First off, I want to go on record as saying I have never taken much stock in the whole astrology thing.
I’ve never been convinced that my behavior, personality, luck, looks, chances for success or any other facet of my humanity could be impacted by the location of stars and planets in the sky on the day I was born. That’s just me.
I know a lot of people are really into the topic. I see t-shirts, bumper stickers, jewelry and all kinds of other stuff with signs of the zodiac plastered all over them. People like to identify with something that gives them a sense of belonging to a group or type of individuals. I get that.
The problem is, if you read those newspaper columns that purport to predict your fate based on your birthday, you are being misled. I’m not casting dispersions on the authors of those columns. I don’t know if they believe what they are saying or not. What I am saying is that you were definitely not born under the sign you think you were.
What?
That’s right. The concept of astrology is thousands of years old. This old ball of mud we live on has gone through a lot during that time, including a phenomenon known as precession.
Precession was first documented by a Greek dude by the important-sounding name of Aristarchus of Samos way back around 250 B.C. or so.
So, what is precession and why am I no longer a Scorpio, or Leo, or some other cool-sounding sign?
Precession is the tendency of a celestial body to march away from its expected path due to wobbling. This wobbling, in turn, is caused by gravitational forces tugging unevenly at a planet, or star, or whatever due to irregular shape. Our planet, it turns out, is not perfectly spherical.
Like this author, it bulges in the middle. Think of a child’s toy top, spinning around and around on the floor. Even though the top looks pretty symmetrical, there are forces introduced by things such as irregularities in the weight distribution of the top and little imperfections in the floor that cause the toy to travel a short distance across the room as it spins.
The same thing happens to earth. As a result, our north pole is not pointing at the same place it was three thousand years ago. In fact, in any given human lifespan, the pole moves its aim roughly one degree across the sky. That all adds up over time.
Even though old Aristarchus pointed this out over two thousand years ago, it’s only recently gotten people worked up. It’s taken that long for people to realize that the tattoo of a scorpion on their left butt cheek is no longer relevant. That’s pretty jarring to people who have made that level of commitment to a zodiac sign.
I mean, come on. That ink’s permanent.
Telling people their sign isn’t what they thought it was will generate some stress. I’ve seen articles online from places like Glamour magazine asserting that it doesn’t matter and that signs endure, no matter what the science says.
I disagree. The whole point of all of the tenets of astrology is that the relative positions of the sun, the planets, and the constellations at your birth somehow stamped you and impacts your destiny. But those bodies were not aligned in the same way they were when all of the charts were drawn up. So, an adjustment is in order.
All my life, even though I don’t really care, I’ve thought my sign was Cancer, the Crab. That’s because my birthday is July 7. Well, adjusting for the inexorable wobbling path of the planet, I find that I am actually a Gemini, the Twins. Maybe I can get a second matching crab on that other butt cheek.

This article was written by Tilmer Wright, Jr. Tilmer is an IT professional with over thirty years of experience wrestling with technology and a proud member of the Authors Guild of Tennessee. In his spare time, he writes books.
You can find links to Tilmer’s books at the following location: https://www.amazon.com/Tilmer-Wright/e/B00DVKGG4K%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_sc...
His author information web site is here: http://www.tilmerwrightjr.com/