The end of the year is fast approaching and we can begin to look forward to the New Year on January 1st. Our calendars are created from the movement of the Sun, the Earth and the Moon.
We segment days or one Earth rotation, into weeks or one-quarter of a lunar cycle, months or one Moon cycle and years which is one Earth orbit around the Sun.
Astrologers go wider still and divide time into the Great Year which is the time it takes for the precession of the equinoxes to make a full circle through the zodiac.
The Great Year is +/-25900 years and this again divides into twelve Great Months, or Ages lasting around 2000 years, and the best-known one is the Age Of Aquarius which we are living in now.
If we had to set up calendars now would there be ten days one a week? No because the Moon is the month and its quarters are the week markers.
We like to create cosmos from chaos. So we add in four seasons starting at the equinoxes and solstices.
Special days in the year
New Year’s Day is January 1st.
We adjust for Leap Year creep by adding a day on February 29th every four years and again deduct a day every 400 years.
Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the Full Moon following the Vernal equinox on about March 21st.
The Chinese New Year falls on the day of the second new Moon after the winter solstice on about December 21.
Your birthday is the day every year that the Earth returns to its natal position.
We also add special dates that mean something to us personally like wedding anniversaries. Mine is on December 27th. This date will only be important to my husband and I and maybe our kids for their lifetime, after which time it will fade out of importance.
Star of Bethlehem
The point is that some dates are astronomically derived, some have been with us for ages and some are picked for their meaning to us personally.
The chart above is set for midnight, December 25th, AD1. Yes, I know this date is not right but it is the date we celebrate for Christ’s birth. So I have added the chart here for interest.
This chart features Saturn on the Midheaven and taking the place of the Star of Bethlehem.
I am aware that many astrologers have rectified this chart and even written books about it but I, being a straightforward astrologer, have placed the date we celebrate in the featured chart.
