No, not really: The science is nothing new and has no impact on western astrology. The truth is that the current media sensationalism about the signs changing is due to some scientists vocally stating interesting (they noticed something, did some math, and wanted to be on the News. Bully on them.) facts that are actually irrelevant to astrology (and were known in ancient times).
A reliable more detailed explanation of this:
http://www.astro.com/astrology/in_ophiuchus_e.htm
Yes there was a 13th sign. Why that changed and why the energy/acknowledgment of it seems to be starting to come back a bit is read-up-able-- There also didn't used to be a Neptune, Uranus, Pluto- but they fit extremely well into the system, and yet as slow moving gas-giants aren't necessarily considered the more personal signifiers. In such cases one must take into account the evolving energies in the world and the point and time things are "discovered", ie. new focus and consciousness congeals and emerges, etc.
Ptolomy was totally aware of the gradual degree shift of the constellations due to gravitational pull -- and the astrological system is NOT and was not based on the celestial position of the actual constellations in the sky, but rather on SEASONAL MARKERS of the sun (degrees), where the constellations/signs are archetypes that note them and embody their symbolism (signifying very relevant archetypal conditions of the environment on earth at a certain time).
It’s kind of a pain in the ass to get through linguistic explanations: because it’s cosmology. That’s why they made complicated pretty clock-calendars before the internet—And unlike scientific cosmology it’s invisible so drawing little
colored balls around a big yellow ball isn’t as easy because society isn’t reaffirming for you that those colored balls are actually tangible.
This is all relevant to a cyclical conception of time and cosmology (vs. time simply being a linear meaningless machine-fed concept), as there are different archetypal conditions within a process. Astrology is simply saying that this is reflexive and true internally as it is externally in nature. Like Jungian psychology and many many other things that aren't Patriarchal Christianity or the Scientific Method. Simple.
Environment affects us. That is a basic tenant of the way our culture is formed. Both our internal and external culture. And a hermetic creed that acts as a lynch-pin for the justification of astrology "As above, so below" (see the Emerald Tablet) -- is not a way of saying: "the stars do this so this is going to happen on earth!"(that is in fact a huge mis-conception, and anthropologically, culturally outmoded, outdated, ignorant way of viewing rites and symbolic systems). It is simply saying, 'As outside, so inside-- and vise vera.' - in the big and the little ways, the visible and the invisible, and nothing more. Astrology is a cyclical relativistic system and is at a battle of reconciliation with our linear Western time-frames.
Basically what we are dealing with here is the continued aftermath of re-integrating relativity into a world and culture very much conditioned into linear cognitive processes, and this is a prime example of the chaos and confusion that results from smashing the unconscious (magic) and rationality (science) back together so they can make glorious rainbow babies. Then end. You're still what you were before and always will be (duh, but point being you have evolutionary growth and changes in nature and being constantly and that's nothing new and has never effected the definition of a "sun sign").
Astrology just says: these were the exact conditions of the world at the second you chose to launch yourself screaming whilly nilly into it and said YES TO LIIIFFFE!! The biggest "leap of faith" there in my mind is that your soul knows what it is and where it needs to be...which to me is what holds the fabric of molecules and the universe together and is just physics.
...You can also easily get your chart *progressed* to see the current astrological states/evolution/change of the "cosmic coordinates" you were born into, which is simply a comment on the natural archetypal progression and growth of energy. Because everything is always different. But not the time you (ahem...) "chose" to be born.
May the force be with you.
Yes. You love this picture.
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