If The Tropical Zodiac Were Right, Everyone Would Be Using It

Follow the Leader

In my new book, 27 Stars, 27 Gods, there is a small section at the beginning explaining that the fixed stars (“nakshatra”) and the zodiac signs (“rashi”) are two different entities without a permanent connection, because the zodiac signs are anchored to solstices and equinoxes, which perpetually drift through the fixed stars.

A prominent astrologer complain to me about this statement. I’ll paraphrase the conversation here.

How did you come up with this opinion? With whom did you study Jyotish?

I replied with the info available here, explaining who my Guru is, and why it is unimportant. The actual importance is in the idea itself. He replied:

This heterodox idea - that the Indian system should use the tropical zodiac – vitiates the traditional jyotish system. It is not accepted by any astrological lineage (“sampradaya”)

I replied: As far as I have seen, there is no such thing as a real “astrological sampradaya.” There are only independent teachers, many of whom may have learned from older independent teachers, a few of whom may have also learned from even older, yet still independent teachers. In any case, even if I am to accept that there is such a thing as a bona-fide “astrological sampradaya” – even bona fide sampradayas gradually become erroneous and distanced from their origin. Hence in Bhagavad Gita (4.7), Krishna acknowledges the need to periodically reform them.

My article clearly shows that fixed stars being distinct from zodiac signs is not “vitiating” the tradition, it IS the tradition, established by the authorized cannons of tradition Surya Siddhanta, Bhagavat-Purana, Vishnu-Purana, etc. If a “lineage of continuous teachings” is out of sync with explicit statements in the texts that they are founded upon, those lineages are in need of reform.

He replied:

The English translations of those texts are flawed. Perhaps your theory is based on a flawed translation.

I explained that I understand Sanskrit and read the texts in their original language.

He finally replied:

If this idea – that the Indian system should use the tropical zodiac – was true, then all the masters of astrology in India would be using it.

I replied that this is a flawed logic, because there is a difference between “tradition” and “custom.” In Indian philosophy they are differentiated as shastra-pramaana (“tradition”) vs loka-pramaana (“custom”).

Tradition is defined by the founders of a school and preserved in its sacred/core textbooks, shastra. In astrology these include Surya-Siddhanta, Vedanga-Jyotisha, and pertinent sections of other Vedic literature like the Puranas, etc. Custom, on the other hand, is merely what happens in the course of time among the masses, loka.

Because the custom has an inherent predilection and momentum to diverge gradually from its original tradition – the guardians of tradition carefully maintain their sacred/core books (shastra) and encourage the intelligent among the masses to refer to them scrupulously. This maintains custom in sync with tradition for as long as possible. When it is no longer possible, a major reform is required – to bring custom back into harmony with tradition.

That is exactly what seems to be happening currently in the Indian astrological world. Custom has diverged from the definitions of its sacred texts, and has adopted a fusion of signs and fixed stars (a “sidereal zodiac”). I am a supporter of the reform movement, clarifying the difference between the fixed stars (nakshatra) and the zodiac signs (rashi).

I require your assistance and support. Please read the articles linked to from this post, do your best to comprehend it, and once you do – please also support this cause and spread this message.

Thank you,

Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

Origin of the Sidereal Zodiac

The stars of sidereal space are a valid and important astrological entity. India (and almost all cultures) has a valid system of dividing sidereal space with the Moon as the focal point, not the Sun as in tropical space. This system has 27 divisions, not 12, because there are that many sunrises during the time it takes the Moon to complete a full circuit of the heavens.

The idea of 12 sidereal signs comes from wrongly assuming that the correlation between the stars and signs is permanent. In fact, there is no permanent correlation between the two, the signs eternally and very gradually drift backwards through the stars – a phenomena commonly known as “precession of the equinox.”

There is a valid need to correlate the signs and stars because their relationship is important for defining very long periods of time (“ages”) and for knowing how and when to keep solar and lunar calendar systems synchronized.

Babylonians measured the correlation of their autumnal equinox with the heliacal rising of stars they called The Scales. Greeks measured the discrepancy of tropical Aries against a stellar counterpart bearing the same name. Ancient and Classical Indians measured the heliacal position of the equinox in reference to their fixed stars. For example, the Ṛg Veda notes Kṛttikā as the “first” star and the beginning of the celestial circle, because in Ṛg Vedic times, four to five thousand years ago, Kṛttikā heliacally rose with the Vernal Equinox. Later Indian works from nearly two thousand years ago note Aśvinī as the first star, because at that time Aśvinī was the star heliacally rising with the equinox.

Projecting the 12 zodiac divisions into space, based on the then-current position of the vernal equinox was useful for mathematics but opened a door for people to think of the signs as stellar entities. It is an easy mistake to make considering that for centuries there was almost no significant difference between the signs and their homonymic sidereal namesakes.

Reconciliation of the Tropical and Sidereal Zodiacs – Complete & Edited

Dear Readers,

I would like to thank you for the attention you pay to the articles I post. Recently I posted an important string of five articles on the topic of sidereal and tropical zodiacs. Now I would like to present you with a complete version, in one place, and with more editing and (I hope) clarity. The paper is available as a PDF so you can print it or put it on your e-Reader, or distribute it to your friends or colleagues. Please click the link to read and download the paper.

