Guessed someone’s star sign correctly first try on the first date? Can’t stop banging on about it? You’re not alone. But what are the practical benefits of astrology in the modern world?
Intrigued by our new university classmates, my friend and I secretly decided to guess all their star signs. Some say we took it a step too far, others say we were doing hugely important investigative work.
We made a table and, each week after class, we would update our predictions, based on any new observations. Of course, the two most vocal members of the class were fire signs: a red-lipped Aries, who used their outside voice inside, and a rather argumentative Sagittarius.
The girl who sauntered into lessons an hour late, always immaculately dressed, with a well-thought-out excuse to hand, was, as suspected, a Libra. The eldest, a no-nonsense, quietly confident worker, who had just returned from her year abroad was (drumroll) a Virgo. I could go on.
To our delight, we guessed all our peers correctly, except for two Geminis, who uttered about half a sentence between them. Now that I think about it, we should’ve spotted them a mile off, keeping their cards close to their chest, in typical Gemini fashion.
But beyond the trivial research that my friend and I conducted to stay awake during classes, astrology is so much more than stereotyping.
Often lumped together with modes of categorisation like the Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, and Love Languages tests, astrology offers greater complexity and variety than these methods.
Christina Rodenbeck, a practicing astrologer for over 20 years, asserts that “Whilst there are only five love languages, with astrology you could argue there are 12 star signs. But within those 12 there are actually 144 (12 x 12), so you immediately get more depth and precision.”
Most are unaware that Carl Jung, a Swiss psychologist, who first identified the four cognitive functions that inspired Myers and Briggs’ personality work, was deeply interested in astrology.
Their familiar four categories (Sensation, Intuition, Thinking, and Feeling) hark back to traditional elemental thinking (Earth, Fire, Air, and Water).
Still, star sign slander and sceptics are certainly all around. Jesse Burford from Married at First Sight Australia famously hit out at his partner for being a “star sign chick”, one of the first things on his “ick list“.
But the lazy association with astrology and self-absorption fails to recognise what lies at the heart of the discipline – interconnectivity.
Tali Edut, one half of the celeb-acclaimed astrology duo ‘Astrotwins’ acknowledged, “As the world grows more dynamic, full of choices and data sets, people want to find groupings and commonalities. As unanswerable questions arise, spiritual and mystical persona groupings help us make sense of why the unexplainable is happening”.
The evidence isn’t hard to find. Almost everyone I encountered at university downloaded CoStar, the astrological social networking service, that allows you to see your compatibility with other users based off one another’s birth charts.
“If you want to understand your kids and respond to them in a way that they will find useful, knowing their Moon sign is incredibly important.”
Christina Rodenbeck
Even dating apps like Hinge and Tinder now allow you to display your star sign on profiles.
It’s also surprisingly practical. Rodenbeck said, “I can’t believe marketers don’t use it more, because it’s so simple and clear! It’s easy to market Gen Z, right? They’re Pluto in Sagittarius people!” (the sign of, among other things, being philosophical and thinking big).
Citing Greta Thunberg and Malala as examples of this specific Gen Z zeitgeist, she said, “This stuff happened before, but there was never anybody that young shouting about it; that’s because of Pluto in Sagittarius. Before that we had Pluto in Scorpio people (Millennials) who are pretty negative. Harry and Meghan are classic examples of this, worrying about their own psychology.”
Perhaps most importantly, there is room for astrology in our interpersonal relationships toolkit. Be it partners, siblings, friends, or colleagues, the more we know about someone’s astrological placements, the better equipped we are to communicate with them in a language or way that they understand.
Rodenbeck insists that, as a mother, it’s been her saving grace: “If you want to understand your kids and respond to them in a way that they will find useful, knowing their Moon sign is incredibly important,” she said.
“I have one child whose Moon’s in Aquarius and another with the Moon in Cancer. One of them I can just talk to, but the other I have to sit with and not say anything, maybe drive, cook together, go on a walk. It’s a completely different approach. Not everybody responds to a rational discussion or talking things through, but you know this from their astrology.”
Whilst personality tests and endless BuzzFeed quizzes may be tempting, such methods are ultimately static.
The beauty of astrology, beyond gifting your friend a necklace that says ‘Leo’ on it, reminds us that we are moving and changing through time and that times are likewise changing around us. (That doesn’t mean we don’t still want the necklaces though).
Featured image by Mikhail Nilov via Pexels.