Ophiuchus: (not) the 13th ‘Sign’

In the last article I explored the ever revolving discussion about the Zodiac and where it ‘is’. We can see that the constellations are drifting backwards from the earth’s perspective 1° every 72 years. By making the key distinction between ‘constellations’ and ‘signs’ we can start to appreciate the signs of the zodiac as an invisible band around the earth that was discovered (and imagined) by our ancestors, and their constellations as the patterns of stars that act as symbols on the doors that lead into the signs.

Taken from the Atlas Coelestis.

The Zodiac Signs

The 12 Zodiac signs are each inhabiting 30° of the sky, making a 360° wheel of archetypal, mythopoetic symbols. Nobody knows where these symbols came from and they’re not attributed to any particular culture in history, though we know for sure they were being used in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Ancient Greece. 

The key to understanding the Zodiac is: it’s invisible. That doesn’t mean it’s not real (invisible is not the opposite of real). It is a system for tracking the movements of the sun and understanding the seasons - which would have been critical for early agricultural civilisations. The moon and the planets also move along the zodiac, which is located on (or perhaps ‘behind’) the imaginal band called the ecliptic. 

On March 21/22nd, depending on the year, the sun enters the zodiac sign of Aries. This is the beginning of the astrological new year, and the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere. Three moon cycles (months) later on June 21/22nd, the sun enters Cancer on the summer solstice. This movement is mirrored on September 21/22nd and December 21/22nd as the sun moves into Libra and Capricorn respectively.

Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn are the cardinal signs of astrology as they represent a time when change is occurring from one season to the next. Together they form the ‘cardinal grand cross’ and can be seen clearly in the middle of the picture above. (Note: in this illustration the zodiac signs are at the outer edge of the circle. The constellations, pictured within the circle, are neither aligned with the zodiac signs nor of equal size to each other.)

In some ways, then, the zodiac wasn’t really attempting to measure something in the sky, it was used to measure something on the earth; the change of seasons and the corresponding change in energy and attitudes.

Ancient mystics observed that human beings were not separate from nature and her cycles. We were born into specific moments and went through significant changes throughout our lives before eventually our bodies were returned to the earth through death. Observations of temperament in human beings were reflected back into the Zodiac, and the system evolved to incorporate certain ways of being human; observable different types. Some oriented towards leadership, some towards service. Some towards war, some towards art. Some towards the creative, some towards the receptive. 

Perhaps they also observed that just as important as which family you were born into was the moment itself that you were born with. As the sun, moon and planets were in specific places and aspects to each other in the sky, so at that moment I was born here on earth. As above, so below.

Notice the difference between ‘as…, so’ and ‘if…, then’. The former is the language of synchronicity. The latter the language of causality. Two separate but compatible ways of understanding reality, equally valid. Where our sense of reality gets distorted is when the balance of these approaches is lopsided. (Note this next time someone makes the argument: how could planets millions of miles away have any impact on a human life on earth? That’s causal thinking, usually conflated with ideas about gravity, and forces being applied to objects, as the only way to view reality.)

This is another way to say that the logical and analytical needs the mythic and poetic.

Or: astronomy needs astrology (and vice versa).

The Zodiac Constellations

There are currently 88 constellations recognised by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). In the 1930s, the IAU redefined the ecliptic and discovered that in fact 14 constellations were within this range. This includes the 12 constellations of the Zodiac plus Ophiuchus (part of the Hercules family of constellations) and Cetus (the Perseus family).

The constellations are clusters of stars seen from the earth’s perspective to make particular shapes. Seeing shapes in the stars is similar to seeing shapes in clouds. It’s not that the shape is actually ‘there’, more like the shape I see in my mind is projected onto that pattern of stars in the sky. (What’s tricky here for the modern mind is - the projection is more important than the screen it’s projected on. At least this is true if we’re interested in the subjective world, which ultimately astrology is). The magical component of this is that we somehow agree to settle upon the same shape together. In fact, over history, certain priest/scientists took the authority upon themselves to declare what was ‘out there’ - a major one being Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD who catalogued over half of the 88 constellations we know today.

The Zodiac family of constellations represent the Zodiac signs. That’s to say, the constellations point to the signs, but are not themselves the signs.

Misinformation Masquerading as Facts

In 1995, the BBC made this error of confusing constellations with signs. They reported on the IAU’s refinement of the ecliptic boundary in the 1930s and the constellation of Ophiuchus dipping slightly underneath the northern edge of the ecliptic according to the new definition. The extrapolation was then mistakenly made that there was a ‘13th sign’ of the zodiac.

Newspapers in the UK, and then around the western world, picked up on this and started to use it to stir up trouble in the astrological community. This was done without checking the facts, and most certainly without consulting any professional astrologers. 

In 2011, it was reported that an astronomer by the name of Parke Kunkle made the same false claim of this ‘13th sign’. Now armed with twitter feeds, facebook and instagram threads, this misinformation could travel much more rapidly than in 1995. It turned out that Kunkle had only mentioned it as a 13th ‘constellation’ along the ecliptic and he released a statement stating as such. Even the BBC this time released an article to set the record straight that the Zodiac signs have not changed. Funnily enough, this article didn’t get the same traction as the sensationalist, misinformed original.

Every now and then, including this year of 2020, this same mistake resurfaces and we get a new set of SHOCKING articles about the 13th sign and the movement backwards of your astrological ‘sign’.

For an easy to read, clear delineation between signs and constellations, read this article released by the IAU itself.

A Word on Science

The above IAU article’s last paragraph is this:

Constellations make a two-dimensional map of the sky used for orientation, to make it easier for astronomers to find objects and explain their location and for navigators to use stars to determine their position. The universe itself, on the other hand, isn’t flat and doesn’t revolve around our planet, which is what makes these groupings of stars arbitrary. While even Carl Gustav Jung said that astrology holds some value as a theory of the personality, and it can use the scientific approach, it is in itself not based on any kind of science.

Let’s just take a moment here to understand this last line: ‘it is in itself not based on any kind of science.’

I would contend that astrology is not based on materialist scientific practices which try to eliminate chance and consciousness in order to gauge reality. If, like CG Jung who is mentioned above, you put chance and consciousness in the middle of your scientific practice, then astrology deserves a second look (aka: some re-spect). 

If we can free the word ‘science’ from its dogmatism and return it to its roots - a system of hypothesis testing and true/false statements to explore reality - we may start to see a different model not just of reality, but of the human place within it. If we drop the insistence upon the fantasy of the objective observer, and instead look at the intricate link of observer and observed within a closed system, we may find that ancient wisdom traditions like astrology (and the tarot, runes, tea leaves, the I Ching and many other oracular practices with chance as their starting point) have a lot to offer the modern western human, lost in rationalism’s empty meaningless vacuum.

On That Note

And now… a word from our sponsor: Rupert Sheldrake*. This TED Talk in 2013 was part of a series called ‘Challenging Existing Paradigms and Redefining Values (for a more beautiful world)’. As the scientific paradigm didn’t come under the umbrella of what could be challenged, the talk was banned by TED.

*not actually a sponsor of Abaton

So, who is Ophiuchus? And why is his name coming up at this moment in history? To be explored in the next article on Abaton.