The further fact that the Equinox still continues to fall in 0° Aries indicates that at some time since the
beginning of the Christian era the fixed Zodiac of constellations was abandoned and the names reapplied to a
moving Zodiac based upon the equinoctial point, then recognized as the beginning of the astrological year. The
year's arc of precession was thus ignored - an annual loss of a moment of time that shows up in no calculation
at present in use, other than in a consideration of the Precession of the equinoctial point and the one degree
revision of star positions every seventy years.
Can it be that our only record of one of these early readjustments of the calendar is that of Joshua having
commanded the Sun to stand still?
Thus for at least 40 centuries astrologers have recognized the receding point of the Node of intersection of the
Ecliptic and the Celestial Equator as the commencement of a scheme of magnetic conditioning. (v. Solar
System.)
Of the twelve signs there are four basic groups:
The Inspirational Group - the Fire signs.
The Emotional Group - the Water signs.
The Mental Group - the Air signs.
The Practical Group - the Earth signs.
These are termed the Elements, or Triplicities - since three signs are embraced in each group, as follows:
...............Cardinal.....Fixed......Mutable
.....Fire:.....Aries........Leo........Sagittarius
.....Water:....Cancer.......Scorpio....Pisces
.....Air:......Libra........Aquarius...Gemini
.....Earth:....Capricorn....Taurus.....Virgo
As the English language abounds in words which had their origin in the symbology of the ancients, the use of
terms such as fire, earth, air and water, do not indicate any present-day adherence to the ancient concept that
matter is composed of these four primary elements. They are merely terms, but as such they appear aptly to
symbolize, now as then, an outstanding characteristic of each of the four basic groups into which mankind is
classified according to astrology. In fact, it becomes doubtful whether this grouping was ever intended to apply
to the elements of matter, since fire could hardly have been looked upon even in that day as a physical element.
More than likely it is a modern misconception of their symbolic interpretation of the psychological elements
discerned in zodiacal influences.