From education to marriage, from career to travel, there is very little that Indians do not decide on the basis of their horoscopes; if you do not decide, then horoscopes and predictions based on it are a great influence on people’s actions. Therefore, it is imperative to understand what a horoscope is and how it is done. Also called birth chart or natal chart, it is a diagram or astrological chart that represents the position of the planets, the sun, the moon, etc. in sensitive moments of a person’s life, mainly birth. Although this is the technical definition, in common language it generally refers to the predictions that an astrologer makes based on said astrological chart about the person’s future. It is an ancient phenomenon that finds mention not only in the Atharva-Veda (which describes the science behind this chart), but as part of the story in various epics such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Such was the pivotal role of a horoscope in Vedic India that the painful married life and eventual separation of Ram and Sita in the Ramayana is explained by the combination of all 36 weapons (the optimum number being between 19 and 35 out of a total of 36). 36). of them), that is, the root of the story is in the natal chart.
The question remains whether horoscopes are scientific or not. Not much modern research has been devoted to testing the truth of the claims astrologers base on birth charts. Most commentators and even practitioners cannot say anything about the accuracy of the predictions and the presence of a large number of fraudulent experts undermines the credibility of the limited number of experts who actually practice this science with the correct approach. Tests carried out under controlled conditions have failed to establish any correlation between the position of the stars in time and space and the behavior of a person. Also according to the Barnum effect, it is possible to construct personality descriptions that are generic enough to fit and satisfy a large group at the same time. This effect stems from psychological testing, plus it casts a shadow of a doubt on the whole pseudoscience of horoscopes and astrological predictions.
Most people today have a hard time reconciling this historical importance of birth charts with the shadow of doubt that the advent of modern science has cast on their legitimacy. Despite this, predictive art is good business. Most TV channels broadcast morning and brunch shows where callers’ problems are resolved based on their chart. Columns with a similar bottom line are not hard to find in newspapers and magazines. World famous personalities like Dr. Rupa Batra and KN Rao have come about solely because of this predictive science.
The main components of a graph are:
1. NATIVE: person in question
2. CELESTIAL SPHERE: imaginary projection sphere of the zodiac, planets and constellations
3. PLANE OF THE EQUATOR: The equator of the Earth projected in space
4. PLANE OF THE ECLIPTIC: orbits of the sun and the earth, taken at an inclination of 23.5 degrees with respect to the equator
5. PLANE OF THE HORIZON: tangential to the earth at the point where it is centered on the native; this is to simplify the geometry of the graph
These constructional complications make gaining experience in chart-based astrological predictions a very difficult task. And as discussed, the credibility of the experience is also in question. In any case, predictions based on horoscopes are here to stay. With all the uncertainty that humans face in life, it takes a crutch to know the future and what better than our own birth charts to do it!
