Unless you’re a student of classical or medieval astrology, you probably have a very mistaken view of what the term means, because of the way it’s been abused by people who invented so-called “Sun” signs.
A nice older image of the Zodiac that illustrates the "Tropics"
The word “Horoscope” is taken from the Greek word Horoskopos, which means Hour-Marker. In other words, the word originally meant the stars on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth. As astrologers moved away from a constellational system and towards a system based on the Tropics, the Zodiac was designed to match the extreme and mean points of the ecliptic, or the apparent path of the Sun. This path is clearly marked on every globe and calendar; in the northern hemisphere, the Winter Solstice, or first degree of Capricorn, is the place where the Sun reaches the southernmost point in the sky – the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year. If you were on the tropic of Capricorn at the winter solstice, the Sun would be directly overhead. The opposite is true on the Tropic of Cancer, where the Sun will be at it’s northernmost position in the northern hemisphere. It’s also the summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, and the Sun is in the first degree of Cancer. Aries and Libra mark the two days when day and night are equal – the equinoxes – the days when the path of the Sun takes it across Earth’s equator. This path of the Sun is divided into twelve equal sections, which are the images that comprise the Zodiac.
Each of these images rise and set every day, carrying with them the Sun, Moon and the fixed and wandering stars that make up the heavens. The particular Zodion (image) calculated to be on the eastern horizon is called the “rising sign” (uh – because it is the sign that’s rising – really), or, anciently, the first place (house). The exact degree on the eastern horizon was called Horoskopos, or the hour-marker; today we call this point the Ascendant. Horoskopos is one of the key elements of Hellenistic (Alexandrian) astrology; it was used for delineating the health and character, as well as for predictive work; these techniques work just as well today as they did two thousand years ago.
So the next time you overhear someone say “I read my horoscope today” you’ll know full well they don’t have a clue as to what the word means, and may be tripping on connecting their self-image to the ideas of the folks who invented that ridiculous and insulting sign business. In India, they at least have made the distinction clear; their word for Horoskopos is Lagna, and you will never see a “Daily Lagna” article in one of their papers or journals. Honestly, my belief is that the tabloids of the day started calling it a Horoscope, because it sounded better than “daily BS about everybody born during this month in whatever year.” Anyway, at least you know now.
