This news story about the 13th Zodiac Sign Ophiuchus is the biggest attention astrology has had recently. This story has been in the news before, but this time it was spread like wildfire because of the internet. It has put the spotlight on common Sun Signs and how they relate to the constellations of stars.

Melissa Bell at The Washington Post has quoted me in her article in the Washington Post titled New Zodiac sign dates: Don’t switch horoscopes yet: “It is the planets moving across the backdrop of the stars which influence our lives, not the planets moving through imagined 30 degree divisions on a piece of paper.” This is from an article I wrote last year called Precession of the Equinoxes.

I don’t use astrological signs at Astrology King but I do use the tropical zodiac we are all familiar with. I use it as it was intended, as a mathematical tool to draw up the horoscope. Instead of using the Sun signs for interpretation, I look to the aspects the planets make, and to the fixed stars.

It is possible to understand astrology without using any Sun signs, in fact things become much clearer when you take the signs away, and all the baggage that has built up around the signs, such as elements, ruler-ships etc.

Astronomers and critics have a good point when they rubbish astrology, citing the constellations and precession. Their argument is logical. I was a scientist, and I am very critical. I’m also an astrologer, and like the great astronomer/astrologer Johannes Kepler, I see the value of the tropical zodiac as a measuring tool, but not the value of Sun signs.

There is a growing mass consciousness awareness of this issue. Astrology has a critical role to play in the shift in consciousness beginning to occur. We are evolving away from the zodiac sign astrology and the strict rules and regulations that are based on the 30 degree divisions.

So this big news story about the validity of astrology has the world abuzz with questions about the Sun signs. Now many people are questioning astrology and looking a bit deeper. Astrologers are being forced to defend their art, and they themselves have to look deeper. This is just the beginning of the process. The Jupiter Uranus conjunction last week has brought this new awareness about astrology. Uranus square Pluto from 2012 to 2015 may well bring fundamental changes to astrology, a major transformation.

Ophiuchus constellation spans all of Sun sign Sagittarius. As an example of how Ophiuchus affects us more than Sagittarius, check out the horoscope of Tiger Woods. He has Moon in the sign Sagittarius, but it is on the brightest star in Ophiuchus called Ras Alhague, the Head of the Serpent-charmer. This star with the Moon gives “misfortune through women, perverted tastes and mental depravity”.

The 13th Zodiac Sign Ophiuchus will appear in the mainstream news again in the future. Scientists and skeptics like the smug BBC astronomer physicist Brian Cox, continually attack astrology based on the difference between the constellation and the Signs bearing their name. Brian seem to have an intense passion to destroy astrology.

There will be many more lining up with the intent of destroying astrology, including religiously motivated politicians. Laws may be enacted to outlaw the practice of astrology on the internet or elsewhere.

The challenge for astrologers is to accept this fundamental flaw in astrology and take steps to rectify it. Otherwise, the days of astrology are numbered.