Siderial Astrology vs Tropical Astrology

By Danelle Dragonetti
Originally published in The Denver Pentagram and
The Eclectic Witches Workbook 1995.
Expanded and revised by Danelle Dragonetti May 2010
Copyright Danelle Dragonetti 2010. Please reference.

I'm a professional Astrologer. I've been doing it for over 40 years. (Yes Martha, before
computers.) About 20 or so years ago I met a person who turned me on to Cyril Faggin
and Sidereal Astrology. What follows is why I do NOT work in the Tropical Astrological
format at all any more.

For my purposes... It came from "The Denver Pentagram" circa 1995 and is also
published in a book that Wyn Summerhawk and I wrote called The Eclectic Witches
Workbook - 1997 Little College of Witches. I have expanded this article as of May, 2010.

Sidereal Astrology vs Tropical

(Intro by Wynn Summerhawk)

I'm no astrologist by any stretch of the imagination. I know enough to realize that more
matters than my Sun sign. I have to get a computer to do my charts for me because the
math gets me tying my thumbs in knots. Still, something astrological has got my knickers
in a twist. I've always trusted the Tropical system that makes me a Sagittarius. I seem to
fit some of the descriptions of what one born under that Sun sign should be, and Libra
ascendant explains some things about my behaviors.

Then I find out that the Tropical system is based on where the stars were a long time ago.
Its not where they are now. The Sidereal system takes into account the movements of the
constellations. The Sidereal system makes me a Scorpio. Every trait ends up being
explained or described by the placements of planets in my chart under this system. My
whole personality and the things I undergo show up accurately in the Sidereal
calculations. What this tells me is the system works. I suppose I would have to have two
astrologists of equally high caliber do a reading for me in the two systems and compare
the results to be absolutely convinced that I am either a Sag or a Scorpio.

The bigger questions and concerns come to me when I consider the implications of using
tropical calendars to determine Moon Void of Course. I've often gone by my feelings in
choosing appropriate times to work magick, and found myself most comfortable and
successful in times that showed up later to be Voids while magick done in a tropical
Moon in Sign period proved duds. In fact much has gone awry when I was careful to do
everything by the book under a Tropical Moon in Sign.

I started using a computerized astronomy chart to figure out where the Moon was. It
turned out that the Tropical charts are off a great deal of the time from where the Moon
really is in the sky. I'm going with Sidereal. Its accurate. Maybe I am a Scorpio. Its not all
that important to me what my chart's doing but it matters a great deal what the sky is up
to when I'm working magick. As I said, I am no Astrologist, so I give you Winterhawk
(Danelle Dragonetti) who is one, to explain in technical terms what the differences are
and why they are so important. - Wyn Summerhawk

Needless to say the above story got me thinking as well. Recently a friend who is into
Sidereal Astrology asked me to open in my Tropical Ephemeris, look up the position for
the Moon, do the math to get the position for local time and look to see if the Moon was
in that constellation outside. I did but, IT WASN'T!! I checked my math. My math was
correct. I checked the ephemeris against my favorite program, Astrolog. It's coordinates
were just fine and matched the program but, the planet wasn't there in reality. What
happened?

Tropical Astrology is based on an imaginary point in space that the Earth comes to every
spring. The Vernal Equinox, March 21st. That imaginary point is what keeps the seasons
in their place and all Gregorian calendars are aligned to it every March 21st. (This is also
why we have leap year.)

Before we go further, let me explain what Tropical and Sidereal are in scientific terms.
(Not too scientific though)

Sidereal, or stellar, time is a system of time reckoning based on the rotation of the Earth
with respect to the celestial sphere, the imaginary sphere of the heavens surrounding us.
As the Earth rotates, one sidereal day is the time that it takes for a star to again pass
directly above a given observation point. Sidereal time is used in astronomical work. The
sidereal day is about four minutes shorter than the solar day. More precisely, 1 mean
solar day = 1.0027379093 sidereal days. An observer's local meridian is the great circle
passing through the observer's zenith and the celestial poles. The angle measured
westward from this meridian to the hour circle is called the hour angle (HA) of the star.
The hour angle of the vernal equinox is defined as the local sidereal time of the observer;
therefore, right ascension + hour angle = sidereal time. Sometimes, in place of delta, the
north polar distance (NPD) is used; this is the angle measured from the north pole to the
star.

