Astrology

ASTROLOGY IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Astrology in the United States is a broad term that centers around Zodiac signs. The level of commitment and understanding of the Zodiac sign varies. People interested in astrology can dive into a full star chart, outlining the position of all the stars at their time of birth. More mild followers tend to focus on their sun sign which acts as the most significant sign. Something important in the practice of astrology is the horoscope. These are short pieces of writing which tell readers what is going on in their lives based on their Zodiac sign. These horoscopes and other astrological writings lay out patterns or themes in an individual’s behavior, and expectations of behavior between people of different or the same signs. Horoscopes can be organized to give information about relationships broadly or specifically to romantic relationships.

The conditions in this current cultural moment are just so to encourage a bloom in the popularity of astrology. Through a combination of internet-based technologies allowing the flow of information to travel in a way unlike paper technologies, and the current cultural conditions of late capitalism astrology has found itself a prominent spot in the internet culture of Millennials and Zoomers in particular.

An empty spiritual nest is filled by a simple shadow, something connected to the stars and the planets, generated in mass by anonymous writers. In search of some kind of spiritual connection when traditional religion has been rejected outright due to many circumstances which are too numerous and off topic for me to cover here, astrology becomes the shadow of a god. It does not have the same baggage as religion. None of the bloodshed, history of colonization, or imperial conquest. On the surface astrology is not inherently a sexist ideology and it does not make claims about the creation of humans or the earth itself. It has no connection to science and contradicts scientific analysis, but that contradiction is what makes it so successful as a system for attempting to understand the world. It gives people something to believe in, something they can easily understand. People who practice astrology are going through movements, absurd ones, contradicting themselves day by day constructing a vision of themselves they see connected with the stars. They are finding ways to confirm their symbolic view of themselves. It is absurd in the sense that many realize if they delve deep enough into the claims of astrology through any kind of testing astrology would be pulled apart at the seams yet they chose not to do so and remain on the surface, clinging on something to believe in for its own sake.

The increased alienation of humans existing in a late-capitalist society has led to such a disconnect between people and the systems operating around them they are in search of something to ground them, something to force them to reflect on themselves and the people around them because the society they exist in has commodified every part of their existence to such an extent that people existing in this system are prone to lose themselves and think even think of themselves as merely a commodity, merely a collage of built aesthetics to be an advertisement and to advertise to. The fact that astrology itself is commodified and part of building a personal brand or image is key to its postmodern success. There are apps and services that offer payment-based subscription services and premium options. The prominence of astrological signs in social media profiles such as Twitter or Instagram bios are all important to what makes astrology such a prominent contemporary form of spirituality.

Brands have become cultural signifiers. Water bottles, and beverages are accessories which speak to a personal style, or lifestyle. These signifiers appear both online and offline. This presence of brands also peels back the desire of many young people to be influential online. Not just be an” Influencer” necessarily but to be successful enough in a specific field where brands make deals to represent them. That is a sign of success to many young people. In this same way astrology has made it so Zodiac signs are accessories. They are part of a cultivated image. The fact a Zodiac sign cannot be chosen is arbitrary. Any sign can be embraced and used to build a personal brand thanks to the same qualities that make astrology and Zodiac Signs so applicable to everyone. A witty joke or observation about a famous persons Zodiac Sign will always land on the timeline. Astrology finds itself as a commodity in capitalism and has wound up taking on characteristics of a fetish.

The online aspect of astrology, including all the related apps, creates a community of people interested in the same ideas and links people with a simple logic to think through things together compared to a more complicated and challenging philosophy. This is clearly appealing because a very serious and challenging philosophy is not needed to be deployed in all interactions or with all people. The simplicity of astrology is one of its greatest strengths propelling it to mainstream success. Its simplicity is linked directly to the fun people have while engaging with it. The pleasure of easily connecting with a group in a lighthearted and simple way is very strong. Many of the people engaging with astrology are also doing so in order to avoid being outside of the know because astrology is trendy, accessible fun for many people engaging with casually in a group or public setting. To look at the world with a very serious and rigorous lens at all times is not pleasurable and people look for pleasurable ways to see their existence rather than a more challenging lens. In the isolation created by the conditions of late capitalism such a simple and easy connection is desirable. A link to attempt to make friends that includes prewritten statements conforming a theoretical friendship based on the power of the stars.

