Many people believe they were born on a “cusp” – that the Sun (star sign to the layman or modern astrologer) at their time of birth, straddled two zodiac signs. The ecliptic is the imaginary/apparent path that the Sun traces out in the sky in the course of a year, against the backdrop of the other planets, which also follow this line closely. This ecliptic has a circumference of 360 degrees and is divided into 12 sections of 30 degrees each. Each section is allocated a name and this is used primarily as a means of locating the planets at any given time.

The planets traverse along the ecliptic following the order of the zodiacal belt, commencing with Aries and ending with Pisces. When a planet enters a new zodiacal section at 0 degrees, it has to move through that section in numerical order – so from 0 to 29.59. When it reaches 0 degrees of the next sign it is in the next sign and it is physically impossible to be in 2 sections of the zodiacal sphere simultaneously. When you are born the Sun is either (still) at 29 degrees 59 minutes of the one sign or it is at 0 degrees of the next sign – there is no such thing as the Sun being on a cusp. Just as you cannot physically be in the kitchen cooking dinner and relaxing in a hot bath at the same time, so too with a planet – it is either in the one sign OR in the next.

This abomination was invented to give weight to the branch of journalism known as “star sign” astrology. The Sun (as with all the planets) will exit one sign at 29 degrees and 59 minutes and enter the next sign at 0 degrees on the same day. Many people writing these columns are not qualified astrologers, most certainly not traditional astrologers, and their knowledge of astronomy is lacking. It would be far too complicated for them to provide the correct information, even if they were able to do so – far easier to lump the Sun under 2 signs on the day it changes sign than to provide correct and accurate information to the public.