How's That Work?: The layering of the Tropical and TCS Zodiacs
This is a shorter article designed to explain how I utilize both the Tropical zodiac and the True Constellation Sidereal zodiac together in a single chart analysis. For more articles on this subject, please visit my pages on The Ages and on Zodiacal Systems, where you will find other articles dealing further with the topics touched on in this post.
The two systems, when synthesized, are like two different clocks that layer together to give a time-reading that is more advanced than either one individually.
The Tropical zodiac is fixed. It holds its place as long as the current position of the earth holds in its orbit, but if the planetary position or orbit changes, the Tropical Zodiac may well change along with it. As long as the position of earth, and the seasons it produces from our movement around the Sun, hold constant, the Tropical zodiac is constant. It then becomes the permanent (for long periods of time, at least), unshifting background based upon the orientation of the planet to the sun - what we call seasons or the four quarters of the earth's journey around the sun each year.
The True Constellation Sidereal (TCS) zodiac slowly rolls backwards at a rate of 1 degree per 72 years through the process called precession. Over the course of approximately 26,000 years the individual degrees of the TCS zodiac roll backward through the entire zodiac, one degree at a time, so that the Tropical zodiac is combined with the TCS zodiac in each and every constellation (sign) and degree of the complete zodiac, one degree per approximately 72 years, throughout the course of that long 26,000 year cycle. This allows the fixed Tropical zodiac to combine with each and every sign and degree of the True Constellation Sidereal zodiac, creating a complex range of expressions over the course of the 26,000 year cycle. Each degree of the TCS lasts about 72 years, which is about one Uranus cycle and about two Saturn cycles.
There is a 72 year period in every 26,000 year cycle wherein most of the Tropical and TCS zodiac signs/constellations are aligned with the same signs in the alternate system, at least as closely as they can, but that varies as to exactly when, and it doesn't happen for every degree of every signs of the Tropical zodiac. There is no point where all the signs and degrees of the Tropical zodiac are exactly aligned with the same signs and degrees of the TCS, because the TCS (reality) is not twelve signs with sizes of exactly thirty degrees each. The TCS has thirteen constellations along the ecliptic, and each of those constellations are different sizes, and so each has its own number of degrees. This allows some unique combinations to occur, and means that some parts of the Tropical zodiac never aligns with the actual heavens, always creating a composite energy between the seasonal and real-sky zodiacs.
Because of this, synthesis is required to combine the tropical zodiac layer with the current position within the True Constellation Sidereal zodiac. Synthesis is not easy, but it is the essence of astrology, and it is essential for looking at the larger cycles, whether of the planets or the movements of the zodiacal systems. Here is an example I wrote about on my Facebook page on February 27th, 2021.
The Tropical zodiac is fixed. It holds its place as long as the current position of the earth holds in its orbit, but if the planetary position or orbit changes, the Tropical Zodiac may well change along with it. As long as the position of earth, and the seasons it produces from our movement around the Sun, hold constant, the Tropical zodiac is constant. It then becomes the permanent (for long periods of time, at least), unshifting background based upon the orientation of the planet to the sun - what we call seasons or the four quarters of the earth's journey around the sun each year.
The True Constellation Sidereal (TCS) zodiac slowly rolls backwards at a rate of 1 degree per 72 years through the process called precession. Over the course of approximately 26,000 years the individual degrees of the TCS zodiac roll backward through the entire zodiac, one degree at a time, so that the Tropical zodiac is combined with the TCS zodiac in each and every constellation (sign) and degree of the complete zodiac, one degree per approximately 72 years, throughout the course of that long 26,000 year cycle. This allows the fixed Tropical zodiac to combine with each and every sign and degree of the True Constellation Sidereal zodiac, creating a complex range of expressions over the course of the 26,000 year cycle. Each degree of the TCS lasts about 72 years, which is about one Uranus cycle and about two Saturn cycles.
There is a 72 year period in every 26,000 year cycle wherein most of the Tropical and TCS zodiac signs/constellations are aligned with the same signs in the alternate system, at least as closely as they can, but that varies as to exactly when, and it doesn't happen for every degree of every signs of the Tropical zodiac. There is no point where all the signs and degrees of the Tropical zodiac are exactly aligned with the same signs and degrees of the TCS, because the TCS (reality) is not twelve signs with sizes of exactly thirty degrees each. The TCS has thirteen constellations along the ecliptic, and each of those constellations are different sizes, and so each has its own number of degrees. This allows some unique combinations to occur, and means that some parts of the Tropical zodiac never aligns with the actual heavens, always creating a composite energy between the seasonal and real-sky zodiacs.
