"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to "steal" ideas from many is research."

-Anon-



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American Mythology-=*=- Aesop's Fables-=*=- Arthurian Mythology-=*=- Australian Mythology-=*=- Aztec Mythology-=*=- Celtic Mythology-=*=- Chinese Mythology-=*=- Christian Mythology-=*=- Egyptian Mythology-=*=- Etruscan Mythology-=*=- Finnish Mythology-=*=- Folklore Mythology-=*=- Greek and Roman Mythology-=*=- Haitian Mythology-=*=- Hindu Mythology-=*=- Hittite Mythology-=*=- Incan Mythology-=*=- Japanese Mythology-=*=- Korean Mythology-=*=- Latvian Mythology-=*=- Mayan Mythology-=*=- Mesopotamian Mythology-=*=- Native American Mythology-=*=- Norse Mythology-=*=- Persian Mythology-=*=- Polynesian Mythology-=*=- The Zodiac


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Mythos
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The Signs:

Aries

Element: Fire
Planet: Mars
Symbol: The ram
Period: March 21-April 20
Attractions: Gemini, Leo, Libra, Scorpio

Taurus

Element: Earth
Planet: Venus
Symbol: The bull
Period: April 21-May 21
Attractions: Libra, Scorpio, Capricorn

Gemini

Element: Air
Planet: Mercury
Symbol: The twins
Period: May 22-June 21
Attractions: Virgo, Libra, Sagittarius

Cancer

Element: Water
Planet: Moon
Symbol: The crab
Period: June 22-July 22
Attractions: Pisces, Scorpio, Aquarius

Leo

Element: Fire
Planet: Sun
Symbol: The lion
Period: July 23-August 23
Attractions: Scorpio, Capricorn and other Leo's

Virgo

Element: Earth
Planet: Mercury
Symbol: The virgin
Period: August 24-September22
Attractions: Gemini, Pisces, Taurus

Libra

Element: Air
Planet: Venus
Symbol: The scales
Period: September23-October 22
Attractions: Aquarius, Aries, Taurus

Scorpio

Element: Water
Planet: Pluto
Symbol: The scorpion
Period: October 23-November 21
Attractions: Capricorn, Leo, Pisces

Sagittarius

Element: Fire
Planet: Jupiter
Symbol: The archer
Period: November 22-December 21
Attractions: Gemini, Aries, Taurus, Virgo

Capricorn

Element: Earth
Planet: Saturn
Symbol: The goat
Period: December 22-January 20
Attractions: Taurus, Scorpio, Leo

Aquarius

Element: Air
Planet: Uranus
Symbol: The water bearer
Period: January 21-February 19
Attractions: Aries, Gemini, Libra

Pisces

Element: Water
Planet: Neptune
Symbol: The fish
Period: February 20-March 20
Attractions: Aquarius, Cancer, Scorpio



back to
Mythos

The signs of the Zodiac as seen through a different twist
Excerpt taken from and reorganized in Astrological order. Dane Rudhyar's The Astrology of Personality:
Note:
Generative is operating in terms of spirit.
Concentrative is operating in terms of soul.
Distributive is operating in terms of mind.

"Generative Fire Aries is the starting-point of individual selfhood.
Concentrative Earth Taurus operates in terms of soul. It gives substance and depth to the Aries impulses.
Distributive Air Gemini operates in terms of the mind. It exteriorizes and interprets the individual impulsion of Aries, once focalized and insubtantiated in Taurus.
Generative Water Cancer operates in terms of spirit. It is the power that gives birth to concrete selfhood, that creates a concrete basis of operation-a home-for the individual self.
Concentrative Fire Leo refers to the creative release of self, by means of which the soul knows itself whole and god-like.
Distributive Earth Virgo operates in terms of mind. It spreads the release of self of Leo through space, where it is seen as a mass of polar energies (The Virgin of Light). Discrimination is aroused in the mind as the problem of dealing with polarities, with light and shade, arises.
Generative Air Libra operates in terms of spirit. It is the power that gathers and communalizes the emanations of individuals.
Concentrative Water Scorpio operates in terms of soul. It concentrates and sustains the collectiving urge of spirit-Air (Libra), the impulse toward "re-birth of Christ."
Distributive Fire Sagittarius is that fire which blends, synthetizes and universalizes all elements and energies prior to the Christ-birth -the birth of the universal being.
Generative Earth Capricorn operates in terms of spirit. It is the power of incarnation, the power to assume a body-from the point of view of the involving spirit.
Concentrative Air Aquarius operates in terms of soul. It gives vitality and momentum to the spiritual Earth (Capricorn). It is the breath of the collective soul.
Distributive Water Pisces operates in terms of mind. It effects the synthesis of energies that were brought to creative focalization in Capricorn, and vitalized in Aquarius."

The Zodiac was first put together thousands of years ago, when ancient astronomers looked to the skies and saw which constellations passed around the plane of the ecliptic (the plane on which the planets orbit the sun, i.e. the plane on which eclipses occur). The sign a person is born under is the sign on the opposite side of the sun from the Earth on the person's birthday. However, what most people don't know is that over long periods of time, the constellations shift around in the sky, meaning that the dates of the classical, astrological Zodiac are no longer relevant. Astrologers haven't accounted for this, and are still using the dates from when the Zodiac was originally set up.

Problem 1: The Earth's Precession
The reason the Zodiac moves around is due to the axial precession of the Earth. The Earth is not spinning perfectly on its North-South axis. Like a top or a gyroscope that has started to wobble, the Earth's poles move around in a small circle with a period of about 25,800 years. This also means that the North Star (currently Polaris) changes with the Earth's precession.

Problem 2: Constellation Size
Aside from the Earth's precession, the classical Zodiac has two other problems. First, the original Zodiac was set up more or less evenly distributed across the calendar year. This doesn't match up with the actual position of the sun in the constellations in the sky, because the constellations are not of uniform size. Pisces, for example, is very large compared to the others, and the part of Scorpius that actually intersects the ecliptic is very small (only 7 days!).

Problem 3: The 13th Zodiac Sign
A somewhat bigger problem, however, is that there are actually thirteen constellations in the ecliptic, not twelve. The little-known constellation Ophiuchus (the serpent bearer) falls between Scorpius and Sagittarius.

Below is a chart comparing the modern, astronomical Zodiac with the classical, astrological Zodiac (each line is approximately 1 week). Only about 14% of the dates match up, most people will find that they were born under a different sun sign than they thought they were.


Astro-    Astro-
nomical   logical
        1
        1
 1/19  1  1/21
        1
 2/6   2
        2
        2  2/20
        2
        3
 3/12  3
        3  3/21
        3
        4
        4
 4/19  4  4/21
        4
        5
 5/14  5
        5
        5  5/22
        6
        6
 6/20  6
        6  6/22
        7
        7
 7/21  7
        7  7/23
        8
 8/12  8
        8
        8  8/24
        9
        9
 9/16  9
        9  9/23
        O
        O
        O
10/31  O  10/23
        N
        N
11/23  N
11/30 ? N  11/22
        D
        D
12/18  D
        D  12/22

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