THE RISING SIGN AND THE TWELVE HOUSES 49
plete the circle, it must travel 219 degrees in the remaining twelve hours. But as the diurnal rotation of the earth on its axis is uniform, the lack of uniformity in the motion noted above is due to its not being true diurnal motion. This condition is caused by the obliquity of the Ecliptic and the consequent unequal division of the latter by the planes separating the houses, these planes being those of the horizon and the meridian and four intermediate ones at 30 degree intervals. For this reason certain signs rise more slowly than others and are therefore called signs of Long Ascension, while their opposites are called signs of Short Ascension. It will be evident from the foregoing that most people are born under the signs of long ascension,—Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius in the Northern Hemisphere, and their opposites in the Southern Hemisphere.
