New Zodiac Sign, What's your new sign?

**~~Sahson~~** · 01-14-2011, 02:15 AM

I still think it's Bullshit, I'm not a Gemini, WTF...

without further adieu...

So, you've spent your whole life happily smug in your star sign. You're a fish! Swimming in two directions! You're intuitive, imaginative, unworldly! And then today's Web is aflame with the news: You are not a Pisces. You are an Aquarius. Your star sign has been wrong your whole life. All along, you've been a freaking water carrier. This is not cool.

According to Parke Kunkle, a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society, cool or not, it's written in the stars. Star signs were created by ancient Babylonians some 2,000 years ago by tracking where the sun was in the sky each month. However, the moon's gravitational pull has slowly moved the Earth in its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars' alignment, reports the Minnesota Star Tribune. Now, during what we think as the month of Pisces, the sun is actually in the sign of Aries.

The new dates would therefore be:

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11
Pisces: March 11-April 18
Aries: April 18-May 13
Taurus: May 13-June 21
Gemini: June 21-July 20
Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23-Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20

Is this the dawning of a new age of Aquarius? Well, Kunkle is an astronomer who is not too keen on the practice of astrology. When asked by telephone if the new star locations now require us all to switch our loyalty to a new sign, he demurred. "I can tell you what the science is, but I'm not going to tell you what your personality is based on the location of things."

Commentators have also responded to the initial article, saying the new location of the earth does not matter. One wrote, "Oh for heaven's sake (oops), how can people with Ph.D.s be so ignorant? Of course astrologers know about precession -- they've known since about 200 BC. Horoscopes always take it into account... Sheesh."

The commentator is correct that this is not new information. Live Science reported on the role of "precession" on astrology in 2007. Precession is the phenomenon of the moon causing the earth to "wobble" on its axis.

Other astrologists say the ancient system was merely a practice used as a helpful hint for diviners. Blogger Jamie on Darkstar Astrology writes, "It is the planets moving across the backdrop of the stars which influence our lives, not the planets moving through imagined 30 degree divisions on a piece of paper."

So all those hapless men and women who rushed out in college to get a scorpion tattooed on their back don't need to now rush to sign up for laser remover. If you're going to believe that all the people born on your birthday are imbued with certain traits similar to your own in some mystical, ancient manner, you might as well believe it does not matter where the stars are in the sky to begin with. On the flip side, if you've never liked your sign, here's your chance to switch.

Update: Well, strike that, you don't get to switch your sign. At least reader StarJack says so: "The stars are markers that drift, but our main points of reference are not directly the stars. They are the equinoxes (both spring and vernal) and the solstices which altogether make the four cardinal points of the zodiac which in turn determine the signs. The stars help us locate those points which define the SIGNS of the Zodiac which remain constant in relation to the equinox point. The CONSTELLATIONS do move about and we take that into consideration when locating planets."

Here are the corresponding changes, according to The Washington Post:

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11
Pisces: March 11-April 18
Aries: April 18-May 13
Taurus: May 13-June 21
Gemini: June 21-July 20
Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23-Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20

As if this weren't confusing enough, there's talk about adding a 13th sign to the mix -- Ophiuchus, which would span Nov. 29 - Dec. 17, leaving poor Scorpio with only a tiny, six-day window (Nov. 23 - Nov. 29).

**~~Beorn~~** · 01-14-2011, 02:20 AM

Still a Pisces. I still don't give a fuck. Call me down from the clouds when it really matters.

**Adalwolf** · 01-14-2011, 03:44 AM

Gemini > Taurus. So what, am I expecting a whole personality change now?

**~~Bloodeagle~~** · 01-14-2011, 03:45 AM

I am now a Pisces instead of an Aries!

Goodbye, cruel world, I will now go play in traffic.

**~~Sahson~~** · 01-14-2011, 04:40 AM

I just like to say, i don't believe in this bullshit, but I think it's kind of funny, that scropio is only a week long now.

**~~Dario Argento~~** · 01-14-2011, 05:14 AM

Bah, I used to think I'm Libra. Now it seems I'm virgo.

bunch of bullshit anyway. Libra is better.

**Comte Arnau** · 01-14-2011, 07:36 AM

Every two years there's a new article in the press saying that constellations are not placed where they were 2,000 years ago or that there should be a new sign in the wheel (Ophiucus, Cetus the Whale or whichever you like). I guess it's just one of those all-time extra fillings for those days there's not much to write about...

The zodiac signs are abstract representations, not real correspondences of the constellations. Otherwise not only would they be differently placed, but neither would the signs be of the same length in degrees/days. This is why it is a 'perfect' closed wheel. It is a matter of symbolism, not an astronomical changing event. So do not worry, Scorpions of the world: you are not Sags.