Stars In Our Eyes: What The New Zodiac Means

  
Anyone who has been around long enough knows that I regard astrology with as much credence as any other antiquated mythology, and today the Minnesota Planetarium Society announced that they threw science into the equation. You see, Babylonian star-watchers drafted the first Zodiac around 3000 years ago by determining the positions along the elliptic (the path of the sun) and divided it into the 13 sections determined by the constellations. Thusly, your sign is judged by the position of the sun during the Zodiac when you were born. 


  However, the moon's gravitational pull has caused the Earth to shift and over the few thousand years that have elapsed since the Zodiac was drafted the constellation-sun correlation no longer matches. So for babies born after 2009, here are the new astrological signs:

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.

* Discarded by the Babylonians because they wanted 12 signs per year.

  While adherents claim that certain personality traits are related to certain birth dates, reality is quite different. Since humans have such complex social intelligence, most people possess varying degrees of the entire spectrum of human qualities. Every person is every sign because every sign describes the very things common to all humans.  However, since planetary alignment can dictate crop failure and harvest, the Zodiac can have some use for those who look at the sky and wonder if there really are any men on those moons.