Today, modern psychology has cast astrology as a fantastical way that people of the past project the workings of their minds onto the environment around them.
This interpretation leaves far too much wiggle room for astrology to simply sound like affirmations of what people want to hear about themselves and think about the world. Even worse, the nurturing approach psychologists take has polluted modern astrology with watered-down interpretations that seek to protect their clients.
Where is the trust in that? With the feel-good, pop-psychology variety of astrology growing like fungal spores throughout the millennial covens of the internet, both believers and skeptics are cause for concern. But in the past 20 years, traditional astrological texts have been translated into modern languages for the first time.
These texts come from the same scientists who produced the first analog computer and principles of geometry that we still use today. Modern astrology may be overrun with mushy hocus-pocus thanks to conflations with psychology, but newly accessible ancient astrological methods could produce a revival in the power and credibility of the craft.
That might be because sun-signs astrology is a recent creation designed to appeal to mass audiences. Pop astrology was born in the late 19th century during the boom in new-age exploration, and was then fueled by developments in psychology in the 20th century. The notion that your sun sign indicates your character was popularized by esotericist Alan Leo in England in the s. He was part of a group called the Theosophical Society that scoured spiritual traditions of all sorts looking for wisdom that would help society get to the next stage of development.
His writing garnered enough of an audience to provoke several legal battles in the s for unlawfully practicing fortunetelling. The sun-sign approach to astrology continued to grow in popularity through newspaper columns in the first half of the 20th century and boomed when New Age went mainstream in the s. When modern science was making humanity look smaller and more insignificant than ever, people found it reassuring to think of their personalities as being reflected in the stars.
Jung, who created the psychological categories of introversion and extroversion and formed the basis for the popular Myers-Briggs personality test, placed astrology on par with mythology in explaining the workings of the human psyche.
As far as he was concerned, it was all just in our minds. People who claim that astrology as practiced in its current form is based on thousands of years of tradition are wrong. We have an opportunity to reflect on our stakes in these social reckonings, to materially root our actions in sustainable practice. Now is the time to get creative about how we show up for each other and ourselves, and maybe even use astrology to help us along the way.
Miranda Gershoni is a Trinity junior. Her column usually runs on alternating Wednesdays. The independent news organization of Duke University.
Join our staff. Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox Signup for our editorially curated, weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time. By Jake C. Aliza Kelly Aliza Kelly is a celebrity astrologer, columnist, author, and host. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses.
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