#Art credit: ​The High Priestess Manzel Bowman Manzel's Tarot

[prala]

While the zodiac signs originally corresponded with their namesake constellations due to an astronomical phenomenon called the precession of the equinoxes, they no longer do in Western astrology. This is because Western astrologers use the tropical zodiac, placing the first degree of the zodiac, Aries, at the vernal equinox, where the planes of the ecliptic and the equator intersect. While this handy system allowed time to be standardized and homogenized, alas, the Earth is not a perfect sphere in a perfect universe.

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Instead, it wobbles, shifting the vernal equinox by one degree every 72 years, which places it currently in the sign of Pisces rather than Aries. Practitioners of Vedic or Indian astrology use the sidereal zodiac, which utilizes the actual position of the Sun at the vernal equinox and the current positions of the stars.

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The fact that in most of Western astrology the zodiac signs no longer align with their namesake constellations in the sky fuels critics, like myself who argue that such incongruousness disproves a large amount of Western astrological claims. After all, if you're looking to understand the breadth of the individual relationships we have to the rest of the cosmos, shouldn't you base that language on correct positions? Practitioners of Western astrology disagree, but the pursuit of astrology is a not only a metaphoric one. The universe speaks in symbols and exactitudes not just symbols. If you aren’t taking the whole measure, you will have an incorrect measurement. Which is important to note not least because of the precise coordinates required for a natal chart to be crafted, but also because of the transcendental complexity of the forces and larger scales of nature at play. - Markers for the integrated effect of all the elements within the solar system and how they influence us on Earth.