Hi all, What am I missing here? It seems that "rising" and "descending" are again quite positive/negative, spring/fallish. Whatever terms one comes up with must be equal in that they have to represent the same season to both sides; only at a different time. I know that the "signs" of the zodiac are not even aligned with the sun anymore and that astrology is in much ill repute; so possibly the old system is far enough removed that it can continue to be used here as an ID point. I personally like the "first point of Aries" concept, but do people in the south associate "Libra" with spring so that this will work equally? Is this zodiac also dominated by northern chauvinism? I know that I associate "Aries" with spring but is it because of being northern? It seems that whatever is picked, it must have only to do with the time of year and since we use "Tropic of Cancer/ Capricorn" it would be nice to stay in that form unless these have summer/ winter type of implications.
BUT... is anything unbiased??? I think that the calendar months are season neutral? They don't seem to have the right ring though, in English anyway. Further ramblings...as my mind slips away... Astronomically speaking, I think that again the south came out on the negative end by definition. Nothing personal. When you get an army as big as ours, you can define the world how you like!! Also, what really made me first wonder about astrology when I was younger was that Spring" or Aries was supposed to represent the "beginnings". Now this would seem to make "Libras" in the southern hemisphere more Aries(ish). I still don't know how this is supposed to work around the world? And then what of people born on the equator, where it seems there must be just two summers and two falls? And at the actual Poles...with only one "day" and one "night" per year... is a day a season? Etc. Boy, this might help make sense of some biblical time lines! Anyway I hope you all can work this out because it does seem to need major work (like me). Fritz -----Original Message----- From: Peter Mayer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 9:43 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: How do we call the equinoxes? Hi, My vote would be to revive an old astronomical/astrological distinction which has a charming poetical flavour. (vernal and autumnal have a 'hemisipheric chauninism' which as a southerner I emphatically reject, of course!). The terms I have in mind are "dragon's head" --"the ascending mode of a planet" and "dragon's tail" --"the descending mode". What do you think, Anselmo? > > Don't you think it'd be better to call the equinoxes 'ascending >> equinoxe' and 'descending equinoxe' instead of 'vernal equinox' >> and 'autumn equinox'? Do you know if the International Astronomy Union > > said something about this? > cheers, Peter -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Mayer | [EMAIL PROTECTED] Politics Department | University of Adelaide | 'phone:+61.8 8303 5606/5610 Adelaide, SA 5005 | FAX: (+61.8) 8303 3446 AUSTRALIA | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - -
