By now you probably have heard the story that you might not have the astrological sign you thought you did because of Earth’s gradual precession (or wobble), changing where constellations appear in the sky over time. Disappointed and sometimes hostile Internet comments along the lines of “I really liked that I was a Libra and was well balanced” and “I’m no Libra, I shall and will always remain a Scorpio!” are common. Confusion is also rampant, as different stories give different dates for the new signs, some saying the “new” signs only take effect if you were born after 2009, and a few even including the mysterious 13th sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus the Serpent-bearer.
The 12 signs of the zodiac might be different than you thought! There might be a new, 13th sign! And none of it affects your life! NASA photo
But the worst part of all this — the horror to which I titularly refer — is the fact that it’s any kind of big deal at all. Most of the news stories begin with the changed signs, elucidate a little about why they’re different, explain that your sign isn’t actually different because Vedic rituals or tropical astrology (or some such thing) takes the changes into account, and end with a tiny section on how most astronomers don’t take astrology seriously anyway. Such stories have it all backward.
Astrology doesn’t work. It’s bogus. There’s never been any evidence to show otherwise. It’s completely useless, except to the professional astrologers, who can earn quite a nice living making things up. That’s the number one issue here, and everything else takes a back seat.
Who cares what hoops astrologers jump through to show they’ve still got things under control? Just as I don’t expect the USS Enterprise’s possible schematics popping up in serious news sources, I didn’t expect a “shakeup” in the astrological world to register either. But, alas, some people are seriously devoted to this phony hobby, to the point where reading something on a website makes them question their own personality.
So my sign might be a different one, or it might not. Or maybe it would be, had I been born last year. I don’t care, and neither should the news. I trust that folks reading this on Astronomy.com will probably agree, but let me know in the comments section below if I’ve been too hard on astrology, or if the recent news has somehow changed your life.