The horoscope is a map that appears as a two dimensional chart showing the position of the Sun, the Moon, and planets at the precise moment of your birth. In the natal horoscope, the planets are frozen in their position at that initial moment. This type of horoscope is known as the birth chart or the natal chart. A correct interpretation of the birth positions exposes the "hand" that has been "dealt" in life. A horoscope can never show how you are going to "play" this hand. While you usually have freedom of choice or free will, the horoscope does reflect natural inclinations that you have to live with, lessons you have to learn, issues to be faced, and problems to be solved. It may be thought of as merely an abstract formula showing the energies that you've been given, or perhaps tasked. The use that you make of these energies, or opportunities, if you will, depends upon you, the individual. Astrology can provide incredible keys to understanding, but it doesn't provide clear and simplistic answers to any problems with which you may be dealing. Obtaining information about your horoscope may give you some insights and understanding of the reasons why you behave as you do.

To have the horoscope of another revealed allows the reader to understand that person better. You can see and understand him or her more accurately, objectively, and with a much greater tolerance. Understanding your horoscope may allow you to more clearly understand and accept yourself, and therefore do what you can with your natural attributes.

The Zodiac ("Circle of Animals") is the name given to the band of the ecliptic encircling the earth. It is like a belt in space, about 15 degrees wide, across which the planets move and form their geometrical relationships. The Zodiac forms the stellar backdrop for the apparent path of the Sun, called the plane of the ecliptic.

Astrologers divide the circle of the ecliptic into twelve parts, each subdivided into 30 degrees, making 360 degrees in all. The twelve divisions are called the Signs of the Zodiac. These signs are related (but not exactly identical) to the constellations (star groups) of the same name.

In astrology, the planets, sun, moon and other movable points (such as the moon's nodes) are still all described as "planets", the wanderers of the zodiac. From our point of view, the planets travel through the Zodiac in the course of their orbits around the Sun. Because they seem to be orbiting the Earth, the stars and planets rise in the east, move around the earth from east to west, then set in the west (due to the earth's rotation from west to east).

Astrologically, each sign symbolises certain specific characteristics in nature and, as the planets move through the signs, they stimulate (or perhaps simply reflect) reactions in both the individual and the collective here on Planet Earth. The Sun passes through one sign a month on its annual passage around the Zodiac.

Other planets, because they actually orbit the Sun, seem to travel rather erratically through the Zodiac. This is really an illusion, generated by our changing earthly perspective with respect to the planets' placement in their orbits, but it does have some interesting effects. From time to time, all planets except the Sun and Moon slow to a halt ("station") and then begin to move backwards through the Zodiac. This phase is called retrograde motion, which has specific astrological consequences.

Your Sun Sign is where the Sun was placed in the Zodiac at the time of your birth. Sun signs have become the staple diet of popular astrology, because everyone knows their birthday and the Sun's position can be easily worked out. Here's how: we divide the year into twelve months of around thirty days each and the Sun takes about thirty days to travel through each of the twelve astrological signs.

The astrological info on our website looks at the deep, archetypal symbolism involved with each Sun sign, but each of us is a lot more than just our Sun sign. Everyone's personality is a unique combination of influences from the Sun, the Moon and all the planets of the Solar System at the time and place of birth. Only a detailed astrological analysis of your character, can give you such detail.

Your Ascendant, or Rising Sign, is the sign of the Zodiac which was rising over the eastern horizon at the time of your birth. This changes approximately every two hours. Even twins born as little as five minutes apart could have different ascendants, which would make a real difference in their horoscopes and therefore their personalities. Your Ascendant represents your self-image and, to a considerable extent, how others see you. If you find, for instance, that the gentle, caring man you've met doesn't seem to fit the personality profile of the typical Aries... well, perhaps it's because he has a Pisces Ascendant. Or, if you find that only about half of what you read on this website applies to your submissive Leo lady, perhaps accommodating Libra crossed the horizon at the time of her birth.

Your Moon Sign is the sign of the Zodiac occupied by the Moon when you were born.

The Moon sign indicates your personality, reflecting the emotional development you underwent in your formative years. It can be thought of as an imprint or legacy from your early home environment and especially from the way your mother related to you when you were a child.

As an adult, you experience the Moon sign as a bundle of deep-seated emotional needs that must be fulfilled. Under pressure, you may exhibit the emotional needs and characteristics of that sign more than the characteristics of your Sun sign.

So if you are puzzled as to why that otherwise self effacing Virgo you're dating sometimes lashes you with a stinging tongue, it could be because she has Moon in Scorpio. Or if you can't understand why your otherwise homebody Cancerian man is always planning a jaunt overseas, perhaps his Moon is in Sagittarius.

Finding out your would-be lover's Ascendant and Moon signs will give you much greater understanding of how to handle them than you could obtain by researching their Sun sign alone.

To find out your lover's Ascendant and Moon signs, you need to know the time of day and place of his or her birth. Then check out our Star Shop and birth chart services, for a deeper analysis of his or her character and the way you relate together by the stars.

Ultimately, there is no substitute for having a complete horoscope cast by a professional astrologer. If you are contemplating a serious and continuing relationship with someone, spare no effort to find out the exact location, date and time of their birth and rush the details to us for a complete explanation, interpretation and prognosis of your relationship. This could save you months of fruitless pursuit and years of frustration--not to mention helping you avoid the agony of a broken heart, countless hours of psychotherapy and the decimation of your bank account.

Should the object of your desire happen to have been born on a day when the Sun changes signs, it's possible they were not born under the sign they have been mistakenly reading for years in the magazines.

On March 20, for example, the Sun generally moves out of Pisces and into Aries. If he or she were born on this day, send us the time of birth and we will make the calculation and tell you definitively into which sign their Sun falls. You can order an accurate horoscope from this website, with a compatibility reading for the two of you.

Hardly any people are actually born at the very moment the Sun moves from one sign to the next. Unless you are one of these rare people born right "on the cusp", you will be pretty much one sign or the other, although a person born just before the sun changes sign will share characteristics of both signs. Remember, the Sun sign reveals the true nature of a person, the essence of his or her character. Getting it right once and for all could turn out to be a major factor in the progress of your love life.