Subject: Digest Number 418

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> >> -

> >>

> >>

> >> Thursday, December 05, 2002 1:48 AM

> >> Digest Number 418

> >>

 

 

> >> Now, what was the source of the Node being at 3 Sag and which

> >zodiac?

> >

> >This question is rather loaded, as all zodiacs were essentially

> >sidereal in the 8th C BCE, and for some time after that, and then

> >there were different sidereals in use depending upon where one might

> >live. In the 8th C BCE, the classic 12-sign zodiac was still years

> >away.

> >

> >If your definition of the exaltation is so strict, then how can the

> >nodes, which are not planets and also invisible, have a heliacal

> >rising in the first place? Did Fagan simply insert them on his own

> >fiducial (0* Aries) because it was the first month of the calendar in

> >786 BC? If so, why is this in any way valid?

> >

> >We see the nodal exaltations as 3* of GEM/SAG in early medieval Arab

> >texts, whereas such degrees are not listed by Ptolemy. It seems to

> >have something to do with being 3* away from Luna's exaltation.

> >

> >Very best,

> >Ed Kohout

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Jack,

 

With regard to this question about the node, the answer is that four

of the exaltation positions are not heliacal phenomena but rather

positions at 1st Nisan on April 3rd (Julian) -785 (786 B.C.) at

Babylon at approximately Moonset. The Sun at first Nisan was at

18 Aries 53' which rounds to 19 Aries; Venus was at 26 Pisces 34'

which rounds to 27 Pisces; the north node of the Moon was at 1

Aries 30'; and the Moon at Moonset (about 7pm LMT) was at 29

Aries 40' but the Moon had north latitude so it actually set in 0

Taurus. Parallax would have made the Moon set before 7:00 pm

but it would have been seen in Taurus. I don't know the source for

3 Taurus as the Moon's exaltation degree but it may be that delta T

is incorrect to the extent that the Moon could have been farther to

the east than the currently accepted value of delta T will allow.

Incidentally, 1st Nisan is the first New Moon closest to the

equinox, either before or after it. The two most important reasons

for noting the equinox and making it the beginning of the civil year

are, 1) The Tigris and Euphrates both overflowed their banks in

March and in an area where the average rainfall was only 150

millimeters per year, it was critical to catch as much of the flood as

possible in dikes, cisterns and canals to irrigate the fields because

you could starve to death if you depended on rainfall alone to bring

in your crop. Much of Babylonia and Assyria (modern Iraq) are

desert or semi-desert. Water is a precious resource. 2) The

condition of equal day and night is a way to regulate what time of

year it is and therefore to intercalate the calendar which requires

the addition of a second intercalary Adarru about every three years.

A lunar year is 354 days long so a lunar year gets out of sync with

the solar year in three years. Their calendar was soli-lunar but at

what point it became so and departed from a purely lunar calendar,

I don't know. So the equinox was a help with the calendar but it

couldn't be used for celestial longitude because there's no

combination of stars that points to it and says in effect: " Vernal

Equinox here! " with an arrow pointing to it; moreover the equinox is

constantly changing with regard to the sky so a position during one

era won't be where it was formerly described in the next era. You

can't navigate around the sky unless you have fixed points of

reference that don't change for practical purposes. The equinox

can be used for purposes of geodesy, but it changes so fast that

it's useless as a marker for astronomical purposes, unless you

update it annually. Worse, use of the equinox makes a shambles

of period relations which are the backbone of Babylonian

ephemerides. If you say that the Moon was five degrees west of

Antares you've got something meaningful that won't change from

one period to another.

I hope this is helpful.

Best wishes,

Ken Bowser

 

 

 

Jack S. Contreras

Western Sidereal Astrologer