Cosmic Cognates

Get cosmologically current without losing the plot. 

What are Cosmic Cognates?

Many people resonate with their tropical chart. Some think it’s rubbish – and have thrown all astrology out along with the tropical bathwater, as it were.

But the fact is, the “signs” of tropical astrology are 24° off from where the planets actually are in relation to the true constellations at any given moment in the actual sky. Tropical astrology doesn’t directly claim to even use the real sky, but many astrology users (and even many “arm chair astrologers”) have no idea.

To illustrate the problem: It is assumed that when an astrologer says “Your Moon is in Cancer” they mean the actual planetary body, the Moon, was traversing the constellation Cancer at the time of your birth. But that is not the case! Tropical astrology uses a purely symbolic zodiac. But unless pressed, this rather significant issue in mainstream astrology in the West is ignored by most tropical astrologers. (This gap between the tropical zodiac and the sky is due to the ongoing use of the zodiac from the Age of Aries, even though we have been in the Age of Pisces since the time of Christ. For more on the history of the cosmic gap between tropical and sidereal astrology, see our series Tropical Vacation: How Modern Astrology Drifted From the Stars.*)

Sidereal astrology (whether Vedic or Western sidereal) deals with the cosmologically current sky. It discusses planetary movements in relation to the actual constellations where they’re happening, now. But most people in the West resist it because of the cognitive and emotional dissonance it presents.

“You’re telling me all this time I thought I had a cursed Scorpio Moon and I actually have a sweet Libra Moon? No way! I’m definitely cursed!”

“But I’m so affable and inquisitive and I love to travel; there’s no way I’m not a Sagittarius Rising!” 

And so on. 

Keep in mind that ancient astrologers before the Greeks did know about precession. Back then, there was no difference between a constellation and the sign related to it. Aries was Aries. Scorpio was Scorpio. The stars were never meant to be dealt with “symbolically.” The stars are the stars. In fact, the whole point of astrology is to track the current relationship of the Earth to the stars. Literally. Moment by moment, season by season. But somewhere along the way, pieces of astrology’s ancient roots were lost, and an ersatz version of astrology became the dominant mode in the West. And today everyone is indelibly attached to a version of astrology that is purely symbolic. 

If the stars matter, we should use ’em, eh? If the sky is significant, we don’t want manmade versions of the stars skewing our concept of ourselves and our relationship to the Universe. We want the real deal. That’s where your Cosmic Cognates chart comes in. 

A Bridge Between Systems

Many astrologers who work both systems have observed consistent correlations between placements in the tropical chart and the sidereal – though these placements aren’t what you might expect. It takes a deeper lens on the chart to see why, for example, you might intensely resonate with your Leo Sun and Taurus Rising, even though in the true sky you do not have either of those placements. 

Cosmic Cognates provides you with a document that spells it all out in one place.

Rather than dismissing the resonance that many people feel with their tropical chart, this guide identifies the tropical chart’s sidereal counterparts: the signs, planets, houses, and configurations that express similar themes, but framed in a cosmologically current light.

For example, a tropical Pisces actually has an Aquarius Sun in sidereal time, but their strong resonance with Pisces themes is illustrated by a dreamy, woozy Neptune-Moon conjunction in their sidereal chart. Or, a Gemini Rising is actually a Taurus rising, but it turns out their sidereal Mercury is powerfully placed in its domicile in Gemini – hence the reason they long resonated with their Gemini Ascendant (and are perhaps loathe to “give it up” by switching to sidereal astrology).

Note: We do not recommend simply ordering your sidereal astrology report from any site you run into online. Sidereal astrology API is less robust than tropical since it is less common, and there are many sites out there that rely on automated chart calculations that serve up charts that are simply wrong. 

Flowing with Real Time

Cosmic Cognates translates your chart into an easy-to-read document you can store digitally or print and take notes on as you expand in your soul journey and get hip to sidereal time. 

Here’s the thing, sweeties

I’m gonna be a bit of a harsh auntie here and tell it they way we all need to hear it: Astrology isn’t about our personal preferences. Astrology’s ultimate purpose is to get our ego (our first house issues) into its proper role: the vehicle that facilitates us in taking on the current leg of our soul’s journey, the individuation of the Self. Therefore, softening our ego’s attachments to certain parts of our synthetic chart, and letting the actual sky have the final say, is a good way to let the Universe (or Source, Higher Power, God) speak to us via true cosmology, not a manmade version of it.

Cosmic Cognates smoothes the cognitive and emotional dissonance of transitioning from tropical to sidereal time, so we can all get on our way to flowing with the cosmological currents of the true sky we live under, today.