Althouse: "Can one man unilaterally change the zodiac?"

January 17, 2011

"Can one man unilaterally change the zodiac?"

An astronomer brings science to what isn't science but refers to some scientific facts that are susceptible to being set straight, and suddenly you might find yourself Ophiuchus, the Snake Annoyer.

33 comments:

chickelit said...: Our POTUS was born under the sign of Ayers the Rahm.

wv = quips; 1/17/11, 9:37 PM
Methadras said...: I'm still waiting for the crystal, magnet, pyramid, homeopathy, and audiophile idiots to be debunked once and for all. Astrology can wait.; 1/17/11, 9:41 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I see a living and breathing zodiac..

Crack bait.; 1/17/11, 9:41 PM
Quaestor said...: Astrology? Duh. Next vapid topic?

wv: accent - One would think the fund of cute nonsense words was inexhaustible, but noooo, Blogger just ran dry.; 1/17/11, 9:41 PM
Unknown said...: I don't think he changed it. He just got people's attention finally.

Considering it took two millennia, he must be descended from a long line of snake oil salesmen.

PS chickelit definitely wins the thread.; 1/17/11, 9:47 PM
Quaestor said...: There's probably some money to be made here. Just think of all those early sagittarians in Sedona running around in a blind panic now thet've been enlightened about Ophiuchus.

I have no doubt some New Age entrepreneur is at this moment cranking out all the requisite paraphernalia to soothe their disrupted chakras.; 1/17/11, 9:50 PM
John Burgess said...: @Quaestor: Or some cynical, hard-assed entrepreneur who recognizes an opportunity when he sees it. As for example, me.

You'll soon be able to purchase my new, revised Zodiac and astrological charts for 2011 (with supplement for Jan.-Feb. 2012), along with t-shirts, hoodies, beach towels, and various room decoration items.

My line of jewelry is being held up a bit as I dicker with my Indian suppliers over the price of gold and silver. Perhaps, though, I can find a way to make tin or German metal sexy again...; 1/17/11, 9:57 PM
Sprezzatura said...: What has Joan Quigley said about this controversy?; 1/17/11, 9:57 PM
Fred4Pres said...: No. The zodiac is complete BS, but I am sooooooo my sign. I do not want it to change.; 1/17/11, 9:58 PM
Methadras said...: Quaestor said...

I have no doubt some New Age entrepreneur is at this moment cranking out all the requisite paraphernalia to soothe their disrupted chakras.

Tony Robbins is already there with Deepak douchebag right behind.; 1/17/11, 9:59 PM
traditionalguy said...: So does this mean that the Stars Zodiac was always a handy peg to hang the hat of divination upon. The Torah states that the practice of divination is a death Penalty offense.; 1/17/11, 10:03 PM
john bord said...: So many like to set themselves up as little tin gods..... look at all the politicians....; 1/17/11, 10:07 PM
The Dude said...: Isn't that "snake blocker" in the modern vernacular?

WV: haffes - who really upset the haffes nots.; 1/17/11, 10:13 PM
Quaestor said...: Denigrate not the glittering tin bodies of my household gods! Some of them you'll recognize, Olympia, Old Bohemia... but Burgomeister? Der Pepper?; 1/17/11, 10:15 PM
JAL said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/17/11, 10:25 PM
JAL said...: From a friend of mine who was an astrologer (>10 years ago) but is no longer --

The news got out about the precession of the equinoxes, which means that zodiac signs have gradually moved backward over the past 2,000 years, meaning that many are actually the zodiac sign previous to the one they think they were. So Aries are Pisces, Pisces are Aquarians, Aquarians are really Capricorns, etc.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2011-01-15-horoscope-signs_N.htm

This is not new news and astrologers have known about this all along (I knew about it when I did astrology); it's just that general public did not. There is also supposedly a 13th sign.

There's been discussion Facebook, and my comments were that this is not news to astrologers, that I don't think it will affect the way most astrologers do charts, and that probably this 13th sign will not be incorporated by most astrologers, at least not now.

