Zodiac-I don't quite understand.

Factual Questions
1

Could someone explain to me, or point me to a site that does so, how exactly the Zodiac thing works?

I know the following:

There are 12 constellations that have somehow become astrological signs.

Each one occupies 1/12 of the year.

According to astrology, the sign you were born under influences your personality and/or future (but for some reason, it’s not the one you were conceived under that matters).

There are also “ages” under these signs that last for thousands of years. Apparently, right now we are in the “Piesces” one.

Okay, I know that much, but I don’t understand several things.

  1. Exactly how are you determined to be born “under” a certain sign? How is that sign assciated with a approx. 30-day period?

I was under the impression that the stars were up in the sky, so technically, you are underneath, at least from the perspective here, all of them (Yes, I know techically, there is no up or down in space and the stars in question are scattered around the local neighborhood as to look like things from earth, but still…)

  1. How do we go from being under one age to another? Apparently, the age of Aquarious is next (and I’m personally not looking forward to it if it means I have to listen to more hippies sing songs about love and peace while driving cars that get really poor gas mileage).

I’ve tried to research this, but I get a lot of stuff about equinoxs and solstiaces and ecliptic and equater. Unfortunary, there’s nothing to really explain exactly how this all works. A diagram or two would be nice too (I’m a visual learner, so being able to actually see what they are talking about helps a lot). The only sites I seem to come across are astrological sites that only tell me what the signs are, not it works.

So does anyone understand this stuff? And could they please explain it to me? I don’t believe in horoscopes, but the concept has been bugging me.

2

I think it’s a bunch of bullshit myself, but it is interesting since it’s the early history of astronomy. Anway, here it is in a nutshell:

The stars in the sky have fixed positions–night after night you’ll see the same patterns of stars in the same constellations. However, the planets are different–the planets move around against the fixed background of stars. For example, sometimes Mars will appear to be near one group of stars, while later it will be closer to another group. The word “planet”, in fact, derives from the Greek word for “wanderer”, since the planets literally wander among the stars. In this context, we’ll think of the Sun and Moon as being planets, as well, since they also wander among the background of stars.

At the moment you’re born, the planets will occupy specific positions in the sky. Mars may be in Aries and Jupiter in Sagittarius, for examples. In this example, we would say you Mars sign is Aries and your Jupiter sign is Sagittarius. The Sun, being the biggest, baddest planet out there, is the most important. When someone says they’re an Aquarius, what they really mean is that they’re Sun sign is Aquarius, or, in other words, they’re born under Aquarius.

About the various ages, when the Sun passes through the vernal equinox, it’s in a particular sign of the Zodiac. Right now, whenever we have a vernal equinox, the Sun is in the constellation Pisces. This won’t always be the case, however. The axis of rotation of the Earth kind of wobbles in a circle. Over thousands of years, this means the Sun will be in different signs at the time of the vernal equinox, depending on where we are in this “wobble”–this is called the precession of the equinoxes. We’ll be in the age of Aquarius when the sun is in the sign of Aquarius at the vernal equinox (the different ages last about 2.5 thousand years each).

The precession of the equinoxes also changes the dates for the various sun signs. When you look in the paper for the horoscope, and it has, for example, Aquarius listed as Jan 21 - Feb 20 (or whatever it is), that’s actually wrong–it used be correct, but it’s probably about 2 thousand years out of date now.

Anyway, that’s my understanding, I’m sure someone else will correct anything I screwed up.

3

Okay, I get most of what you’re saying, but exactly how is the sun in a paticular constallation? You can’t see the Constallation while the sun is up, and the sun moves (well, the earth makes it appear to move) though the day, so how can it be in any particular sign?

4

Right now, when the Sun is up, I can’t see the stars in the sky. However, six months from now, the Sun will no longer be in that part of the sky, and I will then be able to see the stars that I am unable to see right now (I’ll be on the other side of the Sun, so when I look in that same direction six months from now, it will be a night sky, with the stars visible, of course). Putting these two observations together, I can figure out where the Sun is in the sky with respect to the constellations, even if I can’t see the stars at that moment–I know where the stars are, anyway.

Also, over the course of the day, as the Sun moves from horizon to horizon, the Sun moves with the constellations–if the Sun is in the constellation Taurus when it rises, it will still be in Taurus when it sets. (When I said the stars have fixed positions in the sky, I didn’t mean that they didn’t appear to move at all–they still rise and set, but the stars won’t move with respect to each other. They’ll continue to form the same patterns in the sky, but they will still rise and set, just like the planets. The planets, however, will move with respect to the stars).

(Actually, of course, the Sun won’t quite move with the constellations, but during the course of several days, the amount the Sun will move will not be enough to move itself out of Taurus–it’ll take a full month from the time it enters Taurus until the time it leaves Taurus. The Sun is wandering among the stars, but somewhat slowly, in that sense).

5

This Nasa site might help a bit.

It’s worth pointing out that the reason those 12 constellations are the ones we call the zodiac is that they lie on the ecliptic - that is, the path along which the planets and the sun appear to move. Because the solar system is roughly planar (ie all the planets orbit in more or less the same plane), they will always appear to follow this same track (with a small amount of wandering up and down - or even apparently backwards).

Similarly, it takes 12 months for the sun to (apparently) complete a full circuit around the zodiac against the background of “fixed stars”. (Of course, in actual fact it is the Earth orbiting the sun that produces this effect.) As Cabbage said, over the course of a day, the sun’s movement against the fixed stars is very small - less than 1 degree, in fact, as it completes 360 degrees in 365 days.

6

STOP THE PRESS!

There are actually 13 constellations that lie in the plane of the ecliptic. Now somebody get busy and re-write all those books in the “New Age” section of the bookstore.

7

It is fun to tell people when they ask, “What’s your sign?” to respond with “Ophiuchus”.

8

Yeah, all the books say I’m Capricorn, but I’m really Saggitarius.

9

The ecliptic itself passes through 13 constellations, so these are the only ones that can be Sun signs. However, since the planets (not including Pluto) can be as much as 8 or 9 degrees from the ecliptic, they can actually be in at least 21 constellations (here):

Aquarius
Aries
Cancer
Capricornus
Cetus
Corvus
Crater
Gemini
Hydra
Leo
Libra
Ophiuchus
Orion
Pegasus
Pisces
Sagittarius
Scorpius
Scutum
Sextans
Taurus
Virgo

You might wish to check your chart to see if Uranus is in Scutum.

If you add Pluto, which is inclined 17 degrees from the ecliptic, you add a lot more constellations.

Also, note that the amount of time the Sun spends in each of the Zodiacal constellations is not equal. Astrologers have merely made the duration of each sign equal about a month. They actually vary from 45 days (Virgo) to 7 (Scorpio).