Chinese Astrology
There are twelve Chinese year signs in the Chinese Zodiac. Unlike in our western astrology, in Chinese astrology each sign lasts for a year. Legend has it that as Buddha was about to depart the earth he summoned all the animals to say goodbye. Only twelve turned up so, to show his appreciation of their loyalty, he vowed that from then on each year would bear the name of one of the animals.
Chinese astrology is based on the Lunar Calendar. This means the Chinese New Year does not fall on the same day each year and can vary by as much as 3 weeks. So for babies born in late January/early February it is necessary to consult the charts to determine the correct sign.
You will find a chart of the dates and signs below. Each sign repeats every 12 years, so 2006/7 will be the year of the Dog. For exact dates visit our website. Following the chart you will find the characteristics of people born during the Chinese Year of The Rooster.
9 February 2005 - 28 January 2006: Rooster
22 January 2004 - 8 February 2005: Monkey
1 February 2003 - 21 January 2004: Goat
12 February 2002 - 31 January 2003: Horse
24 January 2001 - 11 February 2002: Snake
5 February 2000 - 23 January 2001: Dragon
6 February 1999 - 4 February 2000: Rabbit
28 January 1998 - 5 February 1999: Tiger
8 February 1997 - 27 January 1998: Ox
19 February 1996 - 7 February 1997: Rat
31 January 1995 - 18 February 1996: Pig
10 February 1994 - 30 January 1995: Dog
The Chinese Year Of The Rooster..
If you or your child was born in the Chinese year sign of the rooster you have far to go. Roosters are full of confidence, fearless and brave. They will take on an adversary far superior to themselves if they believe they are in the right.
If they can control their impulsive streak they are usually successful in business. Intelligent and ambitious, Roosters work hard and like to be in control, often successfully running their own businesses.
People born under this sign are extroverts and enjoy the company of others. They do not like to be criticised and their self-esteem can crumble if they are ridiculed.
Roosters hate to be bored and can be deliberately provocative if life is too dull.
Other signs either love or hate Roosters. Fortunately for the Rooster, most people love them.
6/4/08
Chinese Astrology
5/5/08
9 Ways to Turn Mercury Retrograde into a Positive
Say the phrase Mercury Retrograde and watch people cringe.
??The last time Mercury went retrograde, my computer crashed and I lost my data.??
??Mercury went retrograde and my application got lost in the mail.??
The stories are legion.
It's true! Computer glitches and communications foul-ups are much more likely to occur during the time that Mercury??s motion is retrograde than at other times.
So, should you go into hiding when Mercury goes retrograde?
Few of us have the ability to disappear from our lives for three-and-a-half weeks three times a year.
But you don??t have to dread this event. True, I would opt for a different time to launch a direct mail campaign. But if you work with the energy, you can make it your friend.
When Mercury moves retrograde, it appears to move backwards - as seen from our perch on planet earth.
The key is to remember the significance of Mercury's retrograde motion.
Mercury is the planet of communication, thought, and mental energy. During Mercury retrograde periods, the energy is flowing inward and backwards. As a result, it doesn??t function as efficiently in the everyday world as it normally does.
There are many reasons why the Mercury retrograde period is not a time to push forward.
Your mental energy is channelled into an inward direction now. As a result, communications are less clear. There is a greater tendency to hear what we think we heard rather than what the other person said.
Items involved with communication and local transportation, such as telephones, computers and cars, are more apt to have glitches. (Remember to back up the computer and double-check your appointments).
Lastly, your perspective is likely to change when Mercury changes direction and resumes its direct motion.
Which is why most astrologers counsel their clients not to sign important contracts during that period.
But Mercury??s retrograde energy is an asset for many things. Use it for what it is designed to do and Mercury becomes your ally.
Here are nine ways to make Mercury Retrograde work for you. Note that many suggestions begin with the letters re. Think re for retrograde.
1. Re-connect.
This is the time to look up old friends and family. You??ve been meaning to call Aunt Martha, or get together with your old high school buddy. Do it! Now is the time to pick up the telephone. Chances are they will be receptive and you??ll be glad you did.
And you, yourself, may hear from long lost pals now.
2. Re-search.
While it is not the time to go forward with grand plans, this is a superb time to research facts and ideas you can use later.
