What Is the Sidereal Zodiac?

What is the Sidereal zodiac? Is it more accurate than the Tropical zodiac? Yes! Here's a little history that I compiled of how, when, and why Astrologers "switched" zodiacs.

The Tropical Zodiac, the best known and most popular form of Astrology in the West today, comes to us from the Greeks, from around the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. The Greeks utilized a Vernal Point fixed (Tropical means "fixed") at 00 Aries, and later Astrologers embraced their calculations without question. Cyril Fagan and Brigadier R.C. Firebrace, authors of "Primer of Sidereal Astrology," say;

"Hipparchus, when compiling his star catalog, plotted the positions of the fixed stars from the equinoctial and solstitial points for the year 139 BC, approximately, and Posidonius apparently improved on this idea by making the 'zodiac' as a whole, commence on the vernal point fixed in 00^oAries. This then was the birth of the Astrology we call the Tropical Zodiac. Before Hipparchus' time it had no existence, and it was entirely a Greek innovation."(p17)

Simply put, this means that the practice of starting the Zodiac year after year with the sign of Aries beginning right on March 21st never existed before the Greeks. And it's no secret that the Astrology we've been practicing for the past 1,800 years or so came to us from the Greeks. But, what's less well known is that an exalted star-based Astrology existed long before the Greeks, in the high civilizations of Egypt, Sumer, Babylon, and Meso-America.

When Sumerian and Chaldean (Babylonian) astrological seals were discovered in the 19th and 20th Centuries, a problem arose about the meaning of the frequent references to "solunar returns." Solar returns and lunar returns were pre-eminent in the charts of the greatest Astrologers in history. 19th Century Astrologers tried unsuccessfully to apply contemporary mathematical theories of solar and lunar "great cycles" to solar and lunar returns. They couldn't succeed because in their time nothing was known about the precessional wobble of the Earth. The Sumerians and Chaldeans knew about precession (as did the Egyptians and the Mayans) but, by the 3rd Century AD, the Greeks knew nothing about precession. The knowledge had been lost and it remained that way until the 20th Century.

People today have forgotten how much damage was done in Europe and, later, throughout the colonial world by the Roman Church, how thorough they were at killing off all opposition - a MILLION Albigensians, for example - and that the Inquisition was only the climax of a centuries-long policy of book-burnings and murders of so-called "heretics." So what happened to the Pagans, Druids, and others who knew and practiced star-based (sidereal) Astrology? They were arrested, their books were burned, and their schools were closed. Churches were erected over razed pagan temples. Knowledge was lost. History was re-written by the victors.

Anyway, back to our story. In the mid-20th century, Cyril Fagan presented the scientific argument that knowledge of precession was the “missing link” that the ancients possessed which enabled them to calculate with precision their solar and lunar returns. This was essential in their predictive Astrology, such as in determining the end of this Age (calculated by the Egyptians and the Mayans), for example. Solar and lunar returns are still very important in Astrology -- they are the anniversaries when the sun and moon return to the exact degree and sign in the zodiac that they occupied at the moment of birth -- and they cannot be calculated in the Tropical Zodiac!

The best that the Tropical Zodiac can do for a solar or lunar return is fix an incorrect sign and degree onto the Sun and the Moon, (a sign and degree that exist only on paper and are not the positions that would be seen from Earth) and then apply that sign and degree to the same calendar date, over and over again, year after year. Every year the error grows. The precessional shift since the Tropical Zodiac was “fixed” in 221 CE has grown today to a whopping 25^o, and since each sign is 30^o, that's nearly one whole sign! In Sidereal Astrology the solar or lunar return - or any planetary return - would be calculated for the return to the same sign and degree and the calendar date would only be of slight importance.

Now you might be thinking, "So what?" And that seems to be the position taken by Tropical Astrologers, too. It's acceptable to them that the signs in which the planets appear have no relationship to the constellations those signs are named after. That means, for example, that in the Tropical Zodiac the Sun will be found on April 21st in the sign of Taurus - a Tropical Zodiac place marker (on paper) and not an astronomical marker (as seen in the sky from Earth). The error of using a fixed Zodiac becomes obvious when precession is factored into the equation. A conscientious Astrologer should be correctly analyzing the planets according to their positions in front of the constellations they are seen in, when viewed from Earth and not on a tradition that denies precession.

Dane Rudhyar, a well-respected humanist Astrologer who did not embrace the Sidereal zodiac, said that the idea of stellar energies flowing through the signs that the planets are located in have no place in modern Astrology, that we are living in a "psychological century."(The Astrological Houses, p31) He proposed a humanist Astrology and said that we no longer need intermediaries [Extra-terrestrials] "forcing" changes upon us. (pp31-32) Here was a world-famous Astrologer talking about what he did not want from the stars!

