Ophiuchus is a Constellation, not a Sign

Misunderstanding Ophiuchus vel Serpentarius

Ophiuchus is a Constellation, not a Sign

Ophiuchus holding the serpent, Serpens, as depicted in Urania's Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in London c.1825.

I thought it would be easy to link my December 2010 comments on Ophiuchus from Gather to Facebook but no.  So I am putting them together into this blog post to have them handy.

Ophiuchus silliness has been getting attention periodically for goodness knows how long.  My first dealing with it was in the Nineteen Eighties, so long ago that my articles on the subject predate computer files.  I am not going to try to find those.

About a month ago a Gather.com user posted “the Zodiac is wrong” hoax believing it to be true.  I wrote two or three comments to clarify the facts and a couple of those I linked to my Facebook wall.  This was several weeks before the latest mid-January 2011 flap that I understand was ignited by one or more of the corporate conglomerates (NBC?).

I will start here with something that I collected from the wonderful, recently departed, Jack Horkheimer. 

“In Greek mythology, Ophiuchus, known to the Greeks as Asclepius, the son of Apollo was a great healer.  He even learned how to restore the dead to life.  According to the tale Ophiuchus was contemplating the tragic death of the young son of King Minos when a snake crawled toward the body.  Ophiuchus killed the snake but another appeared.  This one carrying an herb in its mouth which it placed in the mouth of the dead serpent.  The snake revived and Ophiuchus snatched the herb and placed it on the body of Minos' son.  He too revived.  Incidentally, that's why the modern day symbol for physicians is two snakes entwined around a staff.

“Ophiuchus used the secret herb to resurrect hundreds of people.  Pluto, god of the Underworld complained to Jupiter who sent Aquila, the Eagle, to kill Ophiuchus with one of his thunderbolts.  But that enraged Apollo so Jupiter made Ophiuchus immortal and placed him in the stars.”

[Transcribed from "Star Date" radio spot for May 7, 1993.]

Kepler's drawing of the fellow

The hoax, myth, error, or what have you:

“The 13th Zodiac constellation [sic] is Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer. The sun moves through Ophiuchus in late November and early December.”

The constellation Ophiuchus does intersect the ecliptic* where we find the constellations of the Zodiac.  The key word here is constellation.  A Tropical Zodiac Sign is not a constellation.

Wikipedia gives us “Ophiuchus is a large constellation located around the celestial equator [plane of Earth’s equator extended into space]. Its name is Greek (Ὀφιοῦχος) for 'serpent-bearer', and it is commonly represented as a man grasping the snake that is represented by the constellation Serpens. Ophiuchus was one of the 48 constellations listed by the second-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations.”

The Zodiac that most of us know and love is not based on constellations but on the seasons.  Twelfths of the circle, 30 degree segments of the 360 degrees the earth makes around the Sun, are named the 12 Zodiac Signs.

The segments are based on the solstices and equinoxes. The Spring Equinox marks zero Aries, the Summer Solstice, zero Cancer, the Autumn Equinox, zero Libra and the Winter Solstice, zero Capricorn. Those four mark 90 degree segments that are divided in thirds, each 30 degrees named for a Sign.

That system uses the names of near ecliptic constellations for the twelfths, the Signs. Those were in close alignment with the seasonal based Signs about 2100 years ago.  Today the Tropical Signs are about 24 degrees out of alignment to the constellations which names they bear. The Zodiac is based though, not on those constellations, but on Solstices and Equinoxes (the seasons).

The Zodiac of Siderealists and Vedic astrologers is linked to constellations.  Talk to them about what to do with Ophiuchus.

The question is shall we plug a constellation into sun-sign astrology? That is the most recognized and popular astrology† and the way most astrologers find their way to astrology. There are many who go with the notion that there are twelve types of people and give them different interpretations. Linda Goodman is the most famous of who I call “Signologists”. In order to reach wide audiences, to give something to the general populace via media, Signology is probably necessary. I've written columns for "Signs" myself, I do not mean to dismiss the effort or the art, but in-depth horoscope analysis is far superior to what can be gleaned from Sun Signs.

