You’d be surprised how often I interact with people who get mixed up between Astronomy and Astrology. I have a degree in Astronomy (among other things) which is the study of stars and extrasolar objects, I pretty much know nothing about Astrology which is the belief that the stars and planets effect our every day lives.

It used to annoy me that people cared less about Astronomy, and I think it annoyed everyone else that I couldn’t tell them their future. Rather than continue creating more problems, I’ve decided I’m going to solve this problem, by educating myself!

As a disclaimer, it is highly unlikely that the stars and planets actually have any kind of meaningful effect on our day to day lives. However, there are two things that give credence to the field. One is that given the enormity of the universe and the complexity of physics technically nothing is impossible, however small the chance. The other thing is known as the placebo effect: if someone believes something to be true, chances are they will manifest it into existence. Human will over powers quite a bit.

In general, Astrology is seen as a pseudoscience, meaning it has failed to be proven to have a scientific basis. Thus todays topic is mostly for entertainment not for any actual education. Sorry!

So to begin with, lets learn some names.

The Names of the Zodiac

There are twelve constellations in the night sky that make up what’s known as the astrological zodiac, these are (in order):

1. Aries
2. Taurus
3. Gemini
4. Cancer
5. Leo
6. Virgo
7. Libra
8. Scorpio
9. Sagittarius
10. Capricorn
11. Aquarius
12. Pisces

These constellations aren’t chosen randomly, they represent the position of the Sun during the constellations corresponding month. For example, we just began the calendar with Aries which covers the period between the 21st of March and the 19th of April. During this period the Sun is supposed to reside within the constellation of Aries.

Over the millenia since this was first thought up, the constellations have drifted slightly however. Checking the actual position of the Sun, as Professor Jeremy Tatum did back in 2010, we find that the Sun is actually within Aries from April 20th to May 14th, completely missing its astrological month.

The same goes for all of the rest of the signs, none of them match up with where they’re supposed to be anymore, and they’re certainly not all the same length. Scorpius (Scorpio) is only home to the Sun for 6 days at the end of November. There’s also a whole other constellation known as Ophiuchus (O-fee-u-kus) who plays home to the Sun for most of December who isnt even an Astrological sign.

Okay so that’s kind of a write off, what about rising signs. I always hear about rising signs, what does that mean?

Rising Signs

A rising sign denotes the constellation that was rising above the eastern horizon at the exact time you were born. It’s a little more complicated to work out and requires a lot of knowledge of the night sky, or a computer that has all of that knowledge.

Say you were born on the 15th of May 1993 at like 7pm, put that date and time into software like stellarium and you can look at the eastern horizon to find your rising sign. Easy peasy. That would make your rising sign Scorpio despite your astrological sign being Taurus.

Essentially, if you were born at sunrise, your rising sign is the same as your regular sign. For every like two hours after sunrise (just estimate like 7am) your rising sign moves along one.

And finally, there’s the moon sign.

Moon Sign

The Earth isn’t just hassled by one major celestial body, the Moon is also floating around passing through constellations. As such, everyone has a moon sign which, similar to the rising sign, depends on where the moon was exactly when you were born. It’s a bit more complicated than the other two so I’d recommend finding one.

With our imaginary friend from 1993 (if that is your actual birthday, sorry for freaking you out), their Moon sign is Pisces!

It’s possible for all of your signs to be the same, which means that whatever qualities you would regularly have are massively amplified. All it would entail is you being born at sunrise during the new moon, which is possibly one of the most alchemical sentences I’ve ever written.

So, now we have worked out all of the different signs and explained why they are the way they are, what can we do with this? I’ll let Professor Ian Duncan from Community help me here:

The issue is, it sort of depends on who you ask. Everyone has different ideas as to what your sign says about you, especially when it comes to how you will mix with whatever their sign is. Usually when you read things like horoscopes, they will describe only good qualities so that you’re more inclined to agree (Although side note, it would be kind of funny if sometimes it was bad, imagine it said like “oh you’re Pisces, take a shower!”).

Horoscopes keep things really vague too, describing sitatuations that apply to a plethora of different things. Often you’re just thinking of that thing anyway if it’s bothering you so if you read a horoscope that kinda sorta sounds like what you’re dealing with, you’ll conflate the two together.

That’s not to say it’s all pointless. Horoscopes always have positive messages, telling you that you can deal with problems, helping you put things into perspective. Sometimes, not everyone has someone to tell them it’s going to be okay, so if a little message from the universe helps you get through, then maybe astrology is real.

I hope you enjoyed todays lesson, I’ve been wanting to research something random for a while now but I haven’t really had the effort. I guess perhaps I needed that little message from the universe, so I made it myself.

And hey, if you were born between January and December, I think you’re doing great, and whatever you’re dealing with, it’s all going to be okay.

Lots of love,

Cassie