Popification (and dumbification) of astrology
Meme-culture and ereasure of astrology's core principles
People often say that astrology is a “girly” thing... it’s for women, it’s feminine in nature because it’s inherently psychological and serves as a tool for self-discovery. Funnily, that wasn’t the case until it permeteated media and magazines as Sun sign horoscopes - the first one appearing in 1930s in the Sunday Express. This is probably when it slowly started loosing its true nature. And that nature being undoubtedly more scientific, deterministic and anchored in reality. For centuries, it was more masculine. Which makes sense given astrology used to be a male-dominated field. I know, shocker.
Divination was banned by none other than the Church. Of course with the rise of christianity, astrology started to be perceived as something bad but it did manage to survive, especially thanks to the islamic tradition that still heavily cultivated the practice in the medieval times. But there was a dramatic shift in the western world and we can look to Alan Leo for that.
The birth of psychological astrology
Alan Leo, often viewed as the father of modern astrology, was known for his horoscopes and for reinventing predictive methods. If you’ve ever used progressions, you can thank Alan Leo for that. He was unfortunately brought to court twice in the 1910s - and fined 25 pounds sterling the second time - for fortune telling, which made him try to reappraise astrology as a set of tendencies, rather than continuing to treat it as something that is highly deterministic. That’s a clever wording to avoid prosecution but it did influence others and soon after astrology has become a tool for character analysis and a psychological babble.
Predictive astrology has been put aside while psychological astrology took over and did nothing but completely reject the real-world prognostic side of it. Which doesn’t even make much sense - if you think about it, when psychological astrology, for example, talks about childhood traumas, that indicates that those traumas existed in reality, as a real-world event, which is somewhat predictive in character. But I guess the wording is different so it doesn’t count as divination (duh).
Soon after astrology went through a complete transformation. On one hand it became a newly discovered way to study one’s psyche. On the other, it was slowly being dressed as a fun way of looking at people’s characters. Astrology in the 1960s and 1970s was consisting of works from astrologers like Liz Greene, Dane Rudhyar or Stephen Arroyo, who all wrote on psychological astrology, as well as a strong advocacy for reading birth charts from figures like Carl Jung. But then at the same time we also had someone like Linda Goodman, whose 1976’s book “Sun Signs” has become a massive hit and pushed her to write a subsequent publication on synastry “Love Signs”. In essence, that was the first cutesy pop astrology book and probably another strong contribution to the idea of Sun sign astrology - alongside newspaper horoscopes. For decades you could find it in every American household as a staple fun coffee table book... after all, it was sold in over 60 million copies. People ate that up.
It’s almost like two opposites: having astrology be included in a scientific study about human behaviour... and also treating it like some party trick. But somehow no strong focus on astrology as a predictive tool with attention to real-world events.
And don’t get me wrong, I love me a good astro party trick... except mine would be more “did you happen to break your nose during holidays at the age of 12?” and less “you must be a Scorpio because you have piercing eyes”.
But this is how astrological stereotypes have been born, this is how sceptics had the door opened to accuse it of confirmation bias. This is how astrology has become extremely one-dimensional with no technical depth to it.
I don’t inherently dislike pop astrology, I will indulge in a good astro meme. But that is the thing: it has to be good and made by someone who has a proper grasp on astrology. Meanwhile I see the same boring quote from Kim Kardashian tagged as every possible zodiac sign by various astrology social media accounts. Like, can we stop? Can we stop Cosmopolitan from publishing posts with “zodiac signs as pop stars”? Can they at least do it properly and choose these pop stars according to their actual Sun signs???
And it’s not just memes, everything these days is becoming the same corny bait just to drive engagement: astrologers doing the same video every week yelling about zodiac signs that will go through a massive transformation. Or spiritual people who clearly don’t know anything about astrology but they surely will hype up every lunation. Actually, just yesterday I saw someone saying the Full Moon in Aquarius this year is beautiful. How is a Full Moon influenced by Pluto beautiful? It is opposing Jupiter which is basically like a smooth passage to the underworld... I don’t know if you’ve read the news recently but things are far from being beautiful.
