LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Zodiac Signs: Moon Signs
built 502 days ago
These images of Zodiac Signs are from a children's book copyrighted 1903. According to the article, the word zodiac comes from the Greek word zogon which means animal. The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac are were used to mark the divisions of the heavenly circle in the sky. Nearly all the figures are of living creatures. Within this circle the sun, moon, and planets made their movements. The Chaldeans divided this great belt around the earth into twelve parts, according to the twelve months of the year, the sun being thirty days in passing through each part.
Source:
Zodiac signs are sections of the sky. From the earth's point of view, the Sun, Moon, and planets lie in a circle known in astronomy as the ecliptic plane. The 360 degrees of the circle of this plane are divided into 12 equal sections of 30 degrees. Each 30 degree section is a zodiac sign.
Source:
The planets in signs information that is being dispensed here is based on the western or tropical zodiac. The western astrological year begins around March 21 with the spring equinox. This is when the Sun enters Aries. All of the sign positions are based on this western concept. The tropical zodiac is used by most astrologers in the western world and is gaining in popularity elsewhere. The pages linked here will describe how the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn tend to behave as they move through each of the twelve signs of the zodiac.
Source:
The Chinese zodiac consists of twelve animals, rather than the solar signs used in the west. In the Chinese calendar each period lasts for a full cycle of the moon, from new to full. There are twelve complete lunar cycles in a Chinese zodiac year, but one animal symbolizes the entire year. According to their calendar, the Chinese complete a cycle every twelve years. So if you were born in the year of the rat, you would celebrate your zodiac birthday every twelve years, and your Chinese zodiac sign would be the rat. In the west your astrological sign appears once each year.
Source:
A full list of the Moon Signs of the Lunar Zodiac is given below. In modern constellations there are 20 Moon Signs. However two of these constellations: Sextans, the Sextant and Scutum, the Shield are relative recent asterisms. 18 Lunar Zodiac signs would have been seen by the Ancient Greeks, as recorded by Ptolemy.
Source:
Zodiac signs have been around for thousands of years, ever since the first astrologers began mapping the celestial heavens. The word Zodiac comes from the Greek for "circle of little animals" and refers to the patterns or configurations of the principal planets, the Moon, and the Sun as they move around the sky through the year.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Moon Signs