The thirteenth sign of the zodiac

And he became the hero of the news again. Ophiuchus, supposedly the missing sign of the zodiac. This time, NASA is behind the astrological revolution. Apparently!

 Watches are handed out in Moscow on Red Square! - Such interesting information was given in the unforgettable cabaret “Radio Yerevan” from the times of the previous regime. Then minor amendments followed: Not on Red Square, but on Nevsky Prospekt. Not watches, but bicycles. They don't give, they steal... And now we are dealing with something similar.Wrong zodiac!

During the full moon and lunar eclipse in September, sensational news swept through the media with the force of a hurricane: the American space agency NASA announced that everything we know about the signs of the zodiac is no longer true. That's why we need to redefine the sign we were born into. According to this shocking information, new conclusions are needed, since the current star system is very different from how it looked several thousand years ago, when the zodiac was formed. Accordingly, modern astrologers use the wrong signs of the zodiac. This environment is in crisis and the hair is torn from the head! Phew ... And now we take a deep breath and slowly explain everything.

First, NASA is a spaceflight technology agency. Yes, some topics in the field of astrophysics and astronomy are interesting to scientists, but in astrology they do not know. Moreover, this shocking news cannot be found on the main pages of said institution. It turned out, however, that something was wrong, because NASA in the children's section gave a little curiosity about the thirteenth constellation on the ecliptic, i.e. about Ophiuchus. And the fact that both the appearance of the constellations and their location have changed since ancient times. But there is no way we can see a revolution in relation to the zodiac there. The blame for the confusion, unfortunately, must be placed on the tabloid media, which have blown the topic to enormous proportions.

 Heated cutlets

The theme of the alleged revolution has been rolled out more than once, so this news can be safely attributed to a series of nonsense that from time to time returns to the tabloids. Journalists, and, surprisingly, astronomers as well, do not particularly try to study the topic more closely. Instead, they use the opportunity to take advantage of astrology and astrologers.

Let's approach the topic in detail and explain the most important thing: the signs of the zodiac and the constellations are completely different things! This error is due to a lack of knowledge and prejudice. When you look at the night sky, you can see clusters of stars called constellations. The constellation is not a strict astronomical concept. This is the legacy of antiquity, mythology and the spiritual tradition of mankind.

A few hundred years before our era, the Babylonians established their names and locations, and the ancient Greeks gave them their final form. The most famous astronomer and astrologer of antiquity, Claudius Ptolemy, designated 48 constellations. Their modern systematics is due to the decision of the International Astronomical Union, which in 1930 identified 88 constellations.

Their boundaries are purely arbitrary and usually follow from tradition. Currently, their position and boundaries are precisely defined, which is due to the need to scale astronomical instruments and telescopes. Of course, it is worth knowing that the location of the stars in the sky is not constant. Since ancient times, the shapes of the constellations have slowly changed. What about the unlucky zodiac signs? Well, they're not constellations. The zodiac is a belt on the celestial sphere associated with the ecliptic, that is, a section of the sky in the form of a ring 16º wide, along which the sun, moon and planets wander.

 elegant twelve

When the Babylonians determined the division of the sky, taking into account the annual journey of the Sun along the ecliptic, they divided this belt according to the conventional number of synodic lunar cycles, the year of which is equal to twelve plus one incomplete - the thirteenth. Hence the unlucky number 13 of the ancients. Twelve is a perfect number because it is divisible by six, four, three, and two. Therefore, it is ideal for describing the symmetry of a circle.

Thirteen is a prime number, completely imperfect because it is indivisible. Looking at the clock face, we do not realize that its shape is due to the Babylonians, who, observing the sky, established a universal division into twelve numbers (this is related to the twelve signs of the zodiac). The Babylonians just simplified things a bit because duodecimal division is symmetrical and much more elegant from a mathematical point of view.

The beginning of the zodiac falls on the vernal equinox. This is also the beginning of the sign Aries, but not the constellation Aries! Thus, when the Sun crosses the equator in spring, beginning the astronomical spring, the Sun enters the zodiacal sign of Aries. Zodiac signs do not correspond to constellations. "Zodiac sign" is a mathematical and astronomical concept, while "constellation" is purely conventional and mythological.

In Ptolemy's time, when the ecliptic was finally shaped, the signs of the zodiac more or less followed the constellations. However, due to the precession of the earth's axis, a phenomenon that causes the vernal equinox to slowly recede against the background of the stars, spring now falls in a different constellation from the constellation of old. Now they are Pisces, and soon they will be Aquarius. The cycle of passing through all the signs, called the Platonic year, is about 26 XNUMX years. years. Precession was known in antiquity, so the Babylonians (like the ancient Egyptians) understood that the point of spring would recede against the background of the stars.

 Ophiuchus stands out from the ecliptic

So where does all this ill-fated scandal come from? So, the Babylonians designated not twelve, but thirteen constellations on the ecliptic. This truth has been known for a long time, but since it was not formalized, the International Astronomical Union, by its bureaucratic decision, determined that there are thirteen constellations on the ecliptic. This thirteenth small constellation is dedicated to Asclepius Ophiuchus, which is located between Scorpio and Sagittarius. It did not enter the zodiacal belt, since it differs little from the ecliptic.

To sum up: there is no revolution in the zodiac and there will be no revolution. There are twelve signs of the zodiac, and always will be. However, the topic will return, like all tabloid news. The story of thirteen characters broke out during a lunar eclipse in Pisces, so - in accordance with the concept of eclipses - something strange must have happened, just like with the clock that is handed out on Red Square ...How is a constellation different from a zodiac?

A constellation is nothing more than a disparate group of stars, united only by human poetic imagination, which gives them mythological names and meanings. On the other hand, the zodiac, from the Greek "zoo", is a belt on the celestial sphere associated with the ecliptic, that is, a segment of the sky in the form of a 16 ° ring, on which the sun, moon and planets wander. This belt is divided into twelve parts of 30 degrees each, and these parts are called the signs of the zodiac.

Petr Gibashevsky Astrologer