ASTROLOGY AS THE „IT” THING
Astrology these days is presented in the way that is extremely simplified and I think that does a lot of harm. I remember a few years ago I saw a snippet of an interview with Doja Cat, saying that astrology applies to everyone... And what she meant by that is, it is so generalised that everyone can resonate with everything so therefore it’s bullshit. And that exactly is the issue.
The wave of interest around astrology that’s been happening for the past few years has its perks though. I’m not gonna lie, I am so so ecstatic every time someone like Andrew Garfield or Pedro Pascal are geeking out about astrology, birth charts and Saturn Returns. Not just Sun signs, their own birth charts and the nuances of astrology and planets (btw nothing more hot and cute than an attractive man talking about astrology). It’s so cool that we get to have access to some of those people’s full charts only because they shared their birth time or their rising sign. It’s cool that after years of guesses I have Hayley Williams’ birth chart only because someone asked her on a radio show. It’s cool that SZA is asking Sean Evans about his birth time on Hot Ones. It’s so cool that I can just ask Corey Taylor’s wife, Alicia about their big three and she will respond with no hesitation (yes, btw this is a flex on my side, especially that getting his full chart was on my priority list for a few years now; he’s a Capricorn rising with Moon in Taurus btw).
But at the same time some things are still being sloppy. We have astrology websites that don’t even show your actual birth chart (looking at you, cafeastrology). We have astrology apps that will spit out some random information about your chart or about a compatibility chart but they will not even explain it to you. Not only that, it will sound like something that is generalised and something that anyone could relate to. Or, even worse, it will be generated by AI. So no wonder someone like Doja Cat - who was sponsored by the Co-Star app at one point if I remember correctly - will look at that and say “well, anyone can resonate with that”.
It’s fun to see people being more open to astrology because... well... at the very least astrology is fun. I personally do treat is very seriously but simultaneously, it’s a massive source of joy and excitement for me.
Making the right prediction or using what later turns out to be eerily accurate wording for delineating someone’s chart without knowing that person is one of the most rewarding things I’ve experienced. You think winning in a game is fun? Well this is ten times funner.
But there’s gotta be a line drawn somewhere. I don’t want to see stereotypes, I don’t want to see people demonise one sign and idealise another: I don’t want to see people collectively bash Pisces men (as much as I have issues with Pisces Suns in general lol); I don’t want to see people saying Scorpios are the sexiest sign in existence; I don’t want to see people say Aquarius women are always problematic; I don’t want to see Sagittarius being called unfaithful - all because that was someone’s personal, singular experience. I don’t want to see any personal biases and bigotry framed as the one and only truth. I also don’t want to see people saying that every New and Full Moon is for manifestation. And don’t even get me started on a compatibility that is based on Sun signs.
PSEUDO-ASTROLOGY AND REJECTING DIVINATORY TOOLS
In the midst of the recent tiktok drama around Alex Reads Tarot-turned-Alex Reads the Bible, people were asking questions what the hell is going on. Someone said it’s Mercury retrograde... I said it’s the Mars-Uranus in Gemini. A bunch of people agreed but there is always that one snotty person jumping out and saying “why do you blame people being shitty on planets?” Okay why are you in a spiritual community saying that? I would understand if a sceptic said something like that.
Okay listennn, that was a debate way back in the hellenistic times: how deterministic astrology really is and is it really the planets causing everything that’s going on in people’s lives and in the world? I always like to reiterate this and I believe it’s important to have that point of view. So, look at it this way:
ASTROLOGY IS LIKE A TICKING CLOCK. I know we all like to colloquially say „this-and-this planet caused this” but really we should be saying „this-and-this planet struck a particular moment in time”. Think of it like lil notification system.
