Not Western Astrology 101

I've been getting a lot into Indian Astrology as of late. The Indian system (sometimes referred to at this misnomer, "Vedic Astrology"...if we want to be pedantic) is supremely different than the Astrology most people here in the West think of when they hear that word. The Western system most of us have heard of (unless you've been living under a rock) uses the Tropical Zodiac, which is fixed to the seasons of the Northern Hemisphere; the first sign "Aries" begins at the Spring Equinox, which is the exact start of the new solar year. Not so in the Indian system, whereby the zodiac calendar directly follows the constellations at they appear in the sky as the stellar positioning shifts throughout the year as the Earth orbits the Sun. This is known as the sidereal zodiac. People use to the Western system might be a bit disoriented at first as they will probably find their sidereal sun sign to be one position off from what they're used to it being on the Tropical. And of course, Indian astrology goes magnitudes beyond a simple sun sign and the sort of dumb magazine-style horoscopes that get attached to that.

Anyway, I'm discovering some rather riveting (and sad) insights about myself as I work with my Indian birth chart. Of course the person delving into this system must believe in a spiritual realm and higher power of sorts and at least be open to the concept of reincarnation and karma. Otherwise, it's just going to be even more gobblygook than what you might get with Western astrology.