Because of this, synthesis is required to combine the tropical zodiac layer with the current position within the True Constellation Sidereal zodiac. Synthesis is not easy, but it is the essence of astrology, and it is essential for looking at the larger cycles, whether of the planets or the movements of the zodiacal systems. Here is an example I wrote about on my Facebook page on February 27th, 2021.
An interesting note about the Tropical and True Constellation Sidereal (TCS) zodiacs.
Because the TCS zodiac uses the actual size of the constellations, the Tropical signs do not always overlap each sign in a regular order, as we see in the artificial 30-degree-per-sign sidereal zodiac (such as is used in Jyotish/Vedic astrology). At this time, the Tropical and Vedic sidereal zodiacs are about 25 degrees out of synch, so that the last five degrees of each Tropical sign overlaps the first five degree of the same sign in the Vedic sidereal zodiac. However, we do not see that regularity in the comparison of the Tropical and True Constellation Sidereal zodiac.
In the comparison of the Tropical and TCS zodiac, because the true constellations are each of different sizes, how the Tropical compares to the TCS is not regularly ordered. Over time, as precession carries the true constellations backward through the Tropical zodiac at about 1 degree every 72 years, the overlapping of the signs of the two zodiacs varies. In our time some of the change-points in both Tropical and TCS are the same, so that, for instance, 0 degrees of Tropical Capricorn is 0 degrees of TCS Sagittarius, while on the other extreme, 0 degrees of Tropical Aries is about 9 degrees of TCS Pisces, but that will shift over time and is just an anomaly of the current moment we find ourselves in.
Right now we are seeing two interesting examples of how the overlapping of the two systems works through periods of compounding the same sign in both system. Currently, (when this post was originally written) Mars is in Taurus in both the Tropical and TCS zodiacs while Neptune is in Pisces in both zodiacs. It just so happens that 23 degrees of Tropical Taurus is 0 degrees of TCS Taurus, so Mars entered TCS Taurus about four days ago (February 22nd/23rd, 2021), while still in Tropical Taurus (and is about to do so again, here a year later, in 2022 as I prepare to publish this piece). This doubles up the Taurian energy as applied to Mars. Mars doesn't do great in Taurus, as it is a very grounded sign and makes Mars sluggish, but for most of Mars' journey through Tropical Taurus it is also in TCS Aries, so it is only at about half energy and is able to function fairly well. However, for the period of about one week during which Mars is in BOTH Tropical and TCS Taurus, it is 100% Taurian and at about 0% energy. Have you been remarkably tired for the last few days? Watch for that to shift when Mars enters Tropical Gemini in a few days and then Mars will jump back to about half energy or a bit more. (This is the same general region of the chart where Mars will retrograde in late 2022.) This shift will also be accompanied by the first time Mars has moved out of elemental square to Saturn for over six months (in 2021 when this was written), so this will give Mars a boost, and even though it might not be at maximum-Mars, it will probably feel as though it is, just by the comparison of the change of effect from the square to the trine aspect with Saturn.
The two zodiacal systems are always layered and their subtle dance always effects the expression of each planet, depending on how the two systems are layered in any given chart. Neptune is another current example. In the Tropical zodiac at about 20/21 degrees of Tropical Pisces, is where the TCS zodiacal degree of 0 Pisces begins. So Neptune is now moving into the section of the sky that will see it in Pisces in both the Tropical and TCS zodiacs, and that will last the entire time that Neptune is in Tropical Pisces, until about 2026. That means that for the next few years, Neptune is at maximum Pisces-ish-ness. Depending on the planet, these layerings might last a few hours, a few days, a few years or decades. While these are subtle distinctions, subtle effects due to this layering, I have noted through twenty years + of tracking the two cycles that these layerings do have effects on the quality of the planet in question.
The Pisces conjunctions of April 2022 also occurred with Neptune in Pisces in both Tropical and TCS systems, and so should strongly reflect this dual Piscean energy. The qualities of using both systems together that I most value is the ability to find those rare windows when signs align in both systems, allowing one to seek both inner and outer-world meaning within the natal chart and transits, as well as in mundane astrology.