So, what is this precession anyway and why is it important in Astrology? Well, as you know, the earth rotates in measurable time increments of 24-hour days and 365-day years. But these are not exact measurements of the earth's orbit around the Sun. That's why we have leap years. The Earth is spinning like a top and it has a little wobble that takes it to a slightly different position year after year in a cycle that runs for 25,800 years, when the Earth returns to its original position. This is precession and it is tiny - 4 to 6 seconds of arc per month - but it becomes really noticeable over the centuries.

The Tropical Astrologers, using the Greek Astrology, have fixed the astrological positions of the planets to a 00^oAries Vernal Point that was only accurate in 221 CE! Today, when precession is factored in, the Vernal Point is actually at 5^o Pisces. Precession is an indisputable astronomical fact, and its exclusion from “pop” Astrology is one of the big reasons that Astronomers hold Astrologers in contempt.

The Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrology says,

"...many Astrologers are unaware of any other zodiac [than the Tropical zodiac]...and may be surprised and disconcerted to learn, for example, that on the first day of spring, when the Sun enters the sign of Aries, it is actually in front of the stars in the constellation of Pisces." (p292)

They go on to say,

"...most Western Astrologers who are aware of the precessional displacement still adhere to the Tropical zodiac as a system relevant to life on the Earth. The signs, after all, derive a good deal of their meaning from the seasons -- at least in the Northern Hemisphere." (p292)

So, what is the difference to you, the seeker of the Truth about the meaning of your life? Well, suppose you were born on May 5th. Why would you struggle with the belief that you are a Taurus, Fixed Earth sign, a lover of luxury, sensual, stubborn, conservative, hard working, and long-enduring, when in actual fact you are an Aries, Cardinal Fire sign, dynamic innovator, impatient, a great starter whose negative energy is expressed as anger, not stubbornness, who is dominating, not sensual, and who doesn't know the meaning of endurance?

Or, to take another example, suppose you were born on September 5th. Why would you want to believe your Sun is in Virgo, Mutable Earth, the sign of service, where it is afflicted and leaves you susceptible to physical health complaints and the paralysis of analysis, when your Sun is really in Leo, Fixed Fire, the sign of drama and center-stage, powerful in the sign that it naturally rules, and where it empowers you to be dramatic, and charismatic? And that's only your Sun sign! All of your planets are affected this way.

If you were to have Tropical and Sidereal Astrology charts cast for the same time and location, and then hold them up beside one another, you would see that the House cusps are the same and the planets make the same aspects to each other. But the planets will be in different houses or else in a different part of the same House because each planet's sign would be once-removed backwards or, if the planet was originally at 25^o or more in its sign in the Tropical chart and, therefore, weak in that sign's qualities, it would still be in the same sign in the Sidereal chart, but now it would be right at the beginning of the sign and strong in that sign's qualities.

In a Sidereal chart, the planets, signs, houses, elements, and even the stars they align with, will speak to your Soul, as will the Great Beings who came here long ago from the Cosmos to build civilizations that have never since been equaled -- the Sumerians and Babylonians spoke openly of them (Anunnaki), as did the Egyptians (Neteru), the Aztecs (Quetzalcoatl), and the Mayans (Kukulcan) -- all great civilizations who knew their Astrology!

Surprisingly, the Sidereal Zodiac has been marginalized by the mainstream Astrological community. They have chosen to denigrate it or ignore it altogether for no better reason, it would seem, than fear of change. But for any conscientious Astrologer, all the technical work has been done to make the switch. The mathematical formulas have been re-worked by Donald Bradley, Cyril Fagan, and others.

Well, now that you have some history, you can understand the importance of using the Sidereal Zodiac. I have been using the Sidereal Zodiac for 14 years. I would never go back to the Tropical Zodiac because I know the importance of getting the sign, degree, and house position right. Nothing is random. Nothing is wasted. There is a reason why we were born into particular circumstances at a particular time and there is a purpose to our life. This is information that is meant to be shared with us. We can utilize it once we understand it.

Elizabeth 

    Sources:

• "The Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrology," by Jean-Louis Brau, Helen Weaver, and Allan Edmands, Consulting Editors Robert Hand, Charles Harvey, and Charles Jayne;
• "Solar and Lunar Returns," by Donald A. Bradley;
• "The Astrological Houses," by Dane Rudhyar;
• "Primer of Sidereal Astrology," by Cyril Fagan and Brigadier R.C. Firebrace