An Explainer for Western Astrology

Well… I guess I am opening up this can of worms.

For whatever reason, some people tend to have very strong feelings about this topic, which I guess is all the more reason for me to think about it more.

It seems that talk of Western Astrology and of horoscopes is pretty hard to avoid in our current culture. You’d have to be living under a rock if you said you have never heard people inquiring about each others’ zodiac signs, especially if you are Gen Z or a millennial.

Whether it be at a meet and greet, a date, or some other social event, the question about your zodiac sign could come up, and the reactions to your answer will certainly vary.

The business associated with Western Astrology has also been booming and becoming more profitable as more people have been turning to astrologers for guidance and mental clarity, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic¹.

Western Astrology has become so mainstream that even some corporations will use it as a way to engage consumers. You’ll of course see it employed by online dating and networking apps like Bumble, but also by brands that sell jewelry, perfume, home décor, and other products.

For a while now, I have been thinking: What could be driving this interest in Astrology, notably among younger people? Because it seems like this interest is becoming more and more popular in our modern (or postmodern) world, at least in North America.

Like many people, I sometimes find myself in conversations about Astrology in my personal life. Out of all the places, this especially happens on dates.

I’ll be chatting with the person until the question about my zodiac sign is somehow brought up. I reply by saying that I know I am Gemini, but that I don’t really know anything about Astrology.

They then inform me about what my zodiac sign says about me as a person and then tell me about their sign, giving me a sort of brief lesson on Astro-charts.

This happens largely because I say I am completely ignorant about Astrology and then I proceed to feign interest in it, as I do not want to make the conversation too awkward nor run the risk of potentially offending the person.

In reality, I do have views on Astrology and zodiac signs, and they are not exactly the most positive.

Warning: I am about to rip into Astrology and horoscopes just a little bit, so I apologize if the reader is an Astrology girl or guy, though I assure you that this is not the main point of this post.

It is well established in the scientific community that Astrology has no real explanatory power for describing how our universe actually behaves and that it should be regarded as a pseudoscience². While astronomy works by following the scientific method (which requires careful observation and rigorous testing), Astrology proposes no empirically verifiable or consistent way in which the positions and motions of stars and planets affect people’s personalities and circumstances on Earth.

There is also the point that Astrology suggests that a zodiac sign fits neatly into a 30-degree slice of the sky, when that is not true in reality. There is a wobble in the Earth’s rotational axis called procession, which swings in a slow circle over the course of 25,800 years³. This is all to say that your zodiac sign may not even be what you think it is.

The last critique that I will mention is believers in Astrology tend to be motivated by confirmation bias, the tendency to acquire information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs⁴. There are times when a horoscope happens to line up with a person’s personality or circumstances, and there are other times when it certainly does not. Believers in Astrology then tend to selectively remember predictions that turn out to be true, and disregard those that are false. Either that, or they’ll conceive of Astrology in a way that makes it simply unfalsifiable⁵.

Okay… the uncool part is over.

Now, what I wrote above is not to be directed at those who engage with Astrology in an ironic way, not really taking it too seriously. I am not here to try to take away anyone’s fun. I too will sometimes jokingly say things like “Typical Scorpio” or “Don’t blame me, I’m a Gemini”.

What I wrote is also not meant to directly challenge those who say that they find Astrology to be insightful, but do not completely believe in it. The types who will say they are only 50% or 70% on board with it.

However, I will say that I find this position to be quite odd, even unreasonable (look at that… I guess I am challenging these people).

I’d be weird to declare something like “I believe in physics as a method of studying matter, but I 75% believe it”. If Astrology can truly explain natural phenomena and why people behave in the way they do, then it simply does. Full stop. A believer should be able to own that position.

If a person says they do not completely believe in Astrology and that it is wrong in many ways, then they are implicitly admitting that it acts as a pseudoscience, or even a religion (depending on one’s definition).

Or, as I mentioned above, this person can be selectively choosing the parts that seem true to them. They’ll look at what their zodiac sign says about their personality and focus on the broad character traits that happen to apply to them, while largely ignoring the ones that don’t.

Instead, they should probably take the fact they do not fully align with their sign’s horoscope as evidence that celestial bodies are perhaps not the reason they are the way they are. Maybe it’s their social environment and genetic traits, things that are more empirical and falsifiable.

Nevertheless, the ones most affected by critiques of Astrology are obviously those who genuinely believe it in and take it to be a reliable source of knowledge. The types of people who take horoscopes very seriously, judge or make assumptions about people based on their zodiac sign, and think that those who do not believe in Astrology just do not fully understand it.

