The foremost instrument of astrology is the horoscope. The word is Greek and simply means "picture of the hour", i.e. picture of the sky at the hour in question, for example the birth of someone or something.
     Western astrology is rooted in Tetrabiblos, the astrological classic by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy (Ptolemaios), c.90-168 AD. Astrology was wide-spread long before his time. The oldest proof of astrological thinking is Mesopotamian, from about 2400 BC, in the writing of king Sargon the Old, who mainly commented on the relation between human (mostly royal) life and the sun and moon. For example:
    If the moon is visible on the first day of the month, then the country will be peaceful and its heart will delight. If the moon is surrounded by a halo, the king will rule solely.
     If the sun when it sets is twice its normal size, and three of its rays are bluish, then the country has lost its king.
     Astrology is also ancient in other cultures of the world. It is hard to find a culture where there is no fragment of astrological thinking, dating back to ancient times. It is easy to understand why, considering the world of ancient man. We have to be aware of the marvel of the world, as it was perceived by prehistoric man: celestial phenomena were mysterious and spectacular, needing to be explained in metaphysical terms. A solstice, a comet, the phases of the moon, the movement of the visible planets as opposed to the fixed stars - what could be their reason and meaning, prehistoric man wondered.
     Surely, it is out of this bewilderment that astrology was born.
     To ancient man, everything in the world had to be connected. There was one world, with man in the middle of it. The stars had to relate to man, or they just would not be there. The nature of the heavenly bodies was usually described in divine terms - they represented gods of one kind or other, or they were in some other way marks of divine influence. Therefore, it was reasonable that the stars and their movements should reveal something about the schemes of the gods.



The horoscope
The movement of the heavenly bodies was followed daily, already in antiquity. The horoscope chart, the concept of noting planetary positions at a certain point in time, and using it to predict future developments, is so old that we do not know of its beginning.
     It was usually applied to kings and such nobles, rarely commoners. That was done in the perspective of mundane astrology, the astrological method to predict worldly events of importance to a whole country, not just an individual - and there, of course, the king was of primary importance.
     In Europe, up until recent times, the most common way of drawing the horoscope chart was the so called envelope design, where each triangle of the figure represents an astrological House. See the horoscope of Martin Luther (1483-1546) below.


Martin Luther's horoscope in envelope design.
     Nowadays, the circular horoscope chart is used by most astrologers. In it, the outer circle marks the Zodiac, which is simply a coordinate system for the ecliptic plane - not a picture of the star configurations with the same names. Each of the twelve Zodiac signs is 30° of the total 360° circle. Inside of that circle, the positions of the planets are marked. Also, there is a twelve part division of the astrological Houses.
     There are several ways of dividing the horoscope chart into Houses. The oldest one is called equal house, where each House is the same 30° size. This was used by Ptolemy. Later systems, such as Placidus, Regiomontanus, Koch and Campanus, use differing sizes of the Houses.
     Inside the circle, aspects are marked by lines between planets. Ptolemy used five aspects - con­junction 0°, opposition 180°, trine 120°, square 90°, and sextile 60°. I use the same, whereas many other astrologers use additional aspects, such as the semi-sextile 30° and the quincunx 150°.
     Below is a modern style circular horoscope chart.


Circular horoscope chart.
Horoscope charts interpreted
On this website, I have included some horoscope charts, and written interpretations of them. There are some mundane horoscopes - of countries or insti­tutions - but also horoscopes of famous persons. Check the menu to the left on the top of this page, for a complete list of those horoscopes. I will add new horoscopes from time to time, so please return to my website.

© Stefan Stenudd
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