Site Seeing - April 3

Gazing at the stars

'With Venus, planet of love, money and self-worth, powerfully aspecting both Mars and Pluto, planet of rebirth, there's no telling how far reaching developments could be. Aim high and you're unlikely to be disappointed with results.' – Welcome to star gazing.

For many people, such simple sentences are the sparks that help begin a day on a pleasant note. Scanning through the daily horoscope, first thing in the morning or whenever a newspaper lands in your hands, could be a habit, addiction or just plain curiosity.

Or being concerned about the number plate of the new car you are buying or studying the layout of a new house before finalising the deal could all be important milestones in a person's life. Astrology, sun signs, numerology, plamistry, vaastu, tarot cards, Chinese astrology all have a similar objective – to help you understand yourself (strengths and weaknesses) and to guide you towards a better future. There's plenty on the Internet for the serious and the curious to sample.

www.astrology.com
Neat and detailed, this site is partnered by ivillage.com (part of the women's network) and also the winner of 10 awards like the Outstanding website by Web Crawler Select Editorial Team, Award of Excellence, Microsoft's Pick of the Week and many others.

Started by Australian Kelly Fox with her husband David in 1995 (they are now living on the U.S.), the site has plenty to offer. To start with try out the Free Personality Report for which you have to fill out a form with personal details. And promptly you'll get a two-page report that is fairly accurate. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd say it was almost 8 on my personality.

With your date of birth you also have to provide time of birth. It's easy to understand the site's popularity and awards. First because of its easy URL which must be generating maximum hits by default and second because once you are there it gets very interesting and you can easily end up surfing along for quite some time.

There's horoscopes, chartshop, love, quizzes, teen astro, travel, Year 2001, predictions, celebrities, karma, Chinese astrology and lots more. The history and understanding of astrology section is very informative and offers a good source of books as well. Besides, the site states that amid the shelves of bad books on the subject, there are a few important and reliable source books and goes on to list a few.

www.astrospeak.com
Part of Indiatimes, this comprehensive site offers plenty of information on various subjects. There's a
daily forecast, astro-interactive (numero-meter, I-Ching, lovemeter, death meter), sunsign astrology (sunsigns, love compatibility, element compatibility), astro-interactive (numerology, palmistry, tarot, vaastu, Chinese astrology, gems and stones), astro-mystique (lal kitab, mantras and shlokas, about planets, mystic corner), modern-astro (astro celebrities, women and astrology, astro fun, food and travel).

Numerology offered instant results that opened up in another window making for a good format instead of having to go back and forward. The shlokas in the astro-mystique section were an eye opener with their explanations in English.

www.astro-vision.com
Simple and straightforward, www.astro-vision.com is part of the Cochin-based Computer Services started in 1984. The site has details on astrology (astro and vaastu consultancy), personal horoscopes, astro and vaastu tips and astrology softwares! But the most interesting is the Learn Astrology section which teaches much on the subject in 17 lessons like introduction, planets and houses, astrological terms, planetary occupations, divisions of astrology, Hindu year and effects, karmas and more.

www.astronet.com
More informative than visually appealing, there's Horoscopes (this comes in today's scopes, lovescopes, passionscopes, careerscopes – sounds strange though), Free Instant Readings (sex appeal, sun sign soulmates, attraction factor), Personal Readings (psychic, tarot, astrology), Love (ask genie, about relationships) Mind and Spirit (today's meditation, alternative wisdom, gem energy), Astro glossary (sun signs, planets, houses, terminology, celebrities), Teens (teenscopes, teen advice), Psychic & Tarot (ask Joan, instant tarot reading), Ask the Experts (astro-love, teens, psychic), your past lives revealed and lots more. But most of the readings on this site (from live psychics, live astrologers, live tarot readers) are available after making a payment.

Or check out sites like www.astrocenter.com, www.vedicfuture.com, www.panchang.com and www.cainer.com among others.