Poseidon in Arses

[dreamingwithfairies]

I want to talk about astrology. Rant about it, more like. It's something I know a fair amount about. I know about the zodiac signs and their traits. I know about the “houses” and what areas of life they govern. I know about the planets themselves, including asteroids, and what they mean. How different placements interact. I even know that the old symbol for Scorpio was actually an eagle, which even most astrologers are unaware of. Western astrology – the twelve zodiacs we are familiar with – are literally lifted from Greek mythology, which for some reason millions of people believe in without realising it. Continuing with the Scorpio story, just for the sake of it, it was a scorpion that was sent by Gaia – the ancient Greek personification of planet Earth – to stop the warrior Orion from killing a bull (no doubt a direct connection to Taurus, the opposing sign).

In China there are also twelve zodiacs, but they're not based on constellations. They're based on the lunar year and an ancient myth about some animals racing each other. They all have elements and they rotate every turn. 2026 is the year of the Fire Horse, apparently.

I have a longtime friend. Dear, dear soul sister. But there are things she does that really piss me off, things she has no idea irritate me so much. I don't judge her for it at all. When you love someone you let them have their fun, if it's harmless, even if you don't really want to join in or understand why they're doing it. So she's really into astrology.

According to the traditional Western zodiac she's a Sagittarius (her sun sign, the zodiac everyone says they are even though it's more complex than that... it basically represents your ego or your core identity, the source of gravity that everything else revolves around and ultimately answers to). Now, I've known her for years. Almost a decade. I know she doesn't (or didn't) relate to being a Sagittarius until we came across the concept of Sidereal zodiac. This is where it gets convoluted.

Unlike the traditional system, which hasn't changed in thousands of years, “Sidereal astrology is a system that uses the actual positions of the stars and constellations to determine zodiac signs, accounting for the Earth's axial precession. This contrasts with tropical astrology, which is based on the seasons and a fixed zodiac that does not adjust for these astronomical changes.”

This configuration means that the sign you were born in is technically the one before that. So if you're born a Virgo under the tropical system, you're actually a Leo in the “more accurate” sidereal. And so my friend forced herself into one box when she couldn't fit into the other - though I see her using the two systems interchangeably so I guess it's like an expanded box.

Yet no one gives a fuck. Everyone uses the old tropical method that isn't even reading what's physically actually in the sky. They're just fixated on specific dates forever. The planets they tell you were there in the sky when you were born weren't actually there!

There's also something called the Draconic chart, which is a type of astrology that tells you what your birthchart in your past life was somehow. It's calculated on your moon sign - the zodiac and house your natal moon is was apparently your main/sun sign in your past life. Because we are so sure reincarnation can not only be calculated but described... The moon's South Node also tells you about your past life, it's always the opposite of your North Node which is interpreted as your destiny in this life, which is also your main thematic challenge or karma...

Then there's Ophiucus, the proposed thirteenth sign, also known as the Serpent Bearer, apparently situated between Scorpio and Sagittarius, but not incorporated by most astrologers for some reason. And just to be clear, the zoduac signs actually represent constellations of stars. The idea is which constellation was situated behind the planet on the day of your birth. If they were lights, for example, the planets would be casting their shadows. The deeper spiritual idea is that the signs and houses and planets are placed for you to grow into them or develop them, carrying on lessons and challenges from a past life. Or something, it's really not an exact science. People just accept what they're told without delving deeper into the why behind the how.

We are said to live in the Age of Aquarius, or transitioning into it. It's been said by the likes of famed occultist Aleister Crowley since the 19^th century.