Since the vernal equinox and equator are not fixed, because of PRECESSION, it is
necessary to specify at what date or epoch the coordinates were measured. For instance,
on the vernal equinox (Spring or March 21) in the year 221, if you were to look up in the
sky at noon on that date in Greenwich , England Aries would be right above your head at
0°. If you go out on March 21, 1996 at noon in Greenwich and look up you'll see 6° of
Pisces. That's what precession does.

The Tropical year is the period of time of one revolution of the Earth around the Sun
measured between successive vernal equinoxes. It equals 365.24220 mean solar days, or
365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds. Also called the solar year or the year of the
seasons, the tropical year is the basis of the calendar. This is why winter happens in the
northern hemisphere between December and March.
A year is a division of time defined basically by the period of revolution of the Earth
around the Sun. Various kinds of astronomical years and calendar years have been
defined. The astronomical year of chief importance to most of today's astrologers is the
tropical year, which is the time interval between successive occurrences of the spring
equinoxes. This is what keeps Aries at 0°. But, this is also an imaginary point.

A year is now about 365.2422 mean solar, or civil, days, the number decreasing very
slowly as a result of small, progressive changes in the Earth's rotational speed and its
orbit about the Sun. The seasons repeat, on the average, in this interval. The sidereal year,
determined by the Earth's position with respect to the stars, is 365.25636 mean solar days
which means that the year goes on a tiny bit longer every year. It is longer than the
tropical year because it is not subject to the shortening effects of precession though it
should be. This is what causes the vernal equinoxes to slowly go backwards in the signs.
Precession.

If the vernal equinox occurs in Greenwich, England at 6° Pisces in 1996 then why are all
the tropical astrologers trying to tell me that it's 0° Aries? If I go to my window and look
up at the sky on that day in Greenwich I'll see the constellation Pisces!! When I was born
using sidereal calculations for Chicago and my parents looked up at that second they
would have seen the Sun in 10° Aries NOT 3° Taurus.

I'm not saying that spring should occur at 0° Aries.. That would put it somewhere in
April... I think that the imaginary point that the Gregorian calendar is set to is great for
the reference of changing seasons / Sabbots but, it is not a good idea for reference to
astrology. The energy that is being produced by such and such a planet being in a sign
does not follow any imaginary point. It just is! Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is
Winter in the Southern.

Ptolemy, the father of today's astrology never heard of tropical astrology. He went out on
his balcony and looked up. If Jupiter was in Cancer it was in Cancer. This change from
Sidereal to Tropical Astrological systems can't quite be pinned down. Some texts say that
it occurred in the 1600's others say that Tropical gained acceptance somewhere in 1800's
when Greenwich, England was chosen as the place of 0 hour. I might also suggest that
the split between Astrology and Astronomy was due to that imaginary point. While
astrologers made their mathematical computations to always put Aries at 0° on March
21st, astronomers were looking through their telescopes and shaking their heads saying,
"I beg to differ.. Here.. Take a look for yourself". By today's standards the zodiac is now
off by 24°.

Cyril Fagan came upon the same conclusion in 1944. He spent the last 26 years of his life
trying to convince astrologers of the tropical zodiac that the fixed sidereal zodiac was the
one to be looked at when casting anyone's charts. In his book, A Primer of Sidereal
Astrology he explained in even more complicated terms, but never the less, convincingly
the how's and whys of what is being discussed herein. Not to many people listened. I
personally think he tried to simplify too much. Later Eshelman and Stanton carried on his
work and began to attract followers to sidereal astrology with their book, The New
Instant Astrologer.

In a letter written to written to Hindu astrologer, B.V. Raman, September 6th 1947 - Dr.
Jung wrote:

"Since you want to know my opinion about astrology I can tell you that I've been
interested in this particular activity of the human mind since more than 30 years. As I am
a psychologist, I am chiefly interested in the particular light the horoscope sheds on
certain complications in the character. In cases of difficult psychological diagnosis I
usually get a horoscope in order to have a further point of view from an entirely different
angle. I must say that I very often found that the astrological data elucidated certain
points which I otherwise would have been unable to understand. From such experiences
I formed the opinion that astrology is of particular interest to the psychologist, since it
contains a sort of psychological experience which we call 'projected' - this means that we
find the psychological facts as it were in the constellations."

