Astrology Encyclopedia

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Eagle. (1) Aquilla. A small constellation located approx. Capricorn 29°; sometimes called the Vulture. (2) Frequently associated with the sign Scorpio, as seen in the wings of the Sphinx (qv.). The sharp eyes and aquiline nose of the pure Scorpio person thoroughly stress the connotation. (3) By the Greeks and Persians, the Eagle was held sacred to the Sun and Jupiter.

 

Earth Shine. The dimly lit surface of the Crescent Moon caused by sunlight reflected from the Earth, to the Moon, back to the Earth. It is one of several factors which enter into the astrological significance of the Lunation.

 

Earth Signs. Those of the Earth Triplicity: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn. The ancients symbolized these types by the Earth element, because of their predominant "Earthiness" or practicality. v. Signs.

 

East. (1) One of the four cardinal points. (2) The general direction in which the Sun rises, particularly at the equinoxes. (3) The rising degree at the cusp of first house, placed at the midpoint on the left side of the map. (4) Loosely applied to the entire six houses which occupy the left half of the map - the Eastern houses: 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3.

Easter. From Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of light or Spring, in whose honor a festival was celebrated, usually in April - since at that time the Spring Equinox occurred in April. A Festival marking the commencement of Spring has been celebrated among many peoples under a variety of names. By the Christians it was celebrated in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus. It coincides in general with the Jewish Passover, or Pasch, which the Jews celebrate on that 14th day of a lunar month that falls upon or next follows after the vernal equinox. After some schism over the point, the council of Nicea in 325 A.D., ordained that Easter should take place on the Sunday that immediately follows the full moon that happens upon, or the first full moon after, the day of the vernal equinox; except that if this falls on Sunday, or if Easter and the Passover coincide, then Easter is deferred one week. The reconciling of three such unrelated factors as the week, the lunar month and the solar year is sometimes a complicated matter. The full moon as calculated by the ecclesiastical rule does not always coincide with the astronomical full moon. These rules are based upon the golden number, epact, and Dominical letter

Eccentric. An eccentric orbit is one formed about a centre, which itself is revolving about another centre. Ptolemy first employed the term as descriptive of the orbits of the planets about the Sun, viewed from the Earth as the central point of observation. His supposition was that the orbit was a circle, but that the Sun was not in the center of the orbit. In fact he considered it to be an imaginary circle representing an imaginary orbit, since it had not been discovered that the planets revolved round the Sun. The term is now applied to an elliptical orbit. The eccentricity of an elliptical orbit is defined astronomically as its degree of departure from a circle. It is expressed by the ratio of the major to the minor axis. The orbit of Venus has the least, and that of Mercury the greatest eccentricity of the planets in the solar system.

 

Eclipse. This phenomenon is one that involves Sun, Moon and Earth. There are two distinct types: (1) that in which the Moon stands between the Sun and Earth, cutting off from our vision not only the light of the Sun, but the Sun itself. This is a Solar Eclipse, and occurs only at the time of a new Moon, when the Sun and Moon form a conjunction near one of the Nodes at which the orbits of the Earth and Moon intersect; and (2) that in which the Earth cuts off from the Moon the light of the Sun, depriving it of its illumination but still leaving it in our line of vision as a dark and shadowy object. This is a Lunar Eclipse, and occurs only at the time of a Full Moon, when the Sun and Moon are in opposition, close to the Moon's nodes. Read the Full Article

 

Eclipse of Thales. May 28, 585 B.C., predicted by Thales of Miletus, and which stopped a battle in the war between the Medes and the Lydians. Other historic eclipses were that which occurred at noon in the first year of the Peloponnesian War, when several stars became visible, presumed to have occurred August 3, 432 B.C.; and that which occurred when Agathocles, King of Syracuse, was sailing with his fleet toward Africa, on Aug. 15, 310 B.C. Saying "The die is cast" Caesar crossed the Rubicon on the day of a Solar Eclipse, March 7, 51 B.C..

