Different astrological traditions have different approaches to Astrology. Among the differences that we can find between them, the main one definitely concerns which is the “right Zodiac” to use. Some of them use the Tropical Zodiac, others the Sidereal.
In general, the dispute tends to polarize the question. The underlying premise is that if one Zodiac “works” the other must be wrong. This one-sided approach usually leads to rejecting one Zodiac in favor of the other. Or to pass from one system to the other as if it were a sort of religious conversion.
In this article we are going to take into account the communications coming from Anthroposophy—the Spiritual Science founded by Rudolf Steiner—in order to find a middle ground. Instead of rejecting one Zodiac or the other, we are going to be looking at a bigger picture in order to understand not only their differences but also where they stand.
In this sense, please note that I’m not taking a side in favor of one system. On the contrary, I invite you to take this post as a humble contribution for deepening the understanding of our cosmos, which in my opinion seems to have enough room for both the Zodiacs.
Let’s start by noting a very simple fact. We can have a direct experience of both the Zodiacs. On one hand, we can look at the stars at night. They are out there to contemplate, forming the constellations of the Sidereal Zodiac. On the other, we can observe the changes through the seasons as a direct expression of the Tropical Zodiac.
Now, a lot of issues usually come up at this point. Who established the division from one constellation to the other? How can we deal with the reversal of the seasons between the two hemispheres? These are all important questions. But for the sake of the longevity of this article we are not going to tackle them.
Instead, we are just going to observe the two systems in their simplest form to better understand them.
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I consider myself a free researcher in western spiritual disciplines, in particular Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy and the Neoplatonic Hermetic tradition. I have a three-year training in Astrology at the CIDA delegation of Trieste, the Italian Center for Astrological Disciplines. I graduated in Computer Engineering from the University of Trieste.