This brings me to the main question of this post (I know, I have finally reached it) which is: Out of all things, why are more people taking an interest in Astrology in recent years?

The thing is that Western Astrology used to be widely believed and it was very much linked to the study of the universe in general. However, that all changed with the Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries, as those in North America and Western Europe began to understand the world in less dogmatic and irrational ways⁶. This meant that astronomy became more sophisticated as a science, whereas Astrology lost its status as a legitimate area of study.

Though common belief in Western Astrology had declined over the years, it enjoyed a resurgence in the 1960s, one that is continuing today⁷.

During the ’60s, ’70s, and onwards, there was also another trend that one could observe in the Western World: the declining influence of religion.

For reasons too numerous to name here, religion has become less and less central to our cultures and daily lives, most notably the religion of Christianity⁸.

Attendance at religious institutions has steadily declined, people are less likely to say they believe in a god, and religion has less of an influence on how people choose to live and understand the world.

This period of disillusionment has affected different generations differently. Younger people like Gen Z and Millennials are less religious on average by virtually every metric than older people⁹.

However, it is also true that younger people are more likely to say they believe in Astrology than older people are¹⁰.

I do not think this is a mere coincidence.

What I think Western Astrology and religions like Christianity have in common lies in their ability to satisfy a human desire for cosmic order.

What I mean by that is people want to understand themselves in a world that often seems quite senseless. They tend to be drawn to grand narratives about the world that are transcendental or supernatural, ones that present themselves as more powerful and thereby more legitimate.

Knowing your Astro-Chart can give a person a kind of order and meaning to their own life, as you come to believe that forces far greater than yourself are responsible for your mode of being. As you wish to view yourself in intertemporal terms, you adopt a certain view about the order of the universe and your important place within it, a view that is often self-serving.

I think one of the main appeals of Western Astrology is that it is used in a way that anyone can relate to. It aims to say something about one’s personality, interests, and life journey, things that everybody has and would like to learn more about. It can quite conforming to believe that the aspects about you as a person can be explained by forces larger than life itself.

Also, the personality descriptions and foretelling are often generic and general enough to satisfy most people who show an interest in zodiac signs. Individuals then give high accuracy ratings to a horoscope, which further solidifies their belief in Astrology and encourages them to get others interested.

Of course, this phenomenon can also serve as a critique of Western Astrology. Engagement with it is often driven by the fact that horoscopes can be so vague and general that they can apply to so many different people. The run-of-the-mill platitudes that they offer make it so that most people can look at their zodiac signs and find something that makes them say, “Oh yeah, that’s totally me.” But I digress.

Furthermore, Western Astrology can give you a guide on other people and how they behave. When you are aware of a person’s zodiac sign, you can get a sense of how the person will be personality-wise and then know how to behave around them. As you are able to put people into seemingly useful categories, it can make the world appear more approachable.

At the end of the day, we as humans not only wish to feel important but we also seek to find (or construct) patterns in our world, in a way that’s cognitively and affectively appealing to us.

For a long time, religion has fulfilled these human desires, and it seems Western Astrology is increasingly being used as a substitute (or even a complement), one that may be more palatable in many ways.

For instance, organized religion does have a history of being used to justify sexism, racism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression, a history that is still ongoing. This problem does not really plague Western Astrology as much.

This can explain why a lot of gay men, for example, show an interest in Astrology. They can adopt a worldview that can satisfy their desire for comfort, meaning and cosmic order, one that does not simultaneously stigmatize them due to their identity.

A similar thing can also be said about women, who have often been victims of misogyny that is motivated by religious belief. Ironically though, women are generally more religious than men and more likely to believe in the supernatural¹¹. This all probably works to explain why women are more likely to be interested in Astrology and believe in it¹².

Anyway, that is all I pretty much have to say on Astrology.

I do know that writing something like this might not paint the best picture of me, particularly in the eyes of an Astrology girl or guy.

Maybe I’ll end up going on another date with someone who happens to be into Astrology and then they somehow find and read this post, not having the most positive reaction.

I’m completely fine with that though. If said person ends up being quite put off or even offended by what I wrote, then it probably was not gonna work out in the first place.

Finally, I just want to reiterate that I am all for people who engage with Western Astrology ironically and try to have fun with it.

And even if you do sincerely believe in it, that’s cool too. People should be able to live their lives and do what brings them comfort and satisfaction.

The world is a stressful, troubling place and we are all trying to find ways to cope with that reality.

And honestly, when it comes down to it, we all have at least one silly and irrational thing that we choose to believe in… except for me of course.

References

An Explainer for Western Astrology

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An Explainer for Western Astrology

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