Horoscope


A horoscope is an astrological chart or diagram representing the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, astrological aspects and angles at the time of an event, such as the moment of a person's birth. The word horoscope is derived from the Greek words ōra and scopos meaning "time" and "observer". It is claimed by proponents of astrology that a horoscope can be used as a method of divination regarding events relating to the point in time it represents, and it forms the basis of the horoscopic traditions of astrology, although practices surrounding astrology have been recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century. Horoscope columns are often featured in print and online newspapers.
In common usage, horoscope often refers to an astrologer's interpretation, usually based on a system of solar Sun sign astrology, based strictly on the position of the Sun at the time of birth or on the calendar significance of an event, as in Chinese astrology. In particular, many newspapers and magazines carry predictive columns, written in prose that may be written more for increasing readership than tied directly to the Sun or other aspects of the Solar System, allegedly based on celestial influences in relation to the zodiacal placement of the Sun on the month of birth, cusp, or decant of the person's month of birth, identifying the individual's Sun sign or "star sign" based on the tropical zodiac.
In Hindu astrology, birth charts are called kundali, and they are claimed to be based on the movement of stars and the Moon. Auspicious events and rituals are started after checking a person's kundali, including marriage, in which the birth charts of the boy and girl are matched.The kundali further records tithi, rashi, nakshatra, and D-charts, which are analyzed to determine personality traits and to choose auspicious timings for important rituals and decisions
No scientific studies have shown support for the accuracy of horoscopes, and the methods used to make interpretations are considered examples of pseudoscience. In the modern scientific framework, no known interaction exists that could be responsible for the transmission of the alleged influence between a person and the position of stars in the sky at the moment of birth. In all tests completed, keeping strict methods to include a control group and proper blinding between experimenters and subjects, horoscopes have shown no effect beyond pure chance. Furthermore, some psychological tests have shown that it is possible to construct personality descriptions and foretelling generic enough to satisfy most members of a large audience simultaneously, referred to as the Forer or Barnum effect.

Introduction

The horoscope serves as a stylized map of the heavens over a specific location at a particular moment in time. In most applications the perspective is geocentric. The positions of the actual planets are placed in the chart, along with those of purely calculated factors such as the lunar nodes, the house cusps including the midheaven and the ascendant, zodiac signs, fixed stars and the lots. Angular relationships between the planets themselves and other points, called aspects, are typically determined. The emphasis and interpretation of these factors vary with tradition. This means however the stars were placed at the time of birth for a person shows their characteristics and personality, including weakness.

Etymology

The Latin word horoscopus, ultimately from Greek ὡρόσκοπος "nativity, horoscope", "observer of the hour ", from ὥρα "time, hour" and σκόπος "observer, watcher". In Middle English texts from the 11th century, the word appears in the Latin form and is anglicized to horoscope in Early Modern English. The noun horoscopy for "casting of horoscopes" has been in use since the 17th century. In Greek, ὡρόσκοπος in the sense of "ascendant" – not only of the time of someone's birth, but more generally of any significant event – and ὡροσκοπία "observation of the ascendant" has been in use since Ptolemy.

Concepts in Western astrology

  • The native is the subject of the event being charted at a particular time and place, and is considered to be at the centre of the celestial sphere.
  • The celestial sphere is an imaginary sphere onto which the zodiac, constellations and planets are projected, loosely based on the view of the sky above from Earth.
  • The plane of the equator is the plane of the Earth's equator projected into space.
  • The plane of the ecliptic is defined by the orbits of the Earth and the Sun. For practical purposes, the plane of the equator and the plane of the ecliptic maintain a constant inclination to each other of approximately 23.5°.
  • The plane of the horizon is centred on the native, and is tangential to the Earth at that point. In a sphere whose radius is infinitely large, this plane may be treated as nearly equivalent to the parallel plane, with its centre at the Earth's centre. This greatly simplifies the geometry of the horoscope, but does not take into account that the native is in motion. Some writers on astrology have thus considered the effects of parallax, but most would agree that they are relatively minor.

