This isn’t the first time astrology has had a moment like this, and it won’t be the last. For thousands of years, the practice has existed in various forms. More recently, the New Age movement of the 1960s and 1970s included a heavy dose of astrology. (Some refer to the New Age as the “Age of Aquarius,” referring to the 2,000-year period after the Earth’s passage through the Aquarius sign.)
While astrology didn’t go completely in the decades between the New Age boom and nowyou could still read horoscopes in the back pages of magazinesit “got back to being a little bit more in the background,” says Chani Nicholas, an astrologer in Los Angeles. “Then there’s something that’s happened in the last five years that’s given it an edge, a relevancy for this time and place that it hasn’t had in 35 years.” The millennial generation has taken it and run with it.
Many of the people I spoke to for this article felt that, while the stigma surrounding astrology still exists, it has faded as the discipline has gained traction in online culture, particularly among young people.
“We’ve seen a reframing of New Age activities over the last two years, very much tailored toward a Millennial and young Gen X component,” says Lucie Greene, global director of J. Walter Thompson’s Intelligence Group, which studies and predicts cultural trends.
Broadly’s horoscope traffic, according to Callie Beusman, a senior editor, “has increased very dramatically.” The Cut’s president and editor-in-chief, Stella Bugbee, claims that a typical horoscope article on the site received 150 percent more traffic in 2017 than the previous year.
Astrology is well-suited to the digital age in some aspects. If you feel like plunging into a Google-research rabbit hole, there’s a low barrier to admission and practically infinite depths to plumb. The availability of more detailed information on the internet has given this cultural wave of astrology a level of sophistication. There will be more jokes about Saturn returns and less “Hey baby, what’s your sign?” questions. lines for a pick-up
A quick refresher: Astrology is not a science, and there is no proof that one’s zodiac sign has anything to do with personality. However, the system has its own logic. The positioning of the sun, moon, and planets within 12 parts of the sky, known as the zodiac signs, is given significance in astrology. Even if you’re not an astrology fan, you’re probably aware of your sun sign, the most well-known zodiac sign. It’s determined by the position of the sun on your birthday. However, the position of the moon and each of the other planets at the time and place of your birth adds more shades to the portrait of you that your “birth chart” paints.
Horoscopes are designed to tell you what the planets are doing right now and in the future, as well as how all of this influences each sign.
Susan Miller, the popular astrologer who developed the Astrology Zone website, describes the planets as a cocktail party. “You could have three individuals chatting at the same time, two people arguing in the corner, and Venus and Mars kissing.” I need to figure out what’s going on in those monthly talks for you.
“Astrologers are continually attempting to break down these massive concepts into manageable chunks of information,” Nicholas explains.
These days’ kids and their memes provide an ideal setting for astrology.
Astrology uses the planets and zodiac symbols to express complex ideas about personality, life cycles, and relationship patterns. That shorthand also works well online, where symbols and shorthand are frequently used.
Bertram Malle, a social cognitive scientist at Brown University, wrote me in an email, “Let me say first that I consider astrology a cultural or psychological phenomenon, not a scientific one.” However, “full-fledged astrology,” which goes beyond newspaper-style sun-sign horoscopes, gives you a powerful vocabulary to describe not only your personality and temperament, but also your life’s obstacles and prospects. To the extent that one just learns this vocabulary, it may appeal as a rich method of reflecting (rather than explaining or forecasting) human feelings and life events, as well as identifying some potential coping paths.
In times of stress, people frequently consult astrology. According to a short 1982 research by psychologist Graham Tyson, “those who contact astrologers do so in response to pressures in their lives, notably stress related to the individual’s social duties and connections.” “Under high stress, the individual is willing to employ astrology as a coping mechanism, even though he does not believe in it under low stress.”
