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"In the most general sense, the 'earth' was the ideal
plane laid through the ecliptic. The 'dry earth', in a
more specific sense, was the ideal plane going through
the celestial equator. The equator thus divided two halves of the zodiac which ran on the ecliptic, 23½o inclined to the equator, one half being 'dry land' (the northern band of the zodiac, reaching from the vernal to the autumnal equinox), the other representing the 'waters below' the equinoctial plane (the southern arc of the zodiac, reaching from the autumnal equinox, via the winter solstice, to the vernal equinox)." (Hamlet's Mill) |