year. If the different planetary reflectors of solar energy, as they appear over the horizon at
irregular intervals throughout that first day of life, stimulate a certain growth, there must result a
cycle of sensitive degrees or points of receptivity. On successive days the actual places of these
planets will advance, but the point of receptivity or expectancy remains - resulting in the "human
time clock" to which physiologists frequently refer.
If now these twelve divisions of the circle are to be based on the diurnal rotation of the Earth on
its axis, the twelve arcs must represent subdivisions of the Equator instead of the Ecliptic.
Furthermore, this involves the question of time of day, and Latitude as well as Longitude of
place. Such arcs are measured from the degree of the Horizon that is rising at that moment of
time from that particular Longitude and Latitude of place; and are measured in two-hour units
along the Horizon instead of 30° units along the Ecliptic.
Since the Inclination of the Earth's axis introduces another factor, the degrees of arc that cross
the horizon in two hours, vary with the Latitude and with the time of year. This expanding and
contracting of the degrees encompassed in two hours throughout the year, is also doubtless
involved in the factor of orbs. (q.v.)
Therefore, the map of a nativity is a combination of three maps: (1) Of Signs, 30º subdivisions
of a horizon, at right angles to a line between a Zenith and a Nadir (v. Celestial Sphere); (2) of
Solar House, 30° subdivisions of the Ecliptic, at right angles to a line between the North and
South poles of the Ecliptic; and (3) Of Houses, two-hour subdivisions of the Equator, at right
angles to a line between the North and South Celestial Poles.
For this reason some modern scientific astrologers utilize the map in a method somewhat altered
from the traditional method. The divisions of the printed design are the Signs, with 0° Aries at
the left. A colored line is drawn through the Sun position to the opposite point in the orbit, and
another at right angles thereto, indicating the solar houses. On the outside of the circle are placed
the degrees of the cusps of the Geocentric Houses as measured from the Rising Degree, thus
showing at a glance the unequal arcs that pass over the horizon in equal periods of time. In
reading such a map, the design is read upright, or successively rotated to place at the left the Sun
degree or the Rising Degree.
This explains the use of the terms Midheaven and Ascendant, as indicating the points at the top
or at the left of the map, which terms are not synonymous with Zenith or Nadir. (v. Celestial
Sphere.)
Fire Signs. The inspirational signs: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius. v. Signs.First point. 0º Aries; from which point Longitude is reckoned along the Ecliptic, and right
ascension along the Celestial Equator.
Fixed Signs. Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius, constituing the Fixed Quadruplicity. v.