3. Re-view.
Take that application or take your business plan and give it a second look. Chances are you will see things in a different light. And that can give you ideas to strengthen it. And that second look will ensure you have covered the bases.
4. Re-do.
If you were too hasty the first time, or you chose not to follow my advice, you may find yourself having to redo that report. But each time you redo, you refine.
5. Re-fresh.
Your brain and your body were not designed to function 24/7. Taking a little time to kick back and relax refreshes you and ultimately makes you far more productive than trying to plow straight through.
6. Re-solve.
Go back and clean up old relationships that ended badly. You can resolve many issues now ?? even bury the hatchet.
7. Back Burner items.
Now is the time to get to projects that have been pushed into the background.
8. Re-organize.
Mercury Retrograde is an excellent time to clean out old closets, old files, old agendas, throw out what is no longer useful to make room for the new.
9. Re-contact.
Are you in sales? Then, this is the perfect time to re-contact old leads.
If you must take on a new job or a new project during this time, know that it will change. A lot. So stay loose and flexible. Because your perspective will change also.
But if you had previously began a project, applied for that position, contacted that key lead, Mercury Retrograde will not affect you.
Use the Mercury retrograde time in a positive way, and you??ll be refreshed and renewed and ready to move forward when Mercury changes course.
Ellen Zucker is a practicing astrologer with an interest in business and career matters. Subscribe to her *free* weekly astrological newsletter. Celestial Currents comes to your inbox once a week. http://www.celestialcurrents.com
By : Ellen Zucker Read More..
3/18/08
"Phishing" on the "Pharm": How Thieves Combine Two Techniques to Steal Your Identity
"Phishing" on the "Pharm": How Thieves Combine Two Techniques to Steal Your Identity
Bob squinted at the email and began to read:
"Dear eBay User, as part of our security measures, eBay Inc. has developed a security program against fraudulent attempts and account thefts. Therefore, our system requires further account verification�"
Security Measures. A threat to suspend his account to prevent "fraudulent activity". The email went on to say that there were "procedural safeguards with federal regulations to protect the information you provide for us."
Bob clicked the link and was confronted with an authentic looking logon page, just waiting for him to input his user name and password and confirm what ebay supposedly didn't know.
He almost did it. The page looked absolutely authentic, and he had already been "set up" by the email message. His fingers were poised over the keyboard when he happened to glance at the URL.
There was something very, very wrong with it.
"PHARMING" TO FLEECE SHEEP
The art of "pharming" involves setting up an illegitimate website that is identical with its legitimate prototype, for example the ebay page Bob was almost suckered into using, and redirecting traffic to it.
"Pharmers" can do it in two ways:
1. By altering the "Hosts" file on your computer. The Hosts file stores the IP address of websites you have been accessing. By inserting a new IP address into the database field corresponding to a website, your own computer can be redirected to the pharmer's website. Any information you give the bogus site is immediately hijacked by the pharmer.
2. Hijacking the DNS (Dynamic Name Server) itself. A DNS matches the names of address with their IP addresses. If this server can be coerced into assigning new IP addresses to traditional names, all computers using the name resolution provided by the DNS server will be redirected to the hijacker's web site.
Once that happens, it's time to be fleeced.
DOWN ON THE PHARM
"Pharmers" hijack your "hosts" file or DNS servers using Spyware, Adware, Viruses or Trojans. One of the most dangerous things you can do is to run your computer without some form of Internet Security installed on it.
Your security software should be continually updating its virus definitions, and be capable of warning you if something has been downloaded from a web site or through email. It should be able to remove it, "quarantine it", or tell you where it is so that you can remove it by hand.
You should also have Spyware and Adware programs installed, and be aware of any change in Internet browsing patterns. If your home page suddenly changes, or you experience advertising pop ups (which may pop up even when you are not hooked up to the Internet), you should run a Virus, Spyware or Adware scan.
Thanks to the efficacy of these protection programs, pharming is a lot more difficult than it used to be. It isn't as easy to hijack a computer as it once was.
So, the "pharmers" have teamed up with the "phishermen" to get you to visit the bogus web page yourself, and enter all the information they need.
PHISHING TO CATCH YOU ON THE PHARM
As Bob discovered, the page he had been taken to by the bogus email message was identical to the ebay logon page. Identical in every way except for the URL.
