The source of the claim that, remember, had ‘everyone freaking out’, was a

I let out a sigh, or maybe a quiet groan, and prepared for the same news cycle that happens once every five years or so. Shortly after that another friend brought my attention to it, then my sister living on the other side of the world. In that mysterious way that these things happen, the ‘news’ had started to spread.

The source of the claim that, remember, had ‘everyone freaking out’, was a NASA article for kids warning them of the great fallacy that is astrology. Complete with this fantastic illustration that I think, back in the day, we used to call ‘clip art’, the article opens with the line, ‘Astronomers and other scientists know that stars many light years away have no effect on the ordinary activities of humans on Earth.’

The last time this article was updated was January 13, 2016. So, yeah, it’s pretty groundbreaking stuff. Like I said, once every five years or so.

As astrologers, we’re no strangers to the ridicule that comes from scientific rationalism. This is the dominant religious paradigm of our day, after all, and those that step outside of it appear as heretics and need to be taken down. Just spend another moment with this clip art picture… astrology is not a science because this white man with glasses, nice respectable clothes and a receding hairline said so. And that’s that.

The article scoffs at those foolish ancient Babylonians who just didn’t have the scientific equipment we have to know better. Of course the Universe isn’t made of meaningful stories. The rich cosmologies that our ancestors told each other, dreamed into the stars, and then flowed into the mythopoetic traditions of Ancient Greece and beyond were merely delusions of those who didn’t know better.

Like the First Peoples of North America and the Aborigines of Australia and Amazonian Tribes and…

Coming back to the claims being made to discredit astrology, it’s a two for one: There’s a 13th sign of the zodiac called Ophiuchus; and the signs of the zodiac are no longer in alignment due to the procession of the equinox.

Let’s start with the latter. I would say every true astrologer that I know is aware of the precession of the equinox. The first thing to take into account is that there are, in fact, two different systems of astrology: sidereal and tropical. The tropical system sets itself to the seasons. Thus zero degrees Aries is locked into the (northern hemisphere’s) first day of spring known as the equinox (equal night-day): March 21-22 depending on the year. This system is thus anchored to what’s known as the ‘cardinal grand cross’ - the cross made from the intersection of the equinoxes and the solstices.

Not so interested in the seasons, the sidereal system follows the constellations as they move slowly backwards over time due to the wobble of the earth on its access: approximately one degree every 72 years. Around 2,000 years ago both systems were corresponding to each other, now they’re about 22 degrees apart. Hence the claim that you’re not your ‘sign’, you’re actually the sign before. (Vedic astrology follows this system, and it’s fascinating to compare your western and eastern charts.)

So yes, if you’d like to get your Vedic chart read, your entire chart will be about 22 degrees out from your western chart.

Another effect from the precession of the equinoxes is that the ecliptic (the path that the sun and planets take along our night sky from the perspective of the earth) has slightly moved, which has meant that the toe of the constellation of Ophiuchus is now crossed by this line. Some astronomers, therefore, argue that he should now be considered the ‘13th sign’ of the zodiac.

I want to take a pause here to think about why this is so charged from the scientific rationalist perspective. I mean, the central argument against astrology, and for that matter anything that is moved to more subtle rhythms such as shamanism, ‘alternative’ healing methodologies, consulting the tarot, traditional medical practices, TCM, etc., is that ‘it’s not true because it can’t be true.’ I’ve really never heard a convincing argument against astrology that goes beyond this initial premise.

As I take that pause, there’s a longing that arises in me for a time when the poets and the mystics were deeply revered. It seems to me that rationalism and mysticism are estranged twins who have somehow been fighting for so long that they’ve forgotten they’re related. The divorce of astrology and astronomy seems an unnecessary split that has come from some sort of perverse literalism. This is why, when I hear stories of astrologers and astronomers getting together to name newly discovered heavenly bodies, it makes me think there’s some hope of reconciliation.

