Why Merastra exists

Sixteen, and a forum

I was sixteen, going through a hard time, and mostly looking for somewhere to put my thoughts other than on myself. I landed on a small site called astrologie-libre, a forum run by a woman who welcomed everyone. I wrote to her, and we ended up talking a lot. Her name was Joanne. I thought of her as something like a friend: she was there for everyone, even in the middle of her own struggles. Astrology gave me a way out for a while, and she gave me something rarer, someone who listened.

Joanne passed away in 2025. I bought the astrologie-libre.org domain name.

A tool that crossed the centuries

What kept me there afterwards was history. For centuries, kings and kingdoms looked to the sky before deciding. That proves nothing, and astrology is not a validated science, so I don't present it as one. But that a tool crossed so many eras still fascinates me.

Sorting the sky

My brain is neurodivergent. It works best when it gathers facts, sorts them and arranges its thoughts. An almanac asks for exactly that: precise positions, sources, a logic you can follow. Merastra is my way of putting that habit to use for someone else.

How I build it

I calculate the sky with an engine I designed myself, and I check the planet positions against JPL Horizons, NASA's ephemeris service. The engine brings keywords, calculation methods and the data of the moment together into a single portrait, fed by books from several eras where the traditions answer one another. An open-weight language model then puts that portrait into sentences, keeping to what the engine gathered.

There is no advertising or tracking on the site. The data you share with me, such as your birth date, is used only to run the service.

To me, astrology and tarot remain tools for reflection: they don't decide for you and don't predict anything with certainty.

I keep a free plan, Essentiel. The Membre and Pro subscriptions help me pay for the servers and the development, and may let me make a small living from it, so I can give it more of my time.

Get in touch

To write to me, this way