The
Two Zodiacs – The Great Sidereal vs. Tropical Debate
It’s
important to clearly understand the difference between the
two zodiacs, the Vedic/Sidereal and the Western/Tropical,
and their perspective places in the world of astrology. Without
this understanding it’s easy to fall into the trap
of thinking one system is superior or inferior to the other
and disregard their relative strengths.
The Two
Zodiacs
So
why two zodiacs anyway? Isn’t one enough? After all,
one sky seems to have worked out quite well - thank you very
much. God made no mistakes there. One zodiac belt, about
16 degrees wide, with the 12 zodiac signs ranging from Aries
to Pisces rising in the eastern horizon - no problems there.
It’s just astronomical fact. The stars shine equally
on everyone, whether they’re standing in New Delhi
or downtown L.A., so why one “Sidereal” zodiac
popular in the East and one “Tropical” zodiac
popular in the West?
It’s
important to realize that both zodiacs are exactly the same
in the sense that there are 12 zodiac signs progressing from
Aries to Pisces. The elements – fire, earth, air, water;
qualities – cardinal, fixed and mutable; and general
characteristics associated with each sign are basically the
same in both systems. Up until the last century or so, before
the discoveries of Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Chiron, the
classical rulerships of the signs were used in both systems.
The
classical sign rulerships are as follows: Mars rules Aries
and Scorpio, Venus rules Taurus and Libra, Mercury rules
Gemini and Virgo, the Moon rules Cancer, the Sun rules Leo,
Jupiter rules Sagittarius and Pisces, and Saturn rules Capricorn
and Aquarius.
The
difference between the two zodiacs, therefore, is not so
much in the contents of the zodiacs but in the calculation
of the starting point of the 1st degree of Aries.
The 1st
degree of Aries
In
Western or Tropical astrology the calculation of the Sun
passing through the 1st degree of Aries is marked by the
spring equinox or March 21st. By extension, if you take out
your western ephemeris you’ll note that the beginning
of each season is lined up with the Sun passing through each
of the cardinal points in the zodiac – Aries, Cancer,
Libra, and Capricorn. The Tropical zodiac, therefore, is
a symbolic system based on the sun earth relationship and
is oriented to the seasons.
In
Vedic or Sidereal astrology the calculation of the Sun passing
through the 1st degree of Aries is marked by the Sun actually
passing through the observable fixed stars making up the
constellation Aries and has nothing to do with the seasons. “Sider” means “star” and
therefore sidereal astrology is based on the actual astronomical
positions of the planets against the backdrop of the fixed
star constellations. The Sidereal zodiac, therefore, is not
symbolic but is oriented to an observable phenomenon.
David
Frawley writes in his book, The Astrology of the Seers, that “the
Sidereal zodiac is probably the original zodiac historically,
as it is the observable zodiac. The Tropical, which is an
abstract zodiac, must have been derived from it, as all abstractions
are usually based on underlying observable things.”
The Precession
of the Equinox
An
astonishing thing to contemplate is that the ancient Vedic
rishis were aware of the fact that the earth changes its
tilt or “wobbles” on its axis. Many centuries
before the Europeans were debating over whether the earth
was flat, the Vedic rishis were figuring out exactly what
effect the Earth’s wobble would have on the calculations
of their ephemeris’s!
Without
the aid of telescopes or modern technology they calculated
that the orientation of the equinoxes to the fixed stars
precedes or moves backwards through the zodiac at a rate
of about 50.3 seconds per year, or about 1 degree every 72
years. That they were actually able to calculate this gives
us a clue as to how advanced the ancient Vedic civilization
was in terms of mathematical and astronomical knowledge.
This
phenomenon is known as the “precession of the equinox”.
In other words, where the Sun actually is at the time of
the spring equinox moves backward through the zodiac. Sidereally
speaking, this year 2003, the sun was at 6 degrees 03 minutes
of Pisces, at the spring equinox. Therefore, the current
mathematical difference as of March 21st 2003 between the
two zodiacs is 23 degrees 57 minutes.