Millennials have been the most stressed generation since 2014, according to American Psychological Association survey data, and they are also the group most likely to claim their stress has increased in the past year since 2010. Since 2012, Millennials and Gen Xers have been much more anxious than previous generations. Since the 2016 presidential election, Americans have been experiencing greater stress as a result of the political turmoil. According to the APA’s 2017 survey, 63 percent of Americans are “extremely concerned” about their country’s future. Reading the news stresses out 56% of individuals, with Millennials and Gen Xers being substantially more likely than older people to say so. Political infighting, climate change, global problems, and the prospect of nuclear war have all been prominent in recent news. If stress makes astrology look more appealing, it’s no surprise that more people are interested in it now.
In This Article...
Why is it that everyone is suddenly interested in astrology?
Although horoscopes and birth charts are just the top of the iceberg, there’s no disputing that many people are fascinated by the stars and planets. So, why does it feel like everyone these days is interested in astrology? Experts believe astrology appeals to individuals for a variety of reasons, including its ability to help people cope with stress and uncertainty during difficult times or get a better understanding of themselves.
What are the reasons behind the rise in popularity of astrology?
Astrology, formerly thought to be the domain of New Agers trapped in the 1970s, is experiencing a renaissance. A rising number of people are looking to astrology to help them gauge relationship compatibility, comprehend friendship dynamics, and make life decisions, particularly millennial women. But what’s behind this rise in popularity? Ali Roff Farrar explores and discovers that, perhaps, we’re all simply looking for answers in a confusing world…
When did Zodiacs start to gain popularity?
A newspaper from 1915 warns of an impending plague outbreak in France. A Persian savant predicts that a certain White House infant will become “Magistrate Ruler of the World” the following year. How do these prophets know what they know? It’s spelled out in the stars! Americans have a strange fixation with deciphering their fates, from palm reading to Ouija boards to zodiac signs. Horoscopes gained popularity in the late 1800s, and by the early 1900s, they had evolved from an archaic pseudo-science to a respected discipline that was covered practically daily in American newspapers. More information can be found here.
Why are so many people obsessed with the signs of the zodiac?
“People want a symbol system that isn’t sexist, racist, or homophobic,” Dr. Freed adds. “Astrology has really gained in popularity because people want a symbol system that lets them relate to each other across all demographics.”
Do famous people believe in astrology?
The majority of Bollywood actors are astrologers. To gain a strong foothold in the Bollywood firmament, the actors believe that luck and star alignment are essential. Astrology is seen by the celebrities of B’Town as a means of obtaining luck and success. Actors frequently assume that numerals and alphabets have a significant impact on their screen lifetime.
Ekta Kapoor, the CEO of Alt Balaji and Telefilms Balaji, is an astrologer who believes in numerology and astrology. And Manoj Bajpayee, the OTT platform’s No. 1 hero, is the latest to openly declare his belief in astrology.
Is astrology a reliable source of information?
Is astrology accurate? Reading horoscopes is a popular pastime, but is there any scientific evidence that they are accurate?
When you’re enticed by a familiar interruption and your willpower weakens, problems can occur.
Every day, up to 70 million Americans consult their horoscopes. At least, that’s what the American Federation of Astrologers claims. According to a Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life poll conducted twenty years ago, 25% of Americans believe that the positions of the stars and planets have an impact on our daily life. In 2012, the General Social Survey indicated that 34% of Americans think astrology is “extremely” or “kind of scientific,” with the percentage of individuals who think astrology is “not at all scientific” dropping from two-thirds to about half.
Astrology is the concept that astronomical phenomena, such as the stars over your head when you were born or the fact that Mercury is retrograde, have the potential to influence our daily lives and personality traits. Of course, this is distinct from astronomy, which is the scientific study of celestial objects, space, and the physics of the cosmos.
A particular facet of astrology, the foretelling of a person’s future or the provision of daily counsel via horoscopes, is gaining in popularity. The Cut, for example, recorded a 150 percent rise in horoscope page views in 2017 compared to 2016.
Clearly, a lot of people are trying to figure out how to read the stars for guidance. Understanding the positions of the stars is the foundation of astrology, which appears to be a scientific discipline in and of itself. Is there any scientific evidence that astrology has an impact on our personalities and lives?
