http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/zodiac-signs-2011zodiac-astrological-controversy/story?id=12623103What has changed, subtly and very gradually, is the tilt of the earth's axis as it revolves around the sun. If you watch a spinning toy top, explains Kunkle, you will see its axis wobble. That's called precession. The Earth's axis does the same thing. It's currently facing Polaris, often called the North Star, but 3,000 years ago it was pointing at an obscure star called Thuban.
"Three thousand years ago the sun was 'in' whatever it was in," says Kunkle, who is also a professor at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. "Now it's about a whole constellation off from that."
In an August 2009 Pew poll, 25 percent of Americans said they believed in astrology; 71 percent said they did not. Kunkle falls into the latter category ("I'm a scientist," he says drily.)
But, he says, "You could predict when to harvest, when to plant, by the stars. So there is some predictive nature there. Then they took it too far, using it to determine when to go to war and people's personalities."
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