Quiet Confetti: Our astrology obsession signals progress
Whether you love or hate it, it’s positive for society.
Since the 2010s, millions of citizens/netizens of Earth (particularly American Millennials) have become obsessed with astrology. But whether this millennia-old symbol system fascinates you or makes you frown is not the point.
Astrology’s prominent position in contemporary American zeitgeist is a loud, hopeful signal that we’re healing — collectively and fast.
Astrology: from eye roll to eye-opening
I spent a good bit of the 1990s tummy-down and heels up on the beige carpet of my bedroom, devouring the latest Seventeen. Gobbled up interviews of Claire Danes and Fiona Apple. Ripped out the hottest preppy-surf lewks.
Then, I pored over the everpresent astrology section. Month after month, my Capricorn sun horoscope said something about being “ambitious, social-climbing, fairly rigid”. I scoffed. I mean sure, sometimes, but not always. So I dismissed astrology as fluff for years, like a guy who has been grilled one too many times about his “Big 3” (sun, moon, rising sign) on dates. Eye roll.
In my mid-twenties, I was a junior curator at the contemporary art museum. That’s also when my understanding of astrology went from crackly AM radio to reverberating Dolby surround sound.
The person responsible was Carol, our gray-blonde director of corporate partnerships. Witchy and cuddly in black leggings and statement gold jewelry, she told me breezily one Tuesday afternoon that she studied astrology and could give me a full birth chart reading. When I tensed up a bit she waved it off, “For free, dear. It’s my calling, not my career. Just give me your birth date, time, and place.” After verifying my birth time with my mom over iMessage (“Are you sure? It has to be exact!”) I met Carol in her office.
Some astronauts experience the Overview effect, a major cognitive shift after seeing Earth from space. They report a sense of national borders melting away, replaced by a feeling of oneness and being a citizen of the world. Going from sun sign blurbs to a full-blown birth chart reading had the Overview effect on me.
I learned my sun sign was just one small piece of a huge, intricate, planetary puzzle based on a snapshot of the sky when I was born. She told me uncanny things she’d never be able to know about my upbringing, family, what I found difficult, what I found easy. This sense of complexity and wholeness ran circles around Seventeen.
Healing is becoming more whole
Like many other humans, I’ve broken myself up into fragments and tallied up what’s “good” vs. “bad”. I’ve wrestled with the “bad” stuff, pushed them down and away. I’ve been ashamed of parts of me, and thus silenced them.
"Listening moves us closer, it helps us become more whole, more healthy, more holy. Not listening creates fragmentation, and fragmentation is the root of all suffering." — Margaret J. Wheatley, writer, teacher and speaker
Astrology helps me listen to more of myself. It shows twelve dimensions of my life. The thirteen signs and their various energies and qualities inspire compassion for self and others — there are so many ways to be human, and everyone is a unique mix of placements.
We all contain multitudes, and our brains have the tendency to categorize and separate parts of ourselves like the recycling. For me, astrology presents a way to accept the multitudes and paradoxes of myself. All parts of me are okay. Everything is perfect the way it is and there’s room for growth. Take what resonates and leave the rest.
People are drawn to the medicine they need
In The Architecture of Happiness, British philosopher Alain de Botton read architecture’s angsty diary and bares all. He argues that an era’s buildings reflect people’s emotions, dreams and hunger — not necessarily their reality.
One of the most famous architects of the 20th century, Le Corbusier, designed homes that looked like clean, white boxes. That white cube, modernist architecture spread over the West. It was a letter to Santa for cleanliness and efficiency, because actual Industrial Revolution life was rife with noise, grime, and infectious diseases like tuberculosis.
People are drawn to the medicine they need.
At a quick glance, astrology looks like a way to label and limit people. “Oh, she’s being a Virgo.” “It’s the full moon in Cancer, his rising sign, so he’s really feeling it.”
The more I explore it, astrology is a flashlight. It illuminates areas that I can work on if I choose. It has helped me make meaning of my blindspots and my strengths. The more I study it, the more I feel like a clump of stardust, spinning through the sky on the rock that is Earth.
That which gets separated wants to find cohesion and unity again. Growth (healing, thriving, progress) requires welcoming and integrating all parts of ourselves. Astrology is a really helpful tool for this when used in a compassionate, open way.
A few months ago, I was on the MUNI bus in San Francisco. I overheard a guy in his early 30s recounting a date to his friend. “Maybe it’s my Venus in Leo, I think it went well. But I can be a hopeless romantic. We’ll see what happens.”
While someone else might hear fluff, I hear self-awareness and acceptance.
"People are drawn to the medicine they need". Great heading. This essay made me think. There are so many bodies of knowledge like this, that people will take or leave. But there are universal truths to be found in many of them. One that I found particularly useful to me was the Enneagram. Not for absolute answers, but for patterns. Anyways, lovely writing, thanks for sharing.
...i have enjoyed seeing life through this prism since reading the free horoscope in the local minnesota weekly reader...back then i saw it as lark and amusement but these days i see it as just another valuable tool of self reflection...and lark and amusement...never fully healed but certainly progressing :)...great article!...