Out of curiosity, he checked the URL for the ebay logon by accessing ebay directly and clicking on the logon link. The two URL's were nothing alike, except the bogus one did have the word "ebay" in it twice � just enough to make it look authentic.
By combining the two techniques, the phishermen/pharmers had avoided the high tech problems associated with downloading a Virus that could get past his protection software. They had gone straight for the throat.
Bob's throat.
YOUR ONLY REAL IDENTITY THEFT PREVENTION AND PROTECTION
The bottom line is that the only real protection against the pharmers and phishermen is YOU. There are three things you must consider when you read any email demanding information:
� Why do they want it? Be extremely skeptical when they say they have to "update their records", "comply with federal regulations", or prevent fraud. They are the ones initiating the fraud.
� Why can't this be done at the website? Why not invite you to access the website directly and provide this information? The answer is because the bonafide company doesn't need an update.
� What does the URL look like? Is it a series of subdomains some of which have the name of the bonafide company? Most likely the subdomain is set up with a free hosting company.
� Have they provided partial information about you as a guarantee that the email authentically comes from the legitimate source? Be very careful of this one. This technique is effective for "pretexting", impersonating a person or company, and was used in the Hewlett Packard scandal to collect information. Just because they know your first and last name (and any other information � known only to the legitimate source) doesn't mean the email is legitimate. They probably hijacked the information off the server.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The bottom line is: don't provide any information at the behest of an email, no matter how authentic it looks, or how authentic the page it directs you to looks. If you must log in, do so at the parent site itself.
Your Identity Theft prevention and protection is, in the final analysis, up to you.
Don't be the next sheep fleeced by the pharmers who caught you with the phisherman's hook. Being dropped naked into their frying pan is NOT a fate you want.
Copyright 2006 John Young
3/13/08
God-given Names
I was born David A. Hoover on January 10, 1960 in Bowling Green, Ohio. However, I legally changed my name to David Ben-Ariel (with the help of my Jewish lawyer) during the Spring of 1989. It cost me $300.00.
It also required that I take out a small ad in a newspaper announcing my intentions 30 days beforehand. I placed my ad in the Bowling Green Sentinel.
I also had to appear before a judge (it depends on what county you were born) for him to privately question my motivations. He was assured by my lawyer that I wasn�t running from the law or trying to escape some outstanding debt, but that my reasons were religious in nature. The judge accepted that but wanted to impress upon me that I could have "trouble" with that name in America, without elaborating. I felt he meant because it was Jewish and/or could be difficult for some to know how to pronounce. I told him I wasn�t concerned about it since I planned on moving to Israel anyway.
My reasons for changing my name were religious in nature. Why? Because I honestly feel that Ben-Ariel is a God-given name. And why would I feel that way? Because after a Hebrew class where my teacher mentioned how many people change their names when they move to Israel, I went home wondering what surname I would have in Israel, knowing my first name is already Hebrew.
I had always liked the Hebrew last name of Ben-Ammi, after reading it in Leon Uris� book Exodus, since it means "son of my people," but while thinking about it and wondering what name my father would�ve given me, if he would�ve given me a Hebrew name, I didn�t know. I then knelt down in prayer and asked God what name, IF ANY, would He give me since He's my Heavenly Father, and I couldn�t ask my dad because he died when I was twelve.
I expected God to perhaps lead or guide or influence me to like a particular name, but immediately ARIEL flashed into my mind and immediately I rejected it. Why? Because it means "the Lion of God" and I felt such a name only belongs to Jesus Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. While wondering about the name of Ariel, I remembered that Israel�s defense minister was Ariel Sharon (whom I�ve since met in Jerusalem and Hebron). I reluctantly decided to keep the name in reserve (since it was really impressed upon me!) until God or circumstances might lead me to accept another, and went to bed.
The Bible mentions MANY INCIDENTS where God chose to change someone�s name or to name them before their birth. It is unusual but it�s not unscriptural. There was Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac (Gen. 17:5, 15, 19); Ishmael (Gen. 16:11); Solomon (I Chron. 22:9) and Solomon�s nickname Jedidiah (2 Sam. 12:25); Cyrus (Isa. 44:28; 45:4); John the Baptist (Lk. 1:13); Jesus (Matt. 1:21); Peter and the two brothers James and John whom Jesus nicknamed "sons of thunder" (Mk. 3:16-17); just to name a few.