If one is going to utilize Signs based on the Tropical Zodiac, plugging in a constellation is a very iffy exercise. To repeat what I pointed out earlier, the Zodiac of Signs that most people refer to (whether they understand its astronomical foundation or not), that we learn by calendar dates that our birth occurred with the Sun in this or that Sign, is established by solstices and equinoxes, NOT by constellations.

The Zodiac of constellations is not popularly used in Western Astrology but is the basis for Hindu (Vedic) astrology and is a legitimate astrology. There are active schools of modern sidereal (constellational) astrology in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere. It is just not the astrology that is commonly used and understood by the general populace as astrology.

I don’t think it matters so much WHICH astrology one uses, as long as one is well schooled and skilled in its use.   Cosmos' message via the stars is too awesome for just one approach.  In terms of astrology, it's the singer, not the song.  However, it does make sense, if one is after consistent results, not to mix Signs with constellations.

Maybe what happens when a particular date range gets focus as from a “look how this constellation overlaps this Sign” is that it draws attention to a zone of the Sign and what is achieved is a deeper understanding of the Sign rather than something separate and different.

Post comments or questions here or send them via email.

*The Ecliptic is a great circle of the Earth's path around the Sun (apparently, the path of the Sun around the Earth).  Astrologers use the Ecliptic as the center of the belt of the Zodiac that is like a measuring tape marked with 12 signs of 30 degrees each.

† Astrologers use a birth chart (horoscope) calculated for an individual.  By using the exact time and place of birth, the horoscope shows distinctions between the thousands of people born on the same day.  The astrologer interprets the chart by translating a symbolic language.

There are millions of people born with the same Sign.  People are not Signs ... that sort of idea leads to stereotyping and prejudice. There is no such thing as an absolute . . .  whatever Sign you want to name.

Astrology has been in use for thousands of years.  The practice of connecting people with Signs was begun by the "media astrologer," R. H. Naylor in the first part of the Twentieth Century; a rather new development.  It caught on and now you can find so-called astrology columns in newspapers, magazines, and on websites worldwide.

Original text copyright © Tim Rubald 2011

Eclipse Part IV 2010-2011 fits the news January 5, 2011

World food prices story fits Solar Eclipse delineation

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12119539

‎"The most emphasized body at that location (at the Rising degree of the chart) is the big asteroid Ceres. Ceres is the Earth Mother asteroid. Her glyph resembles the sickle, the tool used for centuries for harvesting grain. The suggestion is that food is in emphasis for the period. We can expect both crises that bring food to world consciousness as well as worldwide efforts to deal with hunger and agriculture."

Eclipse Part IV 2010-2011 addendum

This wonderful web site was shared with me by LibraMoon, a Gather.com reader of my posts.  http://libramoon.gather.com/  

I cannot attest that it is perfect but it seems to agree with the Fred Espenak/NASA eclipse material I've utilized.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

http://shadowandsubstance.com/

The information on the lunar eclipse is no longer timely but the animation for the January 4, 2011, Partial Solar Eclipse is timely (until the 4th anyway) and very nice.

One of several web sites listed by LibraMoon, Laurie Corzett, is this "emerging visions" that I probably limit  by calling it a magazine of visual art, poetry, and thought.  The short dash through it that I was able to take made me wish for more time to explore.

http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com/

Science and art for this brief post.  What a concept!

Eclipse Part IV 2010-2011

Eclipse season comes again about the time of the Winter Solstice.  Part IV of this series will consider:

The Total Eclipse of the Moon, December 21, 2010, at 3:13 AM Eastern/12:13 AM Pacific.  It occurs on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis with Moon in Gemini, Sun in Sagittarius, 29° 21'.  Moon opposite Sun 8:13:27 AM GMT, Maximum Eclipse at 8:16:53 AM GMT.

