It's really not about planets influencing you by gravity or any thing like that. It's like the workings of a giant clock, and each planet is a gear in that clock. Horoscope means "view of the hour", where the clock is at your birth time. It's one thing to know the placements, but it's the interpretation that's important. The placements are important, but until you analyze the aspects, strong and weak, and do what's called a synestry (analysis of placements, aspects, and the whole picture). Here is where the fine details come out. Yes, we could read every sign in the newspaper Astrology, and it would fit, because every sign is represented by a planet, and we all have each planet in our charts. I am a Gemini, with a Sagittarius Moon and Leo rising. I can read Gemini, Sag, and Leo and get a general picture about things, but as they say, "the devil's in the details." My Sun is in the 10th house and my Moon is in the 4th house, which is the opposite house, and that infers I was born during a full moon when the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides of the Earth. This is just the tip of the iceberg.