God promises to give us each a new and unique name in the Kingdom, either in place of or in addition to our current one (Rev. 2:17), as well as sharing Jesus� new name and bearing the Father�s name as Priest-Kings (Rev. 3:12, 14; Ex. 28:36; Lev. 8:9). God has many name or titles, descriptive of His wonderful qualities and characteristics (Isa. 9:6). The Jews even teach that God�s Hebrew name Elohim (literally Gods) is plural due to the fact that God is too great to be constrained to one name, and is used in the sense of the royal "We." That�s why Elohim said "let us...." We understand that it�s also because there�s presently two God-Beings in the one Kingdom of God, like Adam and Eve were two separate people who both shared the surname Adam as one family unit (Gen. 2:24; 5:2; Jn. 10:30).
God has His reasons why He would change someone�s name and who are we to question Him? The April 1980 issue of the Good News magazine carried an article called "History of the Church" that helps us to understand why Jesus changed Simon�s name to Peter: "...and He gave him a surname prophetic of the moral and spiritual strength he would eventually demonstrate. Jesus bestowed upon him the new name, before he had earned it that it might be an incentive to him to realize what Jesus had expected."
After going to bed, about to fall asleep, Isaiah 29:1 flashed into my mind. What�s amazing is that I had never memorized that Scripture! It reveals that Ariel is a nickname for JERUSALEM! I now understand why God the Father had chosen Ariel for me. Anyone who knows me knows that Jerusalem is always on my mind (Jer. 51:50), especially after my first visit there to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) in 1980. God has shown me that He�s stirred me up and given me a burning desire for Jerusalem and Israel (Isa. 62:1, 6-7). I finally realized that God was calling me a "SON OF JERUSALEM."
I got out of bed, got down on my knees with tears in my eyes, and thanked God for truly knowing us inside and out, just like His Word says, and embraced the new name God had given me! I also accepted it as a SPIRITUAL GOAL: to live worthy of one named after holy Jerusalem and all that it ideally represents.
I end my prayers facing Jerusalem every night with "Yerushalayim shel Zahav" (Jerusalem of Gold), a plea for Jerusalem to fulfill its calling (2 Chron. 6:38-39; Dan. 6:10). Later, I began to understand how Ariel can also refer to Judah and King David. Since my family tree is traced back to the British and Scottish Royal Families (the Royal House of David) it�s also befitting that Ben-Ariel can mean "son of David" and "son of Judah" (whose tribal emblem is the lion).
I�m convinced that the God of the Bible, the God of Israel, and the God of my forefather David, has blessed me with the name of Ariel. Even if I chose Ariel for myself - which I did not, I originally objected to it - there wouldn�t be any harm in that since such a practice is Biblical: "One shall say, I am the LORD�S; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel" (Isa. 44:5).
God surnamed me Ariel back around 1982, however it wasn�t until 1989 that I finally changed my name legally. I knew that even though God had given me the name that I didn�t necessarily have to change my name. I was also hesitant to do so because I am the only son and the only Hoover males alive (that I�m aware of) were my grandfather and myself. I didn�t want the name to die out, not that I�m married and have any sons anyway (although God assures His "eunuchs" that we�ll be given excellent and eternal names - Isa. 56:5). I began to see that Hoover was possibly an Anglicized form of the German Huber (since many immigrants changed their names upon arrival in America).
I also didn�t want to hurt or offend my grandfather or possibly get disinherited, but I made up my mind that since I was about to seek citizenship in Israel, starting a new chapter in our family history, I was going to take the lead and change my name. My grandfather ended up dying about four months before the fact, unaware of what I planned to do. So now I�ve been David Ben-Ariel for years and my family and friends are used to it.
1/6/08
The Sun: Astrological Effects and Remedies
A brilliant globe of light rising on the eastern horizon and setting in the west with unerring regularity called the sun has awe-inspired mankind since its inception. This sole sustainer of terrestrial life undergoes constant fusion reaction on its surface as per modern science in which two atoms of hydrogen fuse together to form one atom of helium and in the process an incredible amount of energy is released. The latest scientific developments have enabled man to pursue his search for extra-solar planets about 90 of which have been discovered so far but without any confirmation of extraterrestrial life being present there primarily due to the lack of a special combination of factors like right distance of planets from the sun, right size of the planet, presence of an atmosphere and most importantly the presence of water. These studies further emphasize the uniqueness of our sun-earth relationship which is apparently purely astronomical in nature but in effect astrological too.
