Two truths in the same sky

How to read it

The planets orbit the Sun. Astrology orbits the Earth. This diagram shows both at once — and that is why it exists.

At the centre you see the solar system as it is: the Sun standing still, the planets in orbit, each moving at its real speed. But the zodiac — the twelve directions framing everything — does not belong to space. It belongs to the point of view. It is drawn around the Earth, because it is from Earth that we watch the sky.

Neither of the two views is wrong, and that is exactly the point. The solar system tells you where the planets are; astrology tells you where you see them from. This diagram is the demonstration: the geocentric reading built inside the heliocentric one, on the same drawing, at the same instant. Two truths in the same sky.

The diagram is forced into a simplification — circular orbits, bodies not to scale — but visually it holds, within a minimal margin.

While the animation plays, you can watch the planets change sign as they move — and, from time to time, appear to move backwards: that is retrograde motion, marked by the "R" next to the planet's name. It is not a real reversal: it is an effect of perspective, produced when Earth and another planet overtake each other along their orbits. With Mercury it is especially easy to spot.