The Tropical Zodiac is Necessary for Human Design

Sidereal systems in Human Design make no sense

Before beginning this exposition, I feel it prudent to point out that this is my opinion on this topic. Yes, my opinion, my current belief at this time, the way I see and understand the world according to who I am right now. I have been studying this issue for a relatively short time, yet have seen many, many debates and arguments, endless backs-and-forths and I don’t really want to get into that. If you personally have a different experience, I completely accept that and I wish you the best wish it. I do want to be open to other ideas because I certainly have blind spots. So, if you don’t agree with me and wish to comment, I’m requesting that you do so with the intention of drawing my attention to some relevant fact that I may not be aware of. Again, I have seen many people say that sidereal resonates with them and they prefer it, which is completely fine by me…but I’m well aware that that exists, so there is no need to inform me further. My preference would be to have an intelligent, informed conversation about these subjects. My gratitudes to you.

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Perhaps you have heard people say that there are two, or even three, zodiacs, one called “tropical”, another “sidereal”, and yet another referred to as “true sidereal”. This is a very important issue. It is my belief that Human Design was meant specifically to be used with the tropical zodiac, and that using a sidereal or true sidereal system is illogical in Human Design. I will explain why, but first we need to understand what these terms even mean.

If you do not understand what “tropical” or “sidereal” means to the extent that you can clearly explain how each is determined, then I highly encourage you to get that understanding. If you can only repeat things you have heard from others, like “tropical is seasonal”, or “sidereal uses the actual sky”, then you have not truly understood the issue, so please keep reading and I hope to explain it to the best of my ability. It took me awhile to get my head around these concepts, so if you don’t understand just by reading this article, I encourage you to explore it further and use other resources. YouTube is especially good as you can easily find graphics that help you see what is happening.

True Sidereal

Most people would probably say that the zodiac is an arrangement of twelve constellations in the sky, i.e., the zodiac is twelve groups of stars that have names that may or may not accurately describe what the constellations look like.

Constellations are popularly assumed to be the zodiac, however, this is only the case in the true sidereal system. In the tropical and sidereal systems, the actual constellations do not correspond to the signs. (Please note that sidereal and true sidereal are very different, but unfortunately have similar names, so pay close attention. I will be precise in my usage.)

If you create a birth chart using a tropical or sidereal system, the horoscope will show 12 signs of 30 degrees each: the circle of the zodiac will be broken into twelve equal pieces.

However, the constellations named after the zodiacal signs are not equal in size. Virgo, for example, is 45 degrees, Scorpio is 7 degrees. Here is a table showing the size of the actual constellations

If you look closely, you will notice that there are 13 constellations here. The extra one is called Ophiuchus.¹ Without it, there would be an 18 degree gap between Scorpio and Sagittarius.

There is at least one person doing true sidereal astrology; you can find your birth chart using true sidereal here.

However, true sidereal is a not valid system to use with Human Design.

The reason is crystal clear:

The Voice specifically stated that hexagram 1 of the I Ching wheel corresponds to 13°15’00” of Scorpio. However, the constellation of Scorpio is only 7° in length. Therefore, in the true sidereal system, 13°15’00” of Scorpio does not exist, and therefore there can be no valid correspondence between the I Ching wheel and the constellations.

Tropical and Sidereal

What then is the difference between tropical and sidereal?

The zodiac is a circle that goes around the Earth.² A circle is infinite, and therefore the question, “Where does the circle start?”, has no correct answer.

This means we have to decide where the circle starts. We have to decide which points of the zodiac correspond to which points on the circle that the Sun makes around the Earth.

With the tropical zodiac, we decide the circle starts at the ascending equinox (the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere), and we call that point 0° Aries.

With the sidereal zodiac, we say that the circle starts at some arbitrary star (“sidereal” means “pertaining to the stars”). The word “ayanamsa” essentially means, “the place where the circle starts”. In the most common ayanamsa, called Lahiri ayanamsa, it is decided that the star Spica marks 0° Libra.

If you get a sidereal birth chart which has 12 equally sized signs, then it does not reflect “the actual sky”, since, as we saw above, the constellations are not 30° each. Some people say that sidereal is “astronomically correct”, but this is false, for the same reason.

Tropical is Necessary for Human Design

According to The Human Design System, “The Wheels used in the [bodygraph] have the traditional zodiacal configuration on the inside, the twelve signs of thirty degrees arc each.”³ The reference to thirty degrees arc each makes it even more clear that the true sidereal system is invalid in Human Design.

