What is my Indain Horoscope?!
Question:
What is my Indain Horoscope?
OK, so I have been cruising through the astrology sections for a while I keep on seeing all these referances to Indain astrology. So could someone who knows please tell me what the difference is and what is my information in Indain astrology please? Thank you.
My info: June 30,1979 6:19 pm, Cleveland, Ohio (Eastern Standard Time)
Answers:
Hello,
I presume you mean Indian, not Indain! Hindu, or Vedic Astrology, also known as Jyotish, is the Astrology adopted by the Indian Tradition.
The main difference between Hindu and Western Astrology is that they use a different Zodiac. The Western Zodiac is based on the seasons and the first point of Aries corresponds with the first day of the Spring, or Vernal Equinox, when the days and nights are equal in length. This is how our Zodiac is callibrated.
The Hindu Zodiac is based on the Constellations - the groups of stars you can see in the sky. There is no definite fixed point that we can say marks the exact start of the 'Sidereal' Zodiac, as it is known. The result is that there are many many different Sidereal Zodiacs used in India. Each Village may well have it's own local version of Astrology.
Broadly speaking though, you will subtract around 23 degrees from each point in your 'Western' horoscope to obtain your Vedic horoscope. There are, of course 30 degrees in each of the 12 signs.
The reason the zodiacs do not match is called 'Precession of the Equinoxes'. It is believed this is because the earth is wobbling round on its polar axis - like a spinning top does. Each wobble takes a 'great year' or 26,000 years to complete and since the first point of Aries is now moving back from Pisces to Aquarius it is believed we are coming into the 'Age of Aquarius'.
There are many other differences in interpretation - one of the biggest is that the Vedic tradition is much more oriented towards 'lunar mansions' as opposed to our solar signs. The charts are usually square instead of round and broadly speaking fall into two main types - Northern and Southern.