mch

THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC I23
determine the exact positions of the sun, moon and planets at all
times.
This concept of a new astrology first came to my mind in 1965
in Tahiti, where everything is so much simpler than anywhere
else in this world. The western part of the island is ringed by a
good road. It's about 80 miles long and it takes about three
unhurried hours to drive its whole length before arriving back at
the point where you started, like a planet in the zodiac. On
Tahiti, except in Papeete, where the solid middle class Hves,
there are no streets and houses have no numbers. One lives at
**kilometer 13" or 'Tcilometer 17" and these indications are enough
to find everybody. It was at the beach of Moorea, an island 12
miles west of Tahiti, while I was contemplating the incredibly
beautiful display of stars at night that I got the idea to reconstruct
astrology, making the zodiac the dial of the big celestial
clock and using the sun, the moon, and the planets as the hands
for seconds, minutes, and hours.
The stars would have their permanent home, say, at 264° or
288° longitude, where anybody could find them at any time
when he wants to, which is not quite possible today with even
the astronomical zodiac, which displaces itself every year by 50
seconds of arc, and not possible at aU with the astrological zodiac,
which got stuck at the time of Babylon and has not moved
since.
After I had decided to use the stars as mileposts, all that was
left to be done was to make small groups of them at equal distances
with easily recognizable configurations. Like any astrologer
worth his salt, I used a computer and in no time at all I had
the results. The best geometrical figure for grouping nearby stars
is
is
the triangle and the best solution to have them divided evenly
to use thirteen irregular triangles. At the same time, the computer,
which never does things halfway, gave me all the celestial
co-ordinates for each of the thirty-nine stars chosen to form these
thirteen groups. The only thing I have not been able to find are
the ancient names for all the stars in the thirteen new signs of
the zodiac, but I managed to establish a sort of road map showing
the triangles, their names, addresses, and the month when
the sun rises in them in the morning.
I think that the new zodiac that I propose is one that was used