I like to think of astrology as a fine grained personality shorthand like Meyers Briggs.
the magical star-assigned fixed personality is dumb. what’s useful is being able to tell Becky to stop being such a Capricorn and come out and party, even if she is a cancer or whatever. it’s just a memey way to reference behavioral traits if your friend group already knows what they mean. i don’t know how to explain this any better
Early in our dating, my wife had me take the enneagram test. I got a 2, she’s a 9. I told her I found a page detailing relationships between 2’s and 9’s and some of the strengths and weaknesses we’d navigate as a couple.
As I was reading it she kept saying, at first, “That makes sense!” Or “Yeah I can see that.” There were a few that were kind of out there. But she kept listening.
Eventually I revealed to her that I was ACTUALLY reading a page detailing relationships between a dragon and a sheep, our respective Chinese Zodiac signs. And that I was using this to support my argument that personality tests are astrology for educated people.
Still ended up getting laid, though not that day. 😅
It’s clearly pseudoscientific nonsense. But it’s easier to say “I’m a pisces” instead of “I’m feeling hesitant about the future of our relationship, Sarah” if she is into that. The value is in being able to reference loose personality archetypes without having to spend a paragraph describing someone.
The problem is that you’re not really referencing “loose personality archetypes” in these sorts of conversations, they’re being assigned to you, relatively arbitrarily. It doesn’t matter if I’m serious and thoughtful, but because I was born on the third moon after the pomegranate harvest, I’m the joker of the group.
No, I think it’s pretty reasonable to push back if you’re being pigeonholed into some kind of archetype you disagree with. Tell them to stop being such Capricorns. The trick is it doesn’t really matter what sign you use, it’s just a bit
And that’s why Astrology is so powerful. it’s 100% projection and bias confirmation.
‘take chances’ is entirely relative. what is a bold risk for one person, is an afterthought for another person, but in astrology there is no specific context, just vague nonsense worded such that anyone can project onto it.
It’s all contextual, honestly, but here are my impressions of the uh, categories:
Pisces: wishy washy, both sides, indecisive, peacemaker, likes blue stuff
Capricorn: hustle culture, hates fun
Taurus: confident, aggressive, clumsy, bro-ish
I don’t have any others on deck without looking them up lol
Edit:
oh my god you guys. the magical star-assigned fixed personality is dumb. what’s useful is being able to tell Becky to stop being such a Capricorn and come out and party, even if she is a cancer or whatever. it’s just a memey way to reference behavioral traits if your friend group already knows what they mean. i don’t know how to explain this any better
You forgot the part about how it’s determined by giant balls of gas millions of light years away that aren’t actually arranged in neat patterns, but are actually incredibly far from one another and only look like patterns from our specific position in the universe
That argument falls flat to me simply because there are 13 zodiac signs, not 12, and ancient (and modern) astrologers simply ignore the 13th one (Ophiuchus) for convenience.
If you are going to claim the stars have influence over our personalities, at least be consistent with how you “read” said stars.
Not to mention, there is zero evidence that astrology works.
Also, at the time most of the zodiac and star chart arrangements were plotted out, the Earth had an entirely different north star than it does now. So your modern star sign would not even be consistent with the ancient charts and star signs, yet somehow all the same definitions and assumptions are supposed to apply.
I can appreciate that view point as long as we are in agreement that there is no real science behind it. I can totally see how people use “I’m such a Pisces” to describe themselves as sensitive and emotional. I just wish they would say “I’m sensitive and emotional” instead, lol.
I tried to express that as clearly as I could, it’s just like a more ethical version of Slytherin/gryffindor/etc, I tend to be friends with excessively referential people I guess.
I like to think of astrology as a fine grained personality shorthand like Meyers Briggs.
the magical star-assigned fixed personality is dumb. what’s useful is being able to tell Becky to stop being such a Capricorn and come out and party, even if she is a cancer or whatever. it’s just a memey way to reference behavioral traits if your friend group already knows what they mean. i don’t know how to explain this any better
I like to think of personality tests like Meyers Briggs as pseudoscientific nonsense like astrology
because they are
nobody takes them seriously other than teenagers and other emotionally immature folks.
