Definition:
[Sun Signs - Solar Zodiac] Ophiuchus,
the sign of the Serpent Bearer, is the 10th sign of the
Real Solar Zodiac.
However, although it
lies on the Ecliptic it
is not one of the signs of either the
Tropical Zodiac of
standard Western Astrology, or the
Sidereal Zodiac of
standard Vedic astrology.
This problem is one of
the most contentious issues in modern astrology. I know the subject of
Ophiuchus causes us lots of grief as astrologers. But it's up there in the
heavens. It exists. We can't ignore it.
The Thirteenth
Sign? Ophiuchus is often mistakenly called the
'thirteenth sign of the zodiac' because the sign is thought of as an additional
sign to the the twelve Tropical or
Sidereal signs.
In fact, Ophiuchus is a
Sun-sign in the
Real Solar Zodiac, i.e.
the Sun can be seen against the stars of Ophiuchus between 30th November and
17th December each year. [The dates of the cusps move a little from one year to
the next, so sometimes they are quoted as 1st December to 18th December.]
Aquarius, the Water Carrier, is the actual
13th, and last, sign of the Real Solar
Zodiac. |
Ophiuchus the Sun sign. The curved
line marked with degree signs is the
Ecliptic. The
Ecliptic, the Sun's path
through the heavens as seen from Earth, runs through Ophiuchus from about 245
to 265° away from the Vernal Equinox. This means
that the Sun can be seen against the stars of Ophiuchus from 30th November to
17th December |
Ophiuchus in the
Planetary Zodiac: As Ophiuchus is a
Sun-sign it is also a member of the
Planetary Zodiac and the
Lunar Zodiac, i.e. as well as
the Sun, the planets and the Moon can frequently be seen against the stars of
Ophiuchus, from the view point of the Earth.
The planet Pluto could be
found in Ophiuchus until the end of 2003, after which it passed into Serpens
Cauda, the Serpent's Tail. The Centaur object, the minor
planetoid Chiron, was visible against the stars of Ophiuchus until November
2001, after which it passed over the border into Sagittarius. Venus and Mercury
can be found in Ophiuchus for a time each year. Shown right is an example of a
star chart for Pluto in Ophiuchus in June 1999.
So why isn't Ophiucus
in the Commonly-Used Western Zodiac? Ophiuchus is an
Ancient Greek constellation. The Serpent Bearer is one of the original
Ptolemy constellations, appearing in Al Magest
Star
Catalogue [c 130 - 170 AD]. He also appears on the Farnese Globe, a Roman
copy of a circa 2nd century BC depiction of Atlas holding the
Celestial Sphere
above his head. So why isn't Ophiuchus a member of the standard astrological
zodiac - the Tropical
Zodiac?
Good question! Ophiuchus
is a Sun-sign. The Moon and planets all are seen
against the stars of Ophiuchus. Unfortunately, the answer to the question is
that Ophiuchus isn't in the Tropical Zodiac not because
there is something wrong with Ophiuchus but because there is something wrong
with the Tropical
Zodiac. The Tropical
Zodiac is an inaccurate oversimplification of the heavens dating from
a time when we did not have telescopes or computers. Follow the
Zodiac Wheels link for a
description of the history of the Zodiacs. |
Pluto in Ophiuchus. Star chart for 21
Jun 99 of the Serpens-Ophiuchus-Serpens area of the night sky. The green lines
are the constellation boundaries. The white lines join the stars of each
constellation to make the constellation figure. Most of the bulk of Ophiuchus,
the Serpent Bearer, is visible in the centre of the chart. Pluto [the
joined PL symbol in gray] is just occulting the star ζ Ophiuchi.
[Star names and star symbols are marked in red, constellation names are shown
in yellow. The white horizontal line in the center of the star chart is
the Celestial Equator.]
