Astrology | Life Lessons | You Are Everything
3 Truths That Don’t Require Belief
Lessons from astrology for skeptics
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Dear Skeptic,
If you never ponder your identity, struggle with connection, feel conflicted, or wonder about the workings of the world, these perspectives may be of little value to you. You don’t need to read this whole story searching for the secrets, here they are:
1. You are not one thing, you are everything.
2. You have natural cycles, everything has cycles.
3. Everything is a point of inquiry. Especially things you disagree with.
It’s totally cool if you skip this story, reclaim your 8 minutes now. You can always read my next one. But if you’ve never considered astrology worthwhile, this may be the point of inquiry you’re looking for.
I’m not sure what other grandmas were like.
My grandma kept a case of Salem 100s in the freezer, drank instant coffee all day, pored over crossword puzzles, and read me my horoscope from the TV Guide, the Reader’s Digest, and the daily paper. I visited her every day.
To her there was no question, no doubt, no skepticism; we might as well have been reading from the Bible. I’m an Aries, she was a Leo, and that’s the reason she figured she understood me best — we were two fire signs in a family full of air and water. It made complete sense when I was seven.
As I got older and struggled with fitting in, how to act, and what to be like, certainly my grandma’s instruction about what a fiery young lady would be like informed my self-talk. What would the god of war do?
Before I knew about masking and people-pleasing, before I understood neurodivergence and overstimulation, and heightened sensitivity, I would say I tried to be an Aries. I tried to reframe myself to be what I was supposed to be — which, by the way, is a very un-Aries thing to do. It was exhausting, and I was terrible at it, which was a great discouragement to my self-esteem.
There have been innumerable hours, tools, and lessons so far on the path to becoming myself, some of them related to astrology. I did learn that it’s not a universal belief, and there’s no book of astrology in the Bible, although at this point if there was, I’d probably be even more skeptical.
But in the process of discounting astrology, I learned some amazing things about myself.
What’s your sign?
My grandma saw astrology in this way, most people do. All the magazines and newspapers that print horoscopes always print it this way. Twelve entries, two to three sentences of relatable, vague predictions about the next week or month. Or maybe a full-page spread letting you know how to do your hair or what clothes to wear based on your sign.
This isn’t astrology.
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves” — William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
So, if I’m not an Aries, what am I?
Astrology has taken form in civilizations across time and planet, it’s a distinctly human thing. Learning about astrology is learning about humanity and how we relate to our world.
Astrology is a system of understanding and describing the world.
Like all communication, astrology employs story and metaphor to explain human experience. That’s why gods and planets share names, and each god is shared through stories with traits and adventures, which all describe aspects of the human experience.
We can see the planets; we can see them move across the sky, and we give them the attributes of the gods in the stories.
As gods are planets, the twelve signs of the zodiac are constellations. In the night sky, each constellation is a place, we can see it. We tell stories about constellations as well, each a kingdom ruled by a god.
We can watch the gods as they visit these different places, and they are influenced or received differently in each place.
Stories rarely feature just one character; the gods interact with each other as well. With us as the vertex, the planets form angles to each other as they move. For example, when there’s a full moon the sun and moon are on opposite sides of us, forming a 180-degree angle, an aspect. Some of these aspects are viewed as complimentary, others as tense.
Then there are houses, we can’t see the houses in the sky. Instead, each house is a description of segments of our lives, like self, money and possessions, children, daily work, relationships, status, and so on.
On the day I was born…
The Sun is our most prominent, most visible planet. It shines a bright light, warms the earth, and brings life. On the day I was born, Sol/Helios was visiting the constellation, Aries.
There were, however, nine other planets in the sky also visiting constellations and forming aspects of one another. Each of those planets represents pieces of our character. Sure, the sun was in Aries when I was born, but also the moon was in Cancer, which by the way forms a tense aspect with the sun in Aries, indicating some tension between my emotions and my ego.
That’s not all though. At the time I was born, my self rose — the constellation Virgo was rising on the eastern horizon, describing how I would meet and be met in the world. The houses are placed according to your time of birth, and each sign with all the planets is placed, all the aspects are drawn — this snapshot of the cosmos at the moment of your birth fashion your birth chart.
You are everything.
