Sidereal Astrology Originated in Ancient Egypt:

Astrology Originated
in Ancient Egypt

Why the Sidereal Zodiac is spiritually real Astrology…
The Unknown Zodiac: Sidereal Astrology

Jan Muzurus, Sidereal Astrologer:
in conversation with
Alexander Blair-Ewart, Sidereal Astrologer:

ABE: You are a Sidereal Astrologer. What is Sidereal Astrology?

Jan M.: Sidereal Astrology is entirely different from Tropical Astrology, which is what most people know about. In fact, there is only one Zodiac; the difference lies in the starting point.

ABE: The Tropical Zodiac starts from 0º ARIES, but there is more to it than that.

Jan M.: Well, yes, there were at least five different Tropical Zodiacs, because it moves, but in the Sidereal Zodiac it’s a fixed point where for all time the fixed star SPICA at 29º and 6 minutes of the constellation of VIRGO is used.

ABE: What happened?

Jan M.: If you go back into history to the time of Hyparcus in Greece around the year 139A.D. you find these five Tropical Zodiacs; one started at 15º ARIES, another at 12º …

ABE: A famous one at 8º…

Jan M.: Yes and another one at 10º and, of course, 0º ARIES.

ABE: And the reason why all of this is important is because it determines where the Sun, Moon and planets are supposed to be in the birth chart.

Jan M.: Indeed, and it’s all wrong at the moment.

ABE: Because we are no longer in the Age of ARIES. We are in the Age of PISCES.

Jan M.: Exactly and in order to get back to the true, original Egypto-Chaldean Zodiac, which is what we side realists use, the Tropical Zodiac has to be brought forward 24.5º degrees! And this is due to the precession of the equinox.

ABE: When did the confusion begin?

Jan M.: The Tropical Zodiac and Sidereal Zodiac were briefly the same when the precession of the equinox reached 0º ARIES in the year 221 A.D.

ABE: How did that influence astrology?

Jan M.: Well, as you know, if you had done your horoscope in either system at the time they would have been the same.

ABE: And that’s where the current problems in astrology arose.

Jan M.: Yes. Since that time the Tropical Zodiac, due to the precession of the equinox, has been drifting into deeper and deeper error and now it’s over 24º degrees from where it should be.

ABE: It’s interesting that the Egyptian-Chaldean astrologers were perfectly aware of the exact precession of the equinox. We know that from their calendars.

Jan M.: Oh, definitely. They proved conclusively that they knew what they were doing. After all, they were the originators of astrology.

ABE: It’s also a very interesting thing that modern space-age astronomy used astrologically is the same astrology as the Egytian-Chaldean astrologers were using.

Jan M.: Exactly.

ABE: The Sidereal Zodiac was rediscovered in modern times by Cyril Fagan and Garth Allan. Can you talk about that?

Jan M.: Cyril Fagan was an Egyptologist and great researcher. He proved beyond all doubt that the original zodiac was Sidereal. Anyone can prove this for themselves. It’s there in the Egyptian hieroglyphs.

ABE: So, Cyril Fagan, Garth Allan, Brigadier Firebrace were around in the Twenties and Thirties and caused quite a furor in astrological circles by all accounts.

Jan M.: They certainly did because they were using original astrological techniques like the fixed stars, for instance, which had become almost entirely lost to the Tropical astrologers.

ABE: Sidereal Astrology seems to at last be coming again into its own, along with, oddly enough, Hindu Astrology, which is sort of Sidereal but it’s not what you or I would describe as a pure Sidereal Astrology.

Jan M.: The Hindus might have at one time had the best zodiac but when the Greek conqueror, Alexander the Great, invaded India, he imposed Tropical ideas on them and the whole thing became awfully confused.

ABE: These five Tropical Zodiacs that we spoke about earlier: is there more to say about them?

Jan M.: They were the work of highly respected Greek astrologers but, of course, as we now know, the Greeks did not know how the solar system works. Eventually the Hyparcus version became the most widely known, because the Arabs adopted it and took it everywhere with them.

ABE: And Hyparcus was the Oº ARIES theorist.

Jan M.: So, you can see the complications and confusion at the beginning of the Tropical Zodiac of signs. Of course, in Sidereal Astrology, we don’t have these problems.

ABE: So, in fact, Sidereal Astrology is metaphysical astronomy.

