Astronomers from the Minnesota Planetarium Society have found that because of the moon's gravitational pull on Earth, the alignment of the stars has been pushed back by about a month. According to conjecture, star signs were created some 2,000 years ago by tracking where the sun was in the sky each month. Not to be confused with the science of astronomy, which studies actual planets and stars, the astrologists amongst us concentrate on horoscopes. Horoscopes are determined by the position of the sun on the day you were born and how it lines up with the stars.

"When astrologers say that the sun is in Pisces, it's really not in Pisces," noted Parke Kunkle, a member of the group's board, especially now because of the gravitational pull. A 13th constellation, Ophuchicus, has been added to the Zodiac calendar and most of the dates for the "signs" we’ve so long associated with our birthdates, have, according to the Minnesota Planetarium Society changed. This has generated excitement and quite a bit of hype for Assisted Living Facilities Los Angeles residents and those in other parts of the nation. Whether or not people believe that Zodiac signs really determine personality traits, the interest generated among my colleagues upon hearing my article topic, confirms that many people not only know their astrological sign, but they identify with many of the attributes.

Yikes, does this means the latent, fiery temperament and radiant warmth of a Leo may be extinguished? That the lion will no longer attract people because of their frank, open, honest and endearing likeability? The change may leave the optimistic, intellectual, straightforward, freedom loving Sagittarius rigid and restless. The archer may find him or herself unable to hit the bull’s-eye and become disillusioned. The earth’s newly discovered skew could actually be good news for the former conflicted Pisces fish. No longer will they suffer the internal struggles of their souls eternally swimming against the current in opposite directions.

All kidding aside, this celestial shift and addition of Ophuchicus in the zodiac calendar could cause an identity crisis for some people. The many seniors who rely on astrologers to reveal what their futures hold could become victims of greed. Assisted Living Facilities Los Angeles staff have informed their residents of possible scams and fraud situations that could arise due to the Ophuchicus hype. Plenty of seniors have been victim to zodiac hotline fraud cases. Unsuspecting seniors call these hotline numbers to get their fortunes told while their credit cards are charged exhorbitant fees. In order to prevent such cases many Assisted Living Facilities Los Angeles have security measures put in place so that they can monitor and supervise their residents to prevent them from being swindled.

At one time or another, many of us have secretly wished to know what the future holds in store for us. The yearning for such information has existed for as long as human beings have been able to speculate and hypothesize about events to come. It is a curiosity that fuels ongoing interest in the vague prophesies of French prophet, Nostradamus more than half a millennium after his "Centuries" forecast was penned and makes today's newspaper incomplete without an astrology section. Many religions lay claim to have knowledge of the future but their predictions are about eternity, not tomorrow. Yet, it is the tomorrows, about which we are most imminently interested in.

There is no evidence indicating there is a mystical cure for this insatiable thirst to know future events. No astrologer contemplating the distribution of the heavenly bodies, no shaman pondering the configuration of chicken innards, no fortuneteller examining the topography of a client's palm can do more than guess at tomorrow's contents. Still there is a large segment of our society, which believe that our lives are ordered by the stars, the gods, the fates or perhaps other people with occult powers. Every spring the Chamber of Commerce in a small community on the outskirts of Chicago sponsors a "Fortunetelling Day" at a local shopping mall. They invite tellers to perform and set up booths for them, then bus in senior citizens for a day of shopping and fun.

The fortune tellers charge five dollars a reading and each earns several hundred dollars for their day's work. When a bunco detective suggested that the event be discontinued because of the probability that the tellers were inviting exploitable clients to visit their fortunetelling parlors and then fleecing them, his recommendation was rejected. "Fortunetelling is legal in that community," he was reminded. Not only that, but "Fortunetelling Day" is one of the most popular events of the year. Fortunetelling and astrology continues to hold fascination for many, with the attitude that, "I don’t necessarily believe in it, but what can it hurt?"

Well, actually plenty. One mother and daughter fortune telling team of East Peoria, Illinois, are still free and are assumed to be somewhere in Europe. They were charged with swindling fifteen women out of $600,000. Additional victims are known to the police but those victims refuse to press charges or testify in court. Most were too humiliated and embarrassed at being so gullible. Undoubtedly, there are other, unknown victims who for the same reason will not admit their involvement with the fortunetellers. One of the victims, a widow who agreed to testify, was swindled out of over $200,000 in cash and jewelry. The fortunetellers also got her to buy them a $30,000 Cadillac DeVille. The second largest loser was a woman taken for $180,000. Like the others, most of the victims were elderly although there were several college-educated professional women in their twenties and thirties among the victims.

The moral of the story if you choose to indulge in fortune telling and horoscope reading; be aware that fortunetellers and astrological advocates with smoky voices surrounded by candles, potions, magic balls and charms, may not be the best source to determine if you’ll find happiness, or if you’ll have enough money left at the end of the month to pay your electrical bill. Possibly not.

For hard-core horoscope enthusiasts, the following is the new astrological calendar:

Capricorn: January 20 - February 16

Aquarius: February 17 - March 11

Pisces: March 12 - April 18

Aries: April 19 - May 13

Taurus: May 14 - June 21

Gemini: June 22 - July 20

Cancer: July 21 – August 10

Leo: August 11 - September 16

Virgo: September 17 – October 30

Libra: October 31 - November 23

Scorpio: November 24 – November 29

Ophiuchus: November 30 – December 16 (the new one)

Sagittarius: December 17 – January 20

You can check the new astrological calendar to see if your zodiac sign has shifted and/or if you are now an Ophiuchus. If you think Ophiuchus is a tongue twister it has also been known as Serpentarius.