A PHILOSOPHIC ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ASTROLOGY 103
solstice on the 21st of December it is in the corresponding degree, 23 degrees 27 minutes south declination. Mars, Mercury and the Moon reach declinations 27 degrees north, and on rare occasions Venus attains 28 degrees, but the other planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, have approximately the same declination as the Sun.
Astronomy teaches that the declination of the Sun is due to the inclination of the earth’s axis.
Degree:
A degree is the 360th part of a circle. There are 30 degrees in each of the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and the motion of the planets through these signs is stated in degrees and minutes of longitude, commencing with the first degree of Aries.
The Sun’s path is called the ecliptic, and is taken as the standard line of celestial motion so far as our solar system is concerned. The planets zigzag along the ecliptic sometimes a little to the north of the Sun’s path, at other times a little to the south. The distance of a planet north or south of the Sun’s path is called Latitude, and is also measured in terms of degrees and minutes.
For an explanation of degrees of declination, see ‘declination,’ and for the use of degrees to measure Right Ascension, see ‘Midheaven.’
The foregoing explanations embody the use of the degree as a unit of measurement to fix the position of the planets on the celestial sphere containing the fixed