Further, on page 12, there is a diagram which shows the I Ching wheel on the outside and the zodiac on the inside. The diagram clearly says, “The Western Zodiac”.

The combination of the words “traditional” and “the Western zodiac” makes it clear that the Voice intended the tropical zodiac to be used, as this is indeed the traditional Western zodiac.

Additionally, Ra was asked to clarify this point, and made it clear that the tropical zodiac was the one intended by the Voice. I don’t remember exactly where I read this, but I will find it eventually, and will include the precise reference here when I do.

The above argument is simply an appeal to authority, but I believe there are deeper reasons that the tropical zodiac is necessary.

Fundamentally, the signs are patterns of qualities, that is, they are archetypes. If we say the signs are the constellations, we are saying that we get the archetypes from these arbitrary collections of stars, but this doesn’t make any sense.

Take a look at the stars of the Gemini constellation: one is 52 light-years from Earth, one is 34 light-years from Earth, one is 1200 (!!!) light-years from Earth, another is 380 light-years from Earth, etc. This is similar with all the zodiacal constellations. The idea that these arbitrary collection of stars determines archetypes here on Earth is one I find illogical at best.

Let us further consider the neutrino theory of Human Design, which says that neutrinos passing through objects, e.g., planets, pick up information, and then drop some of that information in us when they pass through us, thereby conditioning us.

This is possible at least for planets in the solar system, but neutrinos can’t pass through a constellation in a coherent manner, because the stars of that constellations are extremely spread out. Furthermore, neutrinos cannot travel more than the speed of light, so some neutrinos from “Gemini” would be 52 years old, some 380 years old, some 1200 years old. The idea that these vastly disparate stars could together condition us with certain patterns of qualities is absurd.⁴

But let’s consider the true source of the archetypes of the signs. It is clearly not the constellations. The source of the archetypes of the signs is the relationship between the Sun and the Earth. The Sun revolves around the Earth, making a large circle around the Earth.⁵ It is this circle that we are dividing into 12 equal divisions, which we call signs. It is this division of the circle into 12, with the ascending equinox being 0° Aries, that gives us the archetypes that we associate with the signs.

The tropical zodiac takes it’s starting point from the ascending (vernal) equinox. Thus, the tropical zodiac is defined by the relationship between the Sun and the Earth.

The sidereal zodiac takes it’s starting point from some arbitrary star, and thereby has nothing to do with the relationship between the Sun and the Earth.

The I Ching Wheel

Of course, Human Design doesn’t explicitly use the signs, it uses the I Ching wheel. However, this issue of signs is extremely important, since we use 13°15’00” of Scorpio to decide where to start the I Ching wheel.

I believe that it should be clear to everyone that the hexagrams of the I Ching wheel are not in the sky. There are no astronomical or physical structures in the sky that correspond to the hexagrams. There are not, never were, and never will be such things.

The I Ching wheel is a division of the circle that the Sun makes around the Earth into 64 equal portions, just as the zodiac is a division of that same circle into 12 equal portions. It is thus clear that the I Ching wheel derives its archetypal significance from the relationship between the Sun and the Earth.

Thus, the sidereal system is inadequate for Human Design because it relates the motion of the Sun to some arbitrary star, and doesn’t include the Earth in it’s calculations at all.

The tropical zodiac is necessary for Human Design because the tropical zodiac is a description of the relationship between the Sun and the Earth, and the foundation of Human Design is the use of the I Ching wheel to further understand this relationship.

Is it wrong to use (true) sidereal in Human Design?

As explained, I believe that the tropical zodiac is the only valid option for use in Human Design. I believe that using (true) sidereal will give meaningless results.

However, I have no interest in telling you or anybody else what they can or cannot do. I’ve clearly stated that this is what I believe, not what I know for an absolute certainty to be fact. The universe is vast and mysterious, so, while it is not my path, I do believe that for some people, perhaps the sidereal zodiac is in fact what they need on their path. It is possible, and I don’t know anything, really.

1. o-FEW-cuss

2. yes, astronomically this is more complex, because the Earth goes around the Sun, etc. but we are on the Earth, so we are going to consider this geocentrically, as if the Sun were going around the Earth, since that is how it appears to us.

3. p. 11-12

4. and this, of course, is another reason why true sidereal makes no sense in Human Design

5. again, I obviously know that Earth revolves around the Sun, but we are on Earth, so we are speaking from the perspective of those of us on the Earth