Ophiuchus – What to make of the new Zodiac sign?

Now that the hoopla and identity crisis have died down, let us take a look at this “forgotten” sign.

First of all, how the hell do we pronounce this thing? Ophiuchus is pronounced, ‘Oh-fee-U-cuss’ and it means serpent holder. It claims a time frame occupied by Sagittarius, November 30 – December 17. This pushes Sagittarius forward into Capricorn and reduces Scorpio to a mere week at best. What makes this a bit more unique is that it’s said that it actually represents a real person where as the other zodiac signs are a bit more mythical. The real person I refer to is Imhotep.

The man named Imhotep lived in ancient Egypt around the 27th century BCE. Imhotep is credited with many accomplishments but is more known for his knowledge and use of medicine. It is said that he brought the art of healing to mankind through his snakes. The snakes he used would be able to cure any ailments or disease. The symbol of a serpent was used to represent Imhotep as it represents a medical professional today.

The ancient Greeks though, refer to him as Asclepius. Who was known as a healer who learned the secrets of cheating death after observing one serpent bringing another serpent healing herbs. This is where the 13th sign gain his significance. According to the story, Asclepius was a “Lord in waiting” as he was son of the God Apollo and human mother named Coronis. His human mother died giving birth to him which set him on his path. Apollo gave his son to Chiron, the medicine centaur, to care for and raise as his own son. He grew up learning and honing his skills as a medicine man. After having observed the effectiveness of those herbal remedies from the snakes he goes on to use it on other mortals. Zeus, ‘God of all Gods’ did not want someone to have such power for it could usurp his will so he blasted him with a thunderbolt. But, in a moment of compassion Zeus decided to immortalize Asclepius by giving him the constellation of Ophiuchus to care for and deeming him the God of Medicine.

Though Ophiuchus IS a constellation, what some fail to remember is that the Zodiac, as we know it, was not based on the stars but based on the seasons. There are four seasons in a year and each has a beginning a middle and end. Spring begins a fresh year with Aries at the helm, Taurus being the stability in the middle and Gemini marking its end. Continue through to winter and its ending in Pisces and you come to twelve months and twelve signs. But this applies only to what is considered to be Tropical Zodiac, which is what western astrology uses for its purposes.

Now I am sure you are probably saying – so what the hell then – and don’t worry because many others are as well. There are three main traditions of modern astrology that are followed today – Chinese, Hindu and Western but there is another that isn’t so widely used. Vedic and Western astrology share a common ancestry as horoscopic systems of astrology. Both traditions focus creating an astrological (horoscope) chart by using a representation of celestial entities for an event based on the position of the Sun, Moon, and planets at the moment the event occurred. However, Vedic astrology uses the sidereal or constellational zodiac which links the signs of the zodiac to their original constellations.

This is where the Serpent Holder gains its bearing. In between Sagittarius the Centaur and Scorpius the Scorpion lies part of the Ophiuchus constellation. Stars maybe fixed but are not stationary. Vedic astrology, like Western, begins with the orientation of Earth relative to the sun and the other planets in our solar system. Unlike Western astrology, it takes the position of the fixed stars as well as their constellations and factors it in to their method. What is happening is that the stars are shifting, as expected, causing an adjustment for those that follow Vedic astrology.

The stars have shifted before and will continue to due to the precession of the equinoxes. This simply means that as a result of the gravitational forces in our solar system, there is a slow yet continuous change in the orientation of the Earth’s axis. These precessions cause Vedic astrologers to constantly adjust calculations to accommodate the backwards slide. The earth’s axial spin slows down or moves in reverse about one day every 72 years, in relationship to a fixed star. This means that unless you were born somewhere between the 15th and 20th of the month, your (Sun) sign will most likely move back one sign in Vedic Astrology.

Those that follow Vedic firmly believe that the astrologer who wants to maintain accuracy must change along with the signs in the heavens. So every few thousand years, the stars change and so do their zodiac. This isn’t the first time that Ophiuchus has been mentioned and isn’t the first time someone tried to introduce new signs. Based on the 1930 International Astronomical Union (IAU) constellation boundaries, implications that “there are really 13 astrological signs” because “the Sun is in the sign of Ophiuchus” between November 29 and December 17 have been published since at least the 1970s.

In 1970, Stephen Schmidt in his Astrology 14 advocated a 14-sign zodiac, introducing Ophiuchus and Cetus as new signs. He assigned each sign 26 days forcing Cetus between Aries and Taurus while Ophiuchus remains between Scorpio and Sagittarius. The 14th sign didn’t have a leg to stand on because the sun does not actually pass through Cetus but it passes very close by. In order to be a sun sign, the sun has to actually pass through the constellation. That blew over until 1995 when Walter Berg and his book The 13 Signs of the Zodiac was published and the notion of Ophiuchus was revisited. The concept quieted down yet again until an astronomy professor at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Parke Kunkle, brought it up again and caused this pandemonium.

In the end, what does this all really mean… nothing at all. You and I, we remain who we are because we use the popular Tropical Zodiac. Unless YOU decide to convert to Vedic Astrology, there is no change at all. There are some that have always felt that their sign doesn’t properly represent who they are. That’s fine; go check out the Vedic method or even Asian astrology and see if that works for you. What we learned today was that Zeus was up to his old tricks but because of his remorse, we inherited a bit of an annoyance and something else to argue about.