But, since I still have five minutes of this six-minute podcast to fill, let’s take a look at how astrology has been put to the test.
Is it true that astrology is a pseudoscience?
Astrology is a fascinating subject. It has fled to the one area that protects it from rational criticism after enduring decades of scientific probing: mysticism. It may surprise us to hear that a technique of divination devised thousands of years ago in the Levant is still alive and well in this day of genetic sequencing and powerful telescopes. Astrologers are reporting better business than normal in the middle of our pandemic. Whether or whether it is true, it is unquestionably beneficial, and many current astrology users agree. They profess to be unconcerned about whether it is scientific or not, and many even state that they do not believe in it. They simply find it beneficial.
This astrology is a difficult universe to grasp your head around. I’m sure I’ve only seen a sliver of it throughout my studies. Astrology is built on a basic premise: what happens above, happens below. Astrologers claim that the positions of various celestial bodies (planets, moons, and asteroids) at the time of our birth reveal profound truths about who we are and what will happen to us. Some think that these celestial bodies actually cause events on Earth through some unknown mechanism; others, particularly in our modern age, reject this notion and instead perceive the sky as a reflection. They claim that through understanding astrology’s language, we can see a reflection of who we are and what our future may hold.
Before we go into the sort of incontrovertible “secular theology” that astrology has evolved into, let’s take a look at the scientific wringer it’s been through since the 1950s. Indeed, a plethora of studies examining particular event forecasts, Zodiac sign compatibilities and occupational inclinations, and astrologers’ abilities to match astrological profiles to individuals have had disastrous consequences for the profession’s credibility. (This review article and this website have a partial summary.) And, if the heavenly spheres do cause things on Earth, as early astrology proponents believed, no known force could account for the effect due to the distances involved.
After getting over their injured egos, honest scientists confronted with a mountain of evidence against their hypothesis would try to refine it, research it more, and possibly replace it with a better one. However, astrologists have chosen to ignore or dismiss this data. They’ve resorted to hand-waving, saying that they don’t know what it all means yet, but astrology works, and we’ll figure it out one day. Their reaction to a 1990 research perfectly exemplifies their aversion to course corrections. The Indiana Federation of Astrologers worked closely with the researchers to design their study. The Federation even checked the lead researcher’s birth chart, which shows where each celestial body was in the sky at the moment of his birth, to make sure he was a good guy.
The experiment was simple: six astrologers were given 23 birth charts and were asked to match them to 23 people who had images and answers to a lengthy questionnaire created by the Federation. What’s the end result? From zero to three correct matches were produced by each astrologer (the average was one). When confronted with this decision, the Federation twisted itself into a pretzel to explain itself, eventually saying that “astrology may not always produce quantifiable outcomes, but it still works.”
Because of astrologers’ lack of concern, Paul Thagard, a philosopher of science, declared astrology a pseudoscience in 1978. It wasn’t because its origins were illogical: after all, chemistry arose from alchemy. It wasn’t because of a lack of mechanism: continental drift existed long before plate tectonics was established as a possible explanation. It was because its residents had largely refused to confront the consequences of their actions. Over a lengthy period of time, it had made less development than rival theories such as psychology. It may have begun as a protoscience (a “science in the making”), but it quickly devolved into an unpromising endeavor before earning the label of pseudoscience.
For many modern astrology enthusiasts, though, all of this is a pointless debate. They claim that astrology has no scientific pretensions. It’s a tool for self-reflection. However, there are issues there as well.
My birth chart was created for free using a popular astrology program (I know, it’s not the same as consulting an astrologer). Some of the sections were spot-on, while others were ludicrously inappropriate, and the over 5,000-word article was riddled with inconsistencies. I was both an intense traditionalist and a natural rebel, a clever academic with a serious demeanor and an intuitive psychic with a strong believe in the unknown.
