ABE: You are a Sidereal
Astrologer. What is Sidereal Astrology?
Jan M.: Sidereal Astrology is
entirely different from Tropical Astrology, which is what most people know
about. In fact, there is only one Zodiac; the difference lies in the starting
point.
ABE: The Tropical Zodiac starts
from 0º ARIES, but there is more to it than that.
Jan M.: Well, yes, there were at
least five different Tropical Zodiacs, because it moves, but in the Sidereal
Zodiac it’s a fixed point where for all time the fixed star SPICA at 29º and
6 minutes of the constellation of VIRGO is used.
ABE: What happened?
Jan M.: If you go back into
history to the time of Hyparcus in Greece around the year 139A.D. you find these
five Tropical Zodiacs; one started at 15º ARIES, another at 12º …
ABE: A famous one at 8º…
Jan M.: Yes and another one at
10º and, of course, 0º ARIES.
ABE: And the reason why all of
this is important is because it determines where the Sun, Moon and planets are
supposed to be in the birth chart.
Jan M.: Indeed, and it’s all
wrong at the moment.
ABE: Because we are no longer in
the Age of ARIES. We are in the Age of PISCES.
Jan M.: Exactly and in order to
get back to the true, original Egypto-Chaldean Zodiac, which is what we
side realists use, the Tropical Zodiac has to be brought forward 24.5º degrees!
And this is due to the precession of the equinox.
ABE: When did the confusion
begin?
Jan M.: The Tropical Zodiac and
Sidereal Zodiac were briefly the same when the precession of the equinox reached
0º ARIES in the year 221 A.D.
ABE: How did that influence
astrology?
Jan M.: Well, as you know, if you
had done your horoscope in either system at the time they would have been the
same.
ABE: And that’s where the
current problems in astrology arose.
Jan M.: Yes. Since that time the
Tropical Zodiac, due to the precession of the equinox, has been drifting into
deeper and deeper error and now it’s over 24º degrees from where it should
be.
ABE: It’s interesting that the
Egyptian-Chaldean astrologers were perfectly aware of the exact precession of
the equinox. We know that from their calendars.
Jan M.: Oh, definitely. They
proved conclusively that they knew what they were doing. After all, they were
the originators of astrology.
ABE: It’s also a very
interesting thing that modern space-age astronomy used astrologically is the
same astrology as the Egytian-Chaldean astrologers were using.
Jan M.: Exactly.
ABE: The Sidereal Zodiac was
rediscovered in modern times by Cyril Fagan and Garth Allan. Can you talk about
that?
Jan M.: Cyril Fagan was an
Egyptologist and great researcher. He proved beyond all doubt that the original
zodiac was Sidereal. Anyone can prove this for themselves. It’s there in the
Egyptian hieroglyphs.
ABE: So, Cyril Fagan, Garth
Allan, Brigadier Firebrace were around in the Twenties and Thirties and caused
quite a furor in astrological circles by all accounts.
Jan M.: They certainly did
because they were using original astrological techniques like the fixed stars,
for instance, which had become almost entirely lost to the Tropical astrologers.
ABE: Sidereal Astrology seems to
at last be coming again into its own, along with, oddly enough, Hindu Astrology,
which is sort of Sidereal but it’s not what you or I would describe as a pure
Sidereal Astrology.
Jan M.: The Hindus might have at
one time had the best zodiac but when the Greek conqueror, Alexander the Great,
invaded India, he imposed Tropical ideas on them and the whole thing became
awfully confused.
ABE: These five Tropical Zodiacs
that we spoke about earlier: is there more to say about them?
Jan M.: They were the work of
highly respected Greek astrologers but, of course, as we now know, the Greeks
did not know how the solar system works. Eventually the Hyparcus version became
the most widely known, because the Arabs adopted it and took it everywhere with
them.
ABE: And Hyparcus was the Oº
ARIES theorist.
Jan M.: So, you can see the
complications and confusion at the beginning of the Tropical Zodiac of signs. Of
course, in Sidereal Astrology, we don’t have these problems.
ABE: So, in fact, Sidereal
Astrology is metaphysical astronomy.
Jan M.: Exactly. Because where
the Tropical astrologer thinks the planets are and where they really are, are
two completely different things and it all goes back to the Greeks thinking that
the vernal equinox is fixed for all time some where in the first 15º of ARIES.
