An astronomy professor from Minnesota by the name of Parke Kunkle says that there really should be 13 signs of the zodiac. The 13th sign is called Ophiuchus (the serpent bearer) and it belongs to people born between November 29 and December 17th, who all used to be Sagittarians. All of the signs got chopped up a bit. I am now an Aries instead of a Taurus, my wife is now a Pisces instead of an Aries and both my kids are Ophiuchians. That is, if I accepted the change, which I don’t.
The Constellation Ophiuchus, also known as Serpentarius
I still consider Pluto a planet and I don’t see why I should care what somebody named Parke Kunkle thinks, although I did check him out on “Rate your Professor” and he gets mostly good reviews from his students. I’m kind of surprised that an astronomy professor would take this seriously. In the one astronomy course I took, at Glendale Community College back in 91 or so, the professor was absolutely anti-astrology and quite open about thinking that anyone who took it seriously was either a moron, a lunatic or both.
I think he was mostly right. The stars are very far away and there are so many things that influence our personality: Parents, siblings, socio-economic status, environmental influences, films, books, music, the zeitgeist and so on. However, I think most people resemble their signs a little bit…I think it might have to do with the season of your birth. If you are a Taurus, your first view of the world when you get out of the hospital is flowers, grass and trees so you become an earth-lover. If you are a Leo, your first impression of the world is people in swimsuits, so you become a party animal. If you are a Sagittarian, your birthday is close to Christmas, which might encourage you to be specific about stating your desires. It’s a stretch, but less so than the pull of the stars thingie.
Anyway, Ophiuchus. Ophiuchians are idealistic and ambitious, but non-confrontational. They have a strong sense of intuition and make good poets, inventors, or architects, but especially doctors. The sign of Ophiucus is the serpent wrapped around a staff, the traditional symbol of the medical profession.
So, if you are an Ophiuchian and you prefer that to being a Sagittarian, go right ahead, don’t let me discourage you. If you prefer the Chinese Zodiac, no problems, I’ll be happy to discuss with you the various traits of horses and mice (I’m a horse).
But really, I don’t take any of it seriously and I don’t expect anyone else to, either.
www.gurukalehuru.com 
I am now a Pisces…and it fits my personality. However, I read that a persons sign is actually that which ruled over their birth in the YEAR they were born, so maybe my sign is different in 1949 than today…..I don’t know. Interesting though…
as i understand it, they’re all off by one, since the charts we use are the same from 2,000 yrs. ago, and there’s a shift of one sign every 2,000 or so yrs. and actually, there are different types of signs. the ‘sun’ sign, the one most people go by, is the sign that the sun rises in at the time of your birth. there are also moon signs (which I can only assume work the same, but for the moon), and a bunch of others.
I’m atheist, so I learned about it from an old gf. (I have no idea if that’s a non sequitur or not, but probably). Point is, why is there so much crap in my head? is it a guy thing, or are there ladies out there with this jeopardy! problem?
i’m an atheist, so all this stuff is really silly…but since we’re bein’ silly, I don’t accept this ophiucus stuff mainly b/c it wouldn’t apply to me. I fancy myself a serpent bearer (ladies, doesn’t every guy), and i don’t get to have a phallic symbol…no, of course not. Instead, I get cancer, the crab. great. friggin’ terrific. Either I’m an incurable disease, or I’m a curable STD. great. awesome.