It seems a number of people have been upset at reports recently that the entire zodiac calendar has been thrown into disarray by an astronomer’s comments. Up until yesterday, rumor had it that my wife was a Scorpio, my son a Virgo, my daughter-in-law a Sagittarius, and my grandson and I were Libra.

Well, that all changed. My wife is now a Libra, my son’s a Leo, my grandson and I are both Virgos. Oh yeah, and my daughter-in-law was allegedly born under the sign of Ophiuchus. If you have not heard of that last one, you are not alone. It’s the latest craze in astrology. It’s the sign of the snake handler. Please do not ask me to pronounce it, or what traits people born under that sign share.

At one time, this would have troubled me. Before I committed my life to following Christ, I engaged in a number of occult practices, including horoscopes. I had a few private readings, and made sure to check my horoscope in the newspaper almost every day. Unfortunately for me, the stars kept lying to me! If they had kept their word, I would have been extremely wealthy, and I would have had women falling all over me. (OK, you can stop laughing now.)

It was not just me, though. Astrology has a lot of fans, but no scientific evidence to back it up. As recently as 2006, a study of 15000 people found no link between date of birth and personality; astrology assumes that your “sign” determines your personality. I read that Libras are extroverts. Whenever someone tells me that, I tell them that I really want to be left alone.

Besides the lack of scientific evidence, there is a problem with the very arrangement of the zodiac signs. If I am a Libra, then I should expect to see the sun passing through Libra at dawn on my birthday. However, that does not happen; apparently, it passes through Virgo.

It used to pass through Libra on my birthday: about two- to three-thousand years ago, when the astrological calendar was developed. However, the earth wobbles on its axis, so the alignment of the sun and constellations, in relation to Earth, deviates over the centuries. As a result, the constellations are about one month off from where they were when Christ was born.

While some devotees of astrology will claim that Western astrology focuses on the sun in relation to “fixed, designated positions in the sky” (see Wikipedia), no such thing exists. As long as the Earth continues to wobble, the orientation of an object on Earth in relation to any object in the heavens will change. Granted, it is a very subtle change, one we will not notice in a lifetime; however, over the course of 2000 years it is significant: enough so to make it foolish for one to make major life decisions based on a star chart that was drawn up 2000 years ago.

I realize some of my Christian friends may still read the horoscope. I strongly urge you to read Deuteronomy 18:10-12 and Isaiah 47:13. The Deuteronomy passage condemns certain occult acts as sin, among them divination and interpretation of omens. Astrology is a method of interpreting omens in the stars. The Isaiah passage specifically mentions astrologers among the accursed counselors we should not trust.

As I said on a friend’s Facebook page today, “I was born under the sign of Libra. I am born again under the sign of the Cross. This is where I’ll stay.”