A word or two may be added as to the “irregularity of extent” of the constellations spoken of at the commencement which may perhaps have somewhat puzzled the leader. The cause of this irregularity may be conceived of as due either to our ignorance of the true limits of each constellation-points on which astronomers are by no means agreed or else to the circle of this Great Zodiac being to some extent oblique to the plane of the solar system and to the latter being at the present time by no means in the canter thereof, whereby the stars limiting each constellation appear “foreshortened” nearer each other in some cases and farther away in others.
However, this may be, what we are really concerned with now is the fact that the Zodiac of the Signs with which our study deals, in spite of its sympathetic relation to this uneven Zodiac of the Constellations, is itself quite evenly divided into twelve uniform spaces or “signs” of thirty degrees each, familiar to us under the same names and possessing in themselves the same nature as the Twelve Constellations.
As regards the constellations, it may be said briefly that the Zodiac of the Constellations would seems to be concerned with macrocosmic evolution, or the life of the Solar System as a whole, as distinguished from microcosmic or human evolution, which is demonstrably related to the Zodiac of the Signs; and that every point in each circle corresponds with the equivalent point in the other.
Corresponds, it is to be noted, for the two Zodiacs do not coincide in position, and therefore the “Signs” in one Zodiac overlap, so to speak, the “Signs” in the other. (Infect, the first degree of the Zodiac of the Constellations is in about the 19th degree of the Zodiac of the Signs, the discrepancy being due to the “precession of the equinoxes.” Into a consideration of which it is unnecessary to enter at our present stage. The two Zodiacs did coincide, however, in about the year 480 A.D.
With these considerations we may dismiss all thought of the Constellations, with which we have now nothing further to do, from our minds.
Dr. A. Shanker
www.ShankerAdawal.com
www.ShankerStudy.com
