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The Zodiac

Zodiac indicates an annual cycle of twelve stations throughout the ecliptic, the evident way of the sun through skies by the constellations that divide the ecliptic in twelve equal zones of the celestial length. The zodiac is the system of the same celestial row initially known. There are two evident ones of the zodiacs created independently. The babylonian astrology, inherited by the hellenistic astrology and India, developed the zodiac of twelve familiar samples in the west. In the Chinese astrology, the months and the years cross a cycle of twelve animals that imply the certain fortunes or misfortunes related to the events that happen in these samples. The Chinese zodiac is not related to the constellations, nevertheless.

The zodiac also is understood as area of the celestial sphere arrives of which it includes a bandage of eight degrees of the arc and underneath the ecliptic, and surrounds therefore the ways by the moon and the eye of planets, mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn naked. The traditional astronomers called these graspings that vagaban of planets the first paper to distinguish them of fixed graspings the first paper of the celestial sphere, Ptolemee. Astrologers understood the movement of planets and the sun next to the zodiac like method to explain and to consider Earth events.

Egyptian and the Mesopotamians marked the stations by the constellations that now we called the Bull, the lion, the scorpion, and aquarium. Nevertheless, the inscription of the stations by the constellations can go again to 5,000 B.C.E. Perhaps the division of the ecliptic in the zodiacal beginning of the samples, “heating” of babylonian astronomy in date 1st millenium B.C.E., probably by the periods “babylonian Neon-Medium”.

The babylonian calendar assigns in every month by the constellation, beginning with the position of the sun to the vernal equinox. The babylonian astronomers in certain point during 1r millenium have divided B.C.E the ecliptic in twelve equal zones of the celestial length to create the system of the same celestial row initially known: a system of the same row that affirms the modern systems of the excess of some advantages, such as the system of the same equatorial row or the system of the same row of the ecliptic.

The exact origins of the twelve constellations of the zodiac are not known. Particularly the reasons of the superiority given to the animals are not very clear, he are in fact a device of all the constellations, not simply of those of the zodiac. The form of the constellations they themselves was not probably the main factor, as they call most of them bear little or not of the similarity to the mythical characters after which they. Their origins are to be in the belief of the first people who the Earth events were reflected in skies on them. Then it followed, the east the important mythical beings in the Earth businesses must have an image matched in the sky. Therefore time of the excess that a process probably developed so that several important characters archetype in the old myth were related to the sky by the “discovery” of a model of graspings the first paper, or “constellation” in its image.

Due to its important place, the first paper throughout the way of the graspings of the ecliptic would have been given a detailed attention, and the constellations assigned particularly to significant the mythical beings or to the symbols there. Whereas the concept of the zodiac became, these constellations gave their names to the celestial zones that inhabitated, and thus by the prolongation with the samples of the zodiac.

The constellation of Scorpius is the sector described in the yellow line with the notch. With the difference of most of the constellations, Scorpius supports a similarity with the creature, scorpion after which it is called. The original babylonian zodiac was composed of eighteen samples; despite the zodiac of twelve samples one became more ahead to become the permanent form, because twelve were probably the number of months per babylonian year. Today the names of the constellations and the western samples of the zodiac were described to the first time by the Greek astronomer and astrologer Ptolemee who lived between 120 - 180 C.E. What follows are the twelve constellations with their Latin names that gave their names to the samples of the zodiac, which still they are used by the astronomers today

Ram, the Ram
Bull, Bull
Géminis, twins
Cancer, the crab
Leo, the lion
Virgo, the Virgin
Libra, scales
Scorpion, scorpion
Sagitario, archer
Capricornus, the Sea-goat
Aquarius, the Water-carrier
Piscis, fish

The samples of the Indian of the zodiac are mainly identical that the Westerners, with the names in Sanscrit instead of the Latin.

