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II. Scientific Grounds of Astrological Argument

Physically – or better, astronomically – we have in the above excerpt the detailed description of a reference frame and a related coordinate system. It is perhaps worth making the concept a little more precise, in order to be able to differentiate between reference frame and coordinate system. For the definition above seems to be in line with many definitions leading to an everlasting confusion between reference frame and coordinate system. And there is no reason nowadays to believe that Astrology could produce any other definition. Namely, a reference frame is a set of physical entities – bodies or parts thereof – allowing us to pass reproducible judgments on any part of space and its content. These reproducible judgments refer to positions, events, motions, shapes and such. On the other hand, a coordinate system is a triplet of numbers allowing one to specify the position of points in Space in a convenient way. In the example above we do recognize the angles only, of the spherical polar coordinates as referred to – and projected on – the local horizon on Earth as a reference frame (the nature of this projection is not important for the moment being). Consequently the above definition mixes in itself a definition of reference frame and a definition of coordinate system attached to it. It helps noticing once more, for a further reference, the fact that the Geometry of Space is understood to be Euclidean, and distances do not appear to play an important role, if any, in the astrological considerations: Astrology works based on the projection of celestial environment of an event on the Earth’s tangent plane of that event.

Thus Astrology has, from the very beginning, the touch of Science. Inasmuch as it is a Science, it should be the science of the reference frame itself, because the individual located in origin of reference frame is considered to be under the control of his birth moment all his life. Consequently, maintaining the spirit of Science, we would be entitled to infer that the way the reference frame evolves influences the evolution of the individual situated in its origin. Therefore the important thing about the reference frame destined to astrological use is not as much its geometrical form as it is its physical content. In fact, from among the determinations of the reference frame, it is this physical content that allegedly has influence all along the individual’s life. It is the moment to make precise the meaning of physical content of a reference frame: the assembly of bodies and fields in Space, accessible to description in that reference frame.

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