That is actually one of the things about pop astrology that irks me the most. And it’s the astrologers who yell at those who „blame” the negative energies for, well, bad things. Or when they say even the good things are nothing but the fruit of one’s labour when we know very much that some people are just lucky like that. And there is absolutely nothing wrong about that! Even the most talented hard working-people would be nowhere without luck. And astrology speaks of luck a lot, we have two benefics signifying that luck after all. But if you question it and yell at people making statements that „correlation doesn’t equal causation”, then why do you even study astrology? What do you study it for? To say Cancers like picnics and Pisces are obsessed with Disney movies? Really, this is the level you bring a convoluted ancient science to?
And what’s funny is, people who would write surface level articles on „how your 8th house will show your death” will be the same people who bash someone else for saying Mars brought trouble on them. Where is the logic? You’re preaching one for funzies but you look down on the other and call people pathetic for believing it? (this is true story btw). Which, side note, it’s not that simple to see how someone will die and especially not by just looking at the 8th house.
If you want the simplest example of how a planet like Mars can „do” harm, I have a great story on that. I remember how excited I was a few years ago when I was going through my Mars return and it was about 30-or-so minutes before it hit exact and a bee stung me in my hand. I have Mars in Gemini. A bee! (air sign) Stung me! (Mars rules sharp pointy things and weapons) In my hand! (Gemini rules hands). Tell me it wasn’t Mars’ doing. That is SO on the nose! Or when transiting Saturn (misfortune, illness, bones) opposed my Mercury (again, hands and locomotion) - which happens once in 27-ish years - and I broke my hand at the age of 11. I didn’t ask for neither of those things, it wasn’t some sort of „lesson” that psychological astrologers like to force on others, planets just „make” things happen for a reason sometimes.
Yes, planets will „cause” things. Planets will „cause” people to do certain things. Planets will „cause” certain events happening both in personal lives and on a bigger scale. If you study mundane astrology or even just really pay attention to your own life through the lens of planetary influence, you will see how sometimes things just perfectly align or something happens in a particular moment and creates a domino effect that manifests down the line, being perfectly timed with something that is currently happening in the sky. It is truly mind-blowing to see sometimes. Especially if you have nothing to do with it and it’s not your choices producing a specific outcome but rather choices of many different people and things just clicking together.
I think the issue is, everyone always focuses on the bad things. But planets also act as notifications for good things! I won tickets to a Garbage show once when Jupiter (the planet of luck) was transiting my 5th house of fun, making an exact opposition to my natal Venus (another planet of luck). Mind you, Jupiter does that once in 12 years. It „caused” a thing and that thing was awesome.
Want positive mundane examples? Saturn-Neptune conjunction (which happens every 36 years and always deals with the issue of borders) is linked to the Berlin Wall fall. Fantastic! Venus-Jupiter conjunction during the Venus retrograde season in 2015 brought same-sex marriage in the USA. Amazing! Other event including two benefics, a Colombian peace accord was first signed in August of 2016 on the rare alignment of Venus (peace), Mercury (agreements) and Jupiter (legalities) conjunction. Great! Similarly, the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was signed on a Venus-Jupiter conjunction and a Sun-Mars-Saturn conjunction (Saturn brings structures, taming the aggression of Mars and establishes a new government with the autonomous character of the Sun exalted in Aries on top of it). Terrific!
Now, this is the astrology that I like people focusing on. Specifics, guys, specifics.
Luckily, and thanks to the revive of traditional astrology, the old techniques and old methods have made a major comeback. It's definitely not representing the majority of astrology practice these days, but it is a nice counterbalance to psychological astrology and definitely to a Sun sign astrology - I think it really helped in pushing both back a bit. And more and more astrologers with big following are reaching for ways to look at worldly events through the lens of planetary alignments and are sharing that content online. I think there's a place for all but the modern approach does need a lot of reworking.