Astrologers divinatory at night uses the astronomical observations of the movements of the sky for the goals. It continues being the zodiac in the modern astrology in good condition, although the question of the tropical astrology, employee mainly by astrologers western and of the sidereal astrology, employee mainly by astrologers Indian is central. With the question during the discussion it is if the samples are defined in terms of zones derived from the nodales points defined by the movement of Earth S during a year of tropical, or if the samples are defined in terms of samples aligned rough with the constellations of he himself name, for astrologers sidereal. The this imports due to an astronomical phenomenon called the precession of the equinoxes, by which the position of graspings the first paper in the changing sky finished time. Therefore, during centuries the twelve samples zodiacal in the western astrology do not correspond more to the same part of the sky but of its original constellations, or to his contrapartes Indians. In fact, in the western astrology the connection between the sample and the constellation was fraction, whereas in the India astrology continues having of supreme importance.

Independently of if the tropical or sidereal definition of the zodiac is chosen, astrologers elaborates a letter the positions of the sun and planets compared to the samples zodiacal. Horoscope is used to associate characteristics of a sample that the planet characteristics put in this sample. One says that the planet influences Earth events but the way of which does this is modified by the influence of the sample in which is put.

The modern western astrological samples are simplifications of the conventional colorful representations of the samples, used from hellenistic periods. The characters amount in unicode with U+2648 the positions in U+2653, hexadecimal numbers. The representation of glyph of these characters will depend on the force of the police in which they are demonstrated.

Underneath they are the Roman names of the samples of the zodiac:

Ram, the Ram

Bull, Bull

Géminis, twins

Cancer, the crab

Leo, the lion

Virgo, the Virgin

Libra, scales

Scorpion, scorpion

Sagitario, archer

Capricorn, the Sea-goat

Aquarius, the carrier of the water

Piscis, fish

The Indian zodiac
The traditional Hindu astrology has a system of the same sidereal row of the zodiac with twelve samples. The names of the Hindu samples zodiacal, or the rasis, are similar to Graeco-Babylonian of the samples, apparently due to the Hindu-Greek contact:

The “Ram has”, Ram
abha “bull”, Bull
mithuna “a pair”, géminis
karka “crab”, cancer
there is “lion”, lion
kanya “girl”, Virgin
Tula, of Tula “balance”, balance
vrushchik “scorpion”, Scorpius, also kaurpi, rendered of the Greek
karmuka, surrounded, dhanus “arc, arc”, capin “armed with an arc”, sagitario
it has, ga “antelope”, also makara “sea-monster” of the will, Capricornus
kumbha “jarro, water-pote”, aquarium
matsya “fished”, also jha has, timi, soon mined specific classes of fish, Poisson

This “Hindu zodiac”, adhvan, rasi has similarities with the Greek zodiac thus. The Graeco-Babylonian system of twelve covers of the samples indigenous the Hindu system with nine grahas or planets.

The Chinese astrology also has a system of twelve sometimes also indicated samples under the name of “the zodiac”. This does not imply a common origin necessarily, since the number of twelve naturally suggests the number of the months of the synodal in year; that is to say, the width of a zodiacal sample corresponds to the way covered by the sun between two New Moon. He is interesting to observe, that in spite of the deficiency of the common origin, the Chinese zodiac also is made up of the animals. Nevertheless, the Chinese zodiac associates each a month animal and a solar year. Thus the samples repeat all the twelve years complete a cycle. The animals of the Chinese zodiac are: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, or hares, dragoon, serpent, horse, ewes, or goat, monkey, hammer, or Phoenix, dog and pig, or verraco. For a list of the way of which these animals overcome in the months and the years to see the Chinese astrology. There is also the Chinese lunar zodiac consisted of twenty-eight “lunar señoríos”, each one that corresponds to a Chinese constellation.

Beyond the traditional Chinese system, in new movements of the age or of Occultist there is sometimes of the same complaints of other systems such as “the céltico zodiac” based on the céltico calendar to lunisolar, or “of the galactic zodiac”. The other evidence suggests the cultures Mayan, INCA and Aztec of the celestial events also remarkable Westerners of hemisphere throughout the zodiac. The Mayan for example, had certainly the zodiac of certain class. The name of the Mayan for the Scorpion of the constellation was also “scorpion”, whereas the name of géminis of the constellation was “peccary”. It has obvious for other constellations that are baptized name of several animals, but continues being not very clear.