The Island Editorial

Forgotten heavenly physician

21 September 2016

 

Millennia before President Mathripala Sirisena, upon being inaugurated, decreed that a chief justice had not existed, Babylonian star gazers did that to a doctor in the sky, as it were, NASA has revealed highlighting what may be considered a kind of historical injustice.

NASA has reported that ancient Babylonians, in a bid to ‘make a tidy match with their 12-month calendar, ignored the fact that the Sun actually moves through 13 constellations, not 12, and left out one particular constellation out of the Zodiac. It is called Ophiuchus, a ‘snake holder’, portrayed in some illustrations as a muscular man holding an anaconda in the sky.

Ophiuchus, considered a healer, is believed to symbolise the quest for education and enlightenment. People born under this zodiac sign are said to share those traits, and sadly they have been discriminated against.

NASA has stirred up a real hornets’ nest. The rectification of Babylonians’ error at long last has had a devastating impact on believers in horoscope. For, it is now clear that millions of people have got the wrong star signs for no fault of theirs.

Moreover, NASA scientists tell us that owing to a tiny wobble in the earth's axis, the position of those constellations has shifted. In other words, constellations are no longer in the same spots today as they were when the ancient Babylonians were gazing at the night skies.  They have explained this phenomenon for the benefit of the layman: "When the Babylonians first invented the 12 signs of zodiac, a birthday between about July 23 and August 22 meant being born under the constellation Leo. Now, 3,000 years later, the sky has shifted because Earth’s axis (North Pole) doesn’t point in quite the same direction."

Refuting claims that it is updating the astrological signs, NASA says it has not done so as it studies astronomy not astrology. What it has left unsaid is that it does not consider astrology worth its while.

NASA has sought to play it safe without locking horns with astrologers. (It has far more important things to do!) Denying the claim being made in some quarters that it has changed Zodiac signs, it says it has only done the math and explained how astrology is not astronomy. One is reminded of what Voltaire has famously said: ‘Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy––the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.’ Perhaps, NASA didn’t want to put it so bluntly lest it should have to fight propaganda and cyber wars with the fans of the fans of the aforesaid mad daughters.

Now that NASA has set the cat among the pigeons, it will be interesting to see what the on-going debate on issues related to Ophiuchus lead to.

There are bound to be counterarguments in justification of the discrimination against the heavenly doctor, so to speak. Astrology is multi-billion-dollar industry, besides being a very effective propaganda instrument, which even the so-called enlightened West employed during the World War II in a bid to demoralize each other.

Meanwhile, we are not short of political leaders who flaunt their ‘raja yoga’, which is said to indicate that they are destined to rule this country. They may not take kindly to the NASA revelation, which has caused them to doubt whether they have got the correct zodiac signs. Crafty astrologers, like the one who served the former President, may now be able to blame their wrong predictions on ancient Babylonians, who, in all their wisdom, left out Ophiuchus, the snake holder, from the star signs.