The Sheer Idiocy of the “Sun Sign” Horoscope

The word “horoscope” comes to us from Greek, the exact meaning being “the observation of the hour”. NOT the observation of the month, NOT the observation of the year, the observation of the HOUR. So, when pop astrology bases the horoscope on the month of the birth (as the Sun transits each Sign in about 30 days) obviously we have a problem. I am baffled by the wide acceptance of such “monthoscopes” because the word itself gives obvious clues “horo” is cognate with the French word “heure”, the Spanish word “hora”, the English word “hour”, and of course “scope”, the second part of the word horoscope is known to all of us alone and also as part of composite words such as telescope, microscope, etc. always meaning observing, looking at.

The idea that a person’s nature is the same as the nature of everyone, everywhere in the world born during the same Sun transit (month) is beyond ridiculous. On average 385,000 people are born each day. That means in a 30 day month 11,550,000 people are born. So even within one year, 11 million 550 thousand people have the same horoscope (well, more precisely monthoscope) With an average lifespan of 70 years, proponents of the pop monthoscope are basically saying that currently 808,500,000 people living on earth are the same.

I am not even addressing here the fact that pop astrology is using a very interesting and completely illogical and nonsensical thingy called the “western zodiac”, because even if the “monthoscope” were based on the actual Zodiac, the sheer idiocy of the theory that 808 million people are essentially the same, is blatantly clear.

In Vedic Astrology the exact time of and place of the person’s birth is used to establish the Ascendant (also known as Lagna, Rising Sign or simply 1st House) So, like in all professional Astrological traditions, Vedic Astrology is indeed “observing the hour”. 

Because of the tilt of the axis of the Earth and also because of the shape itself of the globe, the 12 Signs of the Zodiac do not rise evenly within the 24 hours of a given day everywhere. Farther from the equator, larger the difference between the rising time of different Signs within the same 24 hours period. Close to the Equator the 12 Signs are rising quite evenly 2 hours each. This is why the exact location of the birth is needed.

Every single day the 12 Signs rise. “Rising” means that they perform an upward motion when we look at the Eastern horizon. In reality nothing is “rising”, the Zodiac belt isn’t spinning, this rising motion is simply the result of the rotation of the Earth, but in the (very reasonable, since we are living on Earth) geocentric worldview, it is customary to think of this apparent motion as “rising”.

This means that every single day there are Aries Ascendant people, Gemini Ascendant people, Scorpio people, Capricorn people, etc. As in Vedic Astrology we are not only using the 12 Signs of the Zodiac, but also the Nakshatra placement of the Lagna point (The exact point on the Eastern horizon at the precise moment of birth) Instead of a person sharing his “horoscope” with 808 million people, in Vedic Astrological calculations a person will be sharing his Birth Chart with the people who are born within the same 48 minutes at the exact same location. (Provided there were no planetary movements during this time.) The 48 minute is an average Nakshatra rising time calculated for the equator, in higher latitudes this time will vary within each day between the different Nakshatras.