The study of the Sun, the Moon, and the planets is popularly known as Astrology. It’s a type of divination that involves the forecasting of human events, through the interpretation of the fixed stars. It began as early as the 3rd BCE but became very popular during the 20th century. Based on britannica.com, “It was created to inform individuals of the course of their lives based on the positions of the planets.”
Astrology is a two-opinion-based belief. A certain amount of people consider it a way of using the stars to predict the destinies of an individual. On the other hand, some people view it as a pseudoscience because it lacks scientific validation to support its claim. Physics teacher Matthew Gartman doesn’t consider the approval of horoscopes because of their lack of scientific justification.
“There’s no giant scientific justification for astrology at all. There have been numerous studies. Every time it’s been disproven. It’s an amusing anecdote,” Gartman said. “If you follow your signs and you want to read your horoscope or something in the morning, there’s nothing wrong with that, but its theory ends up falsified.”
Nowadays, some zodiac signs have been labeled with certain behaviors they are meant to possess. However, this generalization can prevent an individual from communicating with people who have different horoscopes. Whenever a person behaves according to this classification, senior Victoria Lee feels it gives this idea to people that the others might be the same as well.
“Some of the stereotypes I’ve heard of are Libras being indecisive, Scorpios being too intense, Leo being selfish, and Aries being impatient. I have a friend who refuses to date Cancer men,” Lee said. “Her reasons were because she has a manipulative ex-boyfriend. Ever since then, she has had this resentment against Cancer men.”
Social media has contributed to the interest in horoscopes. Through cell phones, astrology content on the internet has been booming. However, social platforms have created this “behavior” on how each zodiac sign should behave. Junior Bre-Lynn Riser feels that the Internet is placing a lot of pressure on how people with different horoscopes should act.
Social media paints, zodiac signs as a trendy and quirky thing to be into. Everyone knows their zodiac sign,” Riser said. “Now you see people trying to conform to what their zodiac sign tells them they should be like. Social media kind of portrays this diluted image.”
Although some people don’t believe in astrology, they find it very amusing how it’s accurate sometimes, but false the next time. Tarot cards correspond with an individual’s horoscope with similar traits as their zodiac signs. Sometimes they also use it to compare with their peers to check what the card says. Junior Morohunfola Kemi understands how true tarot reading can be sometimes, but in most cases, she just does it for fun.
“I don’t believe in zodiac signs, but I find it very interesting to read into. Sometimes I do it to know what my friend’s signs are. Even if both signs don’t go together according to the reading, it’s not enough reason for me to stop being friends with them,” Morohunfola said. “People shouldn’t depend their lives on it because it’s not always accurate. In most cases, you decide to choose if you will behave according to the tarot reading.”
Astrology has created various opinions on people. Some people believe it because it relates to their everyday personality, different individuals just look at it for the fun of it, and other individuals don’t believe it because it isn’t scientifically proven. With the help of the Internet, there has been a boom in the popularity of horoscope believers.
