By Carson Holton, Copy Editor
Recently, a rumor went around causing many people to post upset statuses on Facebook, to check out the prices of tattoo removals, and to question the very meaning of their lives. Is the zodiac rumor true? The answer depends on which zodiac system each person follows.
About 3,000 years ago, the study of stars began. In this study, people of this ancient time determined that out of about 50 constellations they observed, 18 of them were worthy to become the signs of the zodiac, and they narrowed the signs down to the 12 we know today according to astrologer Susan Miller.
Astronomer Parke Kunkel said to the Star Tribune that the constellations have shifted as the Earth’s tilt changed position over thousands of years. The reason that this is news to everyone is because people didn’t think of changing the horoscopes along with the shifting constellations.
“The shift is caused by precession, the wobble in the Earth’s axis caused by the gravitational attraction of the moon to the Earth’s equator…the Earth is like a wobbly top. As it rotates, its axis swings in a circle, pointing in different directions. As the Earth’s position shifts, so does our perspective of the night sky,” Stephanie Pappas, a senior writer, said on the LiveScience website.
Whether signs have changed depends on which zodiac style an individual wishes to adopt. The Eastern style of zodiac focuses on how people connect with the constellations, thus, their zodiac sign. People who stay true to this style will be affected by the recent zodiac revision. The Eastern population that follows this zodiac mostly includes Asian countries.
The Western zodiac is concerned with the changing of the seasons to determine where zodiac signs belong. Most people in America have adopted this interpretation. Since the seasons on the calendar haven’t shifted for anyone, the Western zodiac remains as it always has been.
“I just feel really badly for people who had their zodiac tattooed on their bodies, and then freaked out when they thought their zodiac had changed,” said senior Meahgan Jameyson.
“Even if the astrological signs were stable, there’s no evidence the stars have anything to do with people’s day-to-day existence. One 2006 study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences used data from more than 15,000 people and found no relationship between date of birth and personality,” said Pappas on LiveScience website.
Many people still believe in the zodiac. For those Eastern zodiac faithfuls, this new public realization will have them adopt the sign for a month before their birthday. For everyone else, the news is a false alarm, and they can keep their sign.
