this video is sponsored by self-decode
what's up guys helen here with a
confession i'm an aquarius meaning i'm
idealistic and chronically late you're
probably thinking why the hell would i
care well you don't have to be inundated
with hundreds of scorpio memes on social
media to know that astrology has gotten
big in 2018 americans spent 2.2 billion
on mystical services i.e astrology tarot
and psychic readings meanwhile astrology
apps raked in a chill 40 million dollars
the following year skeptics of astrology
like astronomer carl sagan have fairly
pointed out the lack of scientific
evidence supporting the practice how
could
the rising of mars at the moment of my
birth affect me then
or now but that to us is probably the
least interesting thing about this
phenomenon whether astrology works isn't
the question the question is in our
science and tech happy era what makes
the spiritual craft of astrology so
endlessly compelling to so many people
let's dip a toe into the mystical in
this wisecrack edition on how astrology
captivated the modern world
but first i want to tell you about our
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back to the show now the human impulse
to find meaning in the stars is nothing
new ancient babylonians were reading the
night sky back in the second century bce
in ancient greece astrology developed in
tandem with astronomy and was treated
with respect by the likes of ptolemy and
plato throughout history kings would use
court astrologers to help them make
important decisions like who to invade
or what flavor ice cream to eat in the
12th century astrology became heavily
tied to medicine and the job title
physician astrologer was a real thing
astrology was even taught at
universities across europe until the
late 17th century but around then the
age of enlightenment coupled with
propaganda and political pressure put a
dent in astrology's credibility for a
couple hundred years it was relegated to
a fringe interest of freaky weirdos for
a long time in many places it was even
illegal to predict futures the
spiritualist movement of the mid to late
19th century would revive the ancient
craft somewhat but it would never be as
well respected fast forward to the
swinging 60s and baby boomers zealously
embraced astrology and to this day it's
remained a huge if hugely mocked part of
our culture but how did we get here what
accounts for astrology's enduring
popularity well you can largely thank
occult enthusiast alan leo a late 19th
century new ager who super liked reading
the stars but he had a big problem it
was still illegal in england to predict
the future for money so after going to
court and being fined for his little
hobby he took his lawyer's advice and
stopped making predictions but what good
was astrology without predictions of
death thunderstorms or unsightly pimples
on your wedding day leo was about to
figure it out see he also believed that
the age of aquarius was fast approaching
this was going to be a blissful era of
raised consciousness and humanity
reaching its true potential he wanted to
help everyone get ready for this dope
galactic spectacle specifically by
achieving better self-understanding
importantly leo believed that character
is destiny that men astrology should
help people better understand their
character and temperament rather than
predicting external happenings like car
crashes and here's a major plus
describing someone's personality is not
technically telling the future thus it
was not illegal now quick sidebar you
know your sun sign that's not your whole
astrological picture professional
astrologers take into account the
position of every single planet in the
solar system when crafting a star chart
but that is very complicated and
requires a lot of math and training thus
it was super expensive and pretty much
exclusive to the upper class this made
astrology kind of hard to popularize so
leo came up with the ultimate shortcut
teach people their sun sign and draw
conclusions about their character based
solely on that this bite-sized approach
to the craft proved massively popular
soon newspapers would start publishing
horoscopes and life would never be the
same for any of you two-faced geminis
just kidding but yeah he basically made
abbreviated horoscopes a thing though he
couldn't have possibly predicted the
21st century meme explosion he was
effectively setting in motion leo's sun
sign only approach would largely define
modern astrology standardizing zodiac
signs also helpfully made astrology
marketable on a massive level via cheap
almanacs conveniently this was happening
just as the consumer capitalist economy
was entering full swing at the same time
leo would inspire astrologer dane
rodyard to take this character stuff a
step further in the 1930s by invoking a
sparkly new type of science psychology
specifically by borrowing from one carl
jung side note turns out jung was a big
old weirdo who liked alchemy in
astrology in fact you liked astrology so
much that it's speculated that his zeal
for the craft was at least partially
responsible for his famous breakup with
mentor sigmund freud this makes sense
because as writers kieran lagrice and
saffron rosie explain in their book yung
on astrology at root both astrology and
union psychology might be seen as being
engaged with the critical task of
developing greater self-knowledge by
bringing to awareness the unconscious
factors underlying our life experience
rudyard formally merged astrology with
union psychology especially his notions
about the collective unconscious and
archetypes thus he created psychological
astrology and popularized the idea of
reading your horoscope as a cheaper
version of seeing a shrink rest assured
not everybody was happy about the
mainstreaming of astrology in 1952
cultural critic and notorious grump
theodor adorno wrote a semi-aggressive
78-page screed critiquing sunshine
columns he declared that fans of
astrology were persons who do not any
longer feel that they are the
self-determining subjects of their fate
he studied los angeles times horoscopes
and noted certain themes specifically
that they seemed to promote bourgeois
values like tact hard work and success
while flattering people about how