The Ayanamsha
This
mathematical difference between the Sidereal and the Tropical
zodiacs is called the “ayanamsha” in Sanskrit.
As another example, on January 1st 1950, the ayanamsha was
at 23 degrees 09 minutes.
However,
to further complicate matters there are several commonly
used ayanamshas that vary by as much as almost 2 degrees
from one another. By far the most commonly used ayanamsha
by Vedic astrologers worldwide is the Lahiri ayanamsha, which
was given the stamp of approval by the government of India.
The Historical
Alignment of the Two Zodiacs
Historically,
it’s generally agreed, that the two zodiacs were in
alignment with one another about the year 285 A.D. with both
ephemeris’s listing the passage of the Sun into Aries
at the spring equinox. So what happened? What went wrong?
I
don’t know that anything went “wrong”.
Obviously, our civilization was just meant to have both zodiacs.
When the
Two Zodiacs Will Be Exactly Opposite
Due
to the precession of the equinox, the Sun will be at the
1st degree of Libra at the spring equinox in 11,232 years!
Mark you calendars! Then we’ll really have a lot of
explaining to do with regards to the two systems because
they’ll be exactly opposite one another!! The ayanamsha
will be 180 degrees 0 minutes!! I’d say it’d
be worth it to incarnate at that time just to join in the
debate!
The Process
of Debating
Let’s
face it - we’re basically creatures of habit. We tend
to feel comfortable with what we’re used to and resist
change. It’s hard to be clear and objective when we
feel threatened in any way and it’s easy to dismiss
a seemingly opposing viewpoint to save having to expand out
of our comfort zones.
I
think God gets a lot of mileage out of people debating and
facing the stuff that comes up in the process. Take, for
instance, how debating is an integral practice in the training
of Tibetan Buddhist monks in the qualities of understanding
and compassion. Eventually their resistances are broken down
and they’re able to contain a broader, more all encompassing
viewpoint.
The Debate
Today
The
debate between the two zodiacs is, of course, centered around
one main question: “How can both systems be right?” How
can I be, for instance, both an Aries in the Western system
and a Pisces in the Vedic system?
It
could be argued, first of all, that it’s rather simplistic
to identify yourself as only one particular sign like we
tend to do in the West. This is more of a recent cultural
phenomenon due to the popularization of horoscope columns.
In the more distant past, Western astrology was oriented
more to the ascendant than the Sun if it had to be limited
to one sign. Vedic astrology today favors the emphasis of
the ascendant over the Sun as well.
This
makes sense because the ascendant is the starting point of
the horoscope and the quickest moving indication in the chart
so is could be considered more personally associated with
your identity or “you”. In practice, the ascendant
or 1st house relates more to one’s self, identity and
personality traits than any other house.
However,
if you asked someone in India “what’s your sign?” they
would likely assume you mean their Moon sign, since Vedic
astrology is a Moon-based system and it’s primary predictive
systems are based on the Moon.
Reasons
for the Relevance of Both Zodiacs
The
obvious reason why emphasizing one sign is limited is that
there are so many potential configurations from which to
interpret the same descriptive traits. For instance, your
Sun may move from Aries to Pisces in your Vedic chart, but
you also may still have three planets in Aries, or Mars in
Aries. You certainly would tend to see strong Aries traits
in the Vedic chart even though the Sun is not involved.
In
fact, in my experience that’s always been the case
when I look at the two charts for a particular person. They’ve
never contradicted one another looking at the chart as a
whole.
Some
people say that your Western chart is more “earthy” and
represents your personality and your Vedic chart is more “heavenly” and
represents your soul. This makes some sense due to the relative
vantage points in terms of distance. In other words, the
stars are further away than our Sun, which is the closest
star.
On
the other hand, this seems to imply that your Western chart
is more grounded in practical matters on Earth, and your
Vedic chart is more spiritual and ethereal. Whereas, the
opposite could be argued to be the case because your Vedic
chart is related to the actual observable fixed stars and
your Western chart is symbolic. This is why some argue that
your Vedic chart can be so accurate for prediction with actual
events on Earth and your Western chart is better for describing
the psychological effects the actual events may have on your
psyche.
