I'm coming in very late to this discussion...after it's finished, actually..., and offer my analogies. Lately life has called me elsewhere. But I can add a few notes about Ernst Wilhelm, the author of "The Mystery of the Zodiac."

Ernst Wilhelm's history as an astrologer is interesting. In his own words:

"...I started out studying Western astrology and in a short while felt very confident and began reading horoscopes until one day I was asked specific questions by a client that I could just not answer. This sent me into a new frenzy of study that only served to cause me physical nausea every time I looked at a horoscope... After three years of study with the hope of becoming an astrologer, now I could not even look at charts without becoming ill..."

Ernst's next step was to check into an ashram where he later began his study of Jyotish. He was content for some years as a Jyotish astrologer until through his reading he decided that the Tropical zodiac must be the correct zodiac to use for astrology. This decision was based on an incomplete understanding of the texts he consulted.

At the time Ernst wrote "The Mystery of the Zodiac," I'm quite sure he had not read the current Hellenistic and Medieval translations that are now available. He really had little or no background in the western tradition, and had used two or three older Indian texts to reach his conclusions about the zodiac. (I understand how he reached his conclusions, but explaining that would take a long article.)

My sense is that of a man who can become extremely fixed in his opinions, but who doesn't have the academic training to support clear, logical thinking and true scientific investigation.

However, Ernst wrote four Jyotish books earlier in his career, all of them quite good. His book on the planets, Graha Sutras, could be considered a classic. Unfortunately, all four books are out of print, but two of them can be downloaded from his web site. I don't know if he has stayed with the Tropical zodiac while using Indian astrological techniques. His approach is unique only to himself, and hasn't convinced other Jyotish astrologers.

Therese

Good afternoon,

Wilhelm Th. Wulff, 1893 - 1984, one of the best German 20th century astrologers, forced to work as 'court astrologer' for the SS from 1941 to 1945 (see translation of his autobiographical book at this forum), applied Indian astrology intensively and translated Viraha Mihira's classic book Brihat Jataka on natal astrology into German.

Wulff used a tropical zodiac for all Indian techniques. Had Wulff's analyses and predictions been frequently inaccurate, he might well have perished in a concentration camp.

The introduction by the translator into English, N. Chidambaram Iyer, lists the use of various 'sidereal' zodiacs as first of the four most important sources of erroneous predictions by Indian astrologers, the other three being inaccurate ephemerides, inaccurate published tables of the rising times of signs and inaccurate tables published for major cities. Iyer also demonstrates the differences in precession arcs from one major city to the next used in the latter. Presumably these things have improved in India since the 1920s.

Best regards,

lihin

Good day,

Another leading 20th century German astrologer, Erich Carl K?hr, 1899 - 1951, refers explicitly in his excellent work Berechnung der Ereigniszeiten (Calculation of the Event Times), 388 pages, published 1936 in Vienna, to Wilhelm Wulff's translation of Brihat Jataka.

K?hr also applied some Indian techniques, e. g. noviens, using a tropical zodiac exclusively.

Best regards,

lihin

A discussion on the use of the tropical zodiac in Indian astrology would be better suited to the Indian forum than to this sidereal one.