Where do the zodiac signs come from?
The zodiac dates back to civilizations as ancient as Egypt, Greece, China, India, and Mesopotamia. In fact, it is the Babylonians who are going to create the zodiacal signs.
They are going to be based on the position of the stars for their creation, what we know as a constellation: set of stars that shape an object, animal, in which it was very likely that these chosen stars had no relationship between them at all
From then on, stargazing will be known as astrology, not to be confused with astronomy.
Astrology is not considered a science, since it is based on the belief that depending on the position of the stars and planets, it can influence the personality of a human being.
Early ideas of astronomy in Babylonia
If we think about it, it is proven that the phases of the moon affect the tidal waves. Why couldn't the constellations affect our emotions and personality according to the moment in which we are born?
What the Babylonians did to create the zodiac was quite simple, their calendar had 12 months, because it is established according to the solar cycles, therefore 12 constellations were chosen, that is, 12 signs.
But what we did not know until recently is that there were other constellations that should be within the zodiacal set, such as Ophiuchus, which were left out of the zodiac.
Babylonian calendar
12 signs but 13 zodiacal constellations or more, this means that we find ourselves in the sky with more constellations than signs in the zodiac.
Why don't they match the number of zodiacal constellations with the number of signs?
This choice of 12 signs according to the number of months, in which the sun would pass through these 12 constellations once a year, causes each month to be assigned a sign.
What the Babylonians did not calculate is the exact amount of time that they will be exposed to sunlight, since the constellations will vary in size and shape. For example, in the case of Virgo, the sun passes through this constellation for 45 days, however, with Scorpio it only points for 7 days.
That is why new constellations would be incorporated that are also exposed to the sun in their translation (which lasts approximately one year), which explains why 12 signs are not enough.
Given the new discovery of these constellations that are outside the zodiac, many people have wondered if their sign is still the same.
To this, we can assure that the sky that our Babylonian friends saw is not the same as today after 3000 years, since the inclination of the earth has varied a little since that time.
Between Ofiuco and the change of axis at the poles of the earth, it can be affirmed that the place of the constellations is not the same, with that the reading of the sky would change, and according to science, our zodiac signs
Given all of the above, we can say that, despite the arbitrary choice of signs, we can see that there is a relationship between the position of the stars with respect to our personalities and the date on which we first saw the world.
So don't worry, we have the option to keep the same sign that we have had during our lives, or include all the new variants and tell us about this new search for what your zodiac sign would be today.
For that we leave you these excellent star maps in different formats:
puzzles
Globe
Leaf.
Tapestry
Information extracted from:
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-12207811
https://nasa.tumblr.com/post/150688852794/zodiac
https://culturacolectiva.com/historia/el-origen-de-los-signos-zodiacales-mas-alla-de-lo-banal
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