Clearly Carl Jung was questioning a Vedic Astrologer. Vedic has always been Siderial.

From “The Complete Magickal System of The Golden Dawn”, Francis King writes:

“Between 1908 and 1912 Mathers issued side lectures and other manuscripts to those
Temples that were loyal to him. Much of this additional material reached the Stella
Matutina (via Brodie Innes) but some did not do so. Some of these later manuscripts are
of great interest, and one in particular, that seems to have been issued to Theorici Adepti
Minores, is of real importance; for it outlines an astrological system that differs in some
respects from both the normal western astrology taught in the Golden Dawn and its
off shoots, to members of the Portal Grade, and the sidereal ("starry") astrology used by
the Hindus and a minority of modern western astrologers.

Therefore I would suggest the reader consult any of the modern textbooks on sidereal
astrology with a view to gaining some insight into their particular kind of interpretation.
(For example in tropical astrology my ascendant is about 0 degrees Scorpio. By Mathers
calculations that would be shifted back to about the middle of Libra.)

In considering this 'initiated astrology' it must be borne in mind that the signs of the
Zodiac in popular astrology are completely out of step with the constellations bearing the
same names. The situation has arisen because of the precession of the equinox - the fact
that the equinoctial point (i.e., the point of the zodiac at which the sun lies when it
crosses the equator on March 21st each year) moves steadily through the zodiac in a
reverse direction to the motion of the planets. In spite of this fact, tropical astrologers
insist on calling this invisible, moving equinoctial point to the 0 degrees of Aries
although it is, in reality, many degrees away from the constellation of that name.”

Quite clearly Mathers, the father of western occult magick knew about precession and
Siderial Astrology.
Ask yourself this question, "How come when someone does my chart they just don't quite
get it"? With an astrological system off by 24° there would by a load of room for error.
Sun would be off by 24°, rising sign would be off.. therefore the houses will be off.. etc,
etc. This also means that the planets used in Tropical Astrology are off by 24°. (Ever
wonder why astronomers are laughing at astrologers?).

Alas, this also means that the predictions given by Tropical astrologers are off by years. I
can hear it now...Wait, wait, wait.. Hawk.. where's your proof? Just by chance I picked up
a book called Astrological Megatrends by Kluska. What he predicts (Tropically....then) is
happening Sidereally now. This is to say he was early in his predictions.

Example: Tropically Uranus is in Aquarius, Sidereally it just entered Capricorn. Kluska's

predictions for Uranus in Capricorn are NOW coming true not ten years ago. He
predicted that everyone would have computers in 1988, when in reality only 15% of the
population had them. Look around you now. Nearly 65% to 70% of the population has
them.. and their all connected to the inter net.(Uranus).

Example: Tropically Neptune is supposed to go into Aquarius in January of 1998.

Sidereally, it's 4° Capricorn. What Kluska predicted for the Congress never happened
until the 90's. This is when Neptune's rays started to effect us. (Planets rays = +/- 3° of a
sign on average).

Example: Tropically Pluto just entered Sagittarius. Sidereally it just entered Scorpio. This
doesn't bode well. What was supposed to happen when Pluto entered Scorpio that didn't
when the tropicalists said it would is now happening. Look at the news. Things like
investigations of the FBI, Congress looking at the Clinton's... Privacy issues on the inter
net, all the extreme things going on NOW are products of Pluto in Scorpio.

As of late, some astrologers put the date of the age of Aquarius at 1987 with the great
alignment. I disagree. If we're using the PRECESSION as the date it won't be here until
2356. Mark it on your calendars. That's when the Spring Equinox will take place at 29°
Aquarius 59'.

If we as a magickal community are going to use the powers that are available to us
through history we should make every effort to ensure that they are correct. Sidereal
Moon void of courses, the sign a planet is in and the timing of the aspects are NOT the
same as tropical, although the actual aspects themselves are, i.e., when Neptune is square
Moon tropically or sidereally...it is. The definitions of the signs, planets, or aspects are
still the same. The only difference is the actual timing.

Now when I do a sidereal chart to see if the Moon is void (don't want to do spells when it
is) and the chart tells me that the Moon is in Cancer; I can go outside, look up, and sure
enough that's where She is!! – Danelle Dragonetti a.k.a.