I gotta rant, coz I recently heard the (bogus) news about the new 13th Zodiac, Ophiuchus. Hell, Ive even had friends and family members go out of their way to call me and discuss it with me. Now Im gonna rant why its total and utter bullcrap.

All it takes is one uneducated comment, to spur the world into a panic attack. And thats just what the announcement that there is a 13th Zodiac was – an uneducated comment. They failed to mention the part where it was Vedic Astrology, and here, we use Tropical (and personally, I think they need to print a retract… but thats a different story)

Ive studied western astrology for damn near my entire life, ever since I was young (as Im Pagan) However, I dont consider myself to be an expert, by any means, as I haven’t completely devoted my life to it. For a short time in my studying, I looked at Vedic Astrology (although, I found it to be terribly inaccurate and quickly reverted) And yes, Ive even studied Serpentarius the Snake Bearer long before now, as its been a controversial subject in the Astrological community for years. I even counted it in a series of Zodiac images Ive been working on for the better of a year. But most Westernized astrologers don’t count it – it is part of the Sidereal Zodiac, and only 1 percent of the Westernized populous adhere to Vedic Astrology. Some who dabble with Astrology purely on a superficial level might actually take it into account in some form or another, coz hey, it sounds cooler than their own sign… or coz theyre adhereing to the rules of ASTRONOMY and not ASTROLOGY.

So what is Vedic Astrology? Well, its the type of Astrology they teach in India. Western Astrology is based on the Tropical Zodiac, which affixes the signs to our seasons – with Vedic, it is based on the Sidereal Zodiac, and the signs are affixed to the Constellations. The reason Westerners adhere to the Seasons, is because the seasons are what affect us the most, so it centralizes the planetary energy to our location – planet Earth. And this will never change, as our seasons will never change. When you affix the signs to the Constellations, its a little too wide ranged and changable over time, from the Earth wobbling. The result of that is sudden claims that a new sign has been inducted, and the entire system has now changed (well, in reality, Ophiuchus isn’t really new to Vedic Astrology – but the possibility of even newer concepts being introduced to the system in the future is not only prevalent – its inevitable)

Western Astrology is a delicate balance; of elements, numerology, mathematics and dates and this is WHY it works so well and how it tends to be so accurate. You have 4 elements, and 3 signs in each element, all nice and even – but with Ophiuchus tossed in, you have an oddball. Where does it go? Is it Air, Earth, Fire or Water? Or is it a completely different element? If its that latter…. well how does that work? 5 elements? Only one sign ruled by this odd, made-up element? What about the other signs, and why is Serpentarius soooo special? If its not configured to a new element, than I go back to my original thought – which element gets an extra sign? And why is it sooooo special? There is also a certain order the elements go in; fire, earth, air and water. And it repeats that pattern throughout the Zodiac, in order of the signs. You stick Serpentarius in, and you have a double somewhere. Or you completely mess up the pattern, otherwise.

Beyond that, there are also 12 houses for 12 signs. So which house gets the extra sign? And why does that house not fit with Ophiuchus either? (each house meaning fits each sign, characteristically, and in the same exact order that the Zodiac goes) Since each sign gets its own house cusp, it’s most likely that in Vedic Astrology, Serpentarius creates a 13th house. But what IS that the house of? Given how little information is available on Serpentarius, I fail to see how one could even accurately create a new house cusp, and make it understandable to the masses to even follow Vedic Astrology. And having this new house cusp thrown in, would change all the other placements in a chart as well, as some would now land in Serpentarius’ house. So everything you thought you knew about yourself, changes. And it changes everytime the system changes coz of the Earth wobbling. It might not be so bad, if they counted from that moment forth, but they don’t – its counted retroactively.

And houses aside, which planet gets doubled up to also rule Ophiuchus? And do any of them even fit? Or do we start counting Planets that were well out of orb, and dropping others that are now out of orb?

Ill go even further – when you add Serpentarius in, it cuts the dates short for Scorpio – which means its not a very long transit til the sign changes, which results in less people possibly being Scorpio (yet many of them will claim they are Scorpio to a T) But its the ONLY sign that gets cut short. Coz the balance is lost. The Scorpio transit LASTS 6 days with Serpentarius figured in – while the rest are nearly the normal month long.

You toss an odd 13th sign into the mix and it completely screws the balance up. People who felt their traits were true to their sign, are no longer accurate anymore with Serpentarius thrown in (and you can see as much, given the outcry from the community, when it was mistakenly announced there was now a 13th Zodiac) It not only alters your sun sign, but YOUR ENTIRE CHART. And you are no longer who you obviously are and Astrology no longer works accurately.

So how do the characteristics work? Do the names of the signs only change, so that the traits of Gemini are now the traits of Taurus? Well, duplicity rules the twins (hence the name and symbol) and that doesnt fit with a bull now, does it? So you can’t just change a name. Yet, you can’t really change the sign, either. Coz then, the person no longer fits the traits. Sidereal Astrology claims that the entire characteristics of the sign change, so Gemini now becomes Taurus. So the person stays true to form; but their sign changes. But you can see how that doesn’t work.

And here is another question – why even consider this specific cosntellation at all? I mean, there are tons of other constellations in the sky, and Im sure another that crosses the Ecliptic… why don’t we toss those in as well? With the planetary shift, surely theres another that could be viably shoved into place. So why does Ophiuchus get the spotlight?

All these questions are easily answered, however. Astrology and Astronomy are NOT the same thing, and while they may seem synonymous, they’re not. And this is why I personally feel that Vedic Astrology does not work. Who am I to say? Well, Astrology isn’t a science; its more of a (somewhat) religious belief or (moreover) a philosophical pursuit…. and like both of those things, it comes down to faith, and opinion gained through personal experience. My experience has been that it is not accurate… at all. And I can only govern myself accordingly.