How do you figure out your real astrological sign?

Question

I suppose that astrology gets it wrong and many people are not the sign that they would be if actual astronomical data was taken into consideration. I don't really believe in astrology, but still, it would be interesting to find out what your real sign would be according to astronomy. :)

Answer 1

For "real" astrology, your sign is still your sign. The sign most people think of is called your "sun sign". This is the constellation which was behind the sun when you were born, those don't change much over time.

An Astronomy professor once suggested the following to us:

Astrology is a system of human designated values placed on stellar objects and the place they were in the sky when you were born. It is subject therefore to human interpretation. ie it's complete bunk. But, it is fun to think about...

Astrology can be a self-fulfilling prophesy if one truly believes in it, if you believe that you will have quality X because your astrologer told you so, you can act with that quality more than you may have if you were not told you'd possess it.

Astrology is also like most other divination methods in the world, filled with vagueness and obscurity.

In short, the sign you have from your birthday is your true sign (if you believe in that sort of thing). With star tables and precise information, Astrologers will calculate a more thorough "divination"... Of course, if Astrology were true, two people born in the same hospital around the same time would be very similar regardless of upbringing. That simply does not appear to be the case. Astrologers don't tell you that though...

Enjoy it for what it is, a fun little diversion. I read mine once in a while, just for fun.

Answer 2

First of all, this was started by scientists who tried to debunk astrology without learning it in its entirety first, and now has unfortunately caught onto to people who actually do like astrology. *sigh* A zoidia (more commonly known as a zodiac sign) is NOT the same thing as the constellation with the same name. Thus Ophiuchus is NOT part of the astrological zodiac and never will be. The signs and the constellations share only their names and their myths - nothing more. And astrologers - ancient and modern - know that the constellations are not equal in length and never have been, that's why we use the zoidia and not the constellations! As for this: "Unbeknownst to the ancient astrologers, the Earth continually wobbles around its axis in a 25,800-year cycle." Actually it was known to them and is known to us today. We use it for figuring out what Age we're in, and that has a lot more to do with all the 2012 hype than any doomsday predictions do. :) We're also quite aware of the Earth moving around the Sun, but we do charts from an Earth-centered perspective because we live *here* not on the Sun. I could ramble on more, but the point is that so many arguments used to "debunk" astrology fail because they're misinterpreting what astrology and astrologers actually do. You can't read a newspaper horoscope and think you know everything about astrology. And you can't scientifically "debunk" something until you know what it actually is and what it actually does. PS: Sidereal astrology doesn't use Ophiuchus or the actual constellations either. The difference between tropical and sidereal is the starting point of each zodiac. Tropical starts 00 Aries at the Spring Equinox, Sidereal lines it up with the stars of Aries but only as a starting point.

Answer 3

Whatever constellation was 'behind' the sun in the ecliptic plane at the time of your birth - that is your star sign. There are 12 main constellations in this plane (i.e. in the near horizontal plane that all of the 8 planets orbit the sun on) - these are the 12 star signs. How they're determined for each individual and why they're spaced out on a calendar, is due to the fact that our planet orbits the sun and as each month goes by, one of these constellations won't be visible behind the sun.

Where they came up with the idea that the position of the Earth, indeed, our solar system, relative to these stars which are tens, hundreds, thousands of light years away (and potentially tens or hundreds of light years away from each other), can somehow affect your way of life or determine what sort of a person you are .... ? Well ... lets just say I think Astrology is a great big pile of crap.

Answer 4

Due to the "precession of the equinoxes," the stars visible in each season slowly make a complete circle around the sky in about 25,800 years, or one "star sign" every 2,150 years. This means that your "sign" is fully one month off since astrology became standardized that long ago.

It doesn't matter which way it's off - I don't recall offhand - because astrology is utter crap and a complete waste of anyone's time! If you think this is a "close-minded" attitude, first consider that astrology is testable and has been *proven* to be utter crap over and over again, yet foolish people still want to believe in it.

Another way to look at it was stated recently by Christopher Hitchens specifically about religion, but since religion and astrology are both brainless superstitions, his statement applies to both: "What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence" - and tons of time and useless argumentation can be saved thereby.

Answer 5

Go with the astrological designations in all the horoscopes. The sign you were actually born under has no more effect on your life than the incorrect one, so it doesn't really matter.

Constellations are manmade 'pictures' in the sky based on patterns of stars hundreds of light years away, and none of the stars in a constellation are actually anywhere near each other or associated with each other anyway.
Its all ancient non-scientific "beware the edge of the earth, there be dragons here" nonsense.

Answer 6

You can find Astrology in the Entertainment category.Questions about Astrology do not belong in the Astronomy section.One is Science the other nonsense.

Answer 7

Astrology is not a science. It is a myth. There are no real astrological signs.

Answer 8

You could look on www.astrologyzone.com for details.The dates for astrological signs are based on astronomical events. Yahoo Answers Horoscopes section gives details of these too.

Answer 9

Why would you be interested if you don't believe in it?