ABE: So, they lost the knowledge
that the Universe is Sun-centered and thought it was Earth-centered, an easy
enough mistake to make. Think of the terrible time Galileo had trying to
convince the Church in the sixteenth century.
Jan M.: It took those sixteen
hundred years to regain that lost knowledge.
ABE: Yes. Full credits go to the
genius Johann Kepler who got modern astronomy off the ground … no pun
intended.
Jan M.: It’s been a long road
back to the true zodiac. Cyril Fagan was a Tropical astrologer for twenty-five
years before he threw it out. Same thing with the great Canadian Brigadier
Firebrace: after twenty-five years he found that something was lacking. The same
with Garth Allan. He was involved with Positional Astrology and discovered the
same thing. There was also Carl Stahl in Chicago who wrote three books on
Sidereal Astrology.
ABE: There was also Rupert
Gleadow.
Jan M.: Rupert
Gleadow was an
amazing man. In fact, he wrote some fine work, which I think is available.
ABE: Yes: “The Origin of the
Zodiac” and “The Zodiac Revealed.
Jan M.: Rupert
Gleadow was a
Greek scholar and proved conclusively that the Sidereal zodiac is the correct
one.
ABE: So, small as it is, there is
a Sidereal literature.
Jan M.: Well, yes but you still
have to make a point of finding or ordering the literature and its interesting
that now the Tropical astrologers are becoming more interested and wanting to
find out.
ABE: There is another Sidereal
astrologer called James A. Eshelman. What about him?
Jan M.: Yes, I know James and his
work is also very interesting, particularly his book on the interpretation of
solar returns.
ABE: Garth Allan, whose real
name, of course, is Donald Bradley, did a good book on solar returns. I guess I
should explain for our readers that the solar return chart is calculated each
year on your birthday when the Sun comes back to exactly the same degrees,
minutes and seconds as it was at birth.
Jan M.:
Brigadier Firebrace wrote a series of books called “The Moray Series”, which
unfortunately are not available here yet but most of the other books can be
ordered from a good New Age bookstore.
ABE: Firebrace,
a Canadian living in London, was really a pioneer there.
Jan M.: Of course he was. Yes.
And, you know, in those days in London, he had a hell of a job.
ABE: That was in the Fifties.
Jan M.: Yes, the Fifties. He was
alone in the astrological community; fellows like me were extremely lucky
because I had the privilege of knowing Brigadier Firebrace and Charles Carter,
John Addey, my good friend Ronald Davidson, who has just died, but that’s
decades ago. Astrology since then is changing because the Tropicalists are
becoming more open-minded.
ABE: Why do you think that is?
Jan M.: Well, the problem with
the Tropical zodiac is apparent to anyone who really understands it. You have
about seventy-five aspects; you have antiscion [spelling] points; you
have midpoints, you have ninety-seven [TBC] … asteroids galore; you
have seven hypothetical planets invented by my good friend Charles Jayne, who
died in New York; you have eight, that the Ebertine system uses; and all that
isn’t even the most of it!
ABE: No wonder there is
incredible confusion amongst Tropical astrologers and, of course, it’s a
nightmare for the student.
Jan M.: But you ask a Tropical
astrologer what is going to happen in the future and he or she wouldn’t have a
clue.
ABE: Non-Sidereal Astrology on
the other hand employs far fewer techniques. It’s a streamlined, very direct
system that once you understand the original principles of it you can work with
it.
Jan M.: My regret about the
Tropical astrologers, even after what I said just now is that nine astrologers
out of ten don’t know the full history of their own subject and what is even
worse they don’t know anything about astronomy.
ABE: How long have you been
involved with Sidereal Astrology?
Jan M.: I studied like Brigadier
Firebrace and Cyril Fagan. The Tropical zodiac for about twenty-five years but
when I wanted answers in terms of more accurate predictions, the Sidereal zodiac
proved itself to me.
ABE: I’m happy to say it didn’t
take me twenty-five years to get to the Sidereal zodiac.
Jan M.: You’re a lucky boy!
[Laughs]
ABE: Well, I guess, as with so
many areas of knowledge, we are the midgets standing on the shoulders of giants. Still I must say that once I understood the astronomical
significance of the precession of the equinox everything else followed quite
naturally from there.
Jan M.: Indeed, yes, it all
begins to make sense when you reach that point.
Only
Spiritual Realists can comment:
Read