Click on the above picture for a
larger version 14 kB. |
Feet of Clay?:
You can read elsewhere on the internet that the problem of
Ophiuchus was invented by the Royal Astronomical Society several years ago to
bedevil we astrologers. Alas, if it were that simple! The problem of Ophiuchus
is very old: at least nineteen hundred years old, if not more. It dates back to
at least the time of Claudius Ptolemy, the Classical father of astrology [c 130
- 170 AD].
Ptolemy produced two great works,
Al Magest, which charted the heavens, and
Tetrabiblos,
the seminal work of astrology - a compendium of essentially all the
astrological knowledge of the Ancient Greeks. Al Magest contains the earliest
Star
Catalogue that we still possess.
In
Tetrabiblos,
Ptolemy treats Ophiuchus as a non-zodiac constellation; he follows the simple,
inherited tradition of the twelve part, equal-sign zodiac. However, in Al
Magest, Ptolemy actually charts Ophiuchus in the heavens. He looks at the
reality of the stars above. He catalogues 29 stars in the constellation. 24 of
these he measures to have a latitude above the
Ecliptic. But 5 of these
he observes have a latitude below the
Ecliptic. In other
words the figure of Ophiuchus crosses the
Ecliptic [the path
of the Sun] making it by definition a Sun Sign. The five stars which lie
south of the Ecliptic
are:
|
Ptolemy's Al Magest
Star
Catalogue c 130 - 170 AD: |
Modern Star
Name |
Number |
Ptolemy's
Description |
Location
|
Ecliptic
Latitude* |
36 Ophiuchi |
star 247 |
Praecedens de quatuor quae sunt in pede
dextro |
Ophiuchus' right
foot |
-02 15' |
42 Theta
Ophiuchi |
star
248 |
Quae istam
sequitur |
Ophiuchus' right
foot |
-01 30' |
44 Ophiuchi |
star 249 |
Quae adhuc istam
sequitur |
Ophiuchus' right foot |
-00 20' |
51
Ophiuchi |
star 250
|
Reliqua de quatuor
quae omnes sequitur |
Ophiuchus' right
foot |
-00 15' |
5 Rho Ophiuchi |
star 257 |
Quae tangit plantam sinistri
pedis |
Ophiuchus' left foot |
-00 45' |
*The negative sign indicates that these stars have a
position below the Ecliptic.
Ecliptic latitudes taken
from the on-line version of Al Magest held at:
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cats/Cats.htx.
Ptolemy never resolved these
contradictions between a simple twelve-sign
Solar Zodiac description of
the skies and the reality of the thirteen sign heavens, and we as astrologers
are still struggling with them today. Really though, the heavens have to win in
the end...
Historical Star Charts of
Ophiuchus - Ophiuchus Backwards and Forwards: The
charts below are actually based on up-dated versions of Ptolemy's Al Magest
Star
Catalogue, though the catalogue was first written some fifteen hundred
years before they were drawn. During the Renaissance, Ptolemy's work became
freely available once again, which lead to the production of new catalogues and
the drawing, for the first time, of accurate maps of the skies. Note the stars
in Ophiuchus feet lying below the Ecliptic, just as in the excerpt from
Ptolemy's
Star
Catalogue given above.
Except... that since antiquity the
figure on the left has reversed. From the
Star
Catalogue entries, Ptolemy's Ophiuchus figure was facing towards us with
his left leg slightly below the Ecliptic, resting on Scorpius and his right leg
further below the Ecliptic. Many Renaissance drawings have him facing away from
us, right leg on Scorpius. In this they seem to all follow Johann Bayer's
incorrect drawing of 1603. However, as early as 1604, Johannes Kepler [below
right] had improved on Bayer's mistake and produced a correct map which shows
the figure of Ophiuchus that the Ancient Greeks would have seen in the heavens.