The Partial Solar Eclipse, January 4, 2011, 9:02:36 AM GMT (Moon conjunct Sun), 8:50:33 AM GMT (Maximum Eclipse), occurs with Sun and Moon at Capricorn 13° 38'.

The Full Moon on December 21 is a Total Eclipse of the Moon.  It occurs on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis with Moon in Gemini, Sun in Sagittarius, 29° 21’.  Moon opposite Sun 8:13:27 AM GMT, Maximum Eclipse at 8:16:53 AM GMT.

Moon enters the penumbra 5:28 GMT

Umbra 6:32 GMT this is where it starts to look like an eclipse

Completely in the umbra 7:40 GMT now the moon is reddish brown

Middle 8:17 GMT

End umbra 10:02 GMT

End penumbra 11:06

The duration of the entire show is five hours, thirty-eight minutes, but the beginning and ending parts when the moon enters and leaves the penumbral part of the shadow are often unspectacular and I’ll find myself wondering, “Is it starting?  Is it starting?”  At the end, I’ve grown tired of watching and don’t much care about the “Is it over?” 

The darker part of the eclipse, when the moon enters the umbra until it leaves the dark shadow, is three and a half hours duration.  The most spectacular part of the show is definitely the middle, the time of “maximum eclipse”.

Rather than list times for the process in five different time zones please use the list above, calculated for Greenwich Mean Time, and subtract the factor that converts it to your local time.  Eastern -5, Central -6, Mountain -7, Pacific -8, and Hawai’i -10 (Alaska, you’re on your own, 9 or 10 and you know which.)  Add 12 to the GMT when you need to in order to subtract (time will be PM on December 20).  Still confused?  Send me an email to STARTALKER@aol.com with your location and I’ll send you your times.

Illustration via Wikipedia

OK, that’s for the watching part.  To have a sense of how the eclipse might play out in the environment, we locate the eclipse chart to an area of interest.  Take the precise time of the Full Moon (3:13 AM EST, 2:13 AM CST, 1:13 AM MST, 12:13 AM PST) and calculate the horoscope for the location of interest.  Then look at that chart for whatever’s emphasized at that location.  For the national climate I use Washington D.C.

Another way is to look at the chart of an eclipse with mapping software that shows where charted planets, rise, set, culminate (top of chart), and anti-culminate (bottom of chart) with lines on a map.  Mars lines might indicate action and fiery events.  Neptune lines might be confusion or flooding.  The quality of the planet is enhanced at the location with some difference in interpretation relative to rising, setting, culminating and anti-culminating.  If a particular location is “flagged” on the map in a way that I find interesting I then calculate an eclipse chart for the place for more information than one can get from the map.

Looking at a chart cast for the lunar eclipse and set for the White House, the planet that first catches my eye is Venus.  In a personal chart we’d say she was Rising and important by her placement in the First House.  But that’s not so important in this kind of chart.  The Rising degree is 7 Scorpio and she’s about 14 Scorpio.  That’s about 7 degrees of separation and I don’t pay much attention unless the separation is less than one degree.  Looking at the mapping version of the eclipse, I’d not even bother to look at DC.  Since it is the seat of power though, I look.  What is critical about this Venus is that she’s at an almost precise right angle with the MC degree (the MC is similar, but not quite what the map shows as “culminating”).

Venus is minutes from 14 Scorpio and the MC is minutes from 14 Leo.  That ties the Lunar Eclipse Venus strongly to Washington.  In this sort of chart, Venus, among other things, represents the economy, money, finances, and women.  The MC represents the chief executive and his public standing.  The Venus aspect may be an indicator of improving popularity.  The aspect however, is a stressful one, so the message may be mixed.