For my part, I could never find in my birth chart what everyone else was raving about. Neither in the tropical, nor sidereal, nor Chinese. I was more focused on what was different than what was relatable, I saw so many inaccuracies and generalisations. Even as I studied it out of curiosity, even as I got into the nuance of what it means to have a moon in this sign, or what the ascendant means for how people perceive me etc. I thought I was doing something wrong. So many of my friends were so into this, swore by it, dedicated study to it, some even charged money to interpret birthcharts and got glowing reviews. I started to see how astrology related to everyone else but not me, and so I felt left out, like maybe I was born under a different star. Where is my meaning and order? It's so satisfying to see your whole identity, your life, your destiny laid out in a literal detailed chart, every nuance explained, every layer dissected from the deepest levels to the most mundane. There's synergy charts, which lets you examine how your birth chart relates to your romantic interest. They're progressed charts – which I never got to fully grasp – which basically take into account how the current planetary alignments affect your birth chart, or how your own chart has changed over the course of time? There's dozens of systems, each one claiming to be more accurate or more relatable, and when you find one you think “ah, this is it! Now I can understand everything about myself.”

I tried this experiment from 2019 for the next couple of years.

I chose to relate myself to a different date as like my “spiritual” birth, if you will. I chose a specific date for this, which was actually very symbolic and meaningful, a few months after my birth. I do genuinely have an uncanny ability to vividly recall the earliest memories, and I remember that day.

I went to check the exact planetary chart for that day (tropical) along with the exact time of “birth” et voila! For the first time I saw a chart I could connect to. It was dynamic, passionate, idealistic, deep, full of intensity and the elements of water and fire battling between themselves, which I knew was literally me. From then on I interpreted every chart, every bit of astrological insights scattered throughout the web based on this fake birthday and thought “wow yes that is so me” and it went on and on and it was so fun, finally I could play with all the other girls (because, I'm sorry, way too many women take this shit seriously it's so embarrassing). I began to believe this was my order in chaos, my meaning. And it's kind of creepy how it creeps up on you, this programming. You truly begin to believe it's real, that it was always relatable and accurate, and you start to see it everywhere like a pattern over everything. To an outsider it sounds generalised but to you – it resonates, it makes sense, it feels right.

But it's not. It's like an NPC running a script. A system which is infused with the belief of millions, who are well aware it has nothing to do with science – nothing to do with astronomy or astrophysics. Objectively, astrology makes no sense whatsoever. Planets and stars and asteroids dictating human destiny based on the specific moment they were pushed out of their mother's womb sounds like someone in an insane asylum would come up with. Someone knowing what each planet does to the psychology of humanity.

I do believe in esoteric truths, such as the “As Above So Below” motto. The direct parallels between the microcosm and the macrocosm is undeniable and can be easily observable in science and mathematics. The fact that the spiral in your morning coffee reflects the shape of the Milky Way galaxy you live in is inherently mystical and awesome without ascribing any meaning to it. Nature is full of wonder and mystery even without meaning or answers, maybe that's precisely what makes them so beautiful. It's actually an extremely fascinating area of study once you start to look at it objectively. But we are indeed fools if we do not verify this for ourselves, with our own reason, common sense and gut instinct.

Astrology is a fable. They tell you “it's just for fun” until they start adjusting behaviour, following a pattern, subconsciously aligning themselves with what they've been told they are. This is how people become boring and predictable. Yet I sincerely understand the appeal. I needed it, just like so many other beliefs I've had and tried and discarded. When your life is full of chaos and uncertainty, and your pattern-recognition and creative problem solving skills are in overdrive, you cling to these symbols that were literally designed with you in mind. I know this because I actually chose to believe in it, against my better judgment, against what I knew to be true, I started to see what they saw in everything and everyone around me like putting on a new pair of glasses. To be the odd one out who cringes every time someone talks about astrology is an alienating experience, frustrating too. They think you're the weird one, because it's so widespread and to question it is rude. It's like trying to take away someone's favourite toy when you know they're too old for it. They know you're right, that there is no logic, but when you corner their delusions they insist it's just for fun.

