is] 



(daily motion), we gradually lose sight of the sun, 

 .and as the darkness closes around us the stars upon the 

 opposite side of the heavens become visible; so that, 

 when the sun is in Aries, or any other sign, that sign is 

 .always invisible to us, and at night we see the sign that 

 occupies the opposite side of the zodiac. Day after 

 day, as the earth continues to move round the sun, a 

 few more stars in the sign Aries are covered, until at the 

 end of a month the sun reaches the next sign, Taurus ; 

 .and the opposite signs, which we see at night, have also 

 moved on to the same extent. Thus at noon on 

 March 2ist the sun is at its highest daily ascension, 

 south of the zenith, or highest point of the heavens, 

 obliterating by its effulgence .the first stars of the sign 

 Aries, through which it is apparently about to pass, and 

 . at midnight following the opposite sign, Libra, is seen 

 at the same distance from the nadir, or highest point of 

 the darkened heavens ; while a month later, when the 

 sun at noon is in Taurus, the sign Scorpio is seen at the 

 opposite point at midnight ; and so on through all the 

 signs, one month being occupied by the passing of the 

 sun through each sign, so that it passes through Aries in 

 March, Taurus in April, Gemini in May, Cancer in June, 

 Leo in July, Virgo in August, Libra in September, 

 Scorpio in October, Sagittarius in November, Capricornus 

 in December, Aquarius in January, Pisces in February. 

 This was precisely what occurred in the zodiac during 

 the years from B.C. 2188 to B.C. 36; but in the period 

 of two thousand years immediately preceding this, owing 

 to the precession of the equinoxes, the order was changed, 

 so that Taurus was the sign of March, Gemini of April, 

 . and so on, each sign being a month earlier ; while at 

 the present time Pisces is the sign of March, and each 

 other sign one month later than when Aries was at the 

 vernal equinoxial point. Each of these signs occupies 

 30 degrees of the zodiac, the whole twelve making up 

 360 degrees, which is the total length of the imaginary 

 sphere of the heavenly vault; and the ancients again 

 divided each of these signs into three portions of ten 

 degrees each, called decans making 36 decans for the 

 complete zodiacal circle. When the sun was passing 

 through a sign the astrologers publicly proclaimed the 



