From an online article called "No, your zodiac sign 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.