Astrology is
a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs in which knowledge
of the relative positions of celestial bodies and related
information is held to be useful in understanding, interpreting,
and organizing knowledge about personality, human affairs,
and other terrestrial events. A practitioner of astrology
is called an astrologer, or, less often, an astrologist.
Although the two fields share a common origin, modern
astronomy is entirely distinct from astrology. While astronomy
is the scientific study of astronomical objects and phenomena,
the practice of astrology is concerned with the alleged
correlation of heavenly bodies (and measurements of the
celestial sphere) with earthly and human affairs. The
use of astrology to create a chart of likley events and
influences upon an individual is known as a horoscope.
Central to horoscopic astrology and its branches is the
calculation of a horoscope or what has recently become
known as an astrological chart. This is a diagrammatic
representation in two dimensions of the celestial bodies'
apparent positions in the heavens from the vantage of
a location on Earth at a given time and place. The horoscope
of an individual's birth is called a natal chart - horoscope
chart. In ancient Hellenistic astrology the rising sign
or ascendant demarcated the first celestial house of a
horoscope, and the word for the ascendant in Greek was
horoskopos.
This is the word that the term "horoscope" derives from
and in modern times it has come to be used as a general
term for an astrological chart as a whole. Other commonly
used names for the horoscope/natal chart in English include
natus, birth-chart, astrological chart, astro-chart, celestial
map, sky-map, star-chart, nativity, cosmogram, vitasphere,
soulprint, radical chart, radix, or simply chart, among
others.
