recording the passing of time, their number is legion; but their correction always comes from the astronomical
observatory.
The recurrence of the Vernal Equinox on the same day each year is the one supreme and inflexible necessity - and that
we have not even yet fully attained. In astrology, the complexities arising out of a variety of calendars constitute a major
problem. The day is universal as a unit of time, but to group days into months, and months into a year, and keep in step
with the universe and the seasons introduces serious difficulties. Days do not add up to lunar months, and months do not
add up to years, other than through recourse to numerous devices and ingenious compromises.
The planets pursue their inexorable courses, wholly unmindful of man's need for a method whereby to determine the
places they occupied at a given moment of time. The moment is easy enough to identify when it occurs, but how to
record the moment in terminology that will suffice to identify it a century later is a vastly more difficult problem. A
study of the various calendars is perhaps the shortest way to an appreciation of the importance of a matter which
involves the basic facts with which the astrologer must deal.
The Mohammedan calendar is one of the most primitive. It is strictly a Lunar calendar, the year consisting of twelve
lunar months, which retrograde through the seasons in about 32½ years. To reconcile the lunar cycle to a given number
of complete days, a leap year is introduced on the 2nd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 24th, 26th and 29th years of
a thirty year cycle, making these years consist of 355 days instead of 354. The names of the months and the number of
days are:
1, Muharram (30); 2, Saphar (29); 3, Rabia I (30); 4, Rabia II (29); 5, Jomada I (30); 6, Jomada II (29); 7, Rajah (30); 8,
Shaaban (29); 9, Ramadan (30); 10, Shawaal (29); 11, Dulkasda (30); and 12, Dulheggia (29 or 30). The years are
calculated from July 16, 622 A.D., the day following the Hegira, the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina after
an attempted assassination. The beginning of the 46th cycle, with the first day of Muharram, in the year 1351, compares
to May 7, 1932 of the Gregorian calendar; continuing:
1365.............. Dec. 6, 1945
1366.............. Nov. 25, 1946
1367.............. Nov. 15, 1947
1368.............. Nov. 3, 1948
1369.............. Oct. 24, 1949
1370.............. Oct. 13, 1950
1371.............. Oct. 2, 1951
1372.............. Sept. 21, 1952
1373.............. Sept. 10, 1953
1374.............. Aug. 30, 1954
To find the Gregorian equivalent to any Mohammedan date multiply 970,224 by the Mohammedan year, point off six
decimal places and add 621.5774. The whole number will be the year A.D., and the decimal multiplied by 365 will be
the day of the year.