Our earth spins on its axis and, in addition to this, the axis traces a slow circle through space (some people call this the wobble) taking something like 26,000 years to return to its start point. Looking out from earth from the same place and at the same astronomical moment every year – looking at the inky dark sky every year on the night of equal day and night – the equinox – the stars patterns that rise change very, very slowly. They change so slowly in fact that the stars and their positions are called the "fixed stars” – but they are not fixed. Astrologers have always recognised the precession of the equinoxes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidereal_and_tropical_astrology but they are not used for interpretations in western traditional – or tropical – astrology.The Earth Pathways uses Western traditional astrology – or the tropical system – which defines the start of the astrological cycle as being the vernal equinox i.e. the start of Aries is at the moment of equal day and night and the start of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. We look closely at the relationship between earth, her moon and sun and the other planets. Accompanying the astronomic facts of planetary placements we have a system with rich symbolism which is ancient and, though the dark ages tried to eradicate it, most of its knowledge has been recovered by continual efforts and translation by the community of astrologers. The system works at many levels – it is internally consistent and symbolically deep. It does not reject precession of the equinoxes since it does not clash with it.The great ages, the slow changes, do not obviate relevance of the system of symbols that we use.Sidereal astrology is the system of astrology which is based on the changing background star systems. The most developed of these is the Indian or Vedic system of astrology with a history which stretches as far back as the written word but with different mythologies. As valid as the one that we use but distinct from it.Modern western sidereal systems are less settled. There is no agreement on how to map the sky – with a few competing systems – and a less developed symbol-set.

Lucille Valentine 2015

We have had enquiries about whether the moon phases in the diary apply to everywhere on the planet at the same time. Good question! The moon phases happen at the same time but here on Earth we express it according to our local time zone. In the Earth Pathways diary we use the current UK time zones (either GMT or BST). If you are in a different part of the world you will have to convert to your time zone wherever times are mentioned for moon phases. This also affects moon rise times. A good conversion website is timeanddate.com.