 

Ecliptic; Via Solis, the Sun's path. The Sun's apparent orbit or path around the Earth; or the orbit of the Earth as viewed from the Sun. So named because it is along this path, at the points where it intersects the Equator, that Eclipses occur. Its inclination (23°27') to the plane of the Equator is now decreasing at the rate of 50" per century. A comparison of the calculations of this obliquity by Hipparchus, Ptolemy and Placidus, with those of modern astronomers, shows that the decrease has been continuous for over two thousand years. Discoveries of explorers in the Arctic and Antarctic regions indicate the one-time presence of tropical flora and fauna, suggesting that the poles of the earth were once in the plane of its orbit, and the present equatorial region was a great ice-belt. However, some astronomers figure that the inclination will decrease to a minimum of 22°30' in about the year 11,500. A similar condition is observed in Mars and Uranus. Sometimes termed the Celestial Ecliptic to distinguish it from the path of the Moon's orbit around the Earth - termed the Terrestrial Ecliptic.

 

Ego. The conscious feeling that "I am Me." In psychology the ego, as a system of mental states, is approximately synonymous with the mind. Occult philosophy claims there are two egos: one identified with mortal personality; the other divine and indestructible.

 

Elections. Electional Astrology is a method by which to choose a suitable time for commencing any honestly conceived and reasonable project or endeavor, such as a marriage, journey, law-suit, building operation, engaging in a new business or profession, the reconciling of opponents, drawing up a will, buying land or house, planting a garden, launching a ship, or moving into a new home. Read the Full Article

 

Electric planets. v. Planets.

 

Elements. The four fundamental natures, symbolized as Fire, Earth, Air and Water. v. Signs.

 

Elevation. Astronomically, the distance of a planet above the horizon; its altitude.

 

Elevation of the Pole. As this increases as one advances N. or S. from the Equator, it is the equivalent of Latitude, hence is seldom now employed in this sense, to avoid confusion with the use of the term in reference to the relative House positions of the planets.

 

Elevation by Latitude. Of any two planets, the one that has the more latitude, either N. or S., is said to be "in elevation by latitude." If the latitudes be the same, that which has the least declination is the more elevated.

 

Eleveation by House Position. That one of the Ascending planets which is nearest to the cusp of the Tenth House, the Midheaven or highest point in the map, is said to be elevated above the others. Loosely applied to any planet that occupies a position above the horizon in a geocentric chart. Elevation is one of the Accidental Dignities. (v. Dignities.) A malefic in elevation above the luminaries, especially if in the Midheaven, indicates much adversity - unless mitigated by strong and favoring aspects. If the malefic is anareta, it presages a violent death; if it be elevated above a benefic, the benefic will be powerless to prevent; but if the reverse, the benefic will moderate the anaretic tendency. If either of the luminaries is elevated above the malefics, their power to harm will be greatly lessened.

 

Elongation. (a) The angular distance of an inferior, or interior, planet from the Sun, as viewed from the Earth. The maximum elongation which Mercury attains is 28 degrees; Venus, 46 degrees. Consequently in a birth map the only aspects Mercury can form to the Sun are a conjunction and semi-sextile; Venus, these and a semi-square. (b) The farthest distance of any planet from the Sun; aphelion.

 

Embolismic Month. Embolismic Lunation. An intercalary month employed in some ancient calendars, whereby to preserve a seasonal relationship between the Lunar and Solar calendars. v. Calendar.

 

Emerge. Emersion. To come out from a coalescence with the Sun's rays; employed chiefly in reference to eclipses and occultations. Antonym: immersion.

 

Emotional Natures. Referring to the quality of sensory receptivity and reaction through the sympathetic nervous system that characterizes those born with the Sun in Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces - respectively, the initiative, executive and deductive types of the Emotional group. To classify this group as Emotional, does not imply that other groups are not capable of Emotion; but where those of the Intellectual group experience emotion chiefly through mental processes, of the Inspirational group through a super-consciousness of the Ego, and of the practical group through a capacity for sentiment, the Emotional group appear to be motivated almost entirely through Emotional stimulation apparently generated in their nerve ganglia as reflexes, and which penetrate to the very fibres of their physical being.

