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Ah, nature! To
live according to the seasons and the length of the day...
There are many intellectual approaches to the subject of Astrology, and many
mysteries still surround it. I have been working with various ways of interpreting the Signs
of the Zodiac.
The Earth,
like all planets in our Solar System, travels around the Sun. The path of
travel around the Sun is the ecliptic plane, also called the Zodiac. While it is the Sun that is fixed, from the geocentric perspective, it appears that the Sun is moving around
the Earth. Hence language has evolved to place the Sun in various positions along
the 360 degrees of the Zodiac. The Zodiacal path is a convenience, an ancient
positioning device, established when the constellations aligned with the position of the Sun at the Vernal Equinox (0 degrees
of Aries in Western Astrology). Due to precession, the alignment with the
constellations has shifted, but so emblazoned on the human psyche, the zodiacal archetypes have held fast.
The Zodiac comes from Greek and Latin words meaning “circle of animals”. The 360 degree circle around the Sun divides into twelve equal zones of celestial longitude in Chaldean
astronomy. Though not all animals, the Spirits of the Zodiac speak through the celestial coordinate system where the ecliptic (the apparent
path of the Sun) serves as latitude, and the apparent position on the Sun at Vernal Equinox is the starting point for longitude. From Aries to Pisces, the Sun apparently
travels, giving us season and angular light, and a natural rhythm that is astounding.
Although astrology is far more complex than the simple Sun
sign placement, the Zodiacal path is where the movement of all the planets occurs. It
is along this path that we can grasp the shifting relationships of this movement.
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