Admit it. You read your horoscope. If not on a regular basis, then at least when your sun sign presents itself to you, leaping out from your Facebook stream in a flashy, winking attempt to flag you down. “Pssst! Scorpio! Yeah, you! Listen, buckle down today. It’s gonna be a rough ride.”
If your horoscope is positive, you are more likely to believe it. If it’s not, you’re not. And that might be the extent of the zodiac in your life. A temporary salve, a fun little distraction that allows you a moment of self-reflection in a go-go-go world.
Or maybe it’s more. Maybe the zodiac taps into something positively primeval in us. Maybe—just maybe—there is something to this idea that the way the stars align themselves on the day we are born helps solidify our personalities. That the universe is the Ultimate Calendar, and that our birthdate represents a snapshot of the time-space continuum.
Hard to say.
Astrology is the theory that the position of the stars and planets has an affect on our daily lives. Because of that, our birthdate determines quite a bit of our personality. Because of that, the waltz these celestial bodies dance across the heavens provides us with both opportunities and obstacles.
Most folks who know about these things agree that the Babylonians were the first to develop this idea, some say as far back as 2500 B.C. Like most humans, they were likely trying to make sense of the world around them, to find order in the chaos. Like most humans, they looked up to do that.
When you think about it, it makes sense. There was a pronounced link in the second millennium B.C. between the season of pregnancy and the health of the child. A woman who became pregnant in August (in the northern hemisphere) was outside working much of the day, absorbing all that yummy sunshine and gobbling her fill of fresh fruit and veggies. A woman who became pregnant in January, however, was far more susceptible to illness and a deficiency in hormones due to seasonal shifts. No prenatal vitamins or central heat and air for that poor gal.
And the kids themselves! A kid born in the spring had a few lackadaisical months to grow hardy before the cruel winter began. That child could relax, take her time with all that growing-and-learning business. But those January-born kiddos must’ve been thick-skinned from the get-go. They had to be tough, those winter-borns.
Researchers believe these environmental influences most definitely the shaped personality of the kid. To our ancestors, the birthdate-personality connection was real. The obvious result? The zodiac.
The idea took. The Babylonian zodiac calendar, which originally had 13+ horoscopes signs (see below), seeped into other cultures. Egyptians adopted the idea. Egyptian decans were star clocks of sorts, depicting 36 constellations that rose and fell, each marking a new phase. Decans were associated with diseases and healings, and each new phase held positives and negatives for health. They have been traced as far back as 2100 B.C., appearing on coffins from around that time.
Indian cultures welcomed these theories, too. Hindu nakshatras divide the ecliptic into 27 or 28 sectors. Each sector is governed by a lord who is fated with forecasting the life path of individuals within that sector. Hindu astrologers believe that children should be given names that please their nakshatra. These calendars started appearing around the beginning of the last millennium B.C.
The Chinese zodiac is based on the lunar calendar and appoints one of twelve animals to guide the children of that year. Pottery crafted in China depicts the Chinese zodiac as early as 475 B.C.
The idea stayed. The Greeks and the Romans both ate this stuff up. In fact, Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, A.D. 90—A.D. 168, is the fella we can thank for our modern-day zodiac, known as the tropical zodiac by those who study this kind of thing.
But Ptolemy’s ideas were flawed. As we all know, things in space shift. The tropical zodiac doesn’t account for equinoxes, and now, all these many years later, the zodiac signs we know and love have no direct relationship with the zodiac constellations. Bummer.
So now we have a fight on our hands. Several fights, actually. Should we use the popular tropical zodiac, the one that flags us down on Facebook and screams at us from the pages of Seventeen magazine, or should we revert to the sidereal zodiac, the one more closely aligned with both the constellations and our long-forgotten Babylonian ancestors? Does the zodiac even apply to us anymore, what with all this fast food and air conditioning and 4-D ultrasounds and prenatal healthcare? Should we debunk it all and make ourselves a sandwich?
One thing is certain: the zodiac is here to stay, applicable or no. And they are fun, regardless of your belief in them. So hey, why not follow a few on Twitter? They range from individual sun signs to the whole shebang. And you can always believe just the positive ones.