A great deal of our ancients� attention was focused on the Sun who well recognized its central position in our solar system and also the fact that many such suns are scattered across various galaxies. These and many other astronomical and astrological facts of importance are well documented in our ancient scriptures including Suryasiddhanta.
In ancient lore, there is a story about Maya demon, who, after a long tapa was blessed by the Sun God, a part of whom appeared before him and granted him a boon. Maya asked to make him known the mystery and secret workings of nature and the science of Jyotisha was explained to him by the Sun God himself. Jyotisha contained both predictive and mathematical portions.
In predictive astrology, the Sun represents royal position, the king, authority father, Atma(self), Tanu(body) and especially the portion of head. Astrologically, if Sun is ill-placed or afflicted in any manner it can affect the abovementioned significations adversely but as taken in conjunction with its lordship. We will discuss in the course of this article positive or negative effects of the Sun with respect to different lagans(Ascendants), such placements and the Rajayogas(combinations for attaining high positions) it is capable of formation.
Aries Lagna: Sun is the ruler of 5th house for this Lagna ruling children, education and intellect. Sun is a benefic planet here. It can form Rajayogas with mars, Moon and Venus for this Lagna in the ascending order of power.
Positive Placements: Lagna, 2nd 3rd, 5th, 9th, 10th and 11th houses. Rest of the placements is negative.
Taurus Lagna : Sun rules the 4th house for this Lagna ruling mother, heart, domestic attachments and property related matters. Sun can form Rajayogas with Venus(blemished due to 6th lordship), mercury and Saturn in the ascending order of power.
Positive placements : Lagna, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th. Rest of the placements are negative.
Gemini Lagna : 3rd house is governed by the Sun for this Lagna representing younger siblings, prowess, shoulders and arms etc. Sun is a functional malefic here.
Positive placements : Lagna, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th and 12th. Rest of the placements are negative.
Cancer Lagna : Sun is ruler of the 2nd house ruling wealth speech, right eye, face and neck. Sun is a strong Maraka for Cancer Lagna. As 2nd lord, Sun is a neutral planet. It can form Dhanayogas( combinations for wealth) with Moon, Venus and Jupiter(blemished).
Positive placements : Lagna, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 9th, 10th and 11th. Rest of the placements are negative.
Leo Lagna : Sun is lord of Lagna for the Leo natives. It is an unflinching benefic here. Sun can form Rajayogas with Mars, Jupiter(blemished), Saturn(blemished) and Venus(slightly blemished).
Positive placements : Lagna, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th. Rest of the placements are negative.
Virgo Lagna : Sun is lord of the 12th here ruling losses, expenditure etc. Although 12th lord is a neutral planet here still because of being a Dusthana(negative house) lord usually it is taken to be a malefic.
Positive placements : 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 8th and 12th. Rest of the placements are negative.
Libra Lagna : Sun being lord of the 11th house for Libra Lagna rules gains, profits, friends etc. Sun is a functional malefic here. But as its significations are positive it is usually taken to be a benefic. It can form Dhanayogas with Mars(lord of 2nd), Mercury(9th lord) and Venus(Lagna lord).
Positive placements : 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th. Rest of the placements are negative.
Scorpio Lagna : Being lord of the 10th Sun rules government, father etc. for Scorpio Lagna. Here the Sun has got a special role to play. Being both the karaka as well as the lord of the abovementioned significations it can show accentuated effects of its position in these areas of life. It can form Rajayogas with Mars(blemished), Jupiter and Moon in the ascending order of power.
Positive placements : Lagna, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, 10, 11th and 12th. Rest of the placements are negative.
Sagittarius Lagna : As lord of 9th house, Sun represents bhagya(fortune), foreign travel and fame for this Lagna. Sun is a benefic for Sagittarius Lagna natives. Sun can form Rajayogas with the Jupiter and Mercury as lords of Kendras.
Positive placements : Lagna, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th. Rest of the placements are negative.
