The News

There seems to be quite a buzz going around the internet about the addition of another Astrological Sign to the current line-up of twelve. I can't begin to tell you the number of calls I taken here at The Awareness Shop asking me "Is it true that they want to add another Zodiac Sign?".

Leaving aside the question of who exactly "they" might be for the time being, I've put together a few thought in an attempt to ease some of the confusion.

These are my humble opinions only, mixed with some facts and some things for you to ponder.  If you're feeling brave, read on...

Siderial vs Western Astrology
I’m sure by now you have come across your information to lead you to believe that your astrological sign may not be what they thought. So has your sign changed. Well that depends on what type of Astrology you practice. As you may or may not know there are different types of astrology, several in fact but what we are talking about here is Eastern/Siderial vs. Western.

Eastern/Siderial looks to the background stars called the zodiacial constellations. While Western (the common one used in our daily newspapers) fixes its signs to the seasons. These signs follow what early astrologers called star signs, whose reference points are the tropics that form a ring around the earth. The zodiac is based on our relationship to the sun, not the stars, hence Sun Sign Astrology.

Around 2,000 years ago or so, the astrological signs and the astronomical ones were the same. However, the locations of the signs are based on the Sun's location on the first day of spring - called Ostara, or the Spring Equinox. That location in the sky has slowly eased westward because of something called "precession" - the earth continually wobbles every 26,000 years.

If you really want your head to bleed, try Googling 'Cornelius Agrippa' and 'Medieval Astrology'! You’ll come across loads of info about the 2012 line up but I could write another entire paper on that. Anyway, since the constellations were first identified, they have shifted some 30 degrees – an entire sign meaning the signs have slipped about a month westward too, relative to the stars.

So, you need to decide what kind of astrology you follow. If you follow astrology that is linked to the constellations, your sign would move backwards 30º from where it is now. Now to really confuse you You could even have a 13th sign to add in as there is a constellation appearing in the line up between Sagittarius and Capricorn near the black hole which you may have read about if you googled Agrippa.

In short most all of us here follow western astrology and you can go on as you were based on where the Sun was when you were born.

Don’t confuse all this Precession info with Progressed charts as they move degrees in the opposite direction, (forward not backward).

Now here's even more to make your head bleed... While your Natal Birth Chart has influence for your entire life, a Progressed Chart applies to any given time after that.  A Progressed Chart is determined most commonly by what is called the “day for a year” system, a method devised by originally Johannes Kepler back in the 17th century CE.  Basically this works by moving your sun 1º forward for each year you are on the planet. I’ll use myself as the example. I was born at 6º Aquarius and I am 47 this year, so hang in there we have to do some math. There are 30º per sign (the 30 days the sun is in that sign) so to move forward 47º we use the 24 remaining degrees in Aquarius, then 47-24 is 23 making my progressed sun 23º Pisces.

Where does astrology come from, and how long has it been in use? Is Pluto a factor now that it’s been demoted? Hasn’t Ophiuchus been there near the black hole all along.  I guess I’ll write more about these questions in a week or so. But for now happy pondering.

Brightest Blessings - Lisa