Free horoscope: what you really get for nothing
Free horoscope is one of the most searched-for terms in astrology on the web, and it covers completely different things. Some of it is genuinely useful and really does cost nothing. Some of it is a form with a pretty result attached. The difference takes a few minutes to spot, once you know what to look for.
Two things go by the same name
The word horoscope means two things. First, the chart wheel itself: the circle with the signs, the houses and the planetary positions for the moment you were born. Second, the text that interprets that wheel.
Free offers almost always give you the first, and that is no small thing. The calculation is the factual part of the whole: it rests on astronomical tables and comes out the same from every careful provider. What you get for nothing, in other words, is precisely the part that can be checked. The reading, by contrast, is a craft, and that is where the wheat is separated from the chaff.
What you need for the calculation
Three details are enough: the date, the time and the place of birth. The birth time is the tricky point. The Sun, the Moon and the planets move at a leisurely pace, while the house cusps race: the ascendant changes sign about every two hours. Anyone who knows their birth time only roughly ends up with a framework of houses there is no relying on.
The short certificate itself usually leaves the time out. It is entered in the register of births, and a certified copy of that entry comes from the registry office of the town where the birth was recorded. If you do not know it at all, the interpretation of the planets in the signs still holds; houses and ascendant are then better left out than guessed at.
What automatically generated texts can do
The text a free portal puts out is as a rule assembled: for every position a ready-made block of text is waiting, and the program strings together the ones that apply to you. These blocks are often decently written. What they lack is weighting.
A birth chart contains contradictions. One paragraph describes you as reserved; three paragraphs later you are at the centre of every gathering. A person would ask which of the two factors is the stronger; a kit of parts simply sets both side by side. So read texts like these as raw material and not as a portrait. The contradictions, incidentally, are the most interesting part, because that is where something has to be resolved.
How to spot an offer worth using
- It shows you the chart wheel and not just running text.
- It gives back the data it used, time zone included, so that you notice a typing mistake.
- It asks for nothing beyond date, time and place. No one needs your address in order to run a calculation.
- It manages without a countdown and without manufactured urgency. A calculation does not get any worse if you come back tomorrow.
- It promises no information about illness, life expectancy or court proceedings.
Sparing with your data
Date of birth, time and place together make a surprisingly unambiguous statement about you. Enter them only where you understand what becomes of them, and keep trying something out separate from signing up: what you want to see once is nothing you need to subscribe to. Free often means that an offer is meant as a way in. There is nothing objectionable in that, as long as it is stated openly and you can decide in your own time.
A sensible order to start in
Have your birth chart calculated first and write down three details: Sun sign, Moon sign, ascendant. Those three carry most of what will strike you as familiar in a reading. After that it is worth looking at the four elements, to see which basic material is well represented in your chart and which barely appears at all. Only then do the individual planets become interesting.
You will find further free calculations under free horoscopes, and if you would rather read something short at regular intervals, there is the free weekly horoscope. How a birth chart is put together is explained in the overview under horoscopes.