    Angles

There are four primary angles in the horoscope which are thought to influence key areas and moments in a native's lifetime, or within a given day or time. These are, in order of power:
  • First House
  • Tenth House
  • Seventh House
  • Fourth House
The ascendant is the easternmost where the ecliptic and horizon intersect; the ascendant and the midheaven are considered the most important angles in the horoscope by the vast majority of astrologers. In most systems of house division, the ASC is the cusp of the 1st house and the MC is the cusp of the 10th house.
Generally, on an astrological chart, each of these four angles are roughly 90° from the next, forming a cross shape. This cross formation is made up of the points of east-west, north-south, or 1st house-7th house, 10th house-4th house. A simplistic comparison would be a clock face, with the 1st house and 7th house being placed at 9 and 3 o'clock, and the 10th and 4th houses placed at 12 and 6 o'clock, respectively. The placement of the planetary ruler of the ascendant, called the Chart Ruler, is also considered to be significant; The point in the west diametrically opposing the ascendant is called the descendant, normally the cusp of the 7th house; and the point opposing the MC is the cusp of the 4th house, the northernmost point of the chart, called the Imum Coeli or IC.
In creating a horoscope, the ascendant is traditionally placed at the "nine o'clock" position on the left-hand side of the chart wheel. During the course of a day, because of the Earth's rotation, the entire circle of the ecliptic will pass through the ascendant and will be advanced by about 1°. In an astrological chart, the ascendant progresses and changes zodiac signs roughly every two hours, advancing about one degree every five minutes. This movement provides us with the term "rising" sign, which is the sign of the zodiac "rising" over the eastern horizon at the moment of birth. This point is thought to affect how we are perceived by others, based on the zodiac sign on the ascendant at the time of birth. The point on the ecliptic that is 90° above the plane of the horizon at the time is called the Midheaven, or Medium Coeli, placed at the "twelve o'clock position" effectively where the Sun would be if the birth time was midday. This area is thought to have greatest significance on one's career and public image.

The Zodiac

The Zodiac, or "circle of animals" is a zone or belt in space projected onto the celestial sphere through which, from our viewpoint, the planets move. A symbolic geometric construction around 16 degrees wide, it is divided into 12 signs, each of 30 degrees longitude, with the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun, as its middle line. The tropical zodiac used by most Western astrologers has its beginning at the exact moment that the Sun crosses the celestial equator and enters the zodiacal sign of Aries. Some Western astrologers use the sidereal zodiac favored by Indian astrologers, which is based more closely on actual positions of constellations in the heavens, as opposed to the tropical zodiac, which is a moveable format based on the seasons.
The tropical zodiac defines the vernal point as the first degree of Aries, but the sidereal zodiac allows it to precess. This difference may cause confusion among beginner and casual astrologers. Because of a "wobble" in the Earth's axis of rotation over a period of about 26,000 years, the rate at which the vernal equinox precesses in the heavens is approximately 0 deg, 0 min, 50.23 seconds a year, drifting by one degree every 72 years. Precession of the equinoxes thus occurs at a rate of roughly 5 arc minutes of a degree every 6 years. The tropical signs relate to the seasons and not the stars. Here is an example: a person born on, say August 28, 2002, would come to understand that their Sun sign was in Virgo according to Western astrology, but Sun on that same calendar date of the year 2002 was in the constellation Leo.
The sidereal signs and the tropical signs are both geometrical conventions of 30° each, whereas the zodiacal constellations are pictorial representations of mythological figures projected onto the celestial sphere based on patterns of visible star groupings, none of which occupy precisely 30° of the ecliptic. So constellations and signs are not the same, although for historical reasons they might have the same names.
Some astrologers do not use the signs of the zodiac at all, focusing more instead on the astrological aspects and other features of the horoscope. The sun sign is the sign of the zodiac in which the Sun is located for the native. This is the single astrological fact familiar to most people. If an event occurs at sunrise the ascendant and sun sign will be the same; other rising signs can then be estimated at two-hour intervals from there. A cusp is the boundary between two signs or houses. For some, the cusp includes a small portion of the two signs or houses under consideration.