This is what I have been telling my friend Karl since the other day: sidereal astrology is nothing new. It's just that not many people are aware of it, hence the apparent chaos.
What most people know of is the tropical zodiac (yes, that is the one with 12 signs).If you considered yourself a Libra under the tropical zodiac last week, you're still a Libra under the same zodiac this week. It won't change unless you change from which zodiac (either tropical or sidereal) you base your sign on.
And you can't go comparing the two zodiacs as the tropical is fixed to the seasons, i.e., the orientation of the Earth relative to the solar system; whereas the sidereal is fixed to the constellations, i.e., the orientation of the Earth relative to the galaxy.
At any rate, the carnival created by the your-sign-isn't-your-sign-now article and the one on Ophiuchus (a.k.a. Serpentarius) has been amusing at best, and oddly catastrophic for many. I just find it surprising for many intelligent people to immediately accept something presented in a matter-of-fact way and be shaken without first digging for the facts and finding out more. It just so happened that I was aware of the sidereal zodiac that's why I wasn't fazed when Karl tried to goad me with this astrological fiasco.
The existence of two zodiacs is hardly news: they've been there for more than a millennia.
Anyway, get a grip people and just read on. This should pacify your outrage and provide the much-needed perspective on the issue at hand. You can breathe a little easier now.
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No, your zodiac hasn't changed.
Tattoo parlor owners must be salivating. An assertion in a Minneapolis Star Tribune article that our understanding of the zodiac is off by about a month - and that therefore people have been identifying themselves with the wrong sign - caught fire on the internet Thursday, and many folks are in an absolute panic on social media.
"If my zodiac symbol has been changed to a Libra, what am I supposed to do with my Scorpio tattoo?!?!," read one tweet Thursday.
Some vowed to get their tats removed. Others groaned about losing the sign with which they’ve identified themselves for years. The zodiac and related terms - including Ophiuchus, said to be a 13th and neglected sign - were trending Twitter topics much of Thursday.
But before astrology fans scrape the ink from their arms because they think they're now a Virgo instead of a Libra, they should consider this: If they adhered to the tropical zodiac - which, if they're a Westerner, they probably did – absolutely nothing has changed for them.
That's worth rephrasing: If you considered yourself a Cancer under the tropical zodiac last week, you're still a Cancer under the same zodiac this week.
That's because the tropical zodiac – which is fixed to seasons, and which Western astrology adheres to – differs from the sidereal zodiac – which is fixed to constellations and is followed more in the East, and is the type of zodiac to which the Star Tribune article ultimately refers.
Two zodiacs. That's nothing new.
"This story is born periodically as if someone has discovered some truth. It's not news," said Jeff Jawer, astrologer with Tarot.com.
The hubbub started with Sunday's Star Tribune article, which said the following: "The ancient Babylonians based zodiac signs on the constellation the sun was 'in' on the day a person was born. During the ensuing millenniums, the moon’s gravitational pull has made the Earth 'wobble' around its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars' alignment."
"When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it’s really not in Pisces," Parke Kunkle, a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society, told the Star Tribune.
"Indeed," the article continued, "most horoscope readers who consider themselves Pisces are actually Aquarians." The article also asserts Scorpio's window lasts only seven days, and that a 13th constellation, Ophiuchus, used to be counted between Scorpio and Sagittarius but was discarded by the Babylonians because they wanted 12 signs per year.
True enough, Jawer says, the sun doesn't align with constellations at the same time of year that it did millennia ago. But that’s irrelevant for the tropical zodiac, codified for Western astrology by Ptolemy in the second century, he says.
In the tropical zodiac, the start of Aries is fixed to one equinox, and Libra the other.
"When we look at the astrology used in the Western world, the seasonally based astrology has not changed, was never oriented to the constellations, and stands as … has been stated for two millenniums," Jawer said.
People who put stock in astrology can ask whether they should adhere to the tropical zodiac or the sidereal zodiac. Jawer argues for the tropical.
"Astrology is geocentric. It relates life on Earth to the Earth’s environment, and seasons are the most dramatic effect, which is why we use the tropical zodiac," he said.
Original article taken from CNN.
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