Sun sign astrology explained

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. 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.

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] [4]} basis and experimental verification of claims^{[5] [6]} have shown it to have no scientific validity or explanatory power.^[7]

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]
	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) – 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) – 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

• Traditional planets in brackets

See also

• Sun sign
• Ascendant
• Horoscopic astrology
• Horoscope

Notes and References

1. Encyclopedia: Sven Ove Hansson . Edward N. Zalta . Science and Pseudo-Science . Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . 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. . The relationship between date of birth and individual differences in personality and general intelligence: A large-scale study . Personality and Individual Differences . May 2006 . 40 . 7 . 1349–1362 . 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. Book: Vishveshwara, edited by S.K. Biswas, D.C.V. Mallik, C.V. . Cosmic Perspectives: Essays Dedicated to the Memory of M.K.V. Bappu . 1989 . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge, England . 978-0-521-34354-1 . 1. publ..
4. Book: Peter D. Asquith . Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, vol. 1 . 1978 . Reidel . Dordrecht . 978-0-917586-05-7 .

   Web site: Chapter 7: Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding . science and engineering indicators 2006 . National Science Foundation . 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. . bot: unknown . https://web.archive.org/web/20130201220040/https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind06/c7/c7s2.htm . 1 February 2013 . dmy.

5. Carlson . Shawn . A double-blind test of astrology . Nature . 1985 . 318 . 419–425 . 10.1038/318419a0 . 6045 . 1985Natur.318..419C. 5135208 .
6. Zarka . Philippe . Astronomy and astrology . Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union . 2011 . 5 . S260 . 420–425 . 10.1017/S1743921311002602. 2011IAUS..260..420Z . free .
7. Book: Jeffrey Bennett . Megan Donohue . Nicholas Schneider . Mark Voit . The cosmic perspective . registration . 2007 . Pearson/Addison-Wesley . San Francisco, CA . 978-0-8053-9283-8 . 82–84 . 4th.
8. Web site: 1985-07-05. 40 Million Readers : Horoscopes: Fans Bask in Sun Signs. 2021-10-21. Los Angeles Times. en-US.
9. Web site: Membery. York. 2010-08-29. Horoscopes: Tales of the expected. 2021-10-21. Express.co.uk. en.
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. Web site: What Are the Real Dates for Astrology Signs? . 2023-03-12 . 2012-04-23.
12. Web site: Astrology Chart Generator . astrologyweekly.com . 2004-04-27 . 2012-04-23.
13. Web site: Astrology 101: What Are the Real Dates for Astrology Signs? . gryphonastrology.com . 2009-07-05 . 2012-04-23 . 2018-10-22 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181022131049/http://gryphonastrology.com/blog/2009/07/05/astrology-101-what-are-the-real-dates-for-astrology-signs/ . dead .
14. Book: Zerner , Amy . Sun Sign Secrets: The Complete Astrology Guide to Love, Work, and Your Future. Weiser Books. 2014. 9781578635610. 665 Third Street Suite 400 San Francisco, CA 94107. 42, 64, 127.