of the Sun it sits on, being a morning or evening star rather than diurnal or nocturnal by nature.
https://yogataraapi.prahlad.app/api/astro/traditional/sect/Authentication
Send your key in the X-API-Key header. Keys are server-side credentials — never put one in browser JavaScript or a mobile app.
X-API-Key: yt_live_a1b2c3d4_…
Content-Type: application/jsonRequest fields
| Field | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| date_time | string (date-time) | required | The moment to calculate for, ISO 8601. ALWAYS include an offset or a trailing Z - a value with no zone is read as Asia/Kolkata (UTC+05:30), not UTC, and can return the previous day's result with a 200. '2026-09-01T06:00:00Z' and '2026-09-01 06:00:00' are different instants and give different answers. |
| latitude | number (double) | required | Latitude of the place, in decimal degrees. Positive is north, negative is south. Example: 26.9124 for Jaipur, 40.7128 for New York. Minutes and seconds are not accepted - convert first. min -89.9 · max 89.9 |
| longitude | number (double) | required | Longitude of the place, in decimal degrees. Positive is east, negative is west. Example: 75.7873 for Jaipur, -74.0060 for New York. Note the sign: a missing minus puts New York in China. min -180 · max 180 |
| timezone_as_float | number (double) | required | UTC offset of the place, in hours, as a decimal. Example: 5.5 for India (UTC+05:30), -5 for New York in winter, 5.75 for Nepal. This is NOT validated against date_time - if the two disagree you get a successful response for the wrong moment, so derive both from the same source. Use the offset in force on that date, not today's: a summer birth in a country with daylight saving needs the summer offset. min -12 · max 14 |
| keys | array | optional | Which calculations to return, as a list of names. See the key table for this endpoint; an unrecognised name rejects the whole request. One call costs one credit however many keys you ask for, so request everything you need at once rather than making several calls. |
Example request
curl -X POST https://yogataraapi.prahlad.app/api/astro/traditional/sect/ \
-H "X-API-Key: $OCCULT_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"date_time":"1990-08-15T10:30:00+05:30","latitude":26.9124,"longitude":75.7873,"timezone_as_float":5.5}'Response
{
"data": {
"zodiac": "tropical",
"sect": "diurnal",
"is_day_chart": true,
"sun_altitude": 58.950403,
"light": "sun",
"benefic": "jupiter",
"malefic": "saturn",
"contrary_malefic": "mars",
"contrary_benefic": "venus",
"planets": [
{
"planet": "sun",
"own_sect": "diurnal",
"in_sect": true,
"above_horizon": true,
"altitude": 58.950403,
"in_hayz": true,
"sign": "Leo",
"sign_index": 5,
"degree_in_sign": 22.125,
"formatted": "22°07' Leo"
},
{
"planet": "moon",
"own_sect": "nocturnal",
"in_sect": false,
"above_horizon": true,
"altitude": 50.882857,
"in_hayz": false,
"sign": "Gemini",
"sign_index": 3,
"degree_in_sign": 12.66,
"formatted": "12°39' Gemini"
},
{
"planet": "mercury",
"own_sect": "nocturnal",
"in_sect": false,
"above_horizon": true,
"altitude": 32.151092,
"in_hayz": false,
"sign": "Virgo",
"sign_index": 6,
"degree_in_sign": 19.176,
"formatted": "19°10' Virgo"
},
{
"planet": "venus",
"own_sect": "nocturnal",
"in_sect": false,
"above_horizon": true,
"altitude": 78.633828,
"in_hayz": false,
"sign": "Leo",
"sign_index": 5,
"degree_in_sign": 1.573,
"formatted": "1°34' Leo"
},
{
"planet": "mars",
"own_sect": "nocturnal",
"in_sect": false,
"above_horizon": true,
"altitude": 29.600577,
"in_hayz": false,
"sign": "Taurus",
"sign_index": 2,
"degree_in_sign": 21.217,
"formatted": "21°13' Taurus"
},
{
"planet": "jupiter",
"own_sect": "diurnal",
"in_sect": true,
"above_horizon": true,
"altitude": 80.557414,
"in_hayz": false,
"sign": "Cancer",
"sign_index": 4,
"degree_in_sign": 29.337,
"formatted": "29°20' Cancer"
},
{
"planet": "saturn",
"own_sect": "diurnal",
"in_sect": true,
"above_horizon": false,
"altitude": -84.509552,
"in_hayz": false,
"sign": "Capricorn",
"sign_index": 10,
"degree_in_sign": 19.878,
"formatted": "19°52' Capricorn"
}
],
"meaning": {
"light": "The luminary that leads the chart.",
"benefic": "The benefic working with the sect.",
"malefic": "The malefic of the sect — the easier of the two.",
"contrary_malefic": "The malefic out of sect, traditionally read as the harder one."
}
},
"status": 200,
"is_error": false,
"message": "successful"
}Captured from a real call using the exact request above. Results sit under data.
Errors
Metering errors return { "error": "…", "message": "<code>", "is_error": true }. Show error to people and branch on message. See the error reference.