Horoscope Review: Birth Charts Free at Alabe.com

Www.alabe com is "Home of the Free Birthchart Page." Yes, online you can get a free natal horoscope: a real chart, with a not-bad computerized "mini-reading" of its meaning, and it is not a con or a ripoff.

Read the directions and enter accurate and specific information about your birth date, birth place and birth time. As a default, if you don’t know the time and Mom can’t tell you, enter 6:00 a.m., which is better than nothing. Click for your printable view of your natal horoscope chart--a sky chart shaped like a pie cut into twelve pieces, or “houses,” studded with planets. Scroll down for the computerized "mini-reading" describing what your natal planetary placements mean. This isn’t a full natal horoscope, just a good start. Thank the people at Alabe who have been doing this for more than a decade. I give the site four stars out of five; minus one star because the site is plug-ugly.

If you really like your "mini-reading," Alabe.com offers a detailed 30-page version for $25, or a one-year forecast of planetary transits and progressions for $35. They also sell "Relationship" readings, “Asteroid Goddess” readings, and many others, with computerized interpretations originally written by well-known astrologers. They sell books mainly for astrologers (fixed stars, anyone?), and have for download the advanced astrological calculation software called Solar Fire ($325) used by professionals. Solar Fire is not gameware. It will not spout fun readings for your friends. A dabbler or casual horoscope fan would not know the first thing to do with it.

"Alabe" is short for "astrolabe," an old-time instrument for charting the sky. Alabe.com's home page displays the "current astral weather" – where the Sun, Moon and planets are right now, in the sky above Brewster, Massachusetts. It's got a small interpretive paragraph about some current aspect, a tiny detail in the scheme of things.

Enjoy your freebie natal chart. And if you really, really love your chart, Alabe.com sells a gold "StarDate Pendant," engraved with glyphs of your natal planets and their signs, for $350.

Under the name “Astro*Intelligence,” alabe.com sells some charts with computerized interpretations originally written by respected astrologers Liz Greene and Rob Hand. Greene advises against getting ‘scopes for kids under 14, and I strongly second the motion. Despite its reputation, astrology is not for kids. And you shouldn’t be so foolish as to let a child’s horoscope affect the way you see and raise him. Some things are more important than horoscopes.