In the years since my road map took me on the scenic route through life, I have developed a passing interest in Astrology.
This is based in certain unscientific observations.
Like the illuminating discovery that my sister and I have not one astrological compatibility in our chart.
No one needed to tell me that our planets were at logger heads when I was born!
When I found that out it was a relief – I could finally file us under ‘Irreconcilable Difference’ and move on.
Likewise, it came as no surprise, watching my nephew and his mother interact, that his top three planets share the same positioning as mine. Poor fella.
(It’s part of the reason I contend that Karma is just another word for Genes.)
There are other patterns too.
Library of Congress planisphere from c1708, courtesy Stuart Rankin
My partner and I are situated in opposite positions on the zodiac, being Taurus and Scorpio.
She also shares my father’s birthday, which in itself is not all that remarkable (yeah, I know, *Daddy issues* – it’s not the same year, okay? 🙂 ).
Delve a little, though, and we find that every member of her family shares a birthday with someone close in mine, only in each case, it is gender reversed!
Is this freak coincidence, or is there something to it?
Some contend that Astrology is just another form of quackery. A kind of mystical, hocus pocus fortune telling. Maybe. Maybe not.
The planetary line up at the time of our birth is never the same twice. It is branded to us, like a fingerprint, or DNA.
A site of endless mystery for curious minds to unravel.
A blueprint, if you like, of possibility.
What fascinates me is the way that scientific discoveries sometimes mirror ‘mystical’ explanations for the way things are.
For instance, did you know scientists have found a gene that predisposes us to religious belief?
This leads me to wonder – is it possible that the sensory memories encoded in our genes are just a more sophisticated way of explaining reincarnation?
Or that the historical trajectory of planets is a more precise means of mapping the course taken by one giant breath of life?
On the one side we have belief in the wisdom of an all knowing being where the limits of our knowledge fail.
On the other, a precise methodology that turns flat surface theory into solid 3D fact.
Both reaching for a mystery neither dogma can explain. Pointing in the same direction, but unable to shake hands.
Courtesy http://www.michelangelo-gallery.org
For my part, I find the magnetic push-me-pull-you of planetary entanglement far more compelling than a nudge from a big hand in the sky.
Beyond metaphor, it connects me with elemental force to the wider universe, a small part of a much grander mystery.
Mystery is good. It is reaching for the unknown that propels us forward, and what is life, if not an inexplicable need to create meaning from nothingness?
So, until science can disprove the notion that our personality is written in the stars, I will go on reading my forecasts, and contemplating possibility.
Do you read your stars? Any freaky patterns there you can’t explain, or is it all just hocus?
Alarna Rose Gray 
You raise some interesting questions, Alarna. After a month in India and learning how connected their Hindu religion is to the cosmos, it seems to bring them answers and peace. Science and religion will always collide which keeps the mystery alive. Nicely written.
It must be welcome home, Lynne! What an incredible experience to spend a month in India. Interesting you say about Hinduism bringing peace…the article about the God Gene talks about the ‘evolutionary’ role spirituality has played in promoting collective harmony. Endlessly fascinating.
I don’t know if I believe any of it, but I do find it immensely fun. Same reason I tried a tarot card reader when I went to New Orleans. I’m also interested in the Chinese astrology, which says I’m a fire horse (happens every sixty years and supposedly, girl babies born under this sign were once considered bad luck and often killed). (They say that opposites in astrology are ideal. My man is Aries and I’m Libra and so I completely believe this part, tee hee.)
Good grief – lucky you escaped that one (but we all knew you were a rare breed 😉 )! I once knew a guy who was born in the year of the ‘very bad monkey’. The Chinese woman who told him this practically recoiled from him when she learned his year of birth…pretty funny, as it was an accurate description! 🙂
That would make a great title: Bad Monkey. xoox
I used to believe more in “mystical” (for want of a better word) things, but in recent years I’ve been leaning more towards needing scientific evidence for things. However, with astrology, I often find myself noting character traits that seem very similar amongst those who share the same star signs. I don’t know, I’m holding out for a science-based explanation for it! 🙂 I certainly don’t believe in the future-predicting aspects of astrology though that we see in many of the newspaper star columns.
I don’t really think the future prediction aspect is how astrology is meant to be practiced, but yeah – enough character trait patterns to make us keep reading! It will be interesting to see if science comes up with anything…let’s not hold our breath 🙂
I’m thinking along the lines of whether the gravitational/magnetic pull of the moon and planets at certain times can have an effect on brain development in the womb? It’s not that I actually know anything about this, I’m just thinking about what a scientific explanation might look like!
Now we just need someone to put that up as their thesis! 🙂
it’s a field of astrological study: prenatal astrology. There’s a specific field that looks at the prenatal eclipses and sees how those affect people. Fascinating, although not something I’ve looked in to too much as yet.
There you go – I knew someone somewhere had to be studying it. I’m interested to see when that becomes ‘science’!
I gotta admit, I think it’s all hocus pocus but a bit of fun. A lot of my friends take star signs seriously, but I’m a big old skeptic.
That’s interesting about a gene predisposing people to religious beliefs I’m going to go and read about it.
It definitely all calls for some healthy scepticism! Love to know what you make of the gene thing…
i always was very interested in all things astrology but I don’t know much about it. How interesting that scientists have found a gene that predisposing religious belief! I found all this mysterious and quite fascinating. Believing or not in astrology, universe, god and all mystical things, one fact no one can deny I think is that there are certainly many things in our world that have no explanation.
