Isn’t it just wonderful to imagine that the existence of an ordinary human being has its roots in the movement and actions of celestial beings? Isn’t it entirely fascinating to know that something that is happening thousands of miles away in space is quite literally impacting your life? Let’s face it, this is true to some extent. Mercury in retrograde has ruined many opportunities for us, hasn’t it?
Astrology is the study of the positions and movements of the stars and planets and the way that some people believe they affect people and events. It is a pseudoscience that claims to possess divine information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the movements and relative positions of celestial objects.
Essentially, astrology and horoscopes focus on the sun signs of people. Now, what are these sun signs that people keep raving about? Sun sign astrology is a simplified system of Western astrology which considers only the position of the Sun at birth, which is said to be placed within one of the twelve zodiac signs. This sign is then called the sun sign or star sign of the person born in that twelfth part of the year.Â
Whereas your moon sign is one of the most important parts of your astrological profile: it represents your emotional side, your feelings, intuition, and memories. It also dictates your relationship with the main maternal influences in your life, as well as how you nurtured care for others.Â
These sun and moon signs are supposed to depict the way you behave, the things you do, the emotions you showcase, and the ones you don’t. There are hundreds and thousands of horoscope websites where you can read your fortune and know your future for free. Some horoscopes are extremely precise and might just tell you that you will most certainly trip on a blue-colored banana peel while others are pretty vague and might just tell you that something golden is waiting for you at the end of the tunnel. Horoscopes are just one of the myriad of functionalities of astrology. Thus, astrology gives people a sense of belongingness and purpose. Some believe that it’s real while others believe that it’s the perfect placebo effect.
Astrology can help you make important decisions in your life. A detailed study of the transit of planets will help you understand why certain things are happening in your life. It can help you in numerous ways, from conflicts in your love life to strengths and weaknesses in your body, help for all kinds of problems can be sought under the broad scope of astrology.Â
How real is astrology?
To quote an article titled Astrology written by S. Carson, “As a divinatory practice, astrology is without equal in both its colorful history and modern-day popularity. Astrology has grown, over thousands of years, into a huge and ornate superstructure that lacks a central design. Although astrology has been dimly veiled by its occult mystique for centuries, the light of modern-day inquiry has shown its substance to be mostly illusionary and revealed its foundation to be the shakiest possible: that of self-justification and anecdotal evidence. Despite the many claims of its practitioners and followers, extensive investigation has revealed astrology to be a great teetering monument to human gullibility.”Â
Many such articles can be found on the vast world of the internet. They, just like the aforementioned article, point numerous fingers at the discipline of astrology. They question the viability of its entire existence with many people attributing the accuracy of horoscopes to the vacuous and vague wording.Â
Astrologer Linda Goodman can be quoted as a good counter-argument for the same, “An individual’s sun sign will be approximately eighty percent accurate, sometimes up to ninety percent. Isn’t that far better than zero knowledge? That extra ten or twenty percent, is, of course, most important and must be considered. But if you know a person’s Sun sign, you’re substantially better informed than those who know nothing about him at all. There are no pitfalls in applying Sun sign knowledge when it’s done with discretion. Just plant an imaginary policeman in your mind to keep warning you that you might be off by that ten or twenty percent, and you can use them with confidence.”
At the end of the day, various interpretations of the functionalities of astrology is extremely subjective and differ completely from person to person. Thus, astrology is just as real and at the same time, just as big of a placebo effect as you can imagine it to be.