Introduction including some history
The fascination of the night-sky with its beauty, variations and mysteries is probably as old as humanity itself.
Throughout different ages and civilizations we see many artefacts talking about this fascination and the study and record keeping of the movement of stars and planets as well as their influence onto environment, “zeitgeist”, and the behavior and psyche of the people.
In western Astrology the mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome are of big importance, yet, they themselves are influenced or rooted in the studies of even older civilizations.
In ancient times there were cultural centers including “universities” and libraries where people from all over met to study and exchange knowledge. Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, parts of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey) – which included Sumer, Arcadia and later Babylonia were some of the oldest known “writing” civilizations, which did influence the whole development of the western world.
Some “documentation” we have about astrological interpretations come from the translations of the mul.apin – cuneiform tablets… – There are though also the Egyptian Hieroglyphs on pyramids, temple walls and ceilings etc. - now also in many other places of the world, ancient “documentations” are surfacing and challenging us on our world views in general as well as in the realms of Astrology.
There were traditionally Moon calendars as well as solar calendars with the recording and interpretations of their various cycles…. it’s important to understand though, the heavens then looked different than today and interpretations or “conclusions” need to include that fact…. we can calculate, we can estimate and so on but we can’t look up and “feel” how it was on this physical level….
Societies come and “go”, civilizations come and “go” – everything does move in cycles with certain rhythms and vibrations.
This is also true for Earth herself - there are cycles documented and often now also proven by modern geological methods and other sciences… we learn how all is more “interacting and interwoven” than we may have imagined….
Similarly in Astronomy movements and changes, waves and radiations etc., are documented as possible and so we know, that every star goes through its life cycles and so do the planets or maybe better said, all life existing in its various forms does go through various stages and cycles of evolution.
The so called “evolutionary Astrology” does examine and interpret these cycles in various ways and according the experiences and observations (natural sciences) made so far, beside that, there’s a component of “eternity” that is taken into count here - the part of us, that doesn’t die with the physical body….
As consciousness changes and evolves, so does science and with that we gain tools to put experiences into perspective and may be able to go “beyond”.
Interestingly, nowadays we evolve slowly away from the perspective, that “matter” is first but instead a product or an “effect” - that changes “everything” and opens possibilities that may at times feel scary….
The “pillars” in Astrology:
The planetary bodies describe the WHAT
The constellations, stars or the placement of that body describes the HOW
The houses describe the “WHERE” (many different house systems in use)
The aspects describe the relationship between bodies and their cycles, which means we’re talking geometry here to describe the “state” of evolution between bodies within their specific cycle.
In my practice, I often leave out the “houses” except the “the major axis” - this means the rising and setting stars as well as the mid-heaven and its opposite the Imum Coeli.
The house systems, can be looked at as a “simplified” reference to aspects / geometry.
An Earth cycle - the precession of the Equinoxes
We don’t know exactly who and when the phenomena of precession was first observed or otherwise perceived, described. Yet, Mayan calendars and Vedic traditions suggest that the Earth’s various cycles or maybe even beyond were known and integrated.
In the Western world, the first so far known description of the precession of the equinoxes is dated back to the Astronomer Hipparchus in the 2nd century BC, as he studied extensively about the apparent path of the Sun and the Moon and to try to find a “mean time/day/year” by using own observations and recoded event data.
What is the precession of the Equinoxes
Well, now I need to become a bit technical…
The precession is one of several Earth cycles – it’s the so called “wobble” that occurs by the rotation of Earth around the own axis. The Earth isn’t exactly round, nor is the polar axis at “true north” (north in perspective to the ecliptic). The rotation axis of the Earth is “tilted” and it “wobbles”…. (please note: the Earth’s rotation axis and the magnetic pole axis are 2 different things!!!)
When we look from Earth we follow the apparent path of the Sun - in March and September we have the days where night and day got the same length which can only occur when the Sun stands exactly on the celestial equator. That means 0° declination.
When that exact moment is reached, we can see where the Sun “stands” in the sense of what stars and constellation we see in the “background” – that is then called the location of the “vernal point” or Zero-point-Aries.
This point does shift or “wobble” and with that also what we consider the pole star (navigation). Yet, it’s also “name giving” to the so called ages, when the Sun shifts to be observed in a different constellation.
The rate of shift or precession isn’t linear as there are for sure other factors having an influential role (like rotation speed). As of just very recently, the precession rate was observed to be 1° within 72 years but by has now accelerated a little and so the precession is somewhere around 71 plus years, which means the previously thought whole cycle to take 25’920 years is now calculated to be 25’770 years – but I think, that there were times it went even faster and others slower and therefore those “calculations” of a whole cycle might be completely wrong… yet, if it’s now 24000 or 26000 or somewhere in between – we can say, it’s a pretty long “great year” or way around…
As during the March Equinox, we observe the Sun to “stand” in the constellation Pisces, just at the neck of the head, we’re in the Age of Pisces. Yet, as everything moves in cycles and curves or spirals, we can see Aquarius rising in that time. A “transitional time”…
There’s much more to all of this than possible to include in this first part – just know, the precession is only one of several Earth cycles and yet, there are also planetary cycles, the Sun cycles and Galactic cycles and axis and crosses everywhere…
Sidereal Astrology - why is it important
I have mentioned above, that the March equinox is also called the vernal point of the “zero point Aries”….
Since roughly 1800 years, in tropical Astrology this “zero point Aries” has been “frozen” onto the zodiac, somewhere “cutting” through the constellation Pisces a few degrees before the constellation Aries starts….
It’s the point where the Sun stood during the March equinox in roughly 200 AD.
The division of the zodiac into 12 equal parts, isn’t a totally bad idea, no, yet, the constellations themselves (as we perceive them nowadays) do not equal this division as some are longer than others, so it’s kind of impossible not to “cut through” one or the other….
Yet, now with the explained shifts of the vernal point or Sun at the March equinox, things are in “mal alignment”… the difference now between the tropical Astrology and sidereal Astrology is ca. 25 degrees….
This means, when you are born on the equinox day, you are by tropical means told to be an Aries, when in fact the Sun stood in Pisces… totally different energy….
Sidereal Astrology shows the placements of the moving bodies where they actually are when looking up in the sky - which is easiest to observe with the Moon….
I think forward oriented - no conspiracy, what then….
Sometimes over time we’re lost in translation and understanding - it happens, it happens even in very short amount of times as we know from the “ear to ear whispering game”…..
So, I asked myself, what could have happened or why does the interpretation of the tropical astrology still often fit????
First of all, same planetary bodies and stars - even though the latter are suddenly assigned to completely different constellations and so on, but when we leave that aside - I think the tropical system can be thought of as a kind of “house system”.
So, remember, the body is the WHAT, the placement the HOW and the “houses” the WHERE - so in this sense the “how and the where” are confused…. and that “cap” will eventually become bigger and bigger….
There’s maybe also another perspective to apply here as well - the measurements within time - maybe those scientists back then had no way to calculate and we have non to exactly calculate back, yet with the documentations and a “zero point” we actually have a reference-point to calculate better of how the shifts occur in time…. because nothing is linear, everything “spirals and circles”…..
Thank you All for your support and I’m sending much Love
Fran
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