how are daily horoscopes determined?

Blythe Noreiga: Here is how one person did it.The American conjuror James Randi recounts in his book Flim Flam how as a young man he briefly got the astrology job on a Montreal newspaper, making up the horoscopes under the name Zo-ran. His method was to cut out the forecasts from old astrology magazines, shuffle them in a hat, distribute them at random among the 12 zodiacal signs and print the results. This was very successful of course (because all astrology works on the "Barnum principle" of saying things so vague and general that all readers think it applies to them.) He describes how he overheard in a cafe a pair of office workers eagerly scanning Zo-ran's column in the paper. "They squealed with delight on seeing their future so well laid out, and in response to my query said that Zo-ran had been 'right smack on' last week. I did not identify myself as Zo-ran... Reaction in the mail to the column had been quite interesting, too, and sufficient for me to decide that m! any people will accept and rationalise almost any pronouncement made by someone they believe to be an authority with mystic powers. At this point, Zo-ran hung up his scissors, put away the paste pot, and went out of business.""...Show more

Nikki Sypult: That's not actually wrong

Son Ahlers: That's an interesting question

Inge Mclaurine: I don't know exactly and it may vary from one astrologer to another, but what I gather is that an astrologer looks at the location of the planets and then tries to apply standardized meanings for the planets and aspects and houses for each sign to put words into a reading.Here's an example. I made a chart for tomorrow at noon in Berkeley, California. I see that Mercury is in Libra and is trine Jupiter in Aquarius. So for anyone in Aquarius, there is a beneficial influence of Mercury on Jupiter. The meanings of this are good ideas, good fortune resulting from communications, good news, and similar words. (Mercury stands ! for communications, trine is beneficial, and Jupiter stands fo! r good fortune). They would apply to both Aquarius and Libra people. An astrologer might write that Aquarians should get some good news through communications. Check your mail! Also, the houses might be used to add meaning, such as Jupiter in 2nd house means you receive money. Mercury in 10th house means you get it from your professionalism. So then the astrologer says you might be rewarded for your work with a check in the mail....Show more

Frederic Engellant: I think the horoscope was originally a way to mark the passage of time with the constellations in the sky. It's not very accurate, at least for me. I don't really care about horoscopes anymore.