Venus locally dominant in the DC eclipse chart is a strong indicator of financial and economic matters.  Further, the Full Moon/Eclipse axis falls across the financial 2nd and 8th Houses.  Mercury retrograde (ruling the 8th of the monetary standard, the national debt and intelligence) is in the money 2nd as well as the North Lunar Node and Pluto.  Mercury is also at a right angle to Uranus of surprise and the unexpected.  Holiday travel will be an adventure for many.  The configuration with other planets in the financial picture (5th House – the stock market, holding Jupiter with Uranus), clearly suggest the cliché, “it’s the economy stupid.”  That Mercury is retrograde points to the likelihood of trial and error; and Venus ruling the 7th and 12th points to international involvement and behind the scenes machinations.

A negative read would suggest an enhanced “more of the same”; bad news of slow economic growth, unemployment, foreclosure, etc.  A more optimistic assessment might be a President gaining in approval and an economy beginning to respond to stimulation.  The point isn’t a good or bad prediction but awareness of the issues in emphasis.  After all, humankind presumably has this thing called free will.

Some other places “hit” in the eclipse charting include Salt Lake City, and Phoenix where Mars at the IC maybe activating opposition Parties or pointing to a potential for devastating fires.  The IC with Mars might also point up weather problems, storms, and natural disasters.  Mars heats things up!

"The lunar eclipse is visible over Britain, northwest Europe and Africa at Moonset (dawn); the Pacific and the Americas; and northeast Asia around Moonrise (Sunset)." [This location information via http://www.astronomylive.org/event/total-lunar-eclipse-21-december-2010]

 ************

Two weeks after the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse comes a New Moon Solar Eclipse.

Solar Eclipse Partial January 4, 2011, 9:02:36 AM GMT (Moon conjunct Sun), 8:50:33 AM GMT (Maximum Eclipse)

Partial Solar Eclipse of January 04

Illustration courtesy of NASA, 

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2011.html#SE2011Jan04P

The first charting of this eclipse I did for Greenwich, England, the traditional place used for a World chart.  The most emphasized body at that location (at the Rising degree of the chart) is the big asteroid Ceres.  Ceres is the Earth Mother asteroid.  Her glyph resembles the sickle, the tool used for centuries for harvesting grain.  The suggestion is that food is in emphasis for the period.  We can expect both crises that bring food to world consciousness as well as worldwide efforts to deal with hunger and agriculture.  While “modern” farming methods have allowed for huge yields of selected crops, those have not always been what are needed.  Monoculture has forced small farmers out of business and genetically modified crops threaten world ecology.  Clearly, food and agriculture need attention and this eclipse suggests that the time is now.

When we locate the eclipse chart to the White House there’s the surprising repeat of a Venus theme (Venus was also emphasized in the December 2010 Total Lunar Eclipse).  Venus is less than a degree from the Ascendant of the chart suggesting finance, women, and international relations will be highlighted in the months ahead. 

Venus holds connotations of both the 2nd House - finance, prosperity, revenue, and the 7th House - the general public, the status of the nation in the world, international disputes, trade agreements, cartels, and so on.

While Solar Eclipses are often harbingers of difficulty and crisis this one seems almost benign in its Washington DC outfit.  We’ll see.

Eclipse 2010 Part III

Eclipse Part III

(This was written in August/September 2010.  The eclipse chart notes for Greenwich, Washington D.C., and Hawai'i date from then and refer to the July 11 Total Solar Eclipse.)

In this, Part III, I am going to jump more deeply into astrology and bypass some of the softer stuff that was in previous blog entries about eclipses.  Here we spend time looking not at eclipse paths and sky shows but at horoscopes, horo = hour, scope = view.  What we call "charts", as in, "Let me look at your chart."

I distinguish mundane from political charting in that a mundane chart has an astronomical basis while a political chart links the astronomical with social and political life on the planet.  It can be a thin distinction; for example, a New Moon is a mundane event but when calculated for a specific location it may be used for a political chart.

When we look at a mundane chart such as an eclipse, lunation, ingress, season, conjunction, etc., it doesn't come with a specific location.  We might get coordinates for the place where an eclipse is maximum and use that, but a mundane chart is most often viewed astrologically as set for the place where we want to consider its effects.  If we want to know about life in the US we set it for Washington DC.  Some astrologers will set a mundane chart "for the world" at a location that appears quite Eurocentric, Greenwich, England.  That choice has a long tradition and some very experienced astrologers still abide by it.

