The sky of the Ancients

What is the celestial sphere? When watching the sky at night, it is easy to imagine a huge dome, painted with planets and stars. Since ancient times, astronomers have calculated planetary and stellar positions on an imaginary sphere – the so-named celestial sphere. The fixed stars were seen to be attached to the furthest sphere, while each planet (from the Greek meaning 'wandering star'), circled the Earth in its own heavenly sphere.

Seventeenth century image depicting the regulation of days, seasons and years by astrological forces.
From: The All-Wise Doorkeeper, Musaeum Hermeticum, 1677.

Ecliptic

Imagine one of these representations of the solar system with the Sun in the middle, and the planets revolving around it. All the planets are located in more or less the same plane. Roughly speaking, this is the plane of the ecliptic.

More precisely, the plane of the ecliptic is not determined by all the planets, but by the specific relationship between the Sun and the Earth. Imagine the Sun, and the Earth revolving around it. The Earth's orbit around the Sun determines a plane – this is the plane of the ecliptic.

Seen from the Earth, the ecliptic is the path traced by the Sun across the sky. Seen from the Sun, the path of the Earth determines a plane. You can easily figure out that, seen from the Earth, the path of the Sun determines exactly the same plane. This is the common definition of the ecliptic: the path of the Sun as seen from the Earth.

The ecliptic is the apparent path of the Sun on the celestial sphere.

The ecliptic is a great circle whose plane passes right through the centre of the Earth, and divides the celestial sphere into two.

Zodiac and ecliptic

Having understood the ecliptic, you can easily understand the astronomical definition of the zodiac. The ecliptic is the apparent path of the Sun on the celestial sphere. The zodiac is made of 12 constellations which are located along this path. It is a band, about 18 degrees wide, with the ecliptic as its central line.

As we saw when introducing the ecliptic, the planets all revolve around the Sun in more or less the same plane. Consequently, from the Earth, the planets are all seen moving within the band of the zodiac. (There is one exception: Pluto, whose orbit's inclination on the ecliptic is more than 17 degrees. Because of this irregular orbit, Pluto is sometimes within, sometimes without the zodiacal band.)

Notice that astrological charts do not represent the band of the zodiac but just a circle. This means that in reality, the zodiac of astrological charts is a representation of the ecliptic.

Ecliptic, the magic circle

Esoterically, the Sun stands for the Spirit. The celestial sphere is our astral environment, the worlds of astral consciousness in the widest meaning of the term. The ecliptic, path of the Sun on the celestial sphere, is where they meet – astrality permeated by Spirit. Because the primary purpose of human beings is to discover the Spirit within their consciousness, the ecliptic symbolizes the goal, the achievement of the human mission – it is the circle of enlightenment.

Notice that our ecliptic is not (exactly) the same as the ecliptic of Mars or that of Venus. In our ecliptic, there is something specifically human. In esoteric terms, this points to spiritual forces which are specifically associated with the human life wave, bringing guidance and fostering growth.

Since time immemorial, human beings have received inspiration from the starry sky. Esoterically speaking, this is to be related to forces of consciousness which emanate from the stars and feed the Earth from all sides. As your third eye awakens, tuning into stars becomes a completely different experience. You start to consciously perceive and receive the soul forces which come from the stars. Stargazing becomes an extraordinarily rich experience.

Then you can appreciate that the ecliptic definitely has a special flavour of consciousness attached to itself. Tuning into the area of the ecliptic is not the same as tuning into any star. There is an Ego (Spirit, or Higher Self) quality in the ecliptic which is unique among the infinity of the celestial sphere.

When stargazing, learn to discern the stars which are on the ecliptic or very close to it. Then, to locate the ecliptic, all you have to do is to draw an imaginary line between them. Tune in and compare if this line brings different feelings, compared to the rest of the celestial sphere.

Also, always remember that when you contemplate a chart, the zodiac circle on which the planets are placed is none but a symbolic representation of the ecliptic. The more you can establish intuitive connections between charts on screen/paper and your experiences of tuning into the ecliptic at night, the closer you come to the esoteric treasure which is behind astrology.