 

Enneatical. The ninth in any series. Said of a climax which occurs on the ninth day of an illness - or every ninth day of its progress; also of the ninth day after birth; the ninth year of life; or every ninth year throughout life. (v. Climacterical Periods.)

 

Epact. A word of Greek origin, applied to a number that indicates the Moon's age on the first day of the year. As the common solar year is 365 d., and the lunar year 354 d., the difference of 11 indicates that if a new moon falls on January 1st in any year, it will be 11 days old on the first day of the next year, and 22 days old on the first of the third year. Hence the epacts of those years are numbers 11 and 22. In a leap year, however, the remainder is 10, which introduces such complexities that the chief and almost sole use of the epact is in determining the date of Easter. A number which represents the number of days of excess of the Solar year over 12 lunar months is the annual epact. The number which represents the number of days of excess of a calendar month over a lunar month is the monthly epact. The epacts differ from the Golden Numbers, from which they are derived, in that they provide for the adjustment of (1) the solar equation, a correction of the Julian Calendar, and (2) the lunar equation, a correction of the error in the lunar cycle. In its use in determining the date of Easter, apparently more concern was paid to the consideration that it must not coincide with the Passover than to astronomical exactness, for the Tables of Epacts are frequently in error by as much as two days earlier or later.

 

Ephemeral Map. One erected for the time of an event, to be judged by Horary Astrology.

 

Ephemeral Motion. The day-to-day motion of the celestial bodies of the solar system in their orbits. Said in contradistinction to directional or progressed motion.

 

Ephemeris. pl. Ephemerides. An almanac listing the ephemeral or rapidly changing position which each of the solar system bodies will occupy on each day of the year: their Longitude, Latitude, Declination, and similar astronomical phenomena. The astronomer's Ephemeris lists these positions in heliocentric terms; that of the astrologer, in geocentric terms. A set of Ephemerides which includes the year of the native's birth, is essential in the erection of a horoscope. Ephemerides were first devised by astrologers to facilitate the erection of a horoscope. Finally, when they became of common use to navigators and astronomers, they were given official recognition by the Government, and issued as the Nautical Almanac. The oldest almanac in the British Museum bears the date 1431. It is said that Columbus navigated by the aid of an Astrologer's Ephemeris.

 

Some of the notable ephemerides have been: Vincent Wing, 1658-81; John Gadbury, 1682-1702; Edmund Weaver, 1740-46; Thomas White, 1762-1850 (also reappeared in 1883); George Parker, in Celestial Atlas, 1780-90; John Partridge, in Merlinus Liberatus, 1851-59; E. W. Williams, in the Celestial Messenger, 1858; W. J. Simmonite, 1801-61; Raphael, 1820 to date.

 

The old astronomical day which began at noon was abolished on Jan. 1, 1925, and since then the astronomical day has begun at midnight. Gradually this is reflected in the making of Ephemerides. Therefore it is important to verify whether the ephemeris one is using for any given year since around 1930 shows the planets' places at noon or midnight. This can be determined at a glance by noting the sidereal time on Jan. 1: if it is around 18h the ephemeris is for noon; if around 6h, it is for midnight; if neither of these, it is probably calculated for some longitude other than that of Greenwich.

 

Epicycle. A term employed by Ptolemy, in whose astronomical system the Earth was regarded as the centre, to indicate a small orbit around a central deferent (q.v.). He assumed that the orbits of all the other planets formed epicycles around the Earth's orbit. It was involved in an attempted solution of the phenomenon of retrograde motion. Assuming that the Sun pursues an orbit, the Earth's orbit is an epicycle, which while pursuing its own orbit is carried forward in the larger orbit of the Sun. The Moon's orbit is an epicycle upon the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. The Sun, which is never retrograde, was the only solar system body which, according to Ptolemy, did not have an epicycle.

 

Epoch. A point of time with reference to which other dates are calculated. Prenatal Epoch applies to a system of rectification in which the Moon's place ten lunar months previous to the birth moment becames the ascending or descending degree at the moment of birth. v. Rectification.