The Gnostics had it right. They openly blasphemed against Hellenic philosophy and religion. They considered astrology to be a prison – each planet was presided over by an archon or a lord, who ruled that planet and the destinies of humanity, nations and events (because, believe it or not, countries and events also have birth charts... USA is Cancer for example, its birth is equated with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. July 4 is Cancer season.). Each planet was a layer in the trap. They were to be defied, fought against, liberated from. The Hellenics, meanwhile, considered the cosmos to be perfect as clockwork, a harmony so exquisite that to defy it was the gravest sin one could commit. Astrology wasn't just a fashionable personality guide like it is today, it was a guide on a balanced and correct life in accordance to the cosmic order and it was taken to be as legitimate as any science or philosophical treatise. What does it mean today? When a myriad of different belief systems are wrestling for attention, where occultism is a soup of Western and Oriental traditions from chakras to Biblical angels? There are so many filters people use to experience reality in an inauthentic way. What is everyone so afraid of? Afraid of facing the unknown? Afraid of realising they have to make their own myth? That's what one of my favourite artists said, Salvador Dali. He said it was essential to mythologise your own life, your own birth. He didn't mean in it a sense of following a pre-established system which has already expired centuries ago. It's about looking deeper into your own life and starting to see patterns and symbols unique to you. That's why I never look to a dream intepreter to understand what my dreams mean, for example. Because my symbols are unique to me. They come from my waking life, and can mean something completely different to someone else's symbol. To weave your own myth, to bring your own chosen symbols into your life, that takes creativity and effort and a level of individualism that most people are incapable of. While everyone else is clinging to Greek or Chinese myths, running on neatly packaged systems, I choose to create my own archetypes, my own myths, my own stars which do not exist in the sky above me but the one within me. I seek a narrative, I enjoy patterns and things that are coherent and eventually aligned. There is a world in each one of us, so why are we always looking outward for meaning and harmony?

Yesterday Neptune entered the sign of Aries, according to mainstream astrology this is a “generational shift” now. People attribute popular disillusionment with social media on this. They point to how the last time Neptune was entered this sign there was a Civil War in the US, so they wonder if it's going to happen again. Which also reminds me how, despite the fact that the tropical astrological system runs on Greek myth, the planets themselves are named after Roman gods. Aries, for example, comes from Ares. Aries rules Mars. Ares was the Greek god of war, Mars is the Roman equivalent. So if you have Mars in Aries it's like. God of war rules god of war.

Oh, and let's not forget Pluto. Astrologers didn't even account for its existence until the 1930s yet they pretend like it was always there. Now it has the sign of Scorpio attached to it somehow (which is also associated with Mars somehow, like Aries) and Pluto rules generational shifts. So like Neptune. Yeah, the planets after Saturn are considered to have more “broad” effects, to be more social or spiritual in nature.

And you've probably heard about the Mercury retrograde craze. Every time that happens people swear every little problem is because of Mercury retrograde. They'll tell you don't travel because that's a riskier period. Watch your words because it's miscommunication season. Oh my god, shut up! What of the exceptions? What about us people who have a completely normal time? When you tell them “I don't relate to my zodiac” they'll insist it depends on the “rest of your chart” oh really? My mother and her childhood best friend were born on the same exact day in the same town yet they couldn't be more different as people. Astrologers would insist it depends on the exact hour and minute, like that can make a huge difference... my mother also dismissed astrology, it was too unrelatable even when generalised. How far are we willing to go? It's honestly Biblical at this point. Cherry-picking the Old Testament or misquoting the gospels or misinterpreting Jesus. It never ends, this cacophony of symbols and archetypes and everyone looking outward for meaning and depth. What is it costing us? Is it worth it?
The truth about astrology is that people choose to believe in it, they choose to filter their lives and live according to inherited and invented archetypes, myths and symbols. Who decided what Jupiter governs? Whoever decided the current state of astrology, there is no authority, no way to prove it like you can with the scientific method. It's a collective and they say that's proof enough, because it endured and people still believe. It boggles my mind, how in an age where the living universe is explained in detail along with the human body, where the wonders of scientific discovery are at the fingertips of every mind open to learning, people still choose to believe in made-up stories full of holes. Ancient dreams are borrowed from extinguished civilizations and passed off as spiritual truth. I am honestly so tired of "ancient wisdom" so often it's not even real.

I shall try a new experiment now. Make up my own mythos, my own seasons, my own zodiacs. It's whatever. I am already aware I have internal weather systems. Maybe one way to understand, predict and prepare for them is to turn them into symbols of my own. The only thing I worry is when is my patience with astrology gonna run out. It's so hard to avoid when your friends are into it. Ugh.