The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-01-27


Ice. "debunking" astroIogy)
BIZ Science Service
The "astrologer" who forecasts
what is going to happen to you, as
a result Of your having been born
under the sign Of the crab, the
scorpion, the bull, or some other
animal, fails to take into account
one rather important little detail.
The stars have moved. The con-
stellations are not where they used
to be.
Therefore, when the "astrologer"
proclaims what is in store for a
man born at certain time on a
particular date Of our era, he is
few thousand years too late. He is
dealing with the heavens as they
were in the time of old King Tut,
or maybe even Old King Cole, that
merry old soul!
The heavens have changed, but
not the astrologers.
What the Zodiac
Fundamental in astrology is the
position of the sun snd planets at
the time Of the subjects birth.
Their position is considered among
the signs of the zodiac. Perhaps
you have seen these signs repre-
sented in patent medicine alma
Tnn cfFTsrCfIfaflifier ~ rrrAn1Af11ad oFad
partly diSsected, human figure, with
lines pointing to the part of the
body that each sign is supposed to
control.
The zodiac means "the circle of
animals" 1t is a band of sixteen
degrees wide in the sky, and
through it the sun and moon and
planets always move. All the con-
stellations that form it, except one,
are names of living creatures,
hence the origin of its name.
In order, the consultations are:
Aries, the ram; Taurus, the bull;
Genini, the twins; Cancer, the
crab; Leo, the lion; Virgo, the
virgin; Libra, the scales, Scorpio,
the scorpion; Sagittarius, the
archer; Aquarius, the water bearer,
and Pisces, the fishes.
Date Back to Babylon
Many of these names date from
the time of the Babylonians, three
or four thousand years ago. Then,
Of course, the "sign" of Aries, for
instance, was just the same as the
constellation. But today this is not
the case. The sign of Aries now is
IN the next-door constellation of
Pisces.
This is because of a slow sliding
of all the consultations around the
omer calls procession" In 25,800
years they make a complete circuit.
Therefore, sometime around the
year $4,000, signs and consultations
once more will be together
Only by that time another mo-
ton, of the stars among themselves,
SO will distort the consultations
that they will look very different
from what they do today.
The modern astrologer talks glibly
about planetary vibrations joining
with the vibrations of the stars, sand
so producing an effect on a person
born at a certain moment. But what
he considers is merely the sign that
a planet, not the constellation, is in.
Behind His Predecessors
If this science" has any real
claim to that title, it certainly would
be the stars among which the planet
is seen, not its position among
signs that now are purely arbitrary.
In this respect, incidentally, the
modern astrologer is not as pro-
gressive as his Babylonian prede-
cessor. A couple of thousand years
before the study fourished in Baby
Ion, the constellation Taurus marked
what is now the sign of Aries and
the constellation of Pisces.
The Egyptian astrologer began his
zodiac with Taurus. So, even though
the Babylonian astrologer was no
more able really to predict the fu-
ture from the stars, he as least was
consistent enough to consider the
heavens as they were at that time.
AS much can not be said for his
modern successor.