Tropical 12-Sign Zodiac
Aries: March 21- April 19
Taurus: April 20—May 20
Gemini: May 21—June 20
Cancer: June 21—July 22
Leo: July 23—August 22
Virgo: August 23—September 22
Libra: September 23—October 22
Scorpio: October 23—November 21
Sagittarius: November 22—December 21
Capricorn: December 22—January 19
Aquarius: January 20—February 18
Pisces: February 19—March 20
Sidereal 13-Sign Zodiac
Aries: April 19—May 13
Taurus: May 14—June 19
Gemini: June 20—July 20
Cancer: July 21—August 9
Leo: August 10—September 15
Virgo: September 16—October 30
Libra: October 31—November 22
Scorpio: November 23—November 29
Ophiuchus: November 30—December 17
Sagittarius: December 18—January 18
Capricorn: January 19—February 15
Aquarius: February 16—March 11
Pisces: March 12—April 18
Kristin O’Donnell Tubb is the author of The 13th Sign (Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan January 2013) and Selling Hope. She can be found far too often on Facebook and Twitter. Oh, and she has a website, too: www.kristintubb.com.
Actually I find the above theory to be somewhat flawed, in that the concept of astrology first developed in areas of the world that, essentially, had summer all year round; unless the climatology was radically different back then.
What most people don’t understand is that astrology is not so much about the time of birth as the time of conception. If the planets can cause measurable tides in a teacup, clearly they can have an equally measurable effect on the body chemistry of a creature made of 85% water. This body chemistry is what programs the time of birth into the fetus. This is why the horoscopes of people born by C-section are never accurate: they have been “born” at an arbitrarily chosen time, rather than the time their physiology programmed them to be born.
The interesting thing about Ptolemy is that he is known for two seemingly very different things: the model of the heavens in the Almagest and his equally enormous work on astrology: the Tetrabiblos. The latter was by far his more famous work at the time, and until relatively recently, scholars were puzzled that he would write both. However, most of them had misinterpreted the nature of the model in the Almagest: another work of Ptolemy’s found recently, the Planetary Hypothesis, in which he describes the model, demonstrates that he thought of it as physical, rather than a mathematical device.
The important point is this: the Planetary Hypothesis uses a Stoic model of the heavens. The basic idea is that the heavens (as opposed to the stuff down here on Earth, which is composed of the four terrestrial Aristotelian elements, of course) are made of pneuma, which is a life-giving substance that can self-differentiate, so it can form the rotating nested spheres that make up the Ptolemaic model. But pneuma also exists down here as the substance that gives us life.
Furthermore, the ancients knew the size of their universe; well, they knew that it was much bigger than the Earth, which is really the important point. Using these two facts, you can see that the only ancient model of the heavens where astrology makes sense is the Stoic one. After all, it is entirely reasonable in this model that the vast amount of pneuma moving around up there has an influence on the small amounts within our world, whereas the Platonic and Aristotelian models, the heavens are just made of different stuff altogether (or in Plato’s case, live in an entirely different world).
People tend to forget how important the influence of Stoic philosophy has been over the years; it tends to get dropped behind the more significant ones (Plato, Aristotle, various Christians) and forgotten.
“If the planets can cause measurable tides in a teacup”
That’s a big if. I’m going to stick my neck out and say no-one has ever measured such a tide.
Furthermore, everyone within a hundred yards is exerting a greater tidal force on the fetus than Mars at its closest approach. Any tidal effect of the planets would be drowned in random noise.
Some say that the zodiak is much older than that. Lascaux cave paintings is believed to show how the stars are aligned.
I’ll be the first to admit that I do not read my horoscope. Ever. I do, however, listen to Weird Al’s song “Your Horoscope for Today.” Comedy gold, that.
Speaking of comedy, a comedian I saw on TV (I don’t remember his name, unfortunately) told a story about meeting a girl in a bar and listening to her tell him all about his own personality based on his birthdate. When he replied that her portrait of him was wildly inaccurate, she became indignant and insisted that the zodiac sign he claimed to have had wasn’t the real one. “Yeah… I was going to say that astrology is bullshit, but it’s more likely I don’t remember my own birthday.” Truer words, as they say.
