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Age of Ophiuchus
 Mary Beth Enggren
Is it the dawning of the Age of Ophiuchus? Perhaps, depending on one's point of view.
Millions of individuals read the morning newspaper to see what their horoscope predicts for the day. Ask average citizens the exact amount of the national debt, and they may or may not know the answer. Ask them for their astrological signs, however, and the majority of them will respond with the generic sign under which they were born such as Pisces or Virgo – though few would admit to being born under Ophiuchus. Some individuals even know the relationship of the moon, sun, and other constellations to their sign.
A two-thousand-year-old debate between astronomers and astrologists is to blame for the current confusion regarding astrological signs. Babylonian astrologists dropped Ophiuchus (the snake holder) in order to create a twelve-step Zodiac. Thus began the debate between astrologists who liked the even-numbered Zodiac and the astronomers who argued that the signs were no longer correctly aligned with the stars.
This initial feud is further fueled by the knowledge that the Earth does not maintain a steady rotation. It wobbles on its axis, is affected by the gravitational pull of the moon, and generally does not behave in a neat and orderly fashion, causing its alignment with the constellations to change.
In order to correct this error, some astronomers suggest that Ophiuchus should be returned to his rightful place in the Zodiac, and that the dates for all of the signs should be changed to reflect the true alignment of the stars.
According to the "new” Zodiac, the following dates now correspond to their correct astrological signs:
Capricorn: January 20 – February 16
Aquarius: February 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 – August 10
Leo: August 10 – September 16
Virgo: September 16 – October 30
Libra: October 30 – November 23
Scorpio: November 23 – November 29
Ophiuchus: November 29 – December 17
Sagittarius: December 17 – January 20
Of course, the "new” Zodiac does not bring resolution to the debate. However, it does provide an interesting answer to the question of what sign one was born under – especially for those now born under Ophiuchus.
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