This is a rambling collection of thoughts I’m sharing to have a place to point someone to if I’m tired of defending my interest in astrology.

It’s not a science, so…?

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good scientific fact. I love the progress we have made technologically (minus the part where we’re destroying our ecosystem and only home?) But science doesn’t answer the big questions I have about the universe– or even all the little questions I have about everyday life. Maybe one day it will, and some future person will have neat, tidy, answers. Good for them– until that point, I need something to help frame my conscious thought-rambles. Turns out you can view the world through a lens even if you know that lens is still not a perfect view of reality, and there is value in that.

How can there be only 12 kinds of people? Why doesn’t everyone born in Gemini act the same?

Astrology is actually a rabbit hole. Once you move past your “sign” (which for 50% of the population probably isn’t the strongest sign for them– if they are born at night, like me, they’ll look to their Moon Sign, not their Sun Sign), you realize each of the planets in our solar system plays a role in determining your unique natal chart (consider it your astrological DNA). Even if you just look at the twelve signs of the zodiac, each of them can be broken down into smaller chunks that provide more diversity in the interpretation. If you feel like your “sign” doesn’t describe you, don’t just reject the whole field– dig deeper. I feel like I could study astrology my whole life and still not get through all the techniques humans have discovered over the millennia we have been practicing them.

The planets are literally just orbiting in space millions of miles away– how can they possibly have an effect on us here?

Good question. This is something I think a lot about. Especially Jupiter… we probably wouldn’t be here sharing cyberspace together if the great giant hadn’t deflected huge chunks of rock away from the inner solar system and allowed life to flourish on this blue orb we call home. Besides having played an essential role in our lives, though, I have no idea what effect the planets have on us. And that’s really not the point. I don’t need to know how astrology works in order to find value in it– just talk to anyone who actually prays.

Ancient cultures believed they played a role in making the heavens play out the way they did (they didn’t always take for granted that the sun would come back out after an eclipse without doing some sort of ceremony!) Others believed the alignment of planets and stars were omens, or messages from the gods to let us know they were watching what happened down here on the Earth. Whether or not you or I believe we have any kind of causal relationship with the planets is kind of besides the point if you get what you need from the framework astrology gives us to examine our lives and meaningfully participate in the events that unfold.

Why can’t astrology predict things exactly? What’s the point if it’s always generic?

The beauty I see in astrology is about the patterns it can show us that have unfolded in our past and could unfold in our lives. Take a single event that you anticipate in your life– maybe an important presentation, a wedding, a sale– analyzing potential outcomes is a way to better predict which one might happen. And regardless, becoming aware of those potential outcomes helps you react to any of them. Astrology can help us see things we may not otherwise pay attention to, or even show us some archetypal ways that humankind has responded to such potential outcomes in the past.

I, personally, have used some techniques to extremely accurately predict events… creepy stuff. And of course, you could say that’s just because if you keep blindly guessing at anything eventually you’ll get something right. To which I say– go deeper, find underlying patterns that recur in your life. Apply statistical analysis to single predictions and explain why they are accurate when probabilities approach a theoretical zero. Before we could accurately predict the paths of planets across our skies, we had to make general observations. As our techniques grew more accurate, they grew more complex (Calculus, anyone?) The same is true of techniques in astrology. Crack a book and try it for yourself.

Look– astrology may not be for you. Cool. If you’re curious, that’s awesome, hit me up!

In the meantime, my personal advice to everyone is to keep raising your awareness of yourself, the world, and the unknown in whatever way is meaningful to you. Life is beautiful.