I'm happy. I feel accomplished. Did you know that there's a 13th and ignored zodiac sign? Yes, my pretties, and it's name is Ophiuchus, the snake holder.

Now, I've always been obsessed with the facts and myths [fiktions] of the zodiac (all types - Tropical [Conventional], Chinese and so on) but I can tell you I'm utterly obsessed ten fold with this new sign. I'm considering writing an article on it for the school paper and I'm already in the process of making a fiktional novel about "the Fate of the Forgotten" - the forgotten being the ones born under Ophiuchus.

There's a slight complication - not necessarily a problem - with this novel idea. Okay, if you search up some files on "the Real Zodiac", you'll find that the dates are quite different. For example, I wouldn't be an Aquarius, like it says in the Tropical - Conventional - Zodiac, I'd be a Capricorn. The signs seem to be pushed forward a few weeks/days to fit in Ophiuchus.

You see, when the sun passes through Libra and then Scorpius -Scorpio - and then Ophiuchus onto Sagittarius. Astronomers make the mistake of telling us that the sun is in Scorpius longer than it actually is. The sun is only in Scorpius for six and a half days (which varies according to leap years and such).

--EDIT--
Below are the constellations that house the sun, and the dates the Sun enters and leaves each, on average. Because of leap years and the non-integer number of real days in a year, the dates can shift either way by about a day.

Dates Sun Is
Constellation In / The Constellation / # of Days
Sagittarius - the archer / Dec 18 - Jan 18 / 32
Capricornus - the goat / Jan 19 - Feb 15 / 23
Aquarius - the water bearer / Feb 16 - Mar 11 / 24
Pisces - the fish / Mar 12 - Apr 18 / 38
Cetus - the whale / Mar 14 / < 1
Aries - the ram / Apr 19 - May 13 / 25
Taurus - the bull / May 14 - Jun 19 / 37
Gemini the twins / Jun 20 - Jul 20 / 31
Cancer - the crab / Jul 21 - Aug 9 / 20
Leo - the lion / Aug 10 - Sep 15 / 37
Virgo - the virgin / Sep 16 - Oct 30 / 45
Libra - the scales / Oct 31 - Nov 22 / 23
Scorpius - the scorpion / Nov 23 - Nov 29 / 7
Ophiuchus - the snake holder / Nov 30 - Dec 17 / 18

Did you find your birthdate? Are you aghast with astonishment? The number of days the true astronomical zodiac overlaps with the dates as listed in the newspaper columns totals only 53 days out of 365 days, or only about 1 chance in seven of someday actually having the "sign" they think they do!

What about the 13th sign, the one at the bottom of the table? You have better odds at being a Serpent Bearer (that's what Ophiuchus is) than a Scorpion. Only a piece of the latter intersects the ecliptic while the Sun actually spents nearly three times as long traversing one of the good Serpent Holding Doctor's legs. You won't ever see a horoscope for being an Ophiuchan, there is apparently no future in it....

The path of the sun, the ecliptic, does not actually enter the constellation of Cetus but simply touches a point of its boundary between it and Pisces. The Sun, however, is a disk in the sky, not a point, and therefore part of the Sun (up to half the disk) strays into the area of the constellation for not quite a full day. You have to have a whale of a lot of luck to be born under the "sign" of Cetus, the Whale (or Sea Monster, prominent in the legend of Andromeda and Perseus, but that's a story for another night....).

Everything from the Sentence above the list down to this point is Copyright 1999 Hermograph Press

So I was wrong. There's technically 14 signs of the zodiac! Boy am I going to have so much fun with this! ^.^
---

I haven't really read that far on why it was ignored in the first place, but I will soon. I might alter that part for the story if I feel like it.

Oh, by the way, the sign of Ophiuchus is a staff with wings and two snakes wrapped around it. Sort of like that sign I saw once on an ambulace.

I'll report back once I find out some more stuff! ^__^

x kristesav

Huh. I'm still a Virgo.
» randomjunk on 2006-09-22 05:36:25

definitely cant be a cancer...
hahahaha
i really cant.
im definitely a leo
is 4 days stilla cusp?
» invisibleinkling on 2006-09-22 05:52:52

wait.
how can you be a scorpio if the range is minus one day? i'm confused. i don't wanna be a taurus. that's a car.

cheers,
sank
» thaitanic on 2006-09-22 08:04:18

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