This conformation of friendship and relationships also interfaces with online culture directly because of the presence of parasocial relationships. These are relationships where one person projects a feeling of friendship onto a person who does not return that feeling because they most likely do not know the person projecting these feelings exists outside of being a number in a follower or viewer count. An example is a fan or follower of a person, celebrity or otherwise, who feels a genuine connection or friendship with a person despite never interacting with them in a legitimate or genuine way, such as an actor, influencer, podcast host, or just a prominent Twitter user. Using astrology a person can further confirm their parasocial relationship by believing that the person they have been consuming the content of has a matching or compatible sign to their own so that if they ever were to meet or interact their fantasies of having a two way friendship would become reality.

Along the same lines as using astrology to confirm relationships there is also a desire to defy astrological predictions. People who use astrology as a guiding force are also open to the idea of having agency beyond the stars and transcending expectations to maintain friendships and relationships not predicted to work. This provides conformation of the friendship in the sense it is stronger or more legitimate than the stars and is not bound by their power. This transcendence is more desirable than simply going along with what is predicted because it is still tied to a framework of viewing the world but it is a personal framework where the person can take or leave what they want building their own view with a squishy and fluid belief system, which is one of the great appeals of astrology.

Astrology is passive. It is broad and it is detailed. It is however serious or casual you want it to be, there are no rules when it comes to it and the ideas behind it are so loose it is all about a reflection on the individuals’ personal life. The individual in relation to the stars and planets. Of course, that is in fact what makes it spiritual is that it heightens the importance of the individual in relation to a larger force out of any person or society’s control.

In my high school psychology class, the first thing I learned about was how astrology “fooled” people into believing it. By writing in a way which attempts to create a net so large that anyone reading it will at least get a little caught up in it or slowed down by it there would always for be something to verify the legitimacy of the relationship to the positioning of astrological bodies at the time of a person’s birth to vague writing in an app or on a website. Of course, when it comes down to it no one is “fooled” by astrology, they choose to believe it, that choice sometimes conscious and sometimes unconscious. In order to accommodate for other strangling conditions of capitalism an adopter of astrology may use it as a framework to think about their own behavior and quantify an idea of themselves. It offers the appearance of a more simple and static idea of self than existing as a fluid personality through space and time despite its inconsistency created from its many anonymous creators and lack of strict regulation. It is something to guide analysis of relationships and friendships. Not to tear them down but to critique them and understand them, simply to think about them. Young people use astrology as a dialectic of sorts. They read the expectations of the signs and weigh them against their personal perception of the world around them. Most people into astrology don’t mindlessly accept the path of the stars and planets, they just use them as a loose guide, weighing how accurate or inaccurate they are.

Zodiac signs and astrological charts are used as tools for people to weigh a level of truth or untruth that are bound to happen with a broadly written statement or prediction. They are used as a thesis and the person’s experience is used as an antithesis. They are compared and reflected on each other, sometimes proving the stars to be accurate oracles and other times seeming like a vapid pseudoscience. Nevertheless, deep analysis and reflection has dwindled with short format and reactionary trends. These astrological reflections can combat hypermasculine tendencies by creating a space for deep self-reflection and reflecting on current and former relationships. Because of this previous fact on much of the internet astrology is referred to as something for young women and many jokes are made regarding young men pretending to be into astrology in order to get into relationships with those who are interested in astrology. These jokes and “ironic” statements reinforce the challenge the practice brings to hypermasculine behavior because they are self-aware. The jokesters dismiss the idea as silly because they reject spiritual practices that rely on self-reflection.

Astrology itself, like any occult belief, is reactionary in its core. It has been pointed out in great detail that the Nazis had very strong ties to the occult. This is because in the same way capitalism in crisis cultivates fascism it also cultivates the occult. A disconnect from the material conditions of the everyday open up opportunity for a naïve, simplistic system for viewing the world and its structure, yet something so uncontrollable to take hold. The reason astrology works in these conditions is it is submissive. It assumes an invisible ontological, omnipotent force is interacting with their day to day. Capitalism to the American is water to the fish. It has become so hegemonic in the United States many people cannot be bothered to fathom another form of economic and political structure, the ideology of capital seeps from every crevasse. People existing in these static conditions are subject to the will of capital as such a powerful force it leaves the subject small, and hopeless, leaving their only hope of understanding their place in the world being written in the stars.

Astrology allows for an explanation of circumstances or positioning in the world divorced from class and other power structures, it is liberal in its core focusing on the individual amongst the stars rather than the individual amongst complicated hierarchy which has been developing and adapting in order to continue its own existence. Astrology eases the burden of capitalism and thereby helps maintain it by distracting from capitalism and subverting ideas of anti-capitalism by reframing relationships and power dynamics into simple, ontological circumstance.