A binary star system is a system where two stars are gravitationally bound to each other and orbit around a common center of mass, essentially meaning they are “paired” stars that revolve around one another due to their mutual gravitational pull; the prefix “bi” indicates “two” in this context. Just what is the real cause behind the precession of the equinoxes and why did the ancients believe this cycle was so important? Walter Cruttenden asks this question in his latest book Lost Star of Myth and Time and comes to some provocative conclusions.

To the layman, the precession of the equinoxes is the observed motion of the night sky shifting backwards by a small amount every year. Of course, the night sky continuously shifts throughout the year as the Earth orbits around the Sun, but if one were to take a fixed point in time (like the Vernal Equinox, for instance) and take a snapshot of the sky on that day every year, one would notice the sky slowly shifting backwards with each progressing year. This is what is meant by the precession of the zodiac, or precessional movement. Astrologers would say we are in a different ‘age’ or zodiac sign depending on which constellations are visible in the sky on the Vernal Equinox of a particular year. This precessional movement of the sky amounts to about 50 arc seconds per year and takes about 24,000-26,000 years to complete a full cycle; the “great year” or “great world cycle” as it is often called.

Sir Isaac Newton was the first to put forth the idea that this precession is due to a wobbly motion of the Earth’s axis, and few scientists have challenged this assumption since Newton’s time. Cruttenden dares to ask the most basic question about this in his book bringing together a number of clues to form a hypothesis for precession being the result of the Sun moving in a binary orbit about a companion star. Could Cruttenden’s speculations really lead to data that could overturn the ideas of Newton – a man treated like a deity in the world of physics and astronomy? As we’ll see below, there’s actually a large body of evidence to support Cruttenden’s ideas.