However, there’s still that problem of the “missing” 13th constellation. The result is that astrological star signs are out of sync with the night sky, and will remain so for the next 23,000 years, when once again Thuban will be the North Star, and the Sun’s apparent path through the sky will come back into sync with the basics of astrological thinking. Crucially, precession causes the plane of the ecliptic to shift slightly. As the position of the north celestial pole changes, so does the apparent location of the stars, constellations, and the equinox and solstice points. It’s the Sun and Moon’s gravitational influence on Earth’s equator that causes precession. However, when astrology and the zodiac was defined 3,000 years ago the Earth’s northern axis pointed at the star Thuban in the constellation of Draco, the dragon. The northern point of that spinning top-the Earth’s North Poles-currently points to Polaris, the North Star, in the constellation of Ursa Minor, the little bear. What is precession?Įarth spins like a spinning top, and because of that astrology’s “insights” now bears no relation to the position of the Sun against the backdrop of stars.Īs it spins like a top on its 23.5º tilt it precesses once every 25,800 years. Of course, that doesn’t matter a jot, but understanding why will give you a deeper understanding of the planet you live on. Your horoscope is probably wrong because the Sun probably isn’t in the sign of the zodiac when astrology says it is. Ophiuchus: November 29–December 17 ( not an astrological sign of the zodiac.Scorpio: November 23–November 29 (just a week!).Virgo: September 16–October 30 (45 days!).This is when the Sun is actually in the constellations-so your real “star sign”-with some overlap between astrology and overlap, but plenty of surprises: The Sun’s actual position in the sky (correct)
Here’s where and when astrologers pretend the Sun is in the sky, thereby defining what most people think their birth star sign is: Here’s what astrology says happens in the night sky, which are the basis of its line-of-sight “insights” into the moods and fortunes of humans: The Sun’s position in the sky according to astrology (wrong) Sadly, as well as ignoring Ophiuchus, the dates assigned to star signs by astrologers are wrong. There are 12 signs of the zodiac according to Western astrology-which literally means the “circle of animals”-but 13 constellations that the Sun travels through each year:Īries, Taurus, Gemini (where the Sun is presently), Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Ophiuchus, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. It was merged into Sagittarius and Scorpio. The Babylonians divided the ecliptic-the apparent path of the Sun through the sky-into twelve 30° sectors and assigned each one equally to one of the twelve constellations or “signs” that intersected it.ġ3 was considered an unlucky number, so one of the constellations was dropped from the mythology-the massive constellation of Ophiuchus. It’s a belt of “animal” constellations across the sky either side of the ecliptic where the Sun (and the planets and the Moon) appear to move through.Īncient Babylonians, and many other civilizations before them, observed what the Sun was apparently doing, but unfortunately for us they hugely over-simplified what they saw. The result? Not only your horoscope, but your star sign-as meaningless as that is-is completely wrong.
They’re best completely ignored.īut let’s not be any more harsh on Western astrology than we need to be. If you want to annoy an astronomer, call them an astrologer. Then you can go find Ophiuchus in your night sky tonight and wax lyrical about the wonders of precession and the beauty of zodiacal light.
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