Carolina León Brito - Step 10
Biffi Fest Contest
Topic: The Human Psyche Through the Eyes of astrology: does astrology have
any influence on people’s fortune and personality?
For more than 300,000 years, humankind has been living on a floating rock made of minerals, rocks and water, that completes one orbit around the Sun every 365 days, in which we see many different stars overhead, including of course the 12 constellations that mark out the 12 signs given by the horoscope. So when any of your friends mentions that they are a Taurus, it means that they were born between April and May when the Sun was facing its constellation.
However, that’s not entirely true, since apart from rotation and revolution, the Earth has an additional form of motion called precession, which is a continuous change in the orientation of its axis. This results in having a 1° change every 72 years, and although it may seem like an insignificant number, with the passage of time, all of this adds up, changing our position and view of the constellations. Consequently, if the zodiac had been laid over 2,000 years ago, nowadays we would have drifted the equivalent of one month. This means that despite the fact that you identify as a Taurus, you are actually more of a Gemini.
Astrology is the study of the movements of celestial bodies in the belief that they can have an influence on people's lives, and although the need to learn more about oneself and one's destiny is constantly present, it also leads people to actually question the accuracy of this practice. Being that our motivation, today we will answer one of the biggest interrogations in our current society, which is whether astrology has any influence on people’s fortune and personality, or not.
As Dr. Freed, a psychologist and astrologist, once said - humans have always sought to comprehend their existence and find purpose in their lives, using astrology as their most feasible method. Therefore, a fact I think should be stated up front, is that we are all guilty - guilty of resorting to horoscopes on the internet or in the newspapers in order to understand ourselves, or guilty of using astrology as an icebreaker at parties for the sake of maybe getting a glimpse of how the other person is like, immediately putting a label on them.
Nevertheless, the creation of these habits have nothing to do with us as individuals, given that astrology has been around since the Babylonian empire and it is constantly gaining more recognition each time it makes a comeback. Right now we’re living its twenty-first century comeback after the pandemic, where day to day we’re being exposed to it considering that it has become such a relevant topic in our pop culture.
As a result, numerous studies have suggested that a person’s belief in astrology might have an impact on how they label themselves, through a self- stereotyping process. One example of this is Van Rooji’s study in 1999, where astrologically knowledgeable participants were shown to be more likely to apply to themselves the relevant traits of their signs, than those without said knowledge. This could be associated with a phenomenon called the Forer Effect, where people are unconsciously forced by the masses to personally relate themselves to common and vague statements that are intended to align with anyone’s experience.
When talking about astrology, the truth is that it has little to no relation as to who we are as individuals; however, aspects like the fact that it is based on the unique data of everyone in the world, makes astrology gain an additional level of legitimacy in some people’s perspectives. When as a matter of fact, what does have relation to our personality and our character development, is our environment, the people we interact with, our life experiences, and so on.
Sometimes, believing in the horoscope gives us a sense of control, since you’re looking for external reasons out of yourself to justify aspects in your life. So for example, if you’re going through a bad day and you’re being mean to everyone, you will say something like “Hm, Mercury is in retrograde, so that supports my behavior.” When in fact, all you’re doing is training yourself to act a certain way because you’re aware that during certain periods of time your sign is supposed to act a particular way.
In summary, we could say that astrology and zodiac signs as their own, do not have a direct relationship to who we are as people, since there’s no scientific proof to back it up; however, the knowledge and belief that some have in astrology, might influence their self-perception, describing their personalities based on what the horoscope says about their signs.
We already have enough people and sources telling how to be or how to act, for us to include yet another body to tell us how we should be as people. So next time you’re trying to comprehend your existence, look within yourself and what you’re doing with your valuable life.
If horoscopes were true, Aquarius and Scorpio are supposed to be completely incompatible, yet, I wouldn’t want my best friend to be anyone else. And what about you? Are you going to let the stars sign the nature of your actions and the true route of your "fate"? As far as I am concerned, I do build up my destiny with every step I take, rather than just consulting the horoscope that somehow is basically written, in many ways, not by an astrologist, but by any reporter apprentice.
