The economy has tanked, the housing market has collapsed and the environment is being compromised. And now some astronomer in Minnesota is telling us that our astrological signs have changed and we're not who we thought we were. To quote Dorothy Parker, "What fresh hell is this?" Fear not: Although the world is indeed shaky, your astrological sign, unlike your retirement fund, is perfectly secure.
There are different branches of astrology, a fact that astronomer Parke Kunkle failed to make clear in the interview he gave to the Star Tribune. Western astrologers use the tropical zodiac, which begins on the day of the vernal equinox and follows the seasons, not the constellations. It is true that the Earth wobbles and the constellations have shifted 23 degrees, but since Western astrology is not based on the constellations, it remains unchanged.
What Professor Kunkle is referring to is known as Eastern, or sidereal, astrology, which follows those famous constellations. For instance, Vedic astrology, the kind practiced in India and other parts of the world, is sidereal. If you consult a Vedic astrologer, then your sign indeed may have changed, but this knowledge has been around for hundreds of years. Sidereal astrologers already use these so-called "new dates."
This story about our signs changing, as well as the "discovery" of a 13th sign Ophiuchus, is nothing new; it surfaces every few years and is recycled by the media. What's different this time is the massive attention it has received. New York astrologer Shelley Ackerman made an excellent point on Fox News in reminding us that during this go-around, the story was fueled by the social networking sites, which caused it to spread like wildfire.
Professor Kunkle's information, or rather misinformation, has definitely hit a nerve. Yet, is it possible, unbeknownst to him, that he has wobbled into something buried deep in the collective consciousness? He may have been wrong about our signs changing, but on another level, don't we all need to change? We can't continue to treat the Earth or each other in the same way and expect the planet to survive. Could the planets and the signs hold the key? Messages often come from strange quarters.
From an astrological perspective, something big is brewing, as several major planets are poised to change signs over the next few months. Both Jupiter and Uranus are about to bolt into fiery Aries; Neptune and Chiron will soon enter sensitive Pisces. These distant planets move slowly. Changing signs around the same time signals that there's new energy and consciousness entering the world. Aries and Pisces couldn't be more different, and yet together, they offer us a new way of being in the world. Aries is ego, action and aggression; Pisces is associated with forgiveness and healing. The challenges we face in the world today require us to be fully integrated. Being a warrior is not enough, nor is merely being spiritual; we must put our spiritual principals and practices into conscious action.
It's easy to prove Kunkle wrong or to poke fun at astrology, but we don't learn anything by doing that. If we're so afraid of giving up our astrological signs, maybe we should examine our attachments. We're all addicted to something, both as a nation and as individuals: money, power, oil, plastic, sugar, carbs -- the list goes on and on. And what about this 13th sign that suspiciously sounds like the uninvited 13th fairy godmother in tales like "Sleeping Beauty"? What is it that we need to wake up to? Extravagant Jupiter and that maverick Uranus are hanging out together in the sky; they offer us a unique opportunity to expand our mind and absorb new information.
Perhaps an astrological makeover is not such a bad idea. A little flirtation with another sign won't cause your partner to leave (unless he or she is a Scorpio), and it's certainly cheaper than investing in a new wardrobe or a facelift. Unlike plastic surgery, if you don't like the result, you can go back to the way you were. Aquarius would benefit from Capricorn's determination; Sagittarius could teach Capricorns to have more faith and enthusiasm. I'm a stubborn Taurus; my idea of change is switching from a scone to a muffin. But I need to learn to take more risks, something Aries excels at.
As an astronomer, Kunkle was probably trying to debunk astrology. Instead, he created tremendous interest. Folks have been communicating about it via Twitter and Facebook, searching the web for their horoscopes and putting their astrologers on speed dial. And the media is having a field day. Suddenly people who didn't know their sun from their moon are bantering around terms like tropical, sidereal and Vedic. Astrology has gotten more hits on the Internet than Sarah Palin and Lady Gaga! Kunkle's information may be misleading, but the attention, even the controversy, astrology has received is priceless.