Back to Ophiuchus. When ancient astrologers looked at the night sky they dreamed into the constellations the shapes of certain animals, objects and people. Today, looking back, we might say that they ‘made them up’, but that’s not entirely accurate. The images that came to their mind came from deep inside of the psyche as they looked into the depth of outer space. Imagine the reverence that must have been felt in a world with so few humans, no electricity, no industrial pollution of any kind, which means no light pollution. On a new moon night the sky must have been lit up with the most majestic display of stars.

Naturally, as a story-telling species, we would have begun to translate the current myths of the times out onto the stars. So, what are myths? The modern perspective, much like the article shared above, scoffs at this infantile phase of our past and attempts to distance itself from it as much as possible. We are Homo Rationalis now. If, however, we can let that perspective relax and move to the background we can take a different approach to myth, and therefore a different approach to astrology.

When our ancestors stared up at the sky and began to share stories about the stars they were accessing, what Jung referred to as, the collective unconscious. Rather than ‘making it up’, they were accessing the fullness of the psyche that works through images and fantasy. Without the assault on the imagination that has been ramped up over the last 50 years with the advancements of technology, but perhaps can be traced back to the demonising of polytheistic traditions from thousands of years earlier, the psyche would have been free to allow images to be far more easily projected out into the cosmos.

As the journey out of Pisces (primordial chaos, the oceanic nothingness) to Aries (the big bang, something miraculously happens) and on into the great wheel of existence was imagined and developed, an early problem to the simplicity and elegance of the system would have presented itself. The zodiac signs were not equal in size. No problem, we developed a way to artificially divide the sky into 12 equal parts, 30 degrees each, making a 360 degrees circle that we would call the ecliptic.

So now here’s this ‘13th sign’, Ophiuchus, whose toes dip underneath the line of the ecliptic as shown in the picture below. He appears to have one foot on the scorpion of Scorpio and the other edging its way towards the archer of Sagittarius. His head faces the upside down Hercules head, and his snake points itself to the constellation Corona Borealis.

Although it doesn’t make sense to add him to the traditional system of astrology with 12 signs at 30 degrees, there is something mythologically significant about the collective attention being drawn to him at this time. In some ways we can imagine him as this magical 13th thing - not meant to be a part of the 12, but signally something significant with his closeness to the ecliptic. 13, after all, was always known as a magical number because of its connection to the lunar cycles - which is the reason it became demonised as something like evil in more modern times due to its link to paganism.

So, who is Ophiuchus? As it happens, it’s none other than the grandfather of modern medicine, Asclepius. His story is something I plan to go into in greater depth in this site, but here’s the brief description of his life as a taster.

Asclepius was the son of Apollo, the great Sun God, and a mortal woman, Coronis. When Coronis took a lover whilst pregnant, Apollo went into a rage and released one of his arrows that never miss the mark. Instantly regretting it when the arrow left the bow, he came down to rescue the unborn child as Coronis lay dying.

Apollo then raised the child himself, and later delivered him to his foster-son, Chiron, where he received tutelage. With a natural gift, and the support of a talented mentor, Asclepius became a world-renowned healer. So much so that he once used herbs to bring Hippolytus back from the dead. Zeus, the sky god and Asclepius’ grandfather, and Hades, god of the underworld and Asclepius’ great uncle, looked at this and said it went beyond the reach of even a demi-god. Thus, Asclepius’ life came to an end as he was struck down by one of Zeus’ thunderbolts. After an appeal from Apollo, Asclepius was given immortality by becoming the constellation: Ophiuchus.

The cult of Asclepius was formed as the western world’s first hospitals. These were temples known as Asclepeions where the sick would go for healing. A purification ritual would be performed by the priests of the cult before entering the temple. Then the person would enter the dream incubation chamber known as the Abaton, walk past the non-venomous snakes on the floor, and lie down on a bed to sleep. Asclepius would then enter the dream and either perform a healing or give instructions for how to proceed and get well.