tests completed, keeping strict methods to include a control group and proper blinding between experimenters and subjects, horoscopes have shown no effect beyond pure chance. Furthermore, some psychological tests have shown that it is possible to construct personality descriptions and foretelling generic enough to satisfy most members of a large audience simultaneously, referred to as the Forer or Barnum effect. Introduction The horoscope serves as a stylized map of the heavens over a specific location at a particular moment in time. In most applications the perspective is geocentric (heliocentric astrology being one exception). The positions of the actual planets (including Sun and Moon) are placed in the chart, hose of purely calculated factors such as the lunar nodes, the house cusps including the midheaven and the ascendant, zodiac signs, fixed stars and the lots. Angular relationships between the planets themselves and other points, called aspects, are typi, including weakness. Etymology The Latin word horoscopus, ultimately from Greek "nativity, horoscope", "observer of the hour [of birth]", from "time, hour" and "observer, watcher". In Middle English texts from the 11th century, the word appears in the Latin form and is anglicized to horoscope in Early Modern English. The noun horoscopy for "casting of horoscopes" has been in use since the 17th century (OED). In Greek, in the sense of "ascendant" – not only of the time of someone's birth, but more generally of any significant event – and "observation of the ascendant" has been in use since Ptolemy. Concepts in Western astrology The native is the subject of the event (a birth, for example) being charted at a particular time and place, and is considered to be at the centre of the celestial sphere. The celestial sphere is an imaginary sphere onto which the zodiac, constellations and planets are projected, loosely based on the view of the sky above from Earth. The plane of the equator is the plane of the Earth's equator projected into space. The plane of the ecliptic is defined by the orbits of the earth and the sun. For practical purposes, the plane of the equator and the plane of the ecliptic maintain a constant inclination to each other of approximately 23.5°. The plane of the horizon is centred on the native, and is tangential to the earth at that point. In a sphere whose radius is infinitely large, this plane may be treated as nearly equivalent to