Jan M.: Exactly. Because where the Tropical astrologer thinks the planets are and where they really are, are two completely different things and it all goes back to the Greeks thinking that the vernal equinox is fixed for all time some where in the first 15º of ARIES.

ABE: So, they lost the knowledge that the Universe is Sun-centered and thought it was Earth-centered, an easy enough mistake to make. Think of the terrible time Galileo had trying to convince the Church in the sixteenth century.

Jan M.: It took those sixteen hundred years to regain that lost knowledge.

ABE: Yes. Full credits go to the genius Johann Kepler who got modern astronomy off the ground … no pun intended.

Jan M.: It’s been a long road back to the true zodiac. Cyril Fagan was a Tropical astrologer for twenty-five years before he threw it out. Same thing with the great Canadian Brigadier Firebrace: after twenty-five years he found that something was lacking. The same with Garth Allan. He was involved with Positional Astrology and discovered the same thing. There was also Carl Stahl in Chicago who wrote three books on Sidereal Astrology.

ABE: There was also Rupert Gleadow.

Jan M.: Rupert Gleadow was an amazing man. In fact, he wrote some fine work, which I think is available.

ABE: Yes: “The Origin of the Zodiac” and “The Zodiac Revealed.

Jan M.: Rupert Gleadow was a Greek scholar and proved conclusively that the Sidereal zodiac is the correct one.

ABE: So, small as it is, there is a Sidereal literature.

Jan M.: Well, yes but you still have to make a point of finding or ordering the literature and its interesting that now the Tropical astrologers are becoming more interested and wanting to find out.

ABE: There is another Sidereal astrologer called James A. Eshelman. What about him?

Jan M.: Yes, I know James and his work is also very interesting, particularly his book on the interpretation of solar returns.

ABE: Garth Allan, whose real name, of course, is Donald Bradley, did a good book on solar returns. I guess I should explain for our readers that the solar return chart is calculated each year on your birthday when the Sun comes back to exactly the same degrees, minutes and seconds as it was at birth.

Jan M.: Brigadier Firebrace wrote a series of books called “The Moray Series”, which unfortunately are not available here yet but most of the other books can be ordered from a good New Age bookstore.

ABE: Firebrace, a Canadian living in London, was really a pioneer there.

Jan M.: Of course he was. Yes. And, you know, in those days in London, he had a hell of a job.

ABE: That was in the Fifties.

Jan M.: Yes, the Fifties. He was alone in the astrological community; fellows like me were extremely lucky because I had the privilege of knowing Brigadier Firebrace and Charles Carter, John Addey, my good friend Ronald Davidson, who has just died, but that’s decades ago. Astrology since then is changing because the Tropicalists are becoming more open-minded.

ABE: Why do you think that is?

Jan M.: Well, the problem with the Tropical zodiac is apparent to anyone who really understands it. You have about seventy-five aspects; you have antiscion [spelling] points; you have midpoints, you have ninety-seven [TBC] … asteroids galore; you have seven hypothetical planets invented by my good friend Charles Jayne, who died in New York; you have eight, that the Ebertine system uses; and all that isn’t even the most of it!

ABE: No wonder there is incredible confusion amongst Tropical astrologers and, of course, it’s a nightmare for the student.

Jan M.: But you ask a Tropical astrologer what is going to happen in the future and he or she wouldn’t have a clue.

ABE: Non-Sidereal Astrology on the other hand employs far fewer techniques. It’s a streamlined, very direct system that once you understand the original principles of it you can work with it.

Jan M.: My regret about the Tropical astrologers, even after what I said just now is that nine astrologers out of ten don’t know the full history of their own subject and what is even worse they don’t know anything about astronomy.

ABE: How long have you been involved with Sidereal Astrology?

Jan M.: I studied like Brigadier Firebrace and Cyril Fagan. The Tropical zodiac for about twenty-five years but when I wanted answers in terms of more accurate predictions, the Sidereal zodiac proved itself to me.

ABE: I’m happy to say it didn’t take me twenty-five years to get to the Sidereal zodiac.

Jan M.: You’re a lucky boy! [Laughs]

ABE: Well, I guess, as with so many areas of knowledge, we are the midgets standing on the shoulders of giants. Still I must say that once I understood the astronomical significance of the precession of the equinox everything else followed quite naturally from there.

Jan M.: Indeed, yes, it all begins to make sense when you reach that point.

Copyright © A. Blair-Ewart 1999-2011