A few friends of mine have mentioned astrology to me recently as a tool that they use for thinking about their life and making choices. They have asked me whether I “believe in it”. I suppose that I don’t really “believe”, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t understand why it is useful. I see astrology, in its ideal, as a way to coax out ideas in the subconscious that need a path into reality. I would actually compare this to many kinds of therapy.  For example, the rorschach test, where individuals are asked to put a name to ink blobs. If someone offers up a vague, but still defined statement (like a horoscope or an ink blob) that may have multiple interpretations, it will bring out ones own leanings and emphasis within the bounds of the subject.  If there are any lingering ideas in the mind that need manifestation, this is their opportunity to surface.

So, astrology is not really a tool that I choose to use, but I think with an awareness of its limitations and a demystification, it can be useful.

My favorite horoscope from today came from birthscopes.com:

“The person born on this day deals with the world as a revolutionary in most chart configurations. This is to the credit of Uranus, the ruling planet for this day. The conflict between this planet and Neptune, the ruling planet for Pisces has an effect that might be considered by the people that know this person as being off-center and cynical. After all this nit picking of the person born on this day the attributes that stand out the most is is their true desire to be giving and having genuine concern for the fate of all mankind.”

I don’t think I have ever been called a revolutionary in a horoscope. How cool is that? This, of course, is why this is my favorite.  Most of my horoscopes (and many for pisces, in general) focus on emotional nature of the sign and the importance of focus and grounding.  So, why am I drawn to this and why are people in general drawn to horoscopes. Alternative culture has few rituals that support the development and validate our identities.  This is primarily done through commodification, which falls short for most people.

Some interesting things about my specific horoscopes are that I am both the youngest sign (Chinese Rat) and the oldest sign (Western Pisces). I also have a lot of water.  Pisces is a water sign (although I have lots of other elements in my supporting signs) and I was born in the year of the Water Rat in Chinese. I am really not much of a water person, go figure.