It’s a lot. Every planet, every sign, every house, every aspect, they all change the meanings and expressions of each other — it’s complex.
Almost as complex as people.
You don’t have to believe in astrology to understand the story.
Sometimes I’m bold, strong, clear, and full of energy. Sometimes I’m overwhelmed, shy, reflective, or sad. Yes, I’m a caring, thoughtful, loving mother, but sometimes I erupt in impatience and frustration. Sometimes I’m gracious, encouraging, and open; sometimes I spit fire and knives to defend a wrong assumption to a grasping and unbecoming end.
It’s because I’m not just one thing. I’m not an Aries, I’m the entirety of the cosmic dance and more.
“Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.” — William Shakespeare, Macbeth
If astrology is describing humans, it’s saying that you are not one thing, you are everything. And so is every person you ever meet.
That’s not the end of the story.
It didn’t end the day you were born. The sky is in constant motion. The stories carry on. We know the movement of each celestial body through our galaxy, we understand the procession of constellations, and we can predict them all.
The moon cycle is 29 days; the sun is one year. Venus changes signs every month; Jupiter every twelve years. Pluto passes 248 years making its way through the full zodiac before it starts again. With every movement in the cosmos comes new positions — new aspects — new focus.
If the story is predictable, would the life they describe not be as well?
Every single day is a new snapshot, an ever-changing description of life and the influences we feel.
You have natural cycles.
Astrologers see the cosmos as a description or reflection of life on earth: as a global population, as generations, and as individuals. Again, you don’t need to believe it to understand these movements as metaphors for life.
We see the cycles in the sky, and also here on Earth. Seasons come and go, bears hibernate, birds migrate, and tides rise and fall. People too. Not just life cycles, growth cycles, or even hormonal cycles.
Consider the story of Venus, goddess of love and luxury, as she moves through the signs. In Aries maybe she’s confident, strong, flirtatious, and passionate. She moves on to Taurus: sensual and grounded, seeking comfort, maybe a little indulgent. Onto Gemini, playful and teasing. Venus in Cancer: committed, caring, and secure.
Could you not say you have felt all these ways in love? Could you not say sometimes you crave comfort and sometimes you crave passion? Are not some days filled with fun, and others spent nurturing? Sometimes even agitated and impatient.
If I look back ten or twenty years, I’m not in the same situation anymore. I don’t even feel like the same person. Maybe more like Jupiter, enjoying long visits, but eventually moving on to the next sign.
Every aspect of our lives follows cycles — our moods, our interests, our energy, and our willpower. When I’m in a funk, it’s comforting to know that I won’t always be in a funk, it will pass. When I’m super productive, it’s even more motivating to remember to ride the wave while I can because the feeling will wane. When my teen is being moody, I know this is a phase. And when my partner seems unusually self-absorbed, we don’t need to fight about it, we’ll be canoodling again in no time.
Take heart, change is constant and natural. It is the way of things. We can forgive ourselves and each other when we haven’t been at our best and relish our moments of brilliance.
You have natural cycles. And so does every other person, animal, population, and ecosystem.
Everything is a point of inquiry.
Understanding that you are everything and that everything moves in cycles, the natural conclusion is that there is something to learn from everything, everyone, every time, and every perspective.
Astrology aims to describe human life, to offer us lenses to look through in humanity’s quest to understand. It addresses society, personal relationships, life purpose, and even our subconscious. It is a powerful tool for inquiry that encourages us to address the world with curiosity and empathy.
Every little scrap is a chance to ask yourself, how does this appear in my world?
The idea that the same nine characters visit the same twelve places, narrating the same twelve aspects of our lives, makes the world feel a little smaller to me. How much must we all have in common? How similar must our reasons be? How universal are our struggles? How do disparate convictions come from the same underlying virtue?
What could I accept about myself, knowing that I am everything? What patience and understanding could I come to, knowing that everything is cyclical? What grace could I afford to loved ones, knowing that they too are torn, conflicted, and capricious?
Everything is a point of inquiry. Especially things you disagree with.
I think my grandma would have liked this way of understanding astrology. She enjoyed connecting outside ideas to her inner thoughts; she enjoyed figuring out who she was. I think she would have loved how easy it is to access information, like in-depth astrology theories, in the age of the internet.
