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The Truth About Your Real Astrological Sun Sign

The debate about whether to use the Tropical zodiac, or the Sidereal zodiac, the basis for Hindu astrology (otherwise known as “Vedic,” “Jyotish,” or “Indian”), continues.

The difference between the two zodiacs equates to about an entire sign, resulting in your Sun sign being in Virgo under the Tropical zodiac, but in Leo in the Sidereal zodiac, having been born September 3rd, for example.

Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” states in this video, that your sign has changed; it isn’t what it was 2000 years ago, “…when the Babylonians made all of this up…,” and that “…astrologers are off one full sign.”

Unfortunately, Mr. Nye doesn’t appear to realize that there are two different zodiacs and he is referring to astrology based on the constellations (Sidereal), not Western astrology (Tropical).

He also doesn’t seem to realize that precession (“…the Earth has wobbled like a top…”), which yields an approximate one degree discrepancy every 70 years (an entire sign about every 2000 years), is, using the Tropical zodiac, only potentially a problem with transits and similar timing factors, and Tropical zodiac software programs automatically make the adjustment to avoid errors.

5 Astrology Facts:

  1. Just as in the Northern Hemisphere the spring equinox will always be at 00 degrees, 00 minutes Aries around March 21st each year, and the fall equinox will always be at 00 degrees 00 minutes Libra around September 21st each year, the sign under which you were born, using the Tropical zodiac, has not changed. For instance, if you were born June 1st, your natal Sun is in the sign of Gemini, not Taurus. Your Sun sign is determined by the Earth’s alignment with the Sun, not the constellations.
  2. The vast majority of Western astrologers rely on the Tropical zodiac.
  3. Your Rising sign (Ascendant) is where the Eastern horizon intercepts the Ecliptic. Thus, your correct Rising sign can be found using the Tropical zodiac, not the Sidereal zodiac.
  4. The origins of the Sidereal zodiac, which is based on fixed stars, is from a time of limited understanding of the solar system and this planet. I appreciate the value of fixed stars, but not how the Sidereal system fixes the degrees of the Ecliptic to them.
  5. While transits, progressions, retrogrades, and other very basic astrology factors can help you gain an understanding of the cyclical nature of life, they can’t be relied upon for prediction. These infrequent indicators just aren’t as important as other, more complex factors, which form the patterns that are necessary for comprehensive assessment. To give you an example of a trivial indicator, at this time, transiting Neptune in Pisces is squaring your natal Sun (by sign, at least) if you have a Sagittarius Sun (born approximately between November 21st and December 22nd). Such a transit suggests emotional difficulties, according to those who rely on modern astrology methodologies. However, obviously, not everyone with a Sagittarius Sun is hurting emotionally at this time. Also, countless others who don’t have natal Sun in Sagittarius are enduring emotional trauma right now. Transits, like most other indicators favored in modern astrology, are really only useful for fine-tuning an analysis based on more comprehensive, ancient methods.

More information about the Tropical and Sidereal zodiac debate here.

Sidereal Zodiac is Still Useful, But Not in a Superficial Sense

I have yet to encounter a Westerner, such as an American, who successfully uses the Sidereal zodiac, and achieves consistently high levels of accuracy in personality and predictive analysis. Tossing out a handful of astrology factors such as Mars, Moon, and Venus signs and offering psychologically-based counseling, for example, may be entertaining and a fun escape, but it won’t help you limit your risk, know true compatibility, gain authentic predictive insight, and spot personality red flags.

I believe there exist talented astrologers in India who use Sidereal zodiac based astrology (i.e., Hindu, Jyotish, Vedic), and it doesn’t matter if the seasoned professional in India offers you an erroneous and out of date Sun sign, Rising sign, Moon sign, Saturn Sign, etc., relative to the Tropical zodiac; it’s important to avoid focusing on those single, superficial factors anyway. The Eastern Indian astrologers offer accurate personality and predictive analyses because they have learned to use their complex systems (ones that are far more sophisticated than Sidereal-based systems that Westerners use) to intuitively gauge real world results, despite the zodiac disparity.

The only thing that matters in personality and predictive analysis is the result of the analysis. The two traditions, Sidereal zodiac (Eastern) and Tropical zodiac (Western) aren’t opposed to each other if the practitioners, using comprehensive approaches, offer similar, accurate results. For example, my accurate compatibility assessment matching the results of an Eastern Indian Sidereal zodiac based astrologer’s analysis shows they can be quite compatible.

Copyright © 2012 Scott Petullo

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