After a fifteen hundred year sleep, the Ophiuchus of the Greeks - and his
Ecliptic problems - were
reborn.
|
|
A star chart of Ophiuchus. From
Uranometria, Johann Bayer, Augsburg, 1603 AD. The black and white line
passing through the legs of Ophiuchus is the
Ecliptic. The hatched
area at the bottom of the drawing presents the band above the
Ecliptic of the 7°
Planetary Zodiac as known
at the time. Ophiuchus holds Serpens, the Serpent. Compared to the
Classical Greek Ophiuchus two things are wrong with the figure: Ophiuchus has
his back to us, and his legs extends too far below the
Ecliptic. However it is
a beautiful drawing!
Click
on the above picture for a larger version 201 kB. |
A star chart of Ophiuchus. FromDe
stella nova in pede serpentarii, Johann Kepler, Prague, 1606 AD. The dark
line two and a half sqaures up from the base is the
Ecliptic. Kepler
correctly portrays Ophiuchus as facing us. The positions of the legs are also
closer to Ptolemy's original than Bayer's drawing, only the feet lying south of
the Ecliptic.
Click on the above picture for a
larger version 218 kB. |
|
|
A star chart of Ophiuchus. In
Uranographia Britannica, John Bevis, London, ca 1750. The black and
white line at the bottom of the drawing is the
Ecliptic. The hatched
area at the bottom of the drawing presents the band above the
Ecliptic of the 7°
Planetary Zodiac as known
at the time. The figure is essentially copied from Bayer's of 150 years earlier
- with the same, somewhat incorrect, position for the figure of
Ophiuchus. |
A star chart of Ophiuchus. From
Atlas Coelestis, John Flamsteed, London, 1753. The curved black and
white line at the bottom of the drawing is the
Ecliptic. Whilst the
figure has a slightly different orientation - notably of the head - in
comparison to Kepler's drawing, the star positions of the major limbs are very
similar. This figure is very close to what the Ancient and Classical Greeks
would have seen when they looked for Ophiuchus in the heavens. |
The Astrological Lore of
Ophiuchus: Ophiuchus was better known in classical
times as Asclepius, [in Latin, Aesculapius] the God of Medicine. He
learnt the art from Chiron, the Centaur. On either side of Ophiuchus in
the heavens lie the two parts of the sign of the serpent he holds, Serpens
Caput, the Serpent's Head and Serpens Cauda, the Serpent's Tail.
The twined serpent staff is the badge of the medical profession to this day.
[However, the sign of the serpent itself does not form part of the
Real Solar Zodiac, though
it does from part of the Planetary Zodiac.] It is
from the Serpent that Ophiuchus learnt the secret of the Elixir of
Life.
Ophiuchus is always shown with his
foot resting on Scorpius, the Scorpion [see above]. This is especially
apt. In Greek star lore the Earth Goddess Gaia sends Scorpius to kill Orion,
the Hunter, who has threatened to hunt down all the animals of the Earth
- a tale with resonance for modern times. Scorpius stings Orion, who would have
died had it not been for the intervention of Aesculapius (Ophiuchus).
Aesculapius gives Orion a sip of the divine Elixir and restores him to
health.
The even older Babylonian version
is slightly different. Here the serpent is Tiamat, the Monster of the Bitter
Ocean. Holding Tiamat is Marduk, the Sun God of the Babylonians.
They are doing battle together in the eternal fight of good against
evil.
Other Thirteenth and
Forteenth Signs: There is some information available
on the Internet about another '13th sign', Arachne, the Spider. This
sign was first described in James Voghs' book Arachne Rising. However,
the book was a hoax. Arachne Rising was science fiction. 'James Vogh' is
a pseudonym of the science fiction author John Sladek, now deceased.
There is also some information
available on the Internet on Cetus, the Whale, describing it as the
'14th sign'. This is a confusion of the
Real Solar Zodiac and the
Planetary Zodiac. The
Ecliptic and hence the
Sun, as seen from Earth, do not pass through Cetus. However, most of the
planets, and the Moon, can be seen occasionally against the stars of Cetus. But
this is also true of another 25 signs in the Ptolemaic
Planetary
Zodiac.
The Real Solar Zodiac Sun
Signs:
© Dr Shepherd Simpson, Astrological
Historian |
|
Historical Astrology
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