We can set a mundane chart for any location that fits the information we might like from the chart.  In my practice I most often set one for the White House for political/national information and one for the town where I am living or for any place of interest.

I may also use an astro-mapping program to quickly identify locations where a particular factor suggests that a chart for a specific location might be revelatory.  You may have heard of Astro*Carto*Graphy® mapping and "lines".  The maps provide a shortcut to where a chart will put this or that factor on one of the up, down, rise or set points.  Lines show where the planet or factor will be near or on an angle at the location.  That's very handy but it's only one factor.  Some hucksters are offering to find you love, money, health, and happiness based on these lines alone.  Tsk.

What we learn from location charts is how the event's (ingress, lunation, eclipse, etc.) planetary configuration works out for the area, nation, or whatever.  In any chart we note "angularity", the placement of a factor near one four sensitive chart locations:  1) Ascending or Rising, 2) Descending or Setting, 3) Culminating, "up", at the Midheaven, MC (Medium Coeli) or, 4) Anti-culminating, "down" at the IC (Imum Coeli).  When we find a planet or point at or near those chart angles it is emphasized and the emphasis is tied to the location.  So Mars, god of war and planet of fire, might be in emphasis for one location and not for another. 

Viewing charts based on the Total Solar Eclipse of July 11, 2010, 7:40:27 PM GMT, 19:40:27 UT, at 19° 24' Cancer (Summer Time was in effect, please note this time is NOT Summer Time, but Standard Greenwich Mean Time).

The illustration shows the path of totality (the darker blue band).

For an eclipse you may see two different times, one based on the longitudinal alignment of Moon and Sun (New Moon or lunation) and another keyed to the moment of greatest eclipse.  Greatest eclipse occurs in the South Pacific at 19:33:31 UT.  There's usually not a great deal of difference, and I may look at charts for both times, but to keep it simple I usually chart for the lunation which is the time I use for all New Moons, eclipse or not. 

At the time of the eclipse in England, the Sun is getting ready to set.  That is a public/social part of the horoscope so we might surmise from a "world chart" that the eclipse effects will be felt world-wide and that ordinary people (not just presidents and kings) will receive the message of this eclipse.

The "karma" of personages of the old guard will have a strong effect on events to transpire and it is the new lawmakers and young persons who will breathe life into progress (North Lunar Node Rising, South Setting).  It is obvious that the leaders of the past have a great deal of responsibility for the mess the world is in even though much of the populace has such a lack of historical perspective that they place the blame for current ills on current leaders.  The other side of that is represented in the Greenwich chart in that the future direction is in the hands of younger people coming into view, creators of new technologies like Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), or political gadfly Julian Assange (WikiLeaks).  

The eclipse in DC occurs in the part of the horoscope that has to do with international relations and that will be an area of additional focus for the period and in months to come.  With the Sun and Moon in that House it is likely that leaders will be traveling internationally.  No surprise in what we find at the bottom of the chart, "the homeland".  The planet Neptune of the sea is in emphasis.  That brings to mind the oil spill and indicates continuing confusion, illusion, and leaky-leaky in the Gulf.

Looking at the chart for my current home (Hawai'i), it has the eclipse in the legislative 11th.  There's a lot of attention given to the upcoming election and negative ads are in abundance.  Two planets traditionally referred to as "malefic", Mars of war and heat, and Saturn of lack and limitation are in the 1st House that has to do with the health of the community.  Hawai'i currently has the highest drought rating (by far, as high as the scale goes) of any of the fifty states.

Eclipse season comes again about the time of the Winter Solstice.  Part IV of this series will consider:

The Total Eclipse of the Moon, December 21, 2010, at 3:13 AM Eastern/12:13 AM Pacific.  It occurs on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis with Moon in Gemini, Sun in Sagittarius, 29° 21'.  Moon opposite Sun 8:13:27 AM GMT, Maximum Eclipse at 8:16:53 AM GMT.

