Millions of people read their horoscopes in the newspaper, then go about their day. Although, these horoscopes can be fun, they can be misleading. Newspaper horoscopes only scratch a very wide surface, and to dig deeper here are 5 things you should know about astrology when reading your horoscope. Out of the billions of people who inhabit the earth, how could they possibly be categorized by only twelve zodiac signs? Have you ever met a Cancer who did not want kids? Or a passive Aries without a stubborn bone in his body? The explanation for this is, that there were other planetary energies imprinted on them at birth. This is the case for every person who was ever born. These five basics might shed some light, and hopefully get you interested in studying astrology at a deeper level.

1. The horoscope you read in the newspaper is for your Sun sign only. This is the zodiac sign that most people are familiar with. You are born from “this date to this date”, therefore you are this “sign”. This is referring to the constellation or “sign” the Sun was in at the moment of your birth. This is the same for the Moon, Mars, Venus, etc. These planets were set in a particular sign as well. You could have many planets in one sign and none in the other. We all have a unique specific chart that is drawn at our first breath and the Sun Sign is only part of this.

2. The Sun sign is very important it represents the self. But the other planets in our solar system play a part as well. To start it is good to focus on the three major influences which would be the Sun, the Moon, and the Rising Sign (Ascendant). Where the Sun represents the self and your journey, the Moon represents your emotions, secrets, and childhood. It is easy to find your Moon and Ascendant. But, you do need to know the exact time and place of birth.

3. The Ascendant (Rising Sign) is the sign that was rising in the east at the moment of birth. It is associated with physical appearance and how you project yourself to others. It could be classified as the “mask” you wear for the world. This does not mean that it is a false persona, it is simply how others see you, and your impression. This is a very important part of the horoscope and it is widely believed to be just as important as the Sun sign. Therefore, it is wise to read both the Sun sign horoscope, as well as, the Ascendant.

4. The horoscope in the paper is based on the planets’ influences, and their placements on that particular date. If, for instance, Mercury is strong in the heavens on that date, you will be successful in communicating with others. (Generally most people have Mercury in the same sign as their Sun.) This is the case for all twelve zodiac signs being written for that day. Which can be misleading because it is just too general and Sun sign specific. For example, if you are a Cancer (Sun sign) and it says it is going to be a productive work day, if you do not have Saturn in Cancer then it would not be fully accurate. (Saturn is associated with work and career)

5. An important thing to remember is that your newspaper horoscope is a very broad and brief interpretation of the Sun sign. These horoscopes are written to accommodate a wide range of readers and for the most part can be very vague. If it says there is love, then it is touching on a Venus influence in your sign, if it mentions work or career, that would be Saturn etc. It is important to find where these planets play a part in your horoscope and go from there. Remember a good place to focus on in the beginning would be the Sun, Moon, and the Ascendant.

Astro 123 is not something that you can buy in a store. It is available only off the Internet from a guy named Allen Edwell. This gentleman put a ton of work into this thing and the small price tag that comes with it is more than worth the many hours that you’ll save doing your own Astrological chart.

Astro 123 does all the basic things that you would expect a chart making program to do and then goes 100 steps farther.

For starters, by simply typing in your birth date, time and place and clicking a button, you get your basic birth chart which tells you your sun sign, rising sign and what house each planet is in at the time of your birth. But that’s just the beginning.

You can also get where your planets are on any day of any given year by simply putting that date into the program. This is how you do your daily chart, the kind that you see in your local newspaper each morning. If you do this on a daily basis you can get your horoscope every day for the rest of your life.

But we’re still not even close to being done. In addition to this, you can store birth dates of various people into a database. This way you don’t have to type in the information each time you want to get a chart for somebody. Just pull up their name from the database, press a button and their chart is done.

One of the most important requirements for creating a chart is to know where the person was born. This program allows you to load coordinates for any city into a database so that when doing somebody’s chart you don’t have to type them in each time. You just pull up the city from the database and there they are. The program even comes with some major cities already preloaded.

In addition to the standard birth chart, you can also get other charts from the program such as natal charts and transit data. Just about every kind of chart you could possibly want can be created by this program. In addition, each chart you make also produces a report, similar to your daily horoscope, that you can print out. This comes in handy if you’re doing a chart for a client and he requests something written.