RECONCILIATION OF THE TROPICAL AND SIDEREAL ZODIACS

Please feel free and encouraged to redistribute this paper without need for any further permission.

Thank you,

Vic DiCara

Reconciliation of the Tropical and Sidereal Zodiacs. Part V: Conclusion.

This is a continuation from previous posts.

The True Sidereal Zodiac

One thing is very certain, there is a sidereal zodiac in Indian astrology, and I bet in all astrological systems from the ancient great cultures. Yet this sidereal zodiac is not twelve but twenty-eightfold!

The Sun and Moon, kings of the heavens, travel through space. During one complete journey of the Sun, the Moon makes twelve revolutions (each year there are twelve full-moons, “months”). Therefore, the Moon divides the Sun’s path into twelve sections. Conversely, while the Moon makes one complete journey through the heavens, the Sun makes twenty eight (in each moon cycle there are twenty eight sunrises, “days”). Therefore, the Sun divides the Moon’s path into twenty eight units.

Thus we have interwoven manners of dividing the zodiac. One has twelve and pertains to the path of the Sun. The other has twenty-eight and pertains to the path of the Moon. One of them is tropical by nature, the other sidereal!

I’ve already explored the logic, evidence and common sense decisively concluding that the Sun’s twelvefold zodiac is tropical. Now let’s explore the sense, logic and evidence in concluding that the Moon’s twenty-eightfold zodiac is sidereal.

Common Sense

The stars cannot be seen when the Sun is out, but we can almost always see the Moon against a backdrop of stars. Thus it appeals to common sense to the Moon’s movements be measured by its reference to stars.

Logic

While I could thoroughly explain the meanings of the twelve signs by reference to the tropical phenomena they demarcate, the themes of the twenty-eight stars of the Moon’s zodiac cannot be understood with any reference to tropical or even lunar observation. Some correlation to the phases of the Moon to the stages of development over a human lifetime can be utilized for interpretative purposes. But honestly, this only supports some of the meanings within the stars. The root cause of all meaning in the twenty-eight stars has no relationship to the earth (i.e. it is not tropical), and has everything to do with purely heavenly (sidereal) factors. The deities of the heavens reside in or empower each of the twenty-eight stars. The nature of the deity who empowers a star creates the full meaning of that star.

If this leaves some room for doubt, that doubt is removed by the evidence of authority.

Evidence from Authority

We examined Sūrya Siddhānta previously. The second chapter is dedicated to sidereal calculation of the twenty-eight star-sections in the lunar zodiac. The treatise says to convert planetary positions to tropical coordinates, but leaves the twenty-eight stars as they are: as stars, sidereal entities.

We also previously examined the astronomical section of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. In the 23^rd chapter of the fifth division, two chapters after tropically defining the twelvefold zodiac, the Bhāgavata defines the twenty-eight stars of the lunar zodiac sidereally – in terms of their relationship to the north star, milky way and other purely stellar objects.

Conclusion

Doubtlessly the lunar zodiac is sidereal. That’s why we say it is composed of “stars” (literally, nakṣatra), twenty eight of them. It is now also beyond doubt that the solar zodiac is tropical. That’s why we say it is composed of “signs” (literally, rāśi), twelve of them.

Ancient India, and most likely all ancient great cultures, gave us knowledge that our dank and small modern intuition and cognition still hobbled weakly to grasp the basic definitions of. We waste our effort arguing if tropical or sidereal is the correct definition of the zodiac. If we listen to the ancients carefully, we hear them tell us is that both co-exist in a unified truth.

The two zodiacs, the twenty-eight stars of the sidereal and the twelve divisions of the tropical, are two aspects of one reality – interwoven like yin and yang. The language of astrology cannot fully and clearly sound out by transposing one zodiac definition on another, or by trying to divorce them from their eternal marriage and discount one or the other. We must read both zodiacs simultaneously to hear the full communication from mother nature.

How? When any astrological chart based on an ascendant is cast, we have two strands of interwoven information, calling to mind the two strands of DNA: the tropical positions of planets in the twelve signs and houses, and the twenty-eightfold sidereal positions among the glittering stars of the heavens.

Now it is upon us to explore and uncover the correct methods and sciences for such interpretations. It will not be difficult, because our basic grammar will be far more clearly defined. If your experience is anything like mine, you will find that all of the fundamental techniques preserved in the interpretive texts for regarding signs, houses, lords and combinations, and all the nakshatra based timing techniques will shine forth much more clearly. You will, I think, comprehend the messages they declare to your inner ear with far greater ease and clarity.

May we be so blessed.

Closing Remark

oṁ bhur bhuvaḥ svaḥ

There is bhu: the earth, with its sky of twelve houses.

There is svar: heaven, with its twenty-eight principle sidereal stars.

There is bhuvah: The uniting space linking them, with its twelve tropical divisions – The heavenly Sun, planets and stars shining upon and wandering across the Earth’s equator.

tat savitur vareṇyam, bharga devasya dhīmahī

The brilliant knowledge which will shine forth in the intuitive contemplation of an astrologer is the effulgence of this paradigm uniting heaven and earth: the twenty eight stars hosting the planets, tied to the earth via the twelve divisions.

Hare Krishna

May we blessed with divine knowledge of such incomprehensible subjects. May such knowledge lead us only to divine love, the soul of true peace and joy.

~~~

CONCLUDED

Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

~~~