Sidereal versus Tropical

[Rose]

Dear Rose,

I am a appreciative student of astrology who frequents your astrolinks site regularly for well articulated insights into my monthly horoscope. I also LOVE the aesthetic of your site....it is BEAUTIFUL, and the music so compelling!

I write to you now because I would love if you would take the time to share your personal insight into the Sidereal vs. Tropical astrology debate, which has recently rather muddled and confounded my head. I simply don't know what to believe any more and find myself more than a little confused about it all. There are HUGE discrepancies which I did not previously understand, and it is making me question the very validity of tropical astrology. Siderealists boast their truth as the only way, and tropicalists tend to avoid the debate altogether. making it difficult to determine one's position in it all. It is all so very confusing for the new astrology student, and I am currently overwhelmed by the inconsistencies I observe.

I respect and honour your reputation as an astrologer and very much welcome your perspective on this seemingly irreconcilable debate. You time and response is valuable to me, and appreciated!

Sincerely,
M....

[Rose]

Hello M...

Personally I believe any system works so long as you resonate with it. There are many different house systems and they all work too, even though you will find house cusps and planetary positions to vary from system to system.

Part of our evolution has been to explore the consciousness of duality. We make connections and correlations through our left brain - the rational mind that aligns with empirical observation, and we also make connections and correlations through our right brain which aligns with conceptual realms.


From Rob Hand - "...After all the pictorial constellations were only physical plane images which roughly corresponded to the ideal, mathematical reality which would have been represented by the tropical system. But fundamentally I believe we have to regard the tropical-sidereal controversy as yet another example of a historical pseudo-problem created by anachronistically projecting a modern problem with modern points of view back onto the ancients. It was not a problem with which the ancients were seriously concerned. Given the limits of their computational accuracy, both systems would have given them the same results. This is a question that we have to solve for ourselves. An appeal to history will not work."http://www.robhand.com/tropzo.htm

I hope this helps...

Blessings,
Rose

[Rose]

Thank you for your response, Rose.

The part I resonated with most was your reference to exploring the consciousness of duality in our modern day. When I reflected on my current dilemma, I realized that I already know what system FEELS aligned with my deepSelf-it is the tropical system, and largely because, as a creative, intuitive, soul-full person, (who is also very right brain oriented) I do rather like where I go with the tropical system. However, once the Sidereal system was introduced to me, it catapulted me into a very left brained process which felt much more cold, analytical, fact-oriented, historical.........and I suddenly felt myself seize up and spiral into a split disorientation. Not that left-brained processes are BAD, just that it felt very, very different to me to relate to astrology from such a perspective.

I also appreciated the link to Rob Hand's article, which was interesting and presented yet more angles to the issue.......

For your further intrigue, I too found some interesting articles posted on the web from the Mountain Astrologer:

www.onereed.com/articles/sidereal-tropical.html

www.westernsiderealastrology.com/articles/MountainAstrologerInterview.pdf

And there is a Mountain Astrologer back issue (April 2002) with an article by Ray Grasse called the 'Sliding Zodiac Problem' which I am hoping to back order.

Again, thank you for your time and for shedding some light upon this for me. Your input has been most helpful.

Many Blessings,
M....