Horoscopes

Who doesn’t love horoscopes? Even the most skeptical among us admit to sneaking a peek at their daily horoscope now and then. These bite-sized astrological insights into your day, week, month, or year can inspire, uplift, guide or comfort you, but what actually are horoscopes, and how can you find the best online horoscopes for your zodiac sign?

What Are Horoscopes?

A horoscope is a forecast an astrologer makes about a specific period of time, typically a day, week, month or year. There are usually twelve horoscopes, one for each zodiac sign. Astrologers create horoscopes by looking at the movements of the planets on that particular day or during that period of time and comparing those movements to where the planets were when you were born. The way the planets interact together and the angles between them create the astrological energy which the astrologer interprets into your horoscope forecast.

Are Horoscopes Accurate?

Depends on what you mean by accurate! Any astrologer will tell you that to get a truly accurate astrological forecast, they need to work with your actual birth chart, for which they will need the date, time, and place of your birth, not just your zodiac sign.

Common sense tells us that not all Scorpios are going to meet a tall, dark, handsome stranger on the same day, and that not all Capricorns are going to get a promotion today. Horoscopes based on your zodiac sign alone are necessarily generalizations, but they do have an underlying accuracy if you view them as an astrological weather forecast rather than something set in stone.

The best online horoscopes, written by professional astrologers, do contain wisdom and guidance for your zodiac sign, so accurate sun sign horoscopes are possible if you know where to look and if you approach them the right way.

How to Find the Best Horoscopes for Your Zodiac Sign

Look for horoscopes written by a real astrologer. Many horoscope sites only provide computer-generated horoscopes. For a much better horoscope reading, choose sites where the astrologer’s name and credentials are clearly displayed, and where they also offer private consultations or in-depth astrological reports as well as daily, weekly or monthly horoscopes.

If the astrologer concerned has written books or has an active social media presence, that’s a good sign that you’re dealing with a professional, and their horoscopes are likely to be top quality.

Avoid horoscopes which claim to be psychic in nature – astrologers are not psychic, and real ones don’t claim to be.

Astrology is a very nuanced skill and in creating daily horoscopes, astrologers have to distill complex planetary interactions into sometimes just a few sentences which will make sense to the layperson; it’s not as easy as it looks, which is why getting your horoscopes from a real, experienced astrologer is a much better option than turning to a random site where the writers’ credentials are unknown.

If in doubt, look up your zodiac sign’s horoscope on the website, and copy/paste a sentence from it into google; if you find it copied and repeated elsewhere, it probably hasn’t been written from scratch by a real astrologer and you’re not getting unique guidance.

Can Astrologers Really Forecast the Future?

So, you’ve chosen your astrologer and you’re reading your daily horoscope. Now what? Should you listen to the advice given? Do astrologers really know what’s going to happen to you?

Yes. And no. OK, kinda. Astrologers forecast energy trends. Your horoscopes can tell you whether the astrological energy is likely to be good for love, or bad for business, or ideal for staying in bed and refusing to get up – but what you actually choose to do with that information is entirely up to you. Remember, you always have free will and nothing is predetermined.

Daily horoscopes, weekly horoscopes, monthly horoscopes and yearly horoscopes all have different purposes. You might want to check your yearly horoscope for the following year in November or December, so you can get an idea of what long term plans might best come to fruition the next year.

Monthly horoscopes are helpful in keeping you on track with your plans – it’s good to know that the third week of the month, for example, is the best time for a business meeting, while the first week is a better time for socializing. Many people find monthly horoscopes useful when they’re planning their schedule for the month.

Weekly horoscopes are good for a quick look over the weekend or on Mondays – get your game face on by finding out ahead of time what you’re likely to face at work, at home and in your personal life as the week progresses.

Daily horoscopes are something to read with your morning coffee or on the way to work – typically much shorter than the other types of horoscopes, daily horoscope readings can often be uplifting, amusing, comforting or motivational, depending on the style of your preferred astrologer. They’re a good way to get your day started and as we can all agree, forewarned is forearmed.

Think of horoscopes like a weather forecast. It helps to know in advance if it’s likely to rain today – but armed with that knowledge, it’s ultimately your choice whether to take your umbrella and make a run for it or whether to simply dance in the rain.