About Zane B Stein Expertise I WILL BE HAPPY TO answer questions about astrology in general, the meanings of planets, signs, houses, aspects, asteroids, Chiron, etc. I use Western, Tropical Astrology. Please do not ask me questions about Vedic Astrology as I am not an expert on this.
I WILL NOT ANSWER PERSONAL QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR INDIVIDUAL CHART, such as "Will I get rich?" or "Will I get married?", or "Are we compatible?" I do have a private astrological practice, and if you need to ask those type of questions, contact me privately and we`ll discuss a possible astrologer/client relationship. Also, I cannot answer questions about Vedic Astrology, or Chinese Astrology.
Also, astrology is NOT "What is my lucky stone?" or "What is my lucky color?" or "What are my lucky numbers?" Any astrologer who gives you a lucky object, or number, based on your chart, is not a real astrologer, but someone who is giving in to superstition. In order to find out how to enhance your luck, you need to have an astrologer look at your whole chart, and tell you what areas you need to focus upon, how to accent your positives, and work to resolve any problems that exist.
Experience I've been involved with astrology since 1969, taught classes on several occasions, written a number of articles and one book, and lectured around the USA, in Canada, Great Britain, Scotland and Ireland.
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Please make sure your question is on astrology and not astronomy. I am not an astronomer.
Expert: Zane B Stein Date: 3/4/2008 Subject: Explaining the Zodiac Model
Question Hi Zain,
So happy to see your forum here. I guess this may not be so much a question... as a puzzled observation...As far as I can see...The signs are rising on the Ascendant, but the planets and all seem to be descending across it. And North is at the bottom and South is at the top? And West is right and East is left...?! Do I have this right..? And if this is so, why would they design a model that doesn't seem to fit what we normally understand about how everything is moving... I have studied astronomy, and comparing the circular whirling stuff to the flat model... I do get discombobulated...
Hoping for clarity,
Katy in Canada
Answer Hi, Katy,
Good questions, and complicated answers.
First, keep in mind that you are dealing with more than one motion going on at the same time.
The Earth turns on its axis, approximately once every 24 hours.
At the same time, the Earth travels around the Sun approximately once every 365.25 years. The Moon, of course, travels around the Earth in a little less than a month. And each other planet, of course, travels around the Sun in it's oown orit.
Basic astrology interprets these motions geocentrically. That is, how they appear as seen from earth. Astrology charts the 'apparent' path of
the Sun against the backdrop of the signs, and calls this path the Ecliptic. It also charts the Moon, and the planets, traversing the Ecliptic. Of course, we know that it is the Earth that actually travels around the Sun, but we plot the apparent paths only, thus we see the Sun, Moon & planets going through the signs.
Now, every day, as the Earth makes one turn on its axis, the signs rise up in the East, and set in the West. For example, at Sunrise on the Summer Solstice, the Sun is exactly at 0 degrees Cancer and 0 degrees Cancer is on the Eastern horizon. As the Sun rises, next you see 1 degree Cancer Rising, 2 degrees Cancer, then 3, then 4, etc. After a few hours, Cancer finishes, then Leo begins to rise, and so on around the zodiac. So, in 24 hours, one by one, each sign will rise up
over the horizon, reach the Noon point, move down to the West, and eventually pass below the horizon again. That is one motion. And if you look at a chart, you will see it is a clockwise motion.
But at the same time, the Sun, Moon, and planets are moving along the ecliptic. The Sun, for example, moves approximately 1 degree a day through the signs. If, for example, at Sunrise on Summer Solstice, the
Sun is 0 Cancer, and 0 Cancer is on the Eastern Horizon, then the following day, at Sunrise, the Sun will be at 1 Cancer, and 1 Cancer will be on the horizon. At Noon on the Summer Solstice, when the Sun is directly overhead, it has moved 1/4 of the way through the degree it is in, so it would be 0 Cancer 15. At Sunset, with the Sun on the West, it will have moved halfway through the degree, so it will be at 0 Cancer 30. Over the next 30 days, it will be moving through the entire sign, so that one month after the beginning of Summer solstice, the Sun will reach 0 Leo. And over the 12 months of the year, it will go through each sign in turn this way.
So now, put the two together, and you will see that the Sun (and each other body), has two opposite motions. Each day, it moves clockwise around the Earth as seen from the Earth. And at the same time, it is slowly moving counter-clockwise through the signs. Each day, the Moon, and every planet, also moves clockwise around us, and also, counter-clockwise through the signs.
I hope that part of my answer is not confusing.
Now, why is East on the left, South above us, West on the right, and North below us?
This is a bit more difficult to explain. It has to do, partly, with the fact that we are trying to put a three dimensional map on a two-dimensional piece of paper.
Part of the problem is the fact that you are used to thinking in terms of North as being UP, in relation to the Earth's surface. If I am in Atlanta, and I drive to Canada, I'm driving North. And so if I represent this on a map, North is the top of the map, South to the bottom. But while I'm driving towards Canada....what direction is above my head?
It's UP, of course...and below my feet is DOWN. Neither one is North or South, relative to me driving on the road.
But what about relative to something out beyond the Earth?
There are other 'circles' in the sky in addition to the Ecliptic. There is another circle that is called the Meridian. When the Sun reaches the top of the chart, it's ecliptic path crosses the Meridian path, at the South-most part of the Meridian circle. When it is midnight, and the Sun is below Earth, it is crossing the Meridian at the Northern-most part of that circle.
That is a bit of an over-simplification, but it should give you a basic idea. And if South is overhead, then it is easier to accept East as being on the left side of the chart.
