Making a case for astronomology --and what's this about Ophiuchus?

Recently, a friend forwarded a newsletter to me from Maya Del Mar's astrology website. That message related to yesterday's New Moon and a number of concurrent planetary alignments.

I read it and I found myself thinking, "OK, but what about the fact that these planets, the Sun, and the Moon aren't in the signs indicated?"

As those of you who've read this space since last winter know, I'm a proponent of sidereal astrology. As written in an earlier post, "sidereal astrology is the practice of some Western and all Indian [and other Eastern] astrologers to base their study of the sky on the actual position of the planets in relation to the starry background."

If you're wondering why the point about "the actual position" was made, then I need to explain that every 77 years, the Sun begins its transit through the zodiac one day later than it did 77 years earlier.

For example, in what can be called year 0, the Sun rose in Aries on the Vernal Equinox (March 21). Seventy-seven years later, the Sun crossed the equinox point on March 21, but it rose in Aries on March 22. Another 77 years later, the Sun rose in Aries on March 23 -- and so on and on until today, when the Sun doesn't rise in Aries until the 19th of April.

Thus, the widely known Aries Sun sign (March 21 - April 22) is almost a month off. And so it is for the rest of the signs -- even moreso for Scorpio, but that'll come later.*

The disparity between what Western astrology asserts and what is apparent in the sky is no secret, of course. Regular observers of the the planets, the Sun and the Moon [like myself] can tell you that astrological information about the position of those bodies is not accurate. This ought not be taken as "proof" that astrology is irrelevant or a sham. I just want to bring to people's attention -- those who adhere to astrology for insight into personality and behavior, in particular -- that the correlations and assessments put forth by Western astrology need to be reconsidered or revised in order to be in agreement with the positions of celestial bodies in real time, not a static framework that hasn't been accurate for almost 2,000 years.

This is where "astronomology" comes in.

In ancient times, those who we call astronomers today were likely also astrologers. A distinction between the two wouldn't have been necessary -- or perhaps even correct -- because they probably undertook the duties of both practices: observation of the motion of celestial bodies for calendrical timekeeping, and interpretaion of that information to deduce patterns that would signify influence on individuals and social organizations.

I think that the when practice of astrology was lost (or actually cast out, in European cultures) during the Middle Ages, people lost a framework for understanding their place in a larger cosmological or metaphysical system. When knowledge and methods in astrology resurfaced -- again, in European cultures and those that were influenced or colonized by them -- in the last century, those who used and continue to use those methods didn't and seemingly don't have the practical knowledge of astronomy that their predecessors possesed.

It's my opinion that anyone who has more than a passing interest in astrology needs to understand the fundamentals of astronomy as well. Likewise, astronomers and other left-brainers would do well to investigate what "the other side" can offer in regard to personal (or transpersonal) development and holistic synthesis.

With such an integrated approach, I think a more meaningful, insightful and accurate understanding of onself and the potential for existence can be obtained.

Anyhow... back to that newsletter:

The message was that today's New Moon was coming with lots of portentious alignments that signaled stress and serious changes in certain areas of life (politics, finance, the environment). As I said, I read this and thought, "What about the actual planetary positions?"

Most astro-updates asserted that at 1:14 a.m. EDT on Oct. 22, the Moon entered new phase in the constellation of Libra. A few degrees above the Moon, the Sun was to be in close conjunction with Mars and Venus (all in Libra), and Mercury and Saturn were highlighted because of their conjunction in Scorpius.

If you use a shareware application like Hallo Northern Sky, then you can produce a view of the celestial environment above your location and see that:

The Sun, Moon, Mars and Venus were actually in the constellation Virgo, where -- with the exception of the Moon -- they will remain until the end of October. And of course, at that point, they will transit into Libra not Scorpius. Meanwhile, Mercury and Jupiter are in conjunction in Libra. Remember, Western (or tropical) constellations/signs are almost a full month off compared to actual planetary positions.

About three hours after turning new on Oct. 22, according to the information sent to me, the Moon was to supposed to enter Scorpius, where the Sun and Mars were also supposed to appear on Oct. 25. The star plots show that the Moon won't enter the next constellation -- Libra -- for almost 20 hours. The Moon won't enter Scorpius until Oct. 25; the Sun won't arrive until Nov. 23.

Astrology tends to assign equal area to the zodiac constellations, but there's quite a bit of variation in size among the actual constellations in space. The Virgo constellation is much larger than Libra; so the one-sign-off situation aside, that's why there's such a big time difference between the reported and actual transits.

* And this brings me to the special point about Scorpius... and what ought to be regarded as the 13th sign of the zodiac: Ophiuchus.

Much earlier in this long, long post, I mentioned that the Sun's motion through the zodiac differs from the Western astrological zodiac by almost one month/one sign: the Sun passes through Aries between April 19 and May 13, for example. With Scorpius, not only does the Sun arrive a month later than it's typically said to, but its transit is only seven days long. November 23 to 29 are the only dates when someone born in the last several decades could truthfully be called a Scorpio.

This owes to the fact that the ecliptic, the path that most planets and the Sun follow as seen from the Earth, only goes through a small portion of Scorpius. Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer, is a much larger constellation through which the Sun travels for 19 days each year (Nov. 30 to Dec. 17). And considering some of the history and myth behind Ophiuchus, perhaps we need to talk about people being born under the sign of the serpent, not the scorpion.


"Ophiuchus is the only constellation in the sky which is patterned after a real person in human history, tracing back through time and space for its roots to an Ancient Egyptian mortal-made-god named Imhotep, whose life and times in or about the 27th century B.C. were honored by both the Egyptians and Greeks... Ophiuchus, in Greek mythology, was Asklepios, Master Architect, Healer, and God of Wisdom.

"Asklepios (or Aesculapius to the Romans) is universally acknowledged as a tutelary patron of physicians -- referred to throughout the world in alchemical, metaphysical, and mundane medical texts and treatises as the man who knew how to revive the dying and recently dead using the blood or venom of a snake.** As primitive medicine men are associated with snake spirits, so Asklepios is always mentioned in connection with the Cabir Telesphoros -- his private daemon who is said to have dictated or inspired his medical prescriptions -- and the Serpent of Epidaurus, his personal/professional emblem.

"This symbolic connection between physicians, divine inspiration, and snakes continues to survive to this day, finding itself consistently in each successive age as a universal symbol of knowledge applied with wisdom in the practice of medicine. The serpent-staff has a long history of being connected with religious and occult miracles... This same serpent-staff concept was adopted by the American Medical Association in its development of the Caduceus symbol, which looks something like a winged flagpole about which a pair of serpents is entwined.

"A closer inspection of the constellation of Ophiuchus poses an interesting New Age oracle -- is Ophiuchus holding a snake torn in two pieces or is he bearing in his careful grasp a two-headed king snake, each head adorned with a crown? It all depends on how you connect the dots."

* Sounds an awful lot like the attributes or achetypes associated with Scorpio: regeneration, death and rebirth... which reminds me of another ancient serpent symbol: the ouroboros.

OK, I'm done.