The tropical zodiac, uses in the West, uses the old zodiac that is outdated. The sidereal zodiac, which I think is used in India, does correlate more accurately to the precession and change of zodiac signs. However, Western astrologers justify the use of the tropical zodiac on the basis that this is the way the signs were when astrology arose and still carry that meaning/symbolism, and the tropical zodiac correlates to the seasonal changes by sign (at least in the northern hemisphere).

So, just FYI -- the astrologers already knew ... it just didn't fit the narrative I guess.

Fake but accurate.

;-); 1/17/11, 10:27 PM
Unknown said...: From what JAL says, they need to go to a lunar system. 13 months of 28 days.

Oh, boy, just like you know what.

WV "ovenas" What Catholic women used to offer when they thought they were pregnant.; 1/17/11, 10:31 PM
traditionalguy said...: If you assume that the movement of the Stars overhead does change anything, then you affirm a power is contained in and emanates from the burning gases that we call stars. If not, then you go by the idea of supernatural influences giving messages to trained deviners...and where the starlights in the sky have moved to over time becomes irrelevant.; 1/17/11, 10:54 PM
Uncle Pinky said...: "What do you do for a living, Uncle Pinky?"

"Oh, annoy snakes, mostly."

Were I able to choose a sign (and I don't see why I can't) that'd be the one.; 1/17/11, 11:20 PM
Gabriel Hanna said...: @tradguy: The Torah states that the practice of divination is a death Penalty offense.

But astrology doesn't count: when the Torah was compiled, astrology was cutting edge science. Nothing in Talmud or Torah against astrology, if it doesn't cross the line into idolatry.

Furthermore, Urim and Thummim, a kind of divination by lots, was used extensively by priests in the Old Testament. That didn't count as unlawful divination either.

As for Ophiuchis, 99.99% of the people who read horoscopes don't care what the bullshit justification is anymore than they wonder how the fortune cookie tells fortunes. Professional astrologers should be ashamed, if they are capable of feeling shame. But they've never known any more astronomy than they needed to gull the rubes.; 1/17/11, 11:30 PM
AllenS said...: You're wasting your time following the Astrology signs. I've been using Chinese fortune cookies, they're more accurate.; 1/18/11, 5:39 AM
Clyde said...: Don't annoy the snake!; 1/18/11, 6:42 AM
Unknown said...: Reader digest published an article in the 80 explaining that the earth rotation has been slower since 1964 so you sign is not that one the fraudster claim; 1/18/11, 7:03 AM
Unknown said...: Ophiucus?
Piton would be more coherent, most signs were enemies of Zeus ´lovers; 1/18/11, 7:05 AM
TML said...: Hey, this affects me! I don't want to be an "Oh! Fuck us!" That is how it's pronounced, right?; 1/18/11, 7:25 AM
Original Mike said...: That the ecliptic passes through Ophiuchus is the epitome of old news. Next we'll be "informed" that the sun rises in the east. Which, by the way, will be news to the New York Times.; 1/18/11, 8:00 AM
Original Mike said...: @TML: Pretty close, yeah.; 1/18/11, 8:00 AM
Anonymous said...: My friends who wrote about this on facebook were dismayed. They were also atheists. Stars good. God silly!; 1/18/11, 8:11 AM
Leland said...: But the important question is: Are Ophiuchus compatible with Sagitarius? Because if not, I'm screwed since I guess I'm both. Or was one and now the other. Um, how do you pronounce that word?; 1/18/11, 8:21 AM
Roman said...: "Astrology" seems like an excuse to separate gullible people from their money.; 1/18/11, 10:50 AM
Shanna said...: No. The zodiac is complete BS, but I am sooooooo my sign. I do not want it to change.

Pretty much : ) It’s all fake, so what does it matter if it’s accurate? A Scorpio I have been, and a Scorpio I remain. What is a Libra? I have no idea.; 1/18/11, 1:27 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Class factotum,

My friends who wrote about this on facebook were dismayed. They were also atheists.

No. They. Weren't.; 1/18/11, 6:20 PM
Duncan said...: I seem to remember the exact same sort of reconfiguring of the Zodiac 30 or 40 years ago. Didn't go anywhere then either.; 1/19/11, 10:24 AM