If you're incredibly invested in calling yourself such-a-Leo or attributing your stubbornness to being a Taurus, you may want to avert your eyes.
Folks from the Minnesota Planetarium Society are reminding you that the astrological signs we follow today are out of whack with the originals.
The ancient Babylonians based zodiac signs on the constellation the sun was "in" on the day a person was born, but during the ensuing millenniums, the moon's gravitational pull has made the Earth "wobble" around its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars' alignment, according to a piece in the Minneapolis-St-Paul Star Tribune.
That, and we've dropped a sign, "Ophiuhus," which was Nov 29-Dec 17.
"When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it's really not in Pisces," said Parke Kunkle, a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society.
So, what's your real horoscope?
Astrology buffs should be using these dates, reflecting where the stars currently are aligned:
- 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 *Discarded by the Babylonians because they wanted 12 signs per year
- Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.
So, have you always expected this stuff was totally mutable, or are you devastated to hear you're no longer a Virgo?
