By Cal Garrison
This week’s horoscopes are coming out on the day that the Sun enters Libra, under the light of a Cancer Moon.
It might be time to talk about cusp lines. Why? Because as of the 23rd of September and you will notice that the date for the sun’s movement from one sign to another does not fit the standard mold this month.
For some reason the people who took it upon themselves to homogenize or standardize astrology have led us to believe that the sun changes signs between the 20th and 21st or between the 21st and the 22nd of each month. This leads us to assume that we are one sign or another based on those guidelines — but that is not the case.
Every year, depending on when the sun crosses the ecliptic at the Vernal equinox, the signs change anywhere between the 19th and the 23rd and sometimes between the 18th and the 24th of each month. This is not regular from month to month and the dates are not fixed or constant from year to year. Why?
1) Because the sun’s rate of motion fluctuates
2) Because the earth’s rate of motion is not constant
3) Because the earth is not a perfect sphere
Astrologers who make it their business to write regular weekly forecasts are required to pick the dates that we favor. This usually depends on who taught them. From a generic perspective, ultimately it is of no consequence which dates we choose, and no one can claim that their choice is the only one. I go with the 21st to the 20th—and I don’t feel compelled to conform to anyone else’s choice of dates because it would be so easy to prove either them, or me, wrong by simply looking at any year in the ephemeris.
In a personal horoscope, when the exactness of the date and time make a big difference in the interpretation, it’s important to know exactly when the sun changes signs. In broad brush, for mass consumption, weekly astrology columns exactness becomes oxymoronic. Why? Because as John Lydgate said: “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” Let me add that it is just as impossible to make generalizations about things that are specific and subject to variable astronomical fluctuations from month to month, and from year to year.
I run into many people who spend their whole lives thinking that they are a Gemini, when in fact they are a Cancer or a Taurus. I also run into people who get upset about it when they discover that they were born under a sign that they don’t find attractive. The latter is particularly true of those who always thought that they were a Leo or a Libra and find out that they are a Virgo. It also holds true for those who always thought they were a Sagittarius or an Aquarian and wake up to find that they are really a Capricorn.
Don’t ask me why, but from what I have observed, no one wants to be a Virgo or a Capricorn!
With all of the above in mind, it might be interesting for those of you whose birthdays fall close to the cusp lines of any sign, to double-check your dates.
I invite you to take what you can from this week’s ‘scopes.