Michael Lutin: Tauruses: Aries Is Bringing Change... Whether You Like It Or Not!
Gahl Eden Sasson: Astrology Myths Debunked: The Truth About Your 'New' Sign
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The irony is, that everyone of the predictions in his plays came true in his plays.
He was a master of the human condition.
The markings of the Mayan calendar indicate an approach to a paradigm shift - that this "end" is not an end at all, but a beginning where the need to schedule becomes obsolete.
Stay tuned.
There have been plenty of real scientists and real thinkers who think the same - Newton, Kepler, Jung, and others. Now I'm sure scientists are less prone to believe in it but Im sure everyone would appreciate we have not yet reached any ultimate understanding of our selves, our perceptions, the nature of the universe. If nothing else, it is a brilliant system to depict the principles of our personalities and how we interact with others, which in my estimation, is far more detailed, descriptive, and useful than any modern science of the mind such as sociology or psychology. It really is beautiful in the tightness of its inner logic.
A lot of people are skeptics, but they are also those who have the least knowledge of its basic concepts, and thus dismiss the practice out of hand without any examination. It is a symptom of the times no doubt. When one considers the prevalence of astrology throughout all different cultures in all different times as well as its persistence through our present day, we might be well-served to get back to at least appreciating the way many successful ancient civilizations looked at the cosmos and its relation to human kind.
Just because you don't have the answer to everything, is not an excuse to fill in the blanks with superstitious clap-trap. It's actually okay to just say "We don't know, yet."
That''s enough time for whole house placements to shift.
If the twins' Mercury or the 3rd House is stressed-out in the chart the relationship between the twins can be consciously disagreeing. In twins' charts in particular one has to look at all symbols relating to siblings. Some twins seem to almost exist to be different from one another. Some twins are actual enemies (the evil twin syndrome). Some twins are in love with each other.
There is also a system of chart reading that deals only with the exact degree a symbol is in. The Ascendant and all the angles are included -- not just the planets -- which means that all twins would have different data to read.
Actually it can. Guess what, it doesn't work. How, exactly, does mercury being in retrograde affect us on earth? Or Jupiter being in Taurus? If you really think it works, then you need to do what I laid out in my blog entry (http://www.disentangledreality.com/2011/01/scientific-astrology.html): collect the data and do the statistical analyses to back it up. Honestly, if there were *really* an effect from these things, it should be measurable.
Lots of wrong things have been believed by lots of people over the course of civilization, and experts can be wrong. Astrology may be detailed, descriptive, brilliant system with a beautiful internal logic, but it is far from accurate.
Astrology is a parlor game. A foolish one at that. There is no science behind it. Nor even any common sense. It is dangerous in that people think there is some science behind it, that it is real.
But, that is to be expected in a society that worships sports stars, actors, and performers, and ignores real scientists and real thinkers.
So I'll worship my God, and be glad that everyone else worships their God or gods as the case may be without getting in my hair and putting some sort of awful responsibility on my shoulders!
Of course, what you're seeing is how an ancient art is handled in a shallow pop-culture. I suggest you separate the symptom from the condition.
Mr. Kunkle, was in fact, not speaking about "another kind of astrology." His comments were regarding precession--no surprise that an astronomer would be trying to educate the public about astroNOMY. The comments he did make about astrology essentially boiled down to, paraphrased, "astroLOGY doesn't even acknowledge all 13 constellations in the real zodiac, and their dates don't even line up with them either. It's ridiculous that people take it seriously."
This was, in fact, a criticism of the astrology that Americans know. A criticism based not on the silly definitions of astrology (that left out the 13th constellation because "13 is unlucky"), but on scientific fact within the field of astronomy.
I find the misinformation that is passing for news to be quite disgusting. If you can't even get the basic facts of an inconsequential story correct, how can you be taken seriously on any subject?