The tropical zodiac wheel of western astrology is not misaligned. The wheel of zodiac signs was carefully and mathematically calculated by ancient Babylonian, and then Greek, astronomers who were aware, not ignorant, of precession (now known as the Earth’s axial precession, it was documented as early as 2nd century BCE in ancient Greece).
The wheel of zodiac signs was created by first splitting our sky into four sections designated by the yearly equinoxes and solstices (these are the turning points of the four yearly seasons). Each of these four sections of sky were split into three sections measuring 30 degrees each. This gives us a full 360-degree zodiac circle with 12 equal sections of 30 degrees each. Each 30-degree section is one zodiac sign, for a total of 12 zodiac signs.
These 12 zodiac signs are not star constellations. The zodiac signs are 30-degree sections of space that were mathematically calculated in a way that was, and still is, intimately connected to our Earth’s seasons and months. We have four seasons that last three months each. And so the zodiac is also made up of four sections with three signs in each section.
As early as the 2nd century BCE in ancient Greece, the zodiac circle assigned zero degrees of Aries (Aries, the zodiac sign, not the star constellation) to the Vernal Equinox (the Spring Equinox, or the first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere). This zodiac wheel, also known as the tropical zodiac, is still accurate because we always align/begin it, as the ancient Greeks did, with the first day of Spring. This not a mistake. The zodiac wheel is intimately aligned with our Earth’s seasons. This is an important fact to recognize. Some people today fail to recognize this fact, and so they erroneously claim that the zodiac wheel is misaligned.
The ancient Babylonians (before the Greeks) had used the constellations as markers in the sky. As a handy convenience, and also likely out of necessity, they used the star constellations that appeared in the general area of each zodiac sign as markers. They designated 12 constellations to represent the 12 zodiac signs in the sky. The star constellations, with their varying degrees and sizes, are not the actual zodiac signs. These 12 constellations were named after the zodiac signs they represent, not the other way around!
Since the western tropical zodiac is aligned with our Earth’s seasons and months, the “precession of the equinoxes” does not throw it off at all. To put it another way, the tropical zodiac wheel begins when the first day of Spring begins. Our zodiac is no more “misaligned” than Spring is.
Adrian Anderson
Did you know there is now a very important new (small) book that explains just the tropical zodiac is; by Damien Pryor, The Origin & Nature of the Tropical Zodiac ? This is the only book I believe, that succeeds in explaining what the tropical zodiac is : Pryor translates extracts from Hellenistic and Byzantine Greek writers that establish its origin with old Mysteries. Its a real breakthrough in the debate !