Barnum statements are named after P.T. Barnum, the creator of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, who is famed for purportedly declaring “there’s a sucker born every minute.” These Barnum assertions work like a charm! I’ve provided the identical bogus astrological personality description to high school kids who thought they were getting a horoscope based on their Zodiac sign on several occasions, and almost every single one of them raised their hand when I asked if they recognized themselves in the text. When I told them to check out their neighbors’ horoscopes, they realized they had all received the same text, it was chaos.
I can see how modern-day astrology appeals to people. It has become associated with the ever-popular self-help movement by emphasizing on self-reflection. It gives a sense of community to the social beings that make up its fandom, and it can seem empowering for minority who have been repressed by long-standing institutions. In reality, evidence suggests that people who are drawn to astrology are religiously inclined but not associated with a major denomination. An esoteric, decentralized system like astrology can readily satisfy the craving for spirituality and significance. And, before we condemn all of its adherents as scientifically uneducated, surveys suggest that astrology is most appealing to persons with a basic understanding of science. Indeed, astrology shares many of the characteristics of science: it makes predictions, does calculations, and works with systems and structures.
When astrology provides good descriptions of oneself, even those who are dubious of it may begin to warm up to it. Our brain’s inherent wiring for perceiving patterns and agents even when there are none reinforces this attractiveness for pseudoscience. The forecasts of astrology can give the illusion of control in times of extreme stress. For some people, not knowing what the future contains is unbearable. Even if astrology forecasts poor events, it provides a solid foundation on which to build.
However, there are less imaginative approaches to dealing with ambiguity. Professor Kate Sweeny of the University of California, Riverside’s Department of Psychology researches this phenomena and sent me two recommendations via email. “We’ve discovered evidence for the effectiveness of mindfulness practice in managing with uncertainty,” she says. Meditating or doing something like gardening that requires us to focus on the present now can help to relieve stress caused by worrying about the future. Similarly, being “in the zone” might be advantageous if we engage in an enjoyable, demanding activity that allows us to track our progress toward a goal. This experience is created with the help of video games. The illusion of control that comes with astrological reading can be relatively harmless, but it is not always so. If you pass up a fantastic opportunity because of something your horoscope stated that day, or if you pursue a risky possibility because of it, your life may be steered in the wrong path. Unfortunately, I can picture someone deferring life-saving surgery due to a gloomy reading from the stars.
If we are to reject the allure of magical thinking, we must submit ourselves to “not knowing,” a crucial scientific lesson that some of us may be better suited to grasp. “I don’t know what will happen, and that’s OK,” you can say. It stifles irrational thoughts. Of course, astrology enthusiasts may not consider “as above, so below” to be an excessive viewpoint. Carl Sagan is best known for popularizing the phrase “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” The problem comes when a pseudoscience retreats to the wishy-washy world of unknowable mysticism after being poked and prodded by scientific fingers. There are no unusual claims in that cosmos, where planets have been endowed with an underlying mythology by some odd divine force. It is possible to achieve anything.
Message to take home:
– Astrology is a pseudoscience since it has made no progress and refuses to acknowledge a substantial amount of important scientific research.
– Many modern astrology aficionados regard it as a tool for introspection rather than a science, in part because its forecasts might offer them a false sense of control during times of stress.
– Mindfulness meditation and engaging in things that put you “in the zone” are more grounded ways of dealing with uncertainty.
Who is the astrologer’s forefather?
Alan Leo, a notable British astrologer, author, publisher, astrological data collector, and theosophist, was born William Frederick Allan (Westminster, 7 August 1860Bude, 30 August 1917). He is considered regarded as “the father of contemporary astrology” by many people.
After a period of decline at the end of the 17th century, his work sparked a renaissance of astrology in the Western world. Leo was a fervent theosophist who included many of the theosophist’s theological principles into his astrology, such as karma and rebirth. He took advantage of the Theosophical Society’s extensive international network to publish, translate, and promote his work throughout Europe and America.
