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astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...
, a cusp (from the
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
for spear or point) is the imaginary line that separates a pair of consecutive
sign A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or me ...
s in the
zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...
or
house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...
s in the
horoscope A horoscope (or other commonly used names for the horoscope in English include natal chart, astrological chart, astro-chart, celestial map, sky-map, star-chart, cosmogram, vitasphere, radical chart, radix, chart wheel or simply chart) is an ast ...
. Because the solar disc has a diameter of approximately half a degree, it is possible for the Sun to straddle the cusp as it moves across the sky. When this occurs at the moment of their birth, such a person is said to be "born on the cusp," and some interpretations of astrology hold that their life is influenced by the characteristics of both signs. For example, someone born when the Sun (by convention the point at the centre of the Solar disc) was located at 29 degrees, 50 minutes Gemini is said to have been born on the cusp of Gemini and
Cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
, for much of the Solar disc was actually in Cancer even though its centre was in Gemini. Although the term "cusp" is universally used for the boundaries of signs, not all astrologers agree that an object can ever be included in more than one sign. Many consider relevant only the location of the Sun's centre, which must be entirely in one sign, and would describe the natal Sun in the example above as simply being in Gemini. If late degrees of Gemini are considered to have a Cancer-like character, such astrologers would describe that as simply the nature of that part of Gemini rather than some influence spilling over from the next sign. In this view, in order to discover what sign the Sun was in, the exact time must be considered. On the other hand, astrologers who consider objects "on the cusp" to be meaningfully different from objects entirely in one sign may apply such a description even when no part of the object crosses the boundary into the other. These astrologers may consider the Sun to be "on the cusp" even when its centre is as much as two degrees away from the sign boundary. They may also call other objects (much less than half a degree in diameter) "on the cusp" despite no part of the object being in the adjacent sign. Their claim is that the influence of the cusp weakens but does not suddenly disappear as the object gets further from the cusp. A similar debate applies to cusps between houses.


References

{{Reflist Technical factors of Western astrology