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THE GROUND OF HEAVEN: THE CONSTELLATIONS The heavens declare the glory of god; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. -Psalms, 19: 1-2 JUMP TO: TAURUS PERSEUS AURIGA ORION GEMINI CANIS MAJOR CANCER HYDRA LEO ARGO NAVIS URSA MAJOR URSA MINOR VIRGO CRATER CORVUS BOOTES LIBRA CENTAURUS LUPUS CORONA BOREALIS SERPENS OPHIUCHUS HERCULES ARA SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS LYRA CYGNUS CAPRICORN AQUILA SAGITTA DELPHINUS OCEAN OF HEAVEN AQUARIUS PEGASUS PISCIS AUSTRINUS PISCES ANDROMEDA CEPHEUS CETUS ARIES CASSIOPEIA ERIDANUS Course Info Home The sky itself, with its majestic star-set figures, is the root of every astrologer�s knowledge and craft; without an understanding of why and how these glorious star-emblazoned constellation shapes were created, established, and carried down to us through thousands of years, we risk remaining narrow and unsophisticated in our delineation of nativities. Now at last, at the end of the 20th century of the Common Era - more than 5,000 years after the scribes of Sumer first recorded the extraordinarily ancient wisdom that had been passed down to them by memory-chanters - our computers, data collections, and the recovery and translation of ancient texts have made it possible to rediscover, analyze, and test our great heritage of star-knowledge that was once known only to the most learned priests of the earliest civilizations. Perhaps the most extraordinary discovery is that there is nothing casual or coincidental in the constellational sky - every constellation, (including those of the "Sphaera Barbarica" - the figures above and below the ecliptic that are not part of the zodiac), indeed, each posture, position, length and breadth of every figure, has its reason and message. These energies are still operating, and may be taken and used in the day-to-day counseling of a modern astrologer! Gradually, over more than two thousand years, the Zodiac of Signs, that is, of our familiar tropical degrees, has shifted backward, largely bypassing the ancient sky figures that gave them their original names and identities, and now overlaying the star-figures that once preceded each of them. Our familiar division of 12 equal signs, each 30° in length, came into being in Babylonia some time in the early 5th century BCE, apparently designed to jibe with an already existing calendar of 12 months of 30 days each. The earliest known horoscope, without houses or aspects (except conjunctions), is dated April 29 410 BC, at Babylon; the positions of Sun, Moon, and planets were defined only by the constellations they were in. By the time of Hipparchus, however (2nd century BCE), the equinoxes and solstices were slipping noticeably out of sync with the beginnings of the constellations they were identified with. Hipparchus (fl. 146-127 BCE) realized the implications of this phenomenon, discerning the process known as the precession of the equinoxes, whereby the Vernal Equinox - the point at which the Sun on its apparent course defining the ecliptic, crosses the celestial equator each spring, moving backwards (or westward - to the right on a star map) through the stars at the rate of 1° every 72 years. The 5th-century BCE calendar of Athenian astronomer Euctemon was based upon the solstices and equinoxes, naming each month by its sky sign and offering Hipparchus a structure based upon the actual seasons rather than the ancient figures in the sky. This we now know as the tropical zodiac. By the time of Ptolemy (2nd century CE) the signs were "off" by 8° against the backround of their corresponding constellation patterns, and a choice had to be made: whether to stay with the sky figures, or to count in twelve 30° segments from the gradually precessing Vernal Equinox. For the most part, the Greeks stayed with the 4-cornered structure of the seasons, i.e. the sol-stices & equinoxes, and let the actual sky-figures gradually shift from away from their former seasonal places. But at the same time they kept the constella-tions' traditional names, assigning them to the new, gradually-moving tropical signs. This is the system we in the west have inherited: 12 equally sized signs, beginning with 0° Aries, where the ecliptic crosses the celestial equator. Even though the venerable constellation star-figures have been bypassed, each one overlaid with the sign that originally followed it, these archaic "pictures in the sky" retain and maintain an influence and power, not only in the symbolic, "mythic" areas of our lives, but in a physical way as well. To a surprising degree, the outer frame, shape, and condition of our physical bodies, and the enveloping myths that we enact in each lifetime, are derived from these primordial figures; they represent the personal incarnational drama each of us enacts, every day, in each lifetime. Our tropical zodiac sign of Taurus, was originally the sky figure of the Bull; but now, each year, as the Sun moves through tropical Taurus...

Ground of Heaven