 

Equal Power, Signs of. v. Beholding Signs.

 

Equation of Time. (1) Astron. The difference between mean solar time and apparent solar time. The moment the Sun is exactly on the Midheaven of any place is apparent noon at that place; hence an apparent solar day is the interval between two consecutive passages of the Sun across the Midheaven, or the elapsed time from one apparent noon to the next. However, since the Sun - or more correctly speaking, the Earth - does not move at a uniform speed throughout its orbit, the length of the apparent day varies at different times of the year. To make possible the use of time-keeping mechanisms, there was adopted a standard fixed day of 24 hours, known as a mean day - the length of which is the average of all the apparent days of the year. The result is that mean noon is sometimes earlier and sometimes later than apparent noon. The difference between mean and apparent noon on any particular day, the Equation of Time, may amount to as much as sixteen minutes. (2) Astrol. It is generally considered that in a Figure erected for noon the Sun will be at the cusp of the Tenth House. This is approximately true, although at certain times of the year it will be two or three degrees removed, on one side or the other from the Midheaven. One sometimes hears the suggestion that the Figure should be erected by the Sun and not by the clock, which would involve the application of the Equation of Time as a correction of clock time. This is done when calculating the time of the rising of the Sun or other bodies. Its application to the erecting of the Figure, however, would be utterly unsound, for the time in which the birth is stated and the ephemerides which give the planets' places are both based on mean time. If the Figure were to be erected for apparent time, the birth moment would have to be corrected to apparent time, and the result would be the same. (3) It is unfortunate that this term is incorrectly applied by some authorities to the difference between mean and sidereal time, more properly termed the correction employed in reducing to sidereal time the elapsed mean time of a given birth moment before or after noon or midnight. (4) The term has frequently been incorrectly applied to the time equivalent of an Arc of Direction, in years, months and days - of which few points in Astrology have been more debated. The coordination of the 360° of the Equational circle and the 365¼-day year yields a mean value of 3m 56.33s per day, and a mean increment of either Right Ascension or Longitude of 59'8". Some authorities advocate an equation of 1° per year or 5' per month. Others advocate a method wherein the Arc of Direction is added to the R.A. of the Sun at birth - the number of days after birth at which the Sun attains this directional position, reduced to years at the rate of one day for a year or 2 hrs. for a month. Others divide the Arc of Direction by the Sun's mean motion per year (59'8"), the result converted into time at the rate of one degree for a year. (v. Directions.)

 

Equator. The circle that lies midway between the poles of the earth, dividing it into two hemispheres - North and South. Also the projection of the Earth's equator upon the celestial sphere - sometimes called the equinoctial circle.

 

The celestial equator has also been defined as "the continuation of the plane of the terrestrial equator without limit into celestial spaces."

 

Equinox. A point in the Earth's annual orbit around the Sun, at which the polar inclination is at right angles to a line drawn between the Earth and the Sun; in consequence of which the length of the day and the night are equal all over the earth. This occurs at two points, called respectively the Vernal Equinox, which the Earth passes on March 21 when it enters Aries, and the Autumnal Equinox, on September 22nd when it enters Libra. Astronomers have not yet charted the Sun's orbit or determined its plane, or the inclination of the orbit of the Earth to that of the Sun, but it is possible that when these have been determined, it will be found that the Equinoctial points are the Earth's Nodes, where the plane of the Earth's orbit intersects that of the Sun. Thus the Zodiac, measured from the Spring Equinox, will be shown to represent a fixed relationship of the Earth and Sun in an orbit around some remote galactic center. (v. Galaxy.) This will make the Equinoctial points in reference to the Sun's orbit, analogous to the Moon's Nodes in reference to the Earth's orbit.

 

The equinoxes are commonly defined as the moment wherein the Sun reaches the point at which the plane of the ecliptic intersects the plane of the equator.

 

Equinoctial Signs. Aries and Libra. v. Signs.

 

Era. Applied to numerous historical epochs, presumably starting on some specific date of constant reference, among them the following:

 

The Grecian Mundane Era............... Sept. 1, 5598 B.C.

