Astrology
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Sun sign astrology, or star sign astrology, is a modern simplified system of Western astrology which considers only the position of the Sun at birth, which is said to be placed within one of the twelve zodiac signs, rather than the positions of the sun and the other six 'planets'. This sign is then called the sun sign or star sign of the person born in that twelfth-part of the year. Sun sign astrologers take this basic twelve-fold division and relate all the current movements of all the planets to each other, using traditional rules to divine meanings for each sign separately.[citation needed] Because the Moon has the fastest apparent movement of all the heavenly bodies, it is often used as the main indicator of daily trends for sun sign astrology forecasts.[citation needed]

Sun sign astrology is a pseudoscience[1][2] and the form of astrology most commonly found in many newspaper and magazine columns. Scientific investigations of the theoretical[3]: 249,  [4] basis and experimental verification of claims[5][6] have shown it to have no scientific validity or explanatory power.[7]: 85,  

History

Although William Lilly in the 17th century was the first newspaper astrologer, it isn't known exactly when sun sign astrology first began. However, it was largely popularized by horoscopes which began appearing in English newspapers in the 1930s. Astrologer R. H. Naylor was claimed to have accurately predicted events surrounding the birth of Princess Margaret and the crash of the R101 airship in his horoscopes featured in The Sunday Express.[8] By 1937, Naylor began writing a regular column for the paper called Your Stars, which featured horoscopes based on the 12 star signs.[9]

Sun signs

The following table[10] shows the zodiac names in Latin, with their English translation and the individuals' names. It also shows the element and quality associated with each sign. The starting and ending dates of the sun sign are approximate, as they may differ from one year to another (by a day or so), due to the fact that the Earth's orbit around the Sun is not synchronous with Earth's rotation (one year does not comprehend a whole number of days).[11][12] The exact date and time of sign entrance/exit (which is corresponded to the 12 "mid-climates" within Chinese lunisolar calendar) must be obtained with appropriate software or with the help of an ephemeris.

Symbol Sign names Individuals' names English name Element Quality

(modality)

Polarity Associated

celestial body

Period of sun sign with approx. dates

1/2 days variation[13][12]

Capricorn Capricorn The Mountain Sea-Goat Earth Cardinal Negative Saturn Winter Solstice (December 22) – the day before Great Cold
Aquarius Aquarian The Water-Bearer Air Fixed Positive Uranus (Saturn) Great Cold (January 20) – the day before Vernal Showers
Pisces Piscean The Fish Water Mutable Negative Neptune (Jupiter) Vernal Showers (February 19) – the day before Vernal Equinox
Aries Arian/Arien The Ram Fire Cardinal Positive Mars Vernal Equinox (March 21) – the day before Corn Rain
Taurus Taurean The Bull Earth Fixed Negative Venus/Earth Corn Rain (April 20 – the day before Corn Forms)
Gemini Geminian The Twins Air Mutable Positive Mercury Corn Forms (May 21)[14] – the day before Summer Solstice
Cancer Cancerian The Crab Water Cardinal Negative Moon Summer Solstice (June 21)[14] – the day before Great Heat
Leo Leo The Lion Fire Fixed Positive Sun Great Heat (July 24) – the day before End of Heat
Virgo Virgin The Maiden Earth Mutable Negative Mercury End of Heat (August 23) – the day before Autumnal Equinox
Libra Libran The Scales Air Cardinal Positive Venus Autumnal Equinox (September 23)[14] – the day before First Frost
Scorpio Scorpio The Scorpion Water Fixed Negative Pluto (Mars) First Frost (October 23) – the day before Light Snow
Sagittarius Sagittarian The Archer Fire Mutable Positive Jupiter Light Snow (November 23) – the day before Winter Solstice

See also

References

  1. ^ Sven Ove Hansson; Edward N. Zalta. "Science and Pseudo-Science". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 6 July 2012. There is widespread agreement for instance that creationism, astrology, homeopathy, Kirlian photography, dowsing, ufology, ancient astronaut theory, Holocaust denialism, Velikovskian catastrophism, and climate change denialism are pseudosciences.
  2. ^ Hartmann, P.; Reuter, M.; Nyborga, H. (May 2006). "The relationship between date of birth and individual differences in personality and general intelligence: A large-scale study". Personality and Individual Differences. 40 (7): 1349–1362. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.11.017. To optimise the chances of finding even remote relationships between date of birth and individual differences in personality and intelligence we further applied two different strategies. The first one was based on the common chronological concept of time (e.g. month of birth and season of birth). The second strategy was based on the (pseudo-scientific) concept of astrology (e.g. Sun Signs, The Elements, and astrological gender), as discussed in the book Astrology: Science or superstition? by Eysenck and Nias (1982).
  3. ^ Vishveshwara, edited by S.K. Biswas, D.C.V. Mallik, C.V. (1989). Cosmic Perspectives: Essays Dedicated to the Memory of M.K.V. Bappu (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-34354-1. ((cite book)): |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Peter D. Asquith, ed. (1978). Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, vol. 1 (PDF). Dordrecht: Reidel. ISBN 978-0-917586-05-7.; "Chapter 7: Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding". science and engineering indicators 2006. National Science Foundation. Archived from the original on 1 February 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2016. About three-fourths of Americans hold at least one pseudoscientific belief; i.e., they believed in at least 1 of the 10 survey items[29]"... " Those 10 items were extrasensory perception (ESP), that houses can be haunted, ghosts/that spirits of dead people can come back in certain places/situations, telepathy/communication between minds without using traditional senses, clairvoyance/the power of the mind to know the past and predict the future, astrology/that the position of the stars and planets can affect people's lives, that people can communicate mentally with someone who has died, witches, reincarnation/the rebirth of the soul in a new body after death, and channeling/allowing a "spirit-being" to temporarily assume control of a body.((cite web)): CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ Carlson, Shawn (1985). "A double-blind test of astrology" (PDF). Nature. 318 (6045): 419–425. Bibcode:1985Natur.318..419C. doi:10.1038/318419a0. S2CID 5135208.
  6. ^ Zarka, Philippe (2011). "Astronomy and astrology". Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union. 5 (S260): 420–425. Bibcode:2011IAUS..260..420Z. doi:10.1017/S1743921311002602.
  7. ^ Jeffrey Bennett; Megan Donohue; Nicholas Schneider; Mark Voit (2007). The cosmic perspective (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pearson/Addison-Wesley. pp. 82–84. ISBN 978-0-8053-9283-8.
  8. ^ "40 Million Readers : Horoscopes: Fans Bask in Sun Signs". Los Angeles Times. 1985-07-05. Retrieved 2021-10-21.
  9. ^ Membery, York (2010-08-29). "Horoscopes: Tales of the expected". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-10-21.
  10. ^ "Zodiac." McGraw–Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. The McGraw–Hill Companies, Inc., 2005. Answers.com 29 Nov. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/zodiac
  11. ^ "What Are the Real Dates for Astrology Signs?". 2023-03-12. Retrieved 2012-04-23.
  12. ^ a b "Astrology Chart Generator". astrologyweekly.com. 2004-04-27. Retrieved 2012-04-23.
  13. ^ "Astrology 101: What Are the Real Dates for Astrology Signs?". gryphonastrology.com. 2009-07-05. Archived from the original on 2018-10-22. Retrieved 2012-04-23.
  14. ^ a b c Zerner, Amy (2014). Sun Sign Secrets: The Complete Astrology Guide to Love, Work, and Your Future. 665 Third Street Suite 400 San Francisco, CA 94107: Weiser Books. pp. 42, 64, 127. ISBN 9781578635610.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location (link)
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