Astro School: Lesson 4. Meet the Horoscope
- The Definition of Horoscope
- A Simplified Map of the Sky
- Horoscope Examples. Software for Creating Horoscopes
Horoscope: the Definition
Today we are going to make a major step forward and to get an initial understanding of the most important astrological concept: the Horoscope.
Here I am going to use the word horoscope in its traditional meaning. It was so often misused in the last couple of centuries that nowadays many astrologers are a sort of ashamed to use this word - or they simply want to make clear the difference between what they are doing and those entertaining texts that appear in numerous newspapers and magazines under the name of "horoscope".
So contemporary astrologers prefer to replace the word horoscope with something else: birth chart, cosmogram, astrological chart, natal chart, nativity and so on. All these are legible terms that can be applied in different circumstances but the generic term for them all is the horoscope.
I am going to claim the traditional term back and to use it in its proper sense, here is the definition:
Horoscope is a simplified diagram of the Universe as seen from a specific point in space at a specific moment in time..
As a rule, a horoscope shows the planets of the Solar System, their positions in the sky and any existing relationships between them - all this relative to the local horizon of a certain place on the Earth, and at a specific moment in time - say, where and when a person was born or a significant event took place.
However, depending on the practitioner, the used technique and the purpose of the horoscope, many other elements can be added to it, including certain stars, nebulae, asteroids as well as a wide array of non-material entities coming from different astrological traditions.
Horoscope can be quite complex, and in the traditional approach to teaching astrology it is only introduced after a lengthy period of studying all the different elements of it. However, I find it useful to introduce horoscope in the very beginning: first, you are already familiar with the most important elements, the planets and the Signs of the Zodiac; second, it can be much easier to understand the rest of the elements when you already know where they are going to be used. Also, as we go along, you will get used to reading horoscopes, and this is one of the most important skills in astrology.
As the prerequisites, I expect that you know the following:
- The names of the ten planets (including the Sun and the Moon) and their symbols. It will be also useful to know the sequence of planets in the Solar System, from the Sun to Pluto.
- The Signs of the Zodiac, their names and symbols. Also you should understand the idea that the Zodiac depicts the path of the planets around the sky, plus provides a ruler to measure their movement.
Please refer to the previous lessons if you don't know or don't understand anything of this.
What we are going to do here is to gradually build a simplified horoscope, then compare it to a real horoscope for the same moment and place. While doing this, we are going to learn:
- That a horoscope is basically a simplified map of the starry sky with planets on it.
- The main movements that take place in the sky.