The Civil Era of Constantinople....... Sept. 1, 5508 B.C.

The Alexandrian Era................... Aug. 29, 5502 B.C.

Ecclesiastical Era of Antioch......... Sept. 1, 5492 B.C.

The Julian Period..................... Jan.  1, 4713 B.C.

The Mundane Era....................... October  4008 B.C.

Jewish Mundane Era.................... October  3761 B.C.

Era of Abraham........................ Oct.  1, 2015 B.C.

Era of the Olympiads.................. July  1,  776 B.C.

Roman Era............................. Apr. 24,  753 B.C.

Era of Nabonassar..................... Feb. 26,  747 B.C.

Metonic Cycle......................... July 15,  432 B.C.

Syro-Macedonian, or Grecian, Era...... Sept. 1,  312 B.C.

Tyrian Era............................ Oct. 19,  125 B.C.

Sidonian Era.......................... October   110 B.C.

Caesarean Era of Antioch.............. Sept. 1,   48 B.C.

The Julian Year....................... Jan.  1,   45 B.C.

The Spanish Era....................... Jan.  1,   38 B.C.

Actian Era............................ Jan.  1,   30 B.C.

Augustan Era.......................... Feb. 14,   27 B.C.

The so-called Vulgar Christian Era.... Jan.  1,    1 A.D.

The Destruction of Jerusalem.......... Sept. 1,   69 A.D.

Era of the Maccabees.................. Nov. 24,  166 A.D.

Era of Diocletian..................... Sept.17,  284 A.D.

Era of Ascension...................... Nov. 12,  295 A.D.

Era of the Armenians.................. July  7,  552 A.D.

Mohammedan Era of the Hegira.......... July 16,  622 A.D.

Persian Era of Yezdegird.............. June 16,  632 A.D.

The Gregorian Year.................... Oct. 15, 1582 A.D.

Standard Time zones................... Nov. 18, 1883 A.D.

The Julian Day........................ Jan.  1, 1925 A.D.

 

Eros. (1) Greek God of Love, Son of Aphrodite. Equivalent of the Latin God Cupid. A divinity of fertility. In Orphism Eros was born of the cosmic egg produced by Night. (2) The 433d asteroid, discovered by DeWitt in 1898. Eros at times comes closer to the Earth than any heavenly body except the Moon. v. Hermes (3).

 

Erratics. Erratic Stars. A term applied by the ancients to the planets, in distinction to the Fixed Stars.

 

Esoteric. Secret knowledge not accessible to the uninitiated. When such information is published it ceases to be esoteric and becomes exoteric, which means that the facts have become the property of the rest of humanity. As employed by Leo, exoteric interpretations are those wherein a predicted event is considered to be inescapable, while esoteric interpretations are based upon the assumption that the developed individual is able to exercise self-determination and volition, and to render himself immune to the harmful effects of astrological influences by transmuting them into a source of power.

Essential Dignities. v. Dignities.

 

Eudemon. The good demon. A term anciently applied to the Eleventh House, indicating that it is productive of good, as the Twelfth House is of evil.

 

Exaltation. v. Dignity.

 

Executive Type. Referring to a quality of unyielding determination liberally possessed by those born when the Sun was in a Fixed Sign: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius. v. Sign.

 

Exoteric. The exposed, the visible. Antithesis of Esoteric. (q.v.)

 

Externalize. Said of the event which transpires when an astrological influence is incited to action by contact with a circumstance of environment. The thought is based upon the theory that astrological influences have to do with the mental and emotional conditioning that determines the nature of the individual's reaction to circumstances, but that they do not of themselves produce events.

 

Extra-sensory Perceptions. Commonly abbreviated, E.S.P. A phrase coined and defined by Dr. J. B. Rhine of Duke University and applicable to mental phenomena such as telepathy, clairaudience, clairvoyance, precognition and similar supernormal sense capacities. A capacity for receiving extra-sensory impressions is generally associated with a favorable Neptune accent.