Should we be using the sidereal zodiac?

Recently a friend mentioned that he was having a crisis of faith about the use of the tropical versus sidereal zodiac in Western astrology. He was dismayed that the vast majority of tropical astrologers had predicted a win for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, but Trump unexpectedly (according to Western tropical astrology techniques) won. He was also impressed that the sidereal astrologer Ken Bowser accurately predicted Trump’s victory using the sidereal zodiac and had a track record of such accurate predictions.

I grew up learning Western tropical astrology and its techniques. When I started learning traditonal astrology in the 1970s, I was puzzled by the concept of essential dignities in the tropical zodiac. Because the zodiac was originally sidereal, based on the actual positions of the stars in the heavens, I could not understand how a section of the sky, in which a planet is dignified, could move with precession over the course of centuries. Because of precssion, a planet that is dignified in a tropical chart can shift to being debilitated in a sidereal chart, and vice versa.

The shift from the sidereal zodiac to the tropical zodiac appears to be due to the popularity of Claudius Ptolemy’s writings in the 2nd century CE. Prior to Ptolemy, astrologers used observation of the heavens to determine the positions of planets in the sky. By the time astrology reached Europe, the tropical zodiac had by and large replaced with original use of the sidereal zodiac for interpreting charts.

Several years ago Alan Annand sent me a review copy of his book on mutual receptions. He writes from a sidereal point of view. The book was extremely well done, but for my own reasons I was left confused because many of the mutual receptions he discussed failed to be so in the tropical zodiac in which I was used to working. I was unable to reconcile the discrepancy. Around the same time I happened to be reading something by the scholarly astrologer Martin Gansten and noticed that he uses the sidereal zodiac (Krishnamurti ayanamsa) instead of the tropical one.

This week I happened to watch a video by AstroLab about the astrology of the Spanish tennis sensation Carlos Alcaraz in which the author mentions that he contacted the mother of Carlos who responded in an email that he was born around 3 AM (“Carlitos nació sobre las 3 de la mañana”). With this information we are able to cast a birth chart (May 5, 2003, Murcia, Spain) with a fairly accurate Ascendant.

The sidereal chart of Carlos Alcaraz appears much more descriptive of this young man’s athletic talent and career than the tropical chart. Take a look:

TROPICAL

Note that the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars are all peregrine in the traditional chart. The Almuten of the chart is Venus, which is peregrine and Rx. Using traditional techniques, we find his professional class to be “artisan” as signified by Venus.

SIDEREAL

Note that Mars, Venus, the Sun, the Moon, and Jupiter are all exalted in the sidereal chart! The Almuten of the sidereal chart is Mars which is exalted and conjunct the Capricorn Ascendant and also ruler of his Scorpio MC. Using traditional techniques, we find his professional class to be “warrior” as signified by Mars.

How do we explain that his natal planets are exalted in the sidereal chart but peregrine in the tropical chart? The exaltations make more sense in the context of his illustrious career as such a young age.