Back to basics

 

1.3

page 3 of 4

 

Getting the picture

As we have seen, from 431 BC onwards, planetary positions have been registered according to the division of the tropical Zodiac. The Ephemerides, the register where astrologers derive their data from, also provide the planetary positions according to this division. The same goes for the Nautical Almanac, which for centuries used to help mariners orientate themselves at sea, until the arrival of satellite navigation.

In other words, all these tables provide coordinates taken from the tropical Zodiac, meaning that all planetary positions are given as viewed from the Earth as place of observation.

It is important to note that the data we use for drawing our birth charts do not correspond to the actual astronomical reality. Instead of the astronomical Zodiac or sidereal Zodiac, we base our horoscopes on the tropical Zodiac, which originally was modeled after the astronomical Zodiac, but over time has drifted away from that reality. The fixed division into twelve equal parts of 30° each makes the tropical Zodiac suitable for our purpose of locating the celestial bodies in the sky, but it is now definitely out of sync with the sidereal Zodiac.

This implies that there is no way that the sidereal Zodiac can make its influence felt through the horoscope, for example through vibrations or radiation, as sometimes is suggested. At the most, it may be a question of analogy, a topic we will be investigating in the next chapter.

 

The local sphere

We might say that Euktemon – with Ptolemaeus in his footsteps – created a local sphere around the Earth, onto which an imaginary zodiacal picture has been projected. The only connection between the tropical Zodiac and the actual, sidereal Zodiac is the Vernal or Spring Equinoctial point. Seen from this point, the tropical Zodiac regresses backwards, Sign after Sign, through the astronomical or sidereal Zodiac.

It is said that we are experiencing this backward movement as a succession of great eras of consciousness on Earth. In the case of the Spring Equinox, being the one real connection point between both belts, it is actually conceivable that the sidereal influence of the astronomical Zodiac might somehow be expressed on Earth through this point.

 

Conclusions

Taking an overall view of the above, three distinct conclusions emerge. They can lay a first foundation for the rest of this website’s train of thought.

 

1. Each planet has its own Zodiac

Since the various planets in our Solar system each have their own revolution time around the Sun, they all have their own Zodiac with its corresponding Spring Equinoctial point. This means that the influence of the Age of Pisces or of Aquarius only applies to our Earth, not to other planets in our Solar system, nor to our Solar system as a whole.

Still, these long eras are phases in a larger background cycle that all planets go through, each at its own pace via its own Spring Equinoctial point in its own Zodiac.

When we get to the core qualities that can be assigned to the various planets, we will see how these qualities are purely derived from their relative positions in relation to the Earth as well.

 

2. Any observational framework creates a separate reality

So the Tropical Zodiac is a décor that we as earthlings have cast out ourselves, against which the planets reveal their qualities to us. This décor was originally intended as an expression of the sidereal Zodiac behind it, but because of the increasing deviation between the two, their physical connection has been lost. So the tropical Zodiac turns out to be our own projection – it is a frame of reference that we have created ourselves.

Now, before jumping to conclusions about the validity and veracity of astrology, we need to bear in mind that defining an observational framework is a necessary and even indispensable prerequisite for the acquisition of any kind of knowledge.

Within mainstream science, this is common practice. Every field of knowledge must define its basic assumptions and observational framework in order to be able to introduce and work with parameters. Without them, all observations remain undefined because they lack a verifiable touchstone.

In other words, reality becomes knowable through an observational framework. Without such a framework, human beings cannot get to know the world around them, nor themselves. Consequently, all our observations, not just astrological ones, take place within a frame of reference defined by the observer. This framework then serves as a working model for reality.  

Obviously, observations that are made according to the criteria of a specific working model can only be valid within that model. In the same way, any results or conclusions can only be valid within that separate reality. As explained above, this is the essence of all development of knowledge, and astrology is no exception.

Summarizing, we can say that the working model of astrology is based on a regular, twelvefold division of an imaginary belt around the Earth to which we have assigned a twelvefold analogous quality.

 

3 The Earth is our center of observation

So we are imagining a self-cast belt around the Earth, the Tropical Zodiac.

The projection of this tropical Zodiac has the Earth as its starting point. This implies that the Earth is at the center of its own conceptual world. Against the background of this conceptional world, the astrologer observes the actual interplay of forces around the Earth and interprets events that occur within this local, earthbound field.

 

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