49 Fun Facts About Zodiac

The word 'zodiac' comes from a Greek word meaning what?

Zodiac comes from the Greek zōidiakos kyklos, 'circle of little animals': zōidion is the diminutive of zōion, animal, fitting a ring of signs that are mostly beasts or hybrids.

Into how many equal signs is the zodiac divided along the ecliptic?

The zodiac has 12 signs of 30° each, dividing the full 360° of the ecliptic into equal parts modelled on the months of an ancient lunisolar calendar.

The zodiac and its 360-degree measurement originated with which ancient civilisation?

The Babylonians divided the ecliptic into equal 30° signs during the first millennium BC, a 360° scheme rooted in their base-60 mathematics; Greek astronomers took it up in the 4th century BC.

What is the ecliptic?

The zodiac is the band about 8° either side of it, where the planets also travel.

Because of precession, the March equinox point has moved from Aries into which constellation?

It shifts about one degree every 72 years, a full circle in roughly 26,000 years; Hipparchus is credited with discovering it.

Which star catalogue, compiled around 1000 BC in Mesopotamia, did the zodiac draw on?

MUL.APIN, a Mesopotamian compendium named for its opening words 'the Plough', lists the constellations along the Sun's path, and the later zodiac drew on it; some figures, such as the Great Twins, are even older.

Which 2nd-century work by Ptolemy laid the basis of Western astrology?

The Almagest was his astronomy; the Tetrabiblos, 'four books', is its astrological companion.

The Dendera zodiac, a circular ceiling relief now in the Louvre, comes from which country?

The Dendera zodiac was carved about 50 BC in the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, Egypt; removed by the French in 1821, it hangs in the Louvre in Paris.

Which is the first sign of the zodiac?

The Sun enters it at the March equinox, typically March 21; it is a cardinal fire sign ruled by Mars.

What animal represents Aries?

The Latin ariēs simply means ram; the Hindu equivalent is Meṣa.

Which planet rules the second sign, the bull?

Venus rules the bull, the second sign, whose season the Sun enters around April 20; in classical astrology Venus governs love, beauty and material comfort, themes traditionally tied to this sign.

Which three signs make up the earth element?

Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn form the earth trigon, the element linked with practicality and the body; each element's three signs sit 120° apart around the zodiac.

Gemini is represented by which mythological twins?

Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri of Greek myth, were twin sons of Leda; the constellation's two brightest stars carry their names, and the Mesopotamians already called the pair the Great Twins.

What is the ruling 'planet' of the fourth sign, the crab?

The Moon rules the crab, the cardinal water sign; older charts drew the sign as a lobster, crayfish or even a turtle, and the Moon's phases were linked to its changeable temperament.

In Greek myth, Zeus placed Leo in the sky to commemorate which of Heracles' labours?

The Nemean lion, whose hide no weapon could pierce, was strangled by Heracles as his first labour; Zeus then set the beast among the stars as the lion constellation.

Virgo is associated with which figure from Greek mythology?

Astraea, the virgin star-maiden of Greek myth, was the last immortal to leave a corrupted Earth, fleeing to the heavens where she became the constellation Virgo.

Which is the only zodiac sign represented by an inanimate object?

The scales belong to Themis, Greek personification of sacred law; Libra shares Venus with Taurus.

According to Greek myth, why does the constellation Orion set just as Scorpius rises?

Orion was killed by the scorpion, so the two are never in the sky together; Scorpio is a fixed water sign.

Which sign completes the fire trigon with Aries and Leo?

Sagittarius, the archer, is the third fire sign; the Sun enters it around November 22, and it is traditionally ruled by Jupiter.

Capricorn is ruled by which planet?

Saturn rules Capricorn in traditional astrology, as it does the water-bearer; the sea-goat's season begins at the December solstice.

What is the opposite sign of Aquarius?

Aquarius is ruled by Saturn in traditional astrology and Uranus in modern astrology.

Which figure from Greek myth did the Aquarius water carrier come to represent?

Ganymede, the Trojan prince carried off by Zeus in the form of an eagle to be cupbearer of the gods, became the Greek identity of the water-bearer; in Mesopotamia the figure had been the god Ea (Enki) pouring water.

The astrological symbol for the twelfth sign shows two fish joined by what?

The two fish are tied by a string (or cord) at their tails, a detail from the myth of Aphrodite and Eros leaping into the Euphrates as fish, bound together so as not to lose each other.

In Western astrology, which planet traditionally rules both Gemini and Virgo?

Mercury, the swift messenger planet, traditionally rules both Gemini and Virgo, the two mutable signs linked with communication and analysis; the five classical planets each rule two signs.

Which constellation has been proposed as a '13th sign' of the zodiac?

Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer, straddles the ecliptic between the scorpion and the archer, with the Sun in front of it from about November 30 to December 18; Steven Schmidt pushed it as a sign in his 1970 book Astrology 14.

Which body did Schmidt and Berg suggest as the ruler of their proposed 13th sign?

The 13-sign idea took off in Japan in the 1990s via Walter Berg and Mark Yazaki.

What does it mean to be 'on the cusp' in astrology?

