Guide Note:

Horoscopes are charts of the positions of celestial bodies at the time of a person's birth, or at the time of a given event. Those who believe in astrology believe that they can provide insight into a person's character and destiny, or into the meanings of events.

Fast Facts

1. Origin: Babylonian and ancient Egyptian astronomical research
2. Materials required: Star and planetary charts, mathematical tools
3. Types/variations include: Natal horoscopes, or birth charts; Hororary, or situational horoscopes; Electional, or event-based horoscopes
4. Uses: Divination
5. Notable practitioners: Hellenistic astronomers, Claudius Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe

Tips

While not scientific or rational, horoscopes may (like tarot) be helpful in gaining insight into people and events by providing a means of organizing impressions and thoughts. If so, a practitioner may be technically adept at creating horoscopes without being 'good' at it, and vice versa. In other words, the results are what you make of them.

Horoscopes were initially astronomical charts of the Sun, planets, and other bodies in the visible universe, and were used both for scientific and technical purposes and as a divination tool. When astrology and astronomy made their definitive split, in roughly the 17th Century, horoscopes followed the astrological path.

An astrologer will look up the position of the sun, moon, planets, and other objects at the precise time and place of a person's birth (or of a particular event), making adjustments according to longitude, leap years, and other such factors. These positions are drawn into a chart, which is divided into 12 sectors called 'houses,' upon which are superimposed the signs of the zodiac. The interpretation is a complex and individual process that considers all of the above factors, plus the relative angles (or alignments) of the planets to one another, and perhaps other innovations particular to the astronomer.