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    1. Culture

    So your star sign is actually wrong

    There's apparently 13 signs in the Zodiac

    By Marie Claire
    Published 14 September 2016 In Features

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    There's apparently 13 signs in the Zodiac

    See yourself as a classic Taurus or a definite Virgo? Maybe you think you’re a complete and utter Leo.

    Well, get ready to have everything you thought you know completely blown out of the water.

    According to astronomers, the sky has changed from when the ancient Babylonian astrologers first viewed it, meaning that the constellations are now off by about a month – a fact NASA has now confirmed.

    This change in the skies is a result of the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun, which causes the Earth to ‘wobble’ – an effect called precession where the Earth behaves like a spinning top. As earth orbits around the sun, a different constellation appears behind it each month. So while the zodiac signs have remained in a fixed position, the constellations have drifted over time from the wobbling.

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    As a result, a whopping 86% of us have been living a lie under the wrong horoscope. But it’s not just about getting a few dates wrong – there’s apparently a whole other star sign that’s been forgotten about too.

    According to modern astrologers, this is definitive list of all thirteen signs of the Zodiac:

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    •Capricorn: 20 Jan - 16 Feb •Aquarius: 16 Feb - 11 March •Pisces: 11 March - 18 April •Aries: 18 April - 13 May •Taurus: 13 May - 21 June •Gemini: 21 June - 20 July •Cancer: 20 July - 10 Aug •Leo: 10 Aug - 16 Sept •Virgo: 16 Sept - 30 Oct •Libra: 30 Oct - 23 Nov •Scorpio: 23 - 29 Nov •Ophiuchus: 29 Nov - 17 Dec •Sagittarius: 17 Dec - 20 Jan

    http://giphy.com/gifs/xT8qBlHznUM8eSewyk

    ‘Woah, woah, woah,’ we hear you say. ‘What the HELL is Ophiuchus?’

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    And that would be a good question. Although this star sign is news to us, it’s not technically new. The ancient astrologers did actually discover all thirteen of these constellations – they just decided to omit one so that the twelve remaining signs could divided equally into the 360 degree path of the sun. We reckon they just chose to drop the least catchy (Ophiuchus is a bit of a mouthful, right?).

    Ophiuchus is the constellation featuring a man holding a snake, explaining why is also known as ‘Serpentarius’. In ancient greek myth, he’s identified as Asclepius – the healer who is also the son of Apollo, which is why the snake-entwined staff remains a symbol of medicine today.

    Unluckily for Asclepius though, an angry Hades persuaded Zeus to kill him with one of his lightening bolts as punishment for bringing people back from the dead. Zeus obliged, and Asclepius became a star constellation in death.

    http://giphy.com/gifs/IwloaLbZerfO0

    So if you are born between 29th November and 17th December, you’re officially a child of Ophiuchus and will most likely have these personality traits:

    •Seek peace and harmony •Be poetic and inventive •Have a thirst for knowledge •Be intuitive •Have secret enemies in their close circles •Be a high achiever •Love vibrant colours •Be lucky

    Something to bear in mind next time you read that horoscope then. 

    Marie Claire
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