it also gave me an excuse for a kick-ass tattoo

Then, in a fit of empirical “looking behind the curtains” of pseudoscience (I’m sure you all get that sometimes), I discovered an interesting fact.

I am not a Sagittarius at all! Astronomically speaking, the star sign that the sun was “in” on the day of my birth is Ophiuchus.

At present, the Sun is in Ophiuchus from November 30 to December 17.

So not only do I have an interesting curveball answer when people ask me my sign, but it’s actually based on their own beliefs, which (like many superstitions) are not very carefully examined by the believers.

Also, I get a little wry delight from the fact that my sign is the snake – that noble creature that persuaded the mythical first humans to eat from the tree of knowledge.

Ceryle, that’s an interesting point. I haven’t learned my six-month-old daughter’s sign either. Yay for us!

I instinctively read my own Pisces’ blurb first.

Am I the only person who does this?

Nope, Hemant, I always read your horoscope first.

When it’s a parody such as on The Onion then I’ll read them all because they’re hilarious.

One thing I like to do is to bait astrology fans. When somebody earnestly asks me what is my sign, I always answer with a random choice of any of the eleven signs that I am not. After they say, “Oh I knew you were that!” and tell me in detail why they knew that because of my personality or whatever, I reveal that I lied.

As a little astronomical note, in the centuries since the “sun signs” were organized into specific calendar dates, because of a motion called precession the sun has gradually creeped out of those constellations into the preceding constellations. So while the newspaper horoscopes say that if your birthday falls between February 19 and March 20 you are a Pisces, the sun is actually in the preceding constellation of Aquarius. All the guideline dates are a full constellation off. So if you’re supposed to be a certain “sun sign” because the sun was actually in that sign when you were born, then everybody has the wrong sign. A Pisces is really an Aquarius, an Aquarius is really a Capricorn and so on. It gets even more absurd when you consider that the constellations do not occupy equal spaces along the sun’s path, the ecliptic. Some of them are huge and some are small. There’s even a thirteenth constellation that the sun passes across that everyone ignores, Ophiuchus, the Zodiacal house that “don’t get no respect.” It’s a guy handling two snakes so maybe he was too icky to include. The sun is actually in Ophiuchus between November 30 and December 17. So if your birthday falls between those dates you are really an Ophiuchan.

Try that one on the next “what’s your sign” nincompoop.