Culture and Cosmos is a peer-reviewed academic journal in the history of
astrology and cultural astronomy published by the
Sophia Centre Press in
partnership with the Sophia
Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, Faculty of Humanitiies and the
Performing Arts, at the University
of Wales Trinity Saint David
We are currently seeking submissions for future volumes of Culture and Cosmos.
We are currently seeking submissions for future volumes of Culture and Cosmos.
Volume 1, No. 2
The Star Zodiac of Antiquity
Nick Kollerstrom
Abstract
In the early third century AD, two zodiac systems converged.1 One was the ancient star-zodiac derived from the constellations, while the other was the tropical zodiac, with its beginning at 00 Aries firmly anchored to the Vernal Point, the Sun’s position at the Spring Equinox. It will be argued here that this latter, tropical, system had not, in the third century, come to be accepted by astrologers, but that it was to gradually come into use amongst astrologers as the earlier, sidereal system sank into a deep oblivion, at least in the West, from which it did not re-emerge until rediscovered late in the nineteenth century.