Capricorn Lagna : Sun rules the 8th house for this Lagna and represents Ayus(longevity), suffering and diminution but under a special rule of Parashara Sun and the Moon are exempt from the Dosha(blemish)of 8th lordship. Hence Sun is a functional benefic but can be taken to be a slight malefic because of the inherently negative significations of the 8th house.
Positive placements : 3rd, 6th and 10th. Rest of the placements are negative.
Aquarius Lagna : The Sun rules 7th house for Aquarius Lagna. It represents marriage, travel, partnerships. Sun is a benefic here. It can form Rajayogas with Saturn, Mercury(blemished) and Venus in the ascending order of power. It has also been assigned Maraka powers and its connection with 2nd house can be especially harmful in relation to health. Positive placements : Lagna, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 10th and 11th. Rest of the placements are negative.
Pisces Lagna : Sun is lord of the 6th for Pisces Lagna ruling enemies, debts and diseases. It is a full-fledged malefic here.
Positive placements : 3rd, 6th, 8th and 12th. Rest of the placements are negative.
These positions of the Sun should not be taken as decisively positive or negative on the basis of the results given above without looking into other planets� influence and especially Bhava degrees, the degrees of the planets and the power of the Sun in the horoscope of a particular individual.
Astrological Remedies for the Sun If Sun is negatively disposed in a particular horoscope due to either malefic placement, aspect or conjunction proper remedies can be performed to ward off the evil. These can be performed especially in the major or sub-periods of the Sun.
Mani : A good quality Ruby of at least 5.25 Ratti or 5 carat weight approximately can be worn in a gold ring on a Sunday. The weight of the stone should be in accordance with the power of the planet to bring evil to the concerned person.
1. Trial : First one should keep the stone for 2-3 days below his head while sleeping and look out for the indications he may receive in the form of dreams or otherwise. Then the stone can be worn in red cloth on arm or in the ring only after proper Shuddhi(purification).
2. Shuddhi(Purification) : The stone should be purified with snana(bathing) in pure water, unboiled milk, honey, curd, pure ghee and lastly in the Ganges water. Then Dhoopa, Deepa(incense) should be shown before wearing the stone. During Shuddhi(purification) of the stone one should constantly chant Surya Mantra to seek the blessings of the Sun God.
Fasting : This is also an effective remedy. While fasting for the Sun one should eat only once which can be sweet but salt is to be avoided. Something made of guda can be eaten. For the rest of the day one can take fruits, milk etc. fasting on Sunday in the aforesaid manner is said to ward off the evil. In my opinion, fasting should be continued for the whole of the astrologically affected period.
Charity : One should perform charity on Sundays for seeking positive effects of the Sun. For this purpose, one should donate red articles like clothes, pulses etc. in the quantities of a whole and a quarter(1 � ). This can also be continued without break on Sundays.
Japa(Chanting) : Japa(chanting) of the Surya mantra can be performed with complete austerities. Usually, the number can be one hundred and twenty five thousand(125,000) but can also be its half depending on the power of the Sun.
Surya Mantra : Om hraang hreeng hraung sah suryaya namah.
One should fix the number, place and time of the Japa(chanting) for daily routine and strictly adhere to it. A Raktachandan Mala(rosary) and a woolen asana can be used for the purpose. One who performs Japa(chanting) should be a Brahmin and know the correct pronunciation of the mantra from an able guru.
Astrological remedies can work wonders if performed carefully and their power should never be underestimated.
The True Zodiac
Vedic Sidereal Zodiac
The firmament contains countless stars that we know little about. But those that concern us from an astrological viewpoint because of their influence on earth and its inhabitants are located in the zodiac belt that extends 9� on each side of the ecliptic (upward and downward) to form an imaginary 360� sphere divided into 12 equal parts called zodiac signs.
Since the zodiac is not a straight line, but a circular or ecliptic belt, how can the beginning or starting point be identified? The Jyotisha establishes that point on the basis of fixed constellations, specifically the Ashwini (or Arietes according to modern astronomy) at 0�. The starting point for Western astrology, however, is the vernal equinox (in the Northern Hemisphere), on March 21. This happens when the sun moves northward to a spot precisely over the equator. At that moment, night and day last the exact same length of time anywhere on earth. When the spring equinox coincided with the Ashwini 0� position about 1800 years ago, the two zodiacs, the sidereal (Vedic) and the tropical (Western), were identical. However, the retrograde movement of the equinoctial points (a phenomenon known as the precession of the equinoxes) creates a constant delay of 1� every 72 years, meaning that today there is a difference of over 24� between the true zodiac based on the constellations from which the signs take their qualities and, in some cases, their names, and the zodiac used today in Western astrology.
