Spirits of the
Zodiac
This month: Leo
Every flag has its pride.
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.