intuitive they supposedly were he
wondered how in the age of astrophysics
anyone could possibly believe that their
personality was affected by their date
of birth that same question continues to
be posed today for her part scholar
christine monk argues that two world
wars nuclear weapons and the
environmental crisis have all made
science seem a lot less sexy this then
leads people to seek out decidedly
unscientific things like astrology but
what if the popularity of astrology in
modern times isn't just explainable but
was actually pretty inevitable back in
1966 sociologist jacques matra argued
that astrology is actually a perfect fit
for modernity and many have since agreed
see as scholar marshall berman explained
rapid change is one of the central
tenets of modernity whether it's the
decreased power of religious and other
social institutions or rapidly
increasing globalization our world is in
a constant state of flux as monk
explains the world today seems more
enchanted than ever but is also in
certain ways more dangerous and
demanding we are constantly faced with
the challenge to make decisions and to
act in the world without full knowledge
and without a privileged point of view
frequent job changes cross-country moves
divorces and so on add far more
variables to everyday life than our
ancestors ever had meanwhile a decaying
social fabric leaves us all as lone
agents trying to figure out how to
behave this creates fraught situations
where we worry about making the wrong
choices about being the wrong kind of
person as scholar olaf hammer writes in
late modernity we construct who we
really are by engaging in self-reflexive
speculation and considering a variety of
options that's where astrology comes in
for a lot of people as a mediating force
to help them make sure they're not
[ __ ] up as monk puts it to use
astrology is a way to claim a home in
the cosmos that's during a time when a
lot of us don't have that psychic home
anywhere else that's why astrology is
particularly attractive to people in
liminal situations like a breakup for
job loss in a world full of choices the
guidance of the stars no matter how
unproven can feel centering for some
monk notes that astrology both lets us
feel acted upon by forces larger than
ourselves while also helping folks to
make a shift of perspective and to
reconstruct their worlds in slightly
different ways reading your horoscope on
the internet she explains can magically
create a foreground and background for
the self-reflective modern individual
who might feel ungrounded in their real
life in this way she believes its appeal
is largely about agency and empowerment
perhaps it's no wonder then that
astrology has in america traditionally
attracted marginalized groups like women
and people of color who are all too
often denied power in daily life some
scholars think astrology even functions
as a powerful coping mechanism this all
makes it somewhat ironic that astrology
has become an important spiritual outlet
for so many people precisely because
it's so aptly adjusted to modern
capitalism and mass production but the
popularity of astrology is also
reflective of the way society now sees
individuals remember how old school
astrology was all about big events like
wars and royal coronations rather than
about little old you and your
inexplicable romantic affinity for mouth
breathers that's in large part because
before the early modern era
individualism wasn't all that important
it was thought that every person had a
few basic core characteristics in common
but the concept of the unique individual
eventually caught on with a little help
from renaissance philosopher michel de
montagna among others in our late modern
times the pursuit of that authentic
unique self has become paramount and
astrology is one way of sussing out and
understanding your own quirks and
idiosyncrasies in the process hammer
explains we've seen decreasing concern
with cosmogonic myths or social charters
and an increasing insistence on
personalized legends self-centered
rituals and the spiritual transformation
of each individual the individualization
of religion of finding salvation in your
own self is distinctly modern and
perfectly suited to astrology and this
understandably coincides with the
overall reduction in power of organized
religions in our age hammer writes that
these days not only is truth to be found
within each of us the very locus of
spirituality is our own self but what if
your own self is kind of discombobulated
how can you make sense of your life well
astrology can help with that too
apparently as hammer explains astrology
facilitates something called narrativism
which conveys the idea that we tell the
stories of our lives stories that
construct a temporal unity for our
identities and that link our specific
life histories with purported grand
overarching themes in this way hammer
writes it offers a conceptual framework
for constructing a narrative unity of
life and furnishes a narrative form
within which one's life history can be
understood hammer even says these
narratives can function as therapeutic
interventions though please don't break
up with your therapist just because you
can blame all your problems on mercury
being a retrograde linguist charlotte
lin argues that narrative is one of the
most powerful ways of creating and
maintaining one's personal identity
narrativizing can also help you
establish causality and coherency in
your life story didn't get asked to prom
blame pesky venus didn't get that
promotion q mars essentially astrology
can help us explain away the apparent
randomness of human life and according
to lind it can do that regardless of if
we fully believe in it or not as monk
summarized in such a disorderly world
astrology offers a symbolic and
metaphorical system of imagining within
a frame of order even if that order is
you know not at all scientifically
proven and pretty randomly concocted by
a few savvy 20th century spiritual
entrepreneurs but what do you guys think
is astrology distinctly modern or a
lingering remnant of ancient
spirituality let us know what you think
in the comments big thanks to our
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