Early in our dating, my wife had me take the enneagram test. I got a 2, she’s a 9. I told her I found a page detailing relationships between 2’s and 9’s and some of the strengths and weaknesses we’d navigate as a couple.
As I was reading it she kept saying, at first, “That makes sense!” Or “Yeah I can see that.” There were a few that were kind of out there. But she kept listening.
Eventually I revealed to her that I was ACTUALLY reading a page detailing relationships between a dragon and a sheep, our respective Chinese Zodiac signs. And that I was using this to support my argument that personality tests are astrology for educated people.
Still ended up getting laid, though not that day. 😅
It’s clearly pseudoscientific nonsense. But it’s easier to say “I’m a pisces” instead of “I’m feeling hesitant about the future of our relationship, Sarah” if she is into that. The value is in being able to reference loose personality archetypes without having to spend a paragraph describing someone.
The problem is that you’re not really referencing “loose personality archetypes” in these sorts of conversations, they’re being assigned to you, relatively arbitrarily. It doesn’t matter if I’m serious and thoughtful, but because I was born on the third moon after the pomegranate harvest, I’m the joker of the group.
No, I think it’s pretty reasonable to push back if you’re being pigeonholed into some kind of archetype you disagree with. Tell them to stop being such Capricorns. The trick is it doesn’t really matter what sign you use, it’s just a bit
But being a Pisces doesn’t mean anything, does it? It could both mean being someone who is afraid of risks and someone who is bold and takes chances.
How is it easier?
it means what people want it to mean.
And that’s why Astrology is so powerful. it’s 100% projection and bias confirmation.
‘take chances’ is entirely relative. what is a bold risk for one person, is an afterthought for another person, but in astrology there is no specific context, just vague nonsense worded such that anyone can project onto it.
It’s all contextual, honestly, but here are my impressions of the uh, categories:
Pisces: wishy washy, both sides, indecisive, peacemaker, likes blue stuff
Capricorn: hustle culture, hates fun
Taurus: confident, aggressive, clumsy, bro-ish
I don’t have any others on deck without looking them up lol
Edit: oh my god you guys. the magical star-assigned fixed personality is dumb. what’s useful is being able to tell Becky to stop being such a Capricorn and come out and party, even if she is a cancer or whatever. it’s just a memey way to reference behavioral traits if your friend group already knows what they mean. i don’t know how to explain this any better
And you can’t see how stupid this is?
I addressed this in a tasteful edit.
How is that helpful if the categories are based on birthdays?
That part is dumb. I edited my comment now that I understand the confusion
Here’s what I got from the dating pool: Gemini: bipolar two-faced Scorpio: will stab you and eat your soul
You forgot the part about how it’s determined by giant balls of gas millions of light years away that aren’t actually arranged in neat patterns, but are actually incredibly far from one another and only look like patterns from our specific position in the universe
That argument falls flat to me simply because there are 13 zodiac signs, not 12, and ancient (and modern) astrologers simply ignore the 13th one (Ophiuchus) for convenience.
If you are going to claim the stars have influence over our personalities, at least be consistent with how you “read” said stars.
Not to mention, there is zero evidence that astrology works.
Also, at the time most of the zodiac and star chart arrangements were plotted out, the Earth had an entirely different north star than it does now. So your modern star sign would not even be consistent with the ancient charts and star signs, yet somehow all the same definitions and assumptions are supposed to apply.
updated my comment lol
I can appreciate that view point as long as we are in agreement that there is no real science behind it. I can totally see how people use “I’m such a Pisces” to describe themselves as sensitive and emotional. I just wish they would say “I’m sensitive and emotional” instead, lol.
I tried to express that as clearly as I could, it’s just like a more ethical version of Slytherin/gryffindor/etc, I tend to be friends with excessively referential people I guess.