The solar disc is about half a degree wide, so it can genuinely sit across the boundary at the moment of birth.

How long is an astrological 'age', such as the Age of Aquarius, said to last?

An astrological age lasts about 2,160 years, the time the equinox point takes to drift back through one 30° sign; the Age of Aquarius is said to follow the current age.

The Chinese zodiac assigns an animal to each what?

The Chinese zodiac assigns an animal to each year, cycling through the full set of animals before repeating; the same animals are also mapped onto months and the two-hour divisions of the day.

Which animal traditionally comes first in the Chinese zodiac?

The Rat comes first: in the legend of the great race it rode across the river on the Ox's back and leapt ahead at the finish line, beating the Ox to first place.

In legend, who held the race that decided the order of the Chinese zodiac animals?

In the legend the Jade Emperor, ruler of heaven, summoned the animals to a race across a river and ranked them by finishing order; historians think the animals were attached later to the Earthly Branches of the calendar.

How long is the full Chinese cycle that combines the twelve Earthly Branches with the ten Heavenly Stems?

The sexagenary cycle runs 60 years: ten Heavenly Stems paired with twelve Earthly Branches give 60 distinct combinations before the sequence repeats, so a person's birth combination returns at age 60.

Which animal replaces the Rabbit in the Vietnamese zodiac?

The Cat takes the Rabbit's place in Vietnam, perhaps because the Chinese branch name mao sounded like the Vietnamese word for cat, meo; the Water Buffalo likewise stands in for the Ox.

Which British astrologer's 1930 horoscope for the newborn Princess Margaret launched the sun-sign column?

The Sunday Express had asked Cheiro, who was unavailable, so his assistant Naylor wrote 'What The Stars Foretell For The New Princess' and a regular column followed.

The word 'horoscope' comes from Greek words meaning what?

Horoscope comes from the Greek hōroskopos, 'time observer', from hōra (hour, time) and skopos (watcher): originally the point of the ecliptic rising at the hour of birth.

Which planet do modern astrologers name as the ruler of Aquarius?

Modern astrologers assign Uranus, discovered by William Herschel in 1781, to Aquarius as its ruler, linking the planet with innovation and upheaval; traditional astrology keeps the older ruler.

Which Roman writer attacked astrology in his treatise De Divinatione?

Cicero's De Divinatione (44 BC) attacks astrology with the twins argument, that people born at the same moment lead different lives, and notes that soldiers with different birth stars died together at Cannae.

Antares, the brightest star of Scorpius, is often called what?

Antares, 'rival of Ares' for its reddish colour, marks the heart of the scorpion and carries the Latin name Cor Scorpii; the tail-tip star Lesath takes its name from the Arabic for 'sting'.

The Pleiades star cluster sits in which zodiac constellation?

The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters (Messier 45), ride on the shoulder of the bull in Taurus, about 444 light-years away with more than 1,000 member stars; the Hyades mark the bull's face nearby.

Spica, the brightest star of Virgo, represents what in the maiden's hand?

Spica, the brightest star of Virgo, marks an ear of wheat held by the maiden; its name is Latin for 'ear of grain', echoing Virgo's ancient link with the harvest.

Roughly how long does one full cycle of Earth's axial precession take?

One precession cycle takes roughly 26,000 years (about 25,800), the equinox point drifting about one degree every 72 years; the wobble was measured by comparing star positions across centuries.

Who is usually credited in the West with discovering the precession of the equinoxes?

Hipparchus of Nicaea, working around 130 BC, compared his star positions with older records and found the equinoxes drifting westward, the first Western account of precession.

What is Hindu astrology traditionally called?

Jyotisha, literally 'light' or 'heavenly body', is one of the six Vedangas, the auxiliary disciplines of Vedic study; unlike Western practice it uses a sidereal zodiac tied to the fixed stars.

Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun is in Leo during roughly which dates?

The Sun occupies the lion's sign from about July 23 or 24 to August 22 or 23; it is the fifth sign, spanning 120° to 150° of celestial longitude.

Which sign spans 90° to 120° of celestial longitude, roughly June 22 to July 23?

Cancer is the fourth sign, from 90° to 120°, which the Sun enters at the June solstice; its symbol is the crab Karkinos, crushed by Heracles while he fought the Hydra.

In astrology, what is the aspect formed by two planets at the same celestial longitude?

A conjunction is two planets at or near the same celestial longitude; the other major aspects are the opposition (180°), trine (120°), square (90°) and sextile (60°).

Which sign is the third of the fixed signs, after the bull and the lion?

Scorpio is the third fixed sign, coming in mid-autumn; the fixed signs fall in the middle of each season, after the cardinal signs that open them.

Which Hindu festival marks the Sun entering Capricorn each January?

Makara Sankranti marks the Sun's entry into Makara, the Sanskrit name for the sea-goat's sign, on January 13, 14 or 15; it is one of the few Hindu festivals fixed by the solar calendar.

Which philosopher's falsifiability criterion is used to classify astrology as pseudoscience?

Karl Popper used astrology as his prime example of a pseudoscience: its vague predictions cannot be falsified by any observation, the test he set out in the 1930s for genuine science.