The Partial Solar Eclipse, January 4, 2011, 9:02:36 AM GMT (Moon conjunct Sun), 8:50:33 AM GMT (Maximum Eclipse), occurs with Sun and Moon at Capricorn 13° 38'.


Thanks to Janus www.astrology-house.com for charts and to NASA for eclipse path map.  Questions?  Ask away.

Another Moon out of bounds October 25, 2010

Another Moon out of bounds for you and the post is too long for Facebook.

We've got another little blip of the Moon out of bounds, OOB, from the 25th until the 27th.

Due to the tilt of the earth in relation to the Sun we get seasons and the latitude markers of the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn that are 23° 28' north and south of the equator.  Imagine the equator and those north and south limits extended out into space.  Most of the time the planets stay within those limits set by the Sun.  But sometimes, some of the planets swing beyond the limits that the Sun sets.  The Sun, Saturn and Neptune never go OOB, but periodically the rest do.

When a planet is OOB it doesn't relate normally to other astrological factors.  For the time it is out of bounds it is a bit of a wild card, a bit eccentric, and independent. 

This OOB began today, October 25 at 637 PM UT, 237 PM Eastern, 137 PM Central, 1237 PM Mountain, 1137 AM Pacific, and 837 AM Hawaii.

The Moon returns to the fold 208 AM UT on the 28th, for US times it will be October 27 at 1008 PM Eastern, 908 PM Central, 808 PM Mountain, 708 PM Pacific, and 408 PM in Hawaii.

A Few Notes on October 2010 Astrology

October 11, 2010:  A lovely Crescent Moon in the early evening last night went out of bounds (OOB) a few minutes after her exact forty-five degree separation from the Sun.  She’ll remain OOB until

Wed 10/13/2010 1:35 PM UT, 9:35 AM Eastern, 8:35 AM Central, 7:35 AM Mountain, 6:35 AM Pacific, and 3:35 AM here in Hawai’i.

Additionally, a longer term aspect came to perfection last night.  The aspect, a parallel in declination, is not one that gets a lot of press.  It’s a measurement analogous to latitude on the surface of the planet.  Saturn and Uranus reached the same precise distance south of the celestial equator.  The aspect suggests some emphasis of the dynamic between the planet of order and structure, Saturn, and the planet of revolutionary change, Uranus.

This is an enhanced continuation of one of the big picture planetary alignments that’s been discussed quite a bit in terms of the opposition of those two.  Saturn opposed Uranus for the first of five times November 4, 2008 and then the opposition repeated (due to retrogrades) 5 February 2009, 15 September 2009, 26 April 2009, with a final exact opposition on 26 July 2010.

The expression represented by the aspect in opposition is far from over as the aspect in declination reminds us.  Saturn wants to put a straight jacket on the impulse for democratic advance as represented by Uranus that the writer Richard Tarnas has compared to the archetype of Prometheus.  Prometheus was the Titan who looked out for the well being of man and is famous for giving the gift of fire (a modern comparison might be technology and the democratizing Internet).

At this point in a global economic recession the forces of Saturn represent the conservative impulse to go with what is tried and known while the progressive impulse of Uranus is to protect and find benefit for the masses.  The obvious parallel (pun intended) is apparent to the astrologer as another of the connections to be found between the sky show and life on this miracle planet.

What a time!  SuperMoon-New Moon and Venus retrograde October 7, Jupiter retrograde in aspect to Neptune retrograde on the 8th for more on the “adjusting” going on about faith, religion, and beliefs, and a Mercury with the Sun “Superior Conjunction” on the 16th to suggest continued focus on relationship communication.  We need to listen to one another more than we need to talk to one another.

I thought to just post the OOB Moon information to Facebook but this grew a bit beyond the mild lunacy that the OOB suggests so I’m putting this on the blog instead.  Look for the day-to-day effect of the OOB to see a bit of jitter to life, the ball takes an odd bounce.