The signs of the zodiac
Astrology bases its principles on scientific and astronomical and can be defined as an instrument of knowledge to help people to learn more about its quality, assuming that the planets of our solar system, orbital rhythms with their exercise of influences.
Western astrology originated in Mesopotamia in 3000 BC around and has been handed down through the ages by the Greeks and Romans.
The most important "document" old, come down to our day, is the Enuma Anu Emil, consisting of 70 tablets written around 900 BC, when they were explained the findings of correlations between celestial phenomena and events in the life of men.
The iconography Zodiac dates back to Egypt late: having recognized that a group of stars influenced on certain vital provisions, these shall be associated with a hieroglyph, choosing the type animal, or in general, the gesture that embodied or symbolized this activity. For example, corresponded to the constellation Aquarius where the Moon was full when he started the flood of the Nile.
The signs have gone so far to represent the animals (Aries, bull, crab for Cancer, Leo, Scorpio, Pisces), of human or fantasy characters (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Capricorn) or objects (Libra, Aquarius).
From antiquity until the eighteenth century, astrology was actually regarded as a science and not differed substantially from astronomy. Many essays were in fact also very knowledgeable of astrology, as Pythagoras, Thales and Newton.
The classical Western astrology is based, like that of his illustrious ancestors, the observation of the stars and the application of statistics, is organized around the Sun and gives specific character and quality to the planets. Develops according to the tropical zodiac: zodiac signs are an arbitrary division of the zodiacal belt of constellations through which pass the planets. They are images of the time, and / or arcs of ecliptic, counted from the point of Aries, and all having an amplitude equal to 30 ° of longitude. They are therefore a representation of the solar time, seasons and life cycles of nature.
Today signs and constellations are no longer, their connecting flight, due to the precession of the equinoxes.
Aries (March 21 - April 20)
Taurus (April 21 - May 21)
Gemini (May 22 - June 21)
Cancer (June 22 - July 22)
Leo (June 22 - July 22)
Virgo (August 22 - September 23)
Libra (September 24 - October 23)
Scorpio ( October 24 - November 22)
Sagittarius (November 23 - December 22)
Capricorn (December 23 - January 20)
Aquarius (January 21 - February 19)
Pisces (February 20- March 20)