Why Astrology?

I Practice Sidereal Astrology

I want to start right away with letting you know that I practice Sidereal astrology, not Tropical, and when I read your Sidereal natal chart to you, you may hear me say that your Sun sign is different from what you may have been told before, so let me share with you why I follow Sidereal instead of Tropical.  

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True Sidereal Astrology is based upon where the planets and stars actually appear in the visible sky.  You can get an app on your phone and see for yourself where the planets and stars are in the sky, and your app will confirm for you what sign the Sun is actually in at this moment in time. 

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Mainstream Tropical astrology, on the other hand, adheres to a fixed calendar system.

What happened is that around 2,400 years ago the widespread use of calendar systems was becoming common in many cultures across Europe. 

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At that time an astrologer called Ptolemy suggested that the signs of the zodiac should be attached to specific calendar dates so that year over year everyone would agree, “Oh, on March 21, for example, that’s when the Sun moves into Aries, and April 20 is when the Sun moves into Taurus” and so on.

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That system simplified things at the time so everyone could get on the same page for a while. 

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2,400 years ago, the calculations were accurate, but nothing stays fixed. 

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This may sound technical, but there’s a phenomenon called precession which refers to a change in the direction of the Earth’s rotational axis.  This means our Earth’s axis wobbles. 

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Because of precession, the signs in the visible sky actually advance about 1 degree every 72 years. 

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So for 72 years, Ptolemy’s system worked fine, but as centuries passed, that 1 degree of change began to add up, and Tropical astrology sign calculations are off now by almost three weeks. 

Now the Sun doesn’t rise in Aries on March 21.  This year it rises in Aries on April 21. 

You can prove this for yourself, too. 

If you get an app on your phone that lets you identify planets and constellations, you can check anytime you like and see where the Sun, the Moon, and the planets actually are in the visible sky.  

What you discover with your phone will confirm the principles of Sidereal astrology.

When I first learned that my Sun sign is Sagittarius and not Capricorn, I was actually a bit resistant, too. 

I’d been overhearing all these traits of Cap and I’d unconsciously almost been trying to live up to the traits of earthy Cap -- achievement, commitment, dedication, hard-working.  But on my birthday I took my phone outside, pointed the app at the Sun, and sure enough, the Sun was in Sagittarius. 

The more I got used to the idea of Sagittarius, the more sense it made to me because of how I show up. 

Sag is a fire sign, and what really matters more to me is a sense of purpose, adventure, exploration, and philosophy.

What’s funny to me is that my own reaction to learning my Sun sign wasn’t what I’d thought is actually an example of why I also think Tropical still has validity. 

Tropical astrology knowledge is widespread and by now it’s the Collective.  Everybody knows about it. 

People overhear things about the Sun sign they think were born in, and we unconsciously internalize what we hear. 

So I absolutely admit that Tropical is a totally legit system simply because it’s so widespread, and I don’t practice Tropical for that reason.

But there’s another thing, too.  Size matters.  You know that a circle is 360 degrees.  Tropical astrology makes each sign an even 30 degrees because it’s easy to divide 360 by 12 signs and get 30 degrees.  

But the signs in the sky are not an even 30 degrees each.  Virgo is huge, Pisces is huge, and Libra and Cancer are smaller. 

Sidereal astrology uses the actual size of the signs in the sky. 

When you're looking at a planet, you want to consider which sign the planet is really in.

Considering all this and more, my conclusion is that when reading a person’s chart, I'm going to find the most accurate information based upon where the stars actually are in the visible sky. 

That's why I choose to practice Sidereal astrology.

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