The tropical zodiac doesn’t account for equinoxes, and now, all these many years later, the zodiac signs we know and love have no direct relationship with the zodiac constellations.
The equinoxes themselves have nothing to do with it. It’s precession that matters (sometimes called precession of the equinoxes because it makes the equinoxes move through the zodiac).
If you put this sign in your zodiac it will not work.
Ophiuchus is disinformation, period.
I’m reading a book about the influence the Greeks had on the modern world. What’s interesting is they added days to months and years to benefit elections. So one really wouldn’t know what was accurate or not. There are so many zodiacs out there. In addition to the modern or what I call Egyptian zodiac there is also the Native American based on the medicine wheel, the Mayans had their own zodiac and I’ve run across something I’ve never seen on Facebook. Can you tell me what zodiac this is:
January 01 – 09 ~ Dog January 10 – 24 ~ Mouse January 25 – 31 ~ Lion February 01 – 05 ~ Cat February 06 – 14 ~ Dove February 15 – 21 ~ Turtle February 22 – 28 ~ Panther March 01 – 12 ~ Monkey March 13 – 15 ~ Lion March 16 – 23 ~ Mouse March 24 – 31 ~ Cat April 01 – 03 ~ Dog April 04 – 14 ~ Panther April 15 – 26 ~ Mouse April 27 – 30 ~ Turtle May 01 – 13 ~ Monkey May 14 – 21 ~ Dove May 22 – 31 ~ Lion June 01 – 03 ~ Mouse June 04 – 14 ~ Turtle June 15 – 20 ~ Dog June 21 – 24 ~ Monkey June 25 – 30 ~ Cat July 01 – 09 ~ Mouse July 10 – 15 ~ Dog July 16 – 26 ~ Dove July 27 – 31 ~ Cat August 01 – 15 ~ Monkey August 16 – 25 ~ Mouse August 26 – 31 ~ Turtle September 01 – 14 ~ Dove September 15 – 27 ~ Cat September 28 – 30 ~ Dog October 01 – 15 ~ Monkey October 16 – 27 ~ Turtle October 28 – 31 ~ Panther November 01 – 16 ~ Lion November 17 – 30 ~ Cat December 01 – 16 ~ Dog December 17 – 25 ~ Monkey December 26 – 31 ~ Dove
Many years ago, I was in a library, the Jewish section, reading from volumes of ancient scripture. I read from the first six books of Genies, that do not make up the Christian bible. These told the story of, why and how the world(s) were made; how language came about and the diversity of such. Amongst these stories, they told of the zodiac, represented by godestes, there were thirteen, one of which, was supposedly an evil one, that one was represented by the Spider. It took the power of the other twelve signs, to overcome this entity, they then proceeded to erase her identity, by removing her astrological sign from history.
This is as much as I can remember. I have been back to the library, and guess what…those books are not there. I know what I read. Does anyone else have Amy idea as to what I read?
Re: Katrina Langshaw comment
The Ancient Greeks take on the subject here:
http://www.new-wisdom.org/cultural_history1/06-greece/minotaur.htm
i am a leo according to 12 zodiac signs and my character is also a leo except very little vary.what would be my character and future destinations and all according to the 13th zodiac.do they change.my dob-aug1,1998.why am i more leo than cancer according to 13th sign
Interesting comment by Katrina what you related may explain the different dates of the signs between these two sources TRO. COM and James vogh book the 13 zodiac , but the other story is it was put down unjustly ? the more you look the more divers it seems to become.
I post this comment as a person who has always gravitated towards astrology and is even consider myself as a little more knowledgeable on the topic then the average Joe..
Ive recently found myself questioning a lot of this we have been taught. In reference to this topic, the flat earth theory has some very interesting and convincing arguments. But one of my biggest questions against flatter theory is how does that affect astrology or vice versa. Because we’re not a “planet” orbiting infinite space with other “planets” then what are we talking about? lol
Like what is astrology if the Earth is flat? And if it’s a bunch of who ha why does it speak so personally to me because it does everything on my chart is pretty head, especially now that I’m older and have had a chance to actually live some life… There are things that have happened that my birth chart will point you and you can’t deny the correlation.