The Evolutionary
Pattern of the Zodiac
I
think that what’s important is the realization that
the zodiac represents an archetypal evolutionary developmental
pattern beginning with Aries and ending in Pisces. As an
illustration, the pattern of 12 signs can be visually likened
to a clock. If you rotate the clock and get the Sidereal
Vedic chart or the Western Tropical chart the clock still
works at least symbolically if not literally because it’s
based on a true fundamental pattern.
This
is why I think Western astrology makes sense even though
it uses a symbolic zodiac. Our day to day life on earth is
integrally effected by the seasons and so to transpose the
zodiac over the seasons – works. The essential qualities
of the signs of the zodiac do line up with the Sun passing
through the seasons. For instance, the Sun passing into Aries
conveys the qualities of spring – active, energetic,
vigorous creative new life etc.
Likewise,
you could take any developmental pattern and transpose the
zodiac. One obvious one would be take the 12 year transit
return of Jupiter. Each year is like one sign of the zodiac.
The first year when Jupiter is transiting over natal Jupiter
is new, energetic and expansive in growth like Aries even
though the actual Jupiter return may happen to land in another
sign. The twelfth year, like Pisces, has qualities of dissolution
and death before the rebirth again with the next Jupiter
return.
The Zodiac
Wrap Up
Being
that the Tropical system is Sun-based the commonly held opinion
is that the Tropical system is better at describing the personality
and psychological patterns. Whereas, the Vedic system is
better at describing the soul nature and predicting actual
events because it’s tied to the actual fixed constellations.
And
that’s how the reference texts read in practice. The
Vedic texts shed very little light on psychological patterns
and emphasize prediction whereas it’s just the opposite
with the Western reference texts.
I
think that the bottom line is that you can get an accurate
reading, both in terms of psychological interpretation and
prediction, using either system. In the final analysis I
think that the accuracy of the system depends more on the
astrologer than on the system.
Lesson
1 Exercise:
How to Calculate Your Vedic Chart - Subtracting the Ayanamsha
Obtain
a copy of your western chart, if you don’t have one
already. Make a list of your planets and their degrees as
shown below. Subtract the ayanamsha or 23 degrees from each
Tropical planetary position and the ascendant to get their
Sidereal position.
Example
Calculations:
Tropical Positions Sidereal Positions
Asc: 11 Gemini – 23 = 18 Taurus
Sun: 14 Scorpio – 23 = 21 Libra
Moon: 10 Virgo – 23 = 17 Leo
Mercury: 28 Libra – 23 = 5 Libra
Venus: 8 Libra – 23 = 15 Virgo
Mars: 25 Capricorn – 23 = 2 Capricorn
Jupiter: 9 Pisces – 23 = 16 Aquarius
Saturn: 24 Aquarius – 23 = 1 Aquarius
North Node: 18 Sagittarius – 23 = 5 Scorpio
South Node: 18 Gemini – 23 = 5 Taurus
(Optional)
Uranus: 24 Leo – 23 = 1 Leo
Neptune: 3 Libra – 23 = 10 Virgo
Pluto: 14 Virgo – 23 = 21 Leo
An
easy way to do this in your head, if the planet’s degrees
are less than 23 degrees in any given sign, is to add 7 degrees
and go back a sign. For example, if a planet is at 11 degrees
Gemini then add 7 degrees and go back to Taurus. The Sidereal
position would be 18 degrees Taurus.
If
you want to get the exact position of the planet down to
the minute then get out a calculator and calculate the exact
ayanamsha of the year and month you were born.
Use
the following dates for the ayanamsha as a starting point:
January
1st 1940 - 23 degrees 01 minutes
January 1st 1950 - 23 degrees 09 minutes
January 1st 1960 - 23 degrees 18 minutes
January 1st 1970 - 23 degrees 26 minutes
January 1st 1980 - 23 degrees 34 minutes
Use
these approximate figures:
4
minutes 11 seconds per 5 years
1 minute 40 seconds per 2 years
50 seconds per 1 year
4 seconds per month
Jai Sri Ram
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