Precission of the equinoxes
The revolution of the earth's celestial pole around the pole of the ecliptic (see POLE, North, above) causes the equinoctial points (viz., the inter sections of equator and ecliptic, at hour XXIV, 360 degrees, and hour XII, 180 degrees) to shift their places among the stars, at the rate of I degree every 71% years, carrying with them all the circles of both the equator and the ecliptic systems, circles that during the "three score and ten years " of human life remain practically fixed and are so described and drawn in star-maps. Thus the equinoctial point called the "First point of Aries" (36oth degree) has advanced or "preceded" the stars of Aries far through the stars of Pisces (Map I, South). The Precession of the equinoxes with the signs of the zodiac is thus equivalent to the reces sion of the zodiacal constellations.
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