skepticism

Ignorance in Astrology

So, in astrology, it is common to find many people doing and saying ignorant things. Astrology is an Aquarian practice, so therefore, it is frequently misunderstood and perhaps ridiculed by others. I’m going to list a few uneducated arguments and combat it with some information. Hopefully this post can help you challenge what you know and how you currently view astrology.

  • “I hate this sign! I hate that sign!” This statement is pretty ignorant for several reasons:

    • Unless you have an interception in this certain sign, you actually have this sign ruling a House somewhere in your natal chart. So technically, you’re hating yourself if you hate a sign.

    • Most people base their hate on Sun signs. Astrology is much more than just your Sun sign… The person’s sun sign may not even be what you hate about the person! This also doesn’t really justify people hating signs in other planets either, because hating a sign in any way shows the ignorance you have in accepting the positive and negative qualities a sign can have. At the end of the day, it will always be wrong to incorrectly place bias on something that is inherently neutral.

  • “I don’t relate to my sign at all.” Well, good news for you. You are more than just one sign. You actually have a lot of planets, houses, and aspects that can describe you, even though your Sun sign is still very important.

  • “Astrology is too general! These descriptions can apply to everyone.” Of course the descriptions you find online are general and can be applicable to everyone. It doesn’t make practical sense to make a pinpoint, specific description for you unless you pay an astrologer to do it. The astrological descriptions are catered to everyone, and with that in mind, the descriptions are made to describe a placement purely and accurately. However, you are a mix of descriptions, and it’s up to you to synthesize those descriptions accurately and use astrology to find yourself. Also, the more general descriptions you gather, the more specific your chart will be. How many people in the world do you think would have the same exact number and types of astrological descriptions as you? Astrology is only too general if you don’t know how to use it.

  • “The horoscopes in the magazine aren’t accurate so therefore, astrology isn’t accurate.” Do you really think a serious, educated astrologer would write horoscopes for a magazine? For the record, for any horoscope, you use your Rising sign, not your Sun sign. If you want things to be even more accurate, go get a predictive transit reading from an astrologer.

  • “Astrology is tied to the occult! It’s evil and demonic!” The occult is technically defined to be something supernatural or magical. There is nothing magical or supernatural about astrology, for the basis of it is to observe people’s everyday, normal behavior to see how it correlates with their birth charts. There is nothing evil about observing someone’s behavior, and trying to make sense of it. There are many sciences that actually do this.

  • “I don’t believe in astrology because of my religion.” Astrology, first of all, is something you don’t believe in. Astrology is something you observe with. You don’t believe in astrology, you work and observe with astrology. You don’t need to observe something to believe in it. It is entirely possible to believe in a certain religion and practice astrology at the same time.

  • “There’s thirteen signs instead of twelve signs.” No, there isn’t thirteen signs. Ophiuchus is not a sign. The astrology that everybody knows of, tropical astrology uses astrology based off the seasons, and not the constellations. Therefore, Ophiuchus is not a sign. There are twelve signs for many symbolic reasons, and it would make no sense to add an extra sign. Which planet would Ophiuchus would rule? What kind of expressions would Ophiuchus have? How would Ophiuchus connect to the other signs?

  • “Astrology has been disproven by science, so therefore, it is not true.” There are many things science isn’t able to prove. Science is a constantly changing and dynamic subject. There are so many things we as humans do not know. It is completely arrogant to say something isn’t true because your way of understanding the world (which is essentially science) isn’t able to prove the workings of astrology. Scientists who have “disproven” astrology, do not know astrology themselves. It is impossible to disprove something you don’t know. Astrology does not have to be invalidated by science. We can’t just properly invalidate something we don’t fully understand.

  • “Astrology can’t predict my future.” Astrology was never meant to predict the future. Astrology is not an occult subject, so therefore, it doesn’t deal with supernatural subjects unless someone ties it into their own occult practices. Astrology as a subject has never claimed to predict the future, but to only point to several possibilities instead of an infinity. Astrology never promises a single, specific answer. There’s no way to get a specific answer when we tie in circumstances and time. Life is too dynamic to predict the future and when people start to panic and become fatalistic about their futures, they really forget the beauty of unpredictability.

  • “12 signs can’t define 7+ billion people.” The problem with this statement is that astrology defines people not with “just 12 signs” but with planets, aspects, signs, rulerships, and so much more. All of this is located in your natal chart. It is an assumption to think that astrology would generalize the world population to just 12 “personality types.” The signs aren’t even “personality types” to begin with, they are expressions, which can be applied to other planets, which will then give you a better picture of who you are. By the way, there are more combinations of natal charts than people currently living in the world right now. There’s actually 9,039,935,178,448 combinations if you leave out a bunch of variables. You can find the calculations here.

  • “Astrology is an outdated practice, so therefore, it’s not accurate.” Astrology was started by the Babylonians. The Greeks and Romans, ancient civilizations that people constantly look up to even today, practiced astrology. Science was also heavily used by the Greeks and Romans, which was a long time ago, so shouldn’t science be invalidated also with the logic of that argument?

  • “Isn’t astrology always going to be biased because humans are biased?” Humans are indeed biased, but astrology is inherently neutral. Astrology is only as good as the astrologer, because at the end of the day, the quality of astrology depends on those who practice it. That’s why it is essential to open your mind and gather your thoughts from other people to get a better picture. It is so important to not base astrological facts on your own experiences, but to take into account of other people’s. Humans, due to their unique natal charts will be biased, but this does not mean that being ultimately close-minded is the end result.

Of course, these are not all of the statements that can be argued against astrology. There are many more arguments, and you are completely welcome to add to this post.