Interesting thread, Jahg.

There are two other kinds of positions besides fixed, mutable and cardinal (also known as dual and moveable). The fixed signs represent the height of the season, as you said, while the moveable/cardinal signs are the start of the seasons, and the dual/mutable are the end of the seasons, when it is getting ready for change. In this context, the signs are all about the solar cycle. The zodiac seems to really express this tropical cycle, as it has four main points (two solstices, two eclipses), each with three phases like the fixed one you are talking about. It is like the anatomy of a circle (or an ellipse, actually).

The constellations are not connected to this solar cycle, and the star positions shift slowly in relationship to the tropical zodiac, creating a cycle of world ages. The Sun at spring equinox is always slightly backwards in the backdrop of stars from where it was the year before. This is called the Precession of the Equinoxes, and illustrates the discrepancy between the tropical and sidereal zodiacs. The tropical zodiac that most western astrologers use has nothing to do with stars. It's all about the seasons and the relationship of the Earth to the Sun.

I think that the question you pose about numerology is a very fruitful one. I love the way that the zodiac has so much depth to it, and it turns geometry into something qualitative. In my opinion, you can contemplate the zodiac and all its mathematical truths forever and continue to gain new insight.

DR