San Francisco, Jan. 16: Astrologers, not surprisingly, say they knew this would happen.
But that didn’t stop a furious response among horoscope fans on Friday, as news shot around cyberspace that the world’s zodiac signs might somehow be wrong — a development with potentially life-changing impact on professional and personal relationships.
While astrologers were sweating to calm followers, astronomers were chuckling at the fate of their more metaphysical brethren.
“Don’t panic,” Mr Lawrence Grecco, an astrologer, assured his clients. “Your sign is your sign.” But such assurances did not quell the kerfuffle after The Star Tribune ran a report on Monday that a naturally occurring wobble in the direction of the Earth’s axis — technically known as a “precession” — had altered the alignment of stars’ overhead from their traditional star signs, which date back several millennia. The report, citing Mr Parke Kunkle, a board member, Minnesota Planetarium Society, quickly went viral. Mr Kunkle, now the “Man Who Changed the Zodiac”, said he was just commenting on a well-known fact.
“My zodiac sign changed,” wrote an upset Twitter user on Friday. “Does that mean that I’m not anymore who I used to be?!?”
The report says Capricorn, which begins its month-long term in December, actually starts on January 20, based on the actual position of the stars. Aquarius would be bumped to February.
Experts say an ancient Greek astronomer recognised first the precession of the Earth’s axis, caused by the gravitational tug of the Moon and the Sun on the Earth.
So, said Mr Joe Rao, an astronomer, “over time the Earth’s north pole is pointing toward different stars”. Which means that “all of the zodiac positions which astrologers use as the foundation of their studies are wrong... as are any predictions made from them. This is, after all, the 21st century”.