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http://lightonvedicastrology.com/published-articles-h/431-the-sidereal-vs-tropical-debate

The Sidereal vs. Tropical Debate

Written byVaughn Paul Manley, M.A.

Created: 13 November 23

Its important to clearly understand the difference between the two zodiacs, the Vedic or sidereal, and the Western or tropical, and their respectiveplaces in the world of astrology. Without this understanding its easy to think that one system is superior or inferior to the other and disregard their

relative value.

The Two Zodiacs - Sidereal and Tropical

So why two zodiacs anyway Isnt one enough !fter all, one sky seems to have worked out "uite well # thank you very much. $od made no mistakes

there% &ne zodiac belt, about '( degrees wide, with the ') zodiac signs ranging from !ries to *isces rising in the eastern horizon # no problems there.

Its +ust astronomical fact. he stars shine e"ually on everyone, whether theyre standing in -ew elhi or downtown /.!., so why one 0sidereal1 zodiac

popular in the 2ast and one 0tropical1 zodiac popular in the West

3irst of all both zodiacs are e4actly the same in the sense that there are ') zodiac signs progressing from !ries to *isces. he elements 5 fire, earth, air,

water6 "ualities 5 cardinal, fi4ed and mutable and general characteristics associated with each sign are basically the same in both systems. 7p until the

last century or so, before the discoveries of 7ranus, -eptune, *luto and 8hiron, the classical rulerships of the signs were used in both systems.

he classical sign rulerships are as follows9 :ars rules !ries and Scorpio, Venus rules aurus and /ibra, :ercury rules $emini and Virgo, the :oon rules

8ancer, the Sun rules /eo, ;upiter rules Sagittarius and *isces, and Saturn rules 8apricorn and !"uarius.

he difference between the two zodiacs, therefore, is not so much the content of the zodiac but in the calculation of the starting point of the 'st degree

of !ries.

The 1st degree of Aries

In Western or tropical astrology the calculation of the Sun passing through the 'st degree of !ries is marked by the Spring e"uino4 or :arch )'st.

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his phenomenon is known as the *recession of the 2"uino4. In other words, where the Sun actually is at the time of the Spring e"uino4 moves

backward through the zodiac. Vedic or sidereal astrology calculated the the Sun at B degrees ?@ minutes of *isces at the Spring e"uino4 in )??@.

herefore, the current mathematical difference between the two systems is about )C degrees. Dowever, you will often hear it said that you need to

subtract )@ degrees from the planetary degrees in your Western chart to arrive at your Vedic chart. his is because most people interested in Vedic

astrology were born closer to 'E>?. &n ;anuary 'st 'E>? the difference was )@ degrees ?E minutes.

The A!ana"sha

his mathematical difference between the sidereal and the tropical zodiacs is called the 0ayanamsha1 in Sanskrit. !yana means FprecessionF and amsha

means FpartF or Fportion.F he term refers to the number degrees difference between the Spring 2"uino4 and the 'st degree of !ries.

Dowever, to further complicate matters there are several commonly used ayanamshas that vary by nearly ) degrees from one another. &f these, the

most widely used ayanamsha by Vedic astrologers worldwide is the /ahiri ayanamsha, also called the the 8hitrapaksha ayanamsha. his was developed

by -.8. /ahiri, the former head of !stro#Gesearch

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