So, according to the sidereal zodiac, the Sun is not in the sign of Aries between March 23 and April 22, as shown in Western horoscopes, but is located there between April 14 and May 13. The same difference of over 23� is to be found in the position of the ascendant and in that of the other planets.
In order to calculate a birth chart according to the sidereal zodiac, if Western birthdays are used, the correction known as ayanamsha must be made. The term Ayanamsha is a combination of two Sanskrit words: ayana, which means �solstice� and amsha which means �a portion�, and establishes the difference between the present location of the spring equinox in relation to the fixed constellations, and the beginning of the Aries constellation. In other words, it is used to calculate the constellational longitude of a point or a celestial body when its position has been taken from Western birth dates.
The official Ayanamsha used by the Government of India is the Lahiri, according to which the beginning of the Ashwini constellation and the vernal equinox coincided in the year 258 A.D.
An error handed down by the Greeks
Modern Western astrology has inherited the Greek error of measuring the zodiac from the spring equinox. A great deal of the literature on which current astrology is based was written and translated in the third century and at that time the vernal equinox coincided with the beginning of the Ashwini or Aries constellation. The Greeks made the mistake of considering that point unchangeable. The spring equinox today still occurs in the third week of March, as it did at that time; however, it is no longer in the Aries constellation, but in the Pisces because of equinoctial precession.
The popular idea that we are living in the Age of Aquarius is another misconception arising from that same error; in actual fact, this is the Age of Pisces and it will be another four centuries at least before the Age of Aquarius sets in.
It is important here to stress that the signs of the zodiac do not exist apart from the constellations; they are imaginary spaces that correspond to a given group of stars.
This also means that the horoscopes published in Western newspapers and magazines are meaningless, because the position of the Sun is their only reference point and in 75% of the cases this position is incorrect, having been calculated according to an obsolete zodiac. In India, however, the Bangalore monthly, �The Astrological Magazine,� and other similar publications contain horoscopes based on the Moon, which is used to calculate planetary courses, as we shall see later. Most of the people there can benefit from reading a true horoscope based on Lunar planetary courses.
The Vedic sidereal zodiac corresponds to visible and certifiable astronomical phenomena
Physicist Georges Charpak and Professor Henri Broch, in their scientific book "Debunked", published in France, seek to �unmask� mystical philosophies and beliefs, together with certain paranormal phenomena like levitation, walking on coals, and so forth. They use the following argument to demonstrate the alleged falseness of astrology:
�In fact, the zodiac birth signs so common in astrological columns, along the supposed personal qualities for those born under them, are mostly based on astronomical positions traced out thousands of years ago. The problem with this is that the axis of the Earth's rotation is in continual change. The axis pivots, in a way similar to a spinning top, completing a revolution in about 25,790 years. As a result the zodiac signs in use today by astrologers do not correspond at all to the constellations represented when the charts were originally drawn up�
The authors conclude that modern society is infected with thoughts that have little to do with science and that it is not so rational or scientific, after all. In seeking to discredit astrology in general, Charpak and Broch brandish an argument that, as we have seen, is not applicable to Vedic astrology, whose zodiac recognizes and adjusts to the continuous changes in the axis of the earth�s rotation they mention in their book. Astrology, for them, apparently refers only to that practiced in the West. It is true, then, that modern society is neither so rational, nor so scientific, for, with the exception of a very small group of people, it is unfamiliar with the goldmine of knowledge and information to be found in the Vedas and believes that the civilization of ancient India was based exclusively on superstition and religious fanaticism, without any philosophical or scientific basis whatsoever.
When modern astronomers and students discover the existence of the Vedic zodiac, they will realize that the wise men of old India were extremely familiar with facts that they are only now beginning to glimpse with the advances in technology. They will find themselves, thanks to this discovery, looking upon that civilization and culture with respect and admiration and will want to learn from it. We predict that in the not-too-distant future, there will be very few astrological practitioners who don�t use the Vedic sidereal zodiac.
