Your Zodiac Sign is Wrong (or is it?)

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Viking-Sensei
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Your Zodiac Sign is Wrong (or is it?)

Post by Viking-Sensei »

There's an interesting bit of fluff floating around on Twitter right now, thought I'd bring it to the board and see if I can water it into a tree of full on homicidal rage. Apparently, the zodiac we've been using since... well, ever... is wrong, and has been for some time. The ancient Babylonians (no relation to Miss Jones) neglected to calculate for the moon's pull on the Earth slowly screwing around our wobble, which means that (according to some people, anyway) the Zodiac signs are all about a month off, and we've picked up a 13th sign that we didn't have before.

Time actually indulged the news story a bit, and gave an overview on what the changes should be here, but essentially the signs are supposed to be dictated by where the sun is when you're born, not what day or month it is, and that we've failed to do our due dilligance to keep up with the occasionally changing stars since the system was put into place. Also, it doesn't help that the Babylonians (no relation) jettisoned the 13th Sign that made the system work, Ophiuchus, in favor of having the nicely numbered 12 that we know of today. Here's the revised list, copypasta'd from Time's article:


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. 23-29.
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17.
Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.
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Re: Your Zodiac Sign is Wrong (or is it?)

Post by Imp-Chan »

So that would put my birthday, July 31, somewhere between a Leo on the existing system and a Cancer on the older system?

Reading the descriptions, that seems about right... but then, the descriptions are terribly generic, so it's almost bound to.

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Re: Your Zodiac Sign is Wrong (or is it?)

Post by Drannin »

So... applying science to ancient mysticism? I dunno...
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Re: Your Zodiac Sign is Wrong (or is it?)

Post by Viking-Sensei »

Technically, I think it's applying science to ancient science. It wasn't mystical until it was proven probably impossible and people kept believing in it anyway.
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Re: Your Zodiac Sign is Wrong (or is it?)

Post by Imp-Chan »

Viking-Sensei wrote:Technically, I think it's applying science to ancient science. It wasn't mystical until it was proven probably impossible and people kept believing in it anyway.
That was almost word for word what I was going to say.

I don't particularly believe in the zodiacs or have more than a passing knowledge of them, but I feel like I should respect that a heck of a lot of research and mathematics went into their origins. Just 'cause we forgot how to do math for several centuries in the meantime and have since disproven the theories, doesn't make it any less originally science.

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Re: Your Zodiac Sign is Wrong (or is it?)

Post by davester65 »

Viking-Sensei wrote:Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23.
Scorpio: Nov. 23-29.
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17.
Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.
Okay, so I'm a Libra now? I've been a Sagittarius all my life. No, I don't follow my horoscope, but still this is weird. Kind of like finding out Pluto is no longer considered a planet.
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Re: Your Zodiac Sign is Wrong (or is it?)

Post by Graybeard »

Personally, I'm a don't-give-a-rat's-assius. The boundaries of the constellation have been changed by this bit of news, but it's still my sign.
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Re: Your Zodiac Sign is Wrong (or is it?)

Post by Viking-Sensei »

Ahem... Pluto is no longer a planet. Or never was. Or something.
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Re: Your Zodiac Sign is Wrong (or is it?)

Post by davester65 »

Viking-Sensei wrote:Ahem... Pluto is no longer a planet. Or never was. Or something.
That'll only last until the Fungi of Yuggoth find out. :lol:
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Re: Your Zodiac Sign is Wrong (or is it?)

Post by Alessa »

I don't know which side the ancient Babylonians would have been on, but there are apparently a ton of astrologers who will "debunk" this idea. this is an example of one ranting about how that theory is incorrect lol if anyone is interested hehe :)
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