Every day at 12:15pm, my phone lights up with a notification telling me that the daily horoscope for my sign, Capricorn, is ready to be read. And every day at 12:15pm, I take the time to read it. But now, apparently, I should be getting the Sagittarius horoscope sent to me. According to multiple sources, NASA has added a new zodiac sign, which means that your sign, like mine, might have changed. Surprise! Hope you like when your whole life is turned upside-down!
In January (yes, nine months ago), NASA released a blog post stating that for the past 2000+ years, there has been a thirteenth constellation in the zodiac that has been essentially ignored. This thirteenth sign falls between Scorpio (October 23-November 21) and Sagittarius (November 22-December 21), altering the zodiac sign for a ton of people. If you were born between November 29 and December 17, you are now officially a Opiuchus. Congratulations, you messed everything up for the rest of us.
When the Babylonians made their zodiac calendar all those years ago, they were using a moon-based calendar that correlated with the twelve constellations of the zodiac. However, NASA states that “even then, some of the chosen 12 didn’t fit neatly into their assigned slice of the pie and slopped over into the next one,” so the astrologists decided to say boy, bye to Opiuchus.
This decision worked out fine for awhile (a couple thousand years, NBD), but the sky isn’t the same now as it was then and the Earth’s axis is now pointing in a new direction. Because of that movement, Opiuchus was reintroduced and the dates for each zodiac sign has changed. Here’s how the new breakdown works out:
Capricorn: Jan 20 – Feb 16
Aquarius: Feb 16 – March 11
Pisces: March 11 – April 18
Aries: April 18 – May 13
Taurus: May 13 – June 21
Gemini: June 21 – July 20
Cancer: July 20 – Aug 10
Leo: Aug 10 – Sept 16
Virgo: Sept 16 – Oct 30
Libra: Oct 30 – Nov 23
Scorpio: Nov 23 – Nov 29
Ophiuchus: Nov 29 – Dec 17
Sagittarius: Dec 17 – Jan 20
There you have it, folks. If you’re one of the unlucky people (like me) whose sign changed, it’s hard not to feel like everything you’ve ever known is a lie. Do I still read Capricorn horoscopes or do I have to switch to Sagittarius? Has every horoscope I’ve ever read been a lie? What if I really, really like being a Capricorn and I don’t think I work with Sagittarius? These are the questions that haunt me.