How much should we trust our horoscopes? Why do some signs get a bad reputation? And what exactly is Mercury retrograde?
An astrologer debunks some common myths and answers these simple questions ...
An astrologer debunks some common myths and answers these simple questions ...
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CreativityTranscript
00:00It cannot be that all of the Gemini men of the world are one way.
00:05It's all the Gemini men you've met.
00:16The first recorded astrological system was in Babylon.
00:21And, of course, Babylon is modern-day Iraq,
00:24and so Babylonian astrology was first recorded about 2,400 years ago.
00:28Astrology has been used across the world, across cultures, across time.
00:33For as long as there have been stars in the sky and human curiosity,
00:37people have been using astrology or working towards using astrology.
00:47I've been a practicing consulting astrologer since 1995,
00:50and I don't believe in astrology.
00:52The reason why I don't believe in astrology is because it's not a belief system.
00:56That's not what it is.
00:57Astrology is a tool,
00:59and it is a tool that has been studied over the course of many, many years,
01:04and it is a tool that works.
01:06Detractors will often say it's not science.
01:09No astrologer that I know has ever claimed that it was science.
01:13There are many systems of understanding human nature
01:17and current events that are not scientific.
01:20Is there a great deal of data and study?
01:24Yes, absolutely there is with astrology,
01:26but what gets complicated for a lot of people with astrology
01:30is that it is a very complex system.
01:33It requires a great deal of study.
01:35Astrology is math, actually,
01:37and most people don't get past sun sign horoscopes,
01:40and so they say,
01:42I went to the carnival.
01:43I had cotton candy.
01:45The cotton candy gave me a stomachache.
01:46Food is bad,
01:47and I say,
01:49well, you had junk food,
01:51and sometimes it's delicious,
01:52and it makes your day,
01:53and sometimes it just gives you a stomachache,
01:55and that can be the same thing with like pop astrology.
01:58I love it,
01:59but it's not like the full depth and complexity
02:02of what astrology is.
02:09If you don't like a sun sign,
02:11that actually says more about you and your birth chart
02:13than it does about them,
02:14because there's billions of people in the world,
02:17probably much more than that,
02:18and it cannot be that all of the Gemini men of the world
02:22are one way.
02:23It's all the Gemini men you've met,
02:25so the reason why some sun signs
02:28have worse reputations than others
02:30has a lot to do with the ways
02:32in which they tend to present themselves.
02:34An example of this would be Scorpio.
02:36Scorpios feel things really deeply
02:38and will often kind of touch in on the intense stuff
02:41that other people are a little bit timid to talk about,
02:44so is that a bad trait of Scorpio,
02:46or is that just not a trait
02:48that is easy for other people to digest?
02:51You know, that's up to your chart to decide.
02:59Your sun sign is your identity.
03:01It's your will and your sense of self.
03:03It's how you want people to know you,
03:05and it's kind of how you shine in the world.
03:07The moon in astrology relates to your feelings.
03:11It's how you process information emotionally.
03:14It's how you want to take care of others
03:16and how you show up for others.
03:17It's also how you experience love
03:19and how you feel loved and liked,
03:21and it's also to do with your memories,
03:23so the moon's a biggie in astrology.
03:25And then there's the rising sign.
03:27The rising sign is the point in astrology.
03:30It's not a planet.
03:32It's a point in the birth chart
03:34that describes kind of the energies
03:36you throw into a room when you first enter it.
03:39It has everything to do with
03:41how you show up on the surface.
03:45Now, when you're reading sun sign horoscopes,
03:48it's not wise to assume it is written for you.
03:52It isn't.
03:53It is not written for you.
03:55It is written for a group of people
03:57who all align with something that you align with,
04:01and so that's why sometimes you read a sun sign horoscope
04:04and you're like, that is exactly me.
04:06That hits the nail on the head,
04:08and other times, it really doesn't resonate,
04:11and this is where it gets a little complicated
04:14to explain astrology,
04:16because astrology is math,
04:18so when we're writing,
04:20we astrologers are writing sun sign horoscopes,
04:23what we're doing is we're taking
04:25all 30 degrees of a sun sign,
04:27and we're generalizing for them.
04:29Generally speaking, when reading sun sign horoscopes,
04:32take what works, take what empowers you
04:34and helps you to reflect on your life,
04:36and if it doesn't work, if it doesn't resonate,
04:39if it doesn't work, if it doesn't resonate,
04:41you know, don't overthink it.
04:47Astrology doesn't say anything.
04:48Astrology is not a person.
04:50Astrology doesn't speak to you.
04:52Astrologers say things,
04:54or astrology apps or blogs you've read say things,
04:59and those are written by people,
05:01and not all astrologers,
05:03like not all dentists or therapists or masseuses
05:07are gonna be a good match for you.
05:09So when you have a relationship
05:11with a skilled and competent astrologer,
05:14and that relationship is built over time,
05:16and that person has earned your trust
05:18with their competency,
05:19and they advise you on something,
05:21you might wanna listen.
05:23If you've got an app,
05:24if you've read a horoscope that's like,
05:26you're gonna be miserable forever,
05:27you should break up, use your common sense.
05:30When we're using astrology or any other spiritual tool,
05:34we do not wanna ever abandon common sense.
05:37Common sense is your best friend,
05:38keep it in your back pocket.
05:44Retrogrades are when a planet
05:46appears to be moving backwards,
05:48and it does move backwards
05:49through the zodiacal degrees.
05:51And when a planet moves retrograde,
05:53it's kind of like its primary functions
05:56are working a little differently,
05:58often pretty wonky.
05:59A really common example of that
06:01is Mercury retrograde.
06:02Now Mercury retrograde is very popular,
06:04and it's popular because it's evidential.
06:06In other words, people notice,
06:08people notice, wait, things are going wonky,
06:11it must be Mercury retrograde.
06:13Mercury is a planet that governs communications.
06:16It's what you say, it's how you listen.
06:19It's also emails, DMs, social media, internet,
06:22which is why in recent years,
06:24Mercury retrogrades become so popular
06:26because we're all on our pocket computers all the time.
06:28What we're meant to learn from Mercury
06:31retrograde is it's a time to review
06:34and reflect and reassess.
06:36And we need these times in our lives
06:39to really check in and figure out
06:41what we're thinking, whether or not it's working.
06:43Did we say things that we actually meant?
06:45Do we need to go back and fix something?
06:47And Mercury retrograde is that time.
06:54Because astrologers are humans.
06:56And if you go to the dentist,
06:58and the dentist says, you're gonna need a surgery,
07:00and you go and you get a second opinion,
07:02the other dentist might say, no, you don't, we can do this.
07:05If you go and see a therapist,
07:07one of the therapists might say, you know what,
07:09you have an anxiety disorder.
07:10And the next therapist might say,
07:12you don't have an anxiety disorder, you're anxious.
07:14There's a difference.
07:15You can get different perspectives
07:17from different practitioners.
07:18And that may be because they're using different systems.
07:21It may be because they have assessed things
07:23in a different way,
07:24or they have different tools in their toolkit.
07:26There's so many ways of looking at it.
07:28Astrologers and astrology are not a monolith,
07:31just like no other practice, no other resource.