Does make the mind start to tick over, doesn’t it? I first heard about the gene watching a recent episode of Insight, where they were talking about twin research. Indeed fascinating 🙂
My ex-wife was totally freaking out when our youngest child was overdue, and they wanted to book her in for a caesarian at the earliest opportunity — my birthday. She refused, made them put it back an extra day, and barely moved on my birthday in case it triggered the birth.
Unlike my ex, I like my birthday — it’s the same day as Charles Dickens and Peter Carey. So I’d better go write something, I have a lot to live up to.
Wow, well that was a marriage made to last! Ouch! 🙂 Now, let me just go and google Peter Carey’s birthday… (No pressure there, or anything…)
Turns out Peter Carey’s tricky with birthdays.
Somehow, he’s listed in places as 7th Feb like Dickens, but Carey’s actually the 7th of May.
Well now I only have Dickens to live up to, that shouldn’t be too difficult, should it?
I was just about to question you on that conundrum! It’s ok – I was led to believe (no doubt courtesy of some trashy astrology mag) that I shared a birthday with Hitler. Turns out it is Lenin, not Hitler, so yay for me. You are one day off my favourite Grandmother’s birthday, which gives you special powers 🙂
Great post….interesting synchronicity with your partner’s chart and your family’s. While I don’t get astrology rationally, I found my chart, and my children’s charts, to be incredibly accurate. Who knows; maybe one day they will find scientific explanation for the links. Kim
There is something about it all that lends itself to storytelling, for me. Charting the connections and the overlaps. Logical or not, it’s an enjoyable way to understand relationships 🙂
That’s interesting that you two are Taurus and Scorpio– that’s the same with me and the Boyfran! When we first started dating, it was like… date three I think, and I decided to look up our astrological compatibility while we were waiting for our food. I was hoping to find some doom and gloom projection to tease him with but it was all “MAD PASSIONATE FIERY LOVE!” I’m pretty sure it’s still bookmarked in my iPhone 🙂
Wow! That’s amazing! Puts a different spin on opposites attract, right?! The articles I’ve read talk about it in slightly less sexy terms… Earth+water=mud. Or clay – which in my speak means great creative, foundational sorta stuff 😉
I just love this post. And I love the way you write – in general. And yes, I read the stars. Not every day, but often. I am a complete believer in the mystical, supernatural, astrological connections in life. There is, in my belief and opinion, a spiritual, mystical consciousness, which is our deepest consciousness. And, for me, that is a beautiful, powerful thing. xx
So glad to see you over here for this post, Liz – I thought it may be your kind of topic! One of those things to ponder, late at night, staring at the stars from your balcony 😉 xo
I have this book titled, The Element Encyclopedia of Birthdays. It’s fun, but also strangely accurate. I’ve even tried to read random pages as if it were my birthday page to see if the information is maybe just vague enough to apply to all, but no, doesn’t happen. One of the great things about the book is it gives “your greatest personality challenge” but with a corresponding way to move forward. 🙂
That sounds like a very handy book to have. I know the naysayers claim the stuff is vague – how could it not be in a one para gossip mag form? But I wouldn’t want to mess with the Encyclopedia! 🙂
I love wondering about things like this. Spirituality to me is nature and science. Whenever I really think about the universe, I’m overwhelmed by the greatness of it all and I think we’re much more connected than we realize – to each other and to all living things.
Nature and science, exactly. I think that’s why I love to be in nature, but have developed an interest in science as I get older. If only I had that kind of brain, you feel like you would have the key to the secrets of the universe! 🙂
Oh, how you make me think. I love a good ponder on something new! I think I clicked on every link in this post, and now I have a wealth of tabs to look forward to…
Ah, I’m happy to give you food for rumination! 🙂
Have not pondered into the stars much 🙂 But the peculiarities between dingoes, wolves and temple dogs, leaves me wondering sometimes.. 🙂
If that is your sign, than no wonder you are a wildlife wanderer! 🙂
One relates to where I grew up, another to the ancient days of family, and one more, yes the sign 🙂
I’m pretty skeptical, but I’ve always had a thing for astrology. I find it fascinating and wonder if there is something to it. My dad and my grandmother were both born on the same day in December, three days before me. Three generations of Sagittarians can be a handful. : )
An intense and passionate sign! I don’t know many, but I do enjoy your company 😉
Aw, I enjoy yours as well. Don’t worry, I won’t shoot any arrows at you. We’re cool. : )
Hehe… It’s ok, the bull can defend itself if it must! 🙂
Best blogging convo…ever.
I love it Alarna it is fascinating and I believe there is some truth in the astrology of life. Most of all I still believe the world is a magical place and we are all just pure energy. One big ball of light coming from the one source.
Yes, I think so too! Where would we be without that magic spark? 🙂
Love this subject, it’s so fascinating to me. It’s uncanny how much of the astrological connections are extremely accurate and consistent. As much as I adore/obsess over science, nature is just as much of a draw for me. Energy. Crystals. Astrology. Buddhism.
I’m a science-buff with a twist of lime. 🙂
Haha! I like it… can we add a shot of tequila to that? 😉
I began studying astrology at 17, when a friend told me I had no right to an opinion about it if I didn’t know anything about it. I was studying it to disprove it. Almost 40 years later, I have not been able to make it NOT work.
Your friend probably had a point! But that’s the thing about astrology – it’s difficult to prove one way or the other 🙂
I actually disagree. 🙂 But it takes decades of study and practice to see for yourself. 🙂 That said, a skilled astrologer can tell you things about yourself that there’s no way they should know. But they are using far more than simple sun signs. It’s actually a very, very complicated field.
Undoubtedly! That would be an interesting discussion to have… 🙂