what's your star sign? 💫
how pop astrology and scare tactics to go viral impacted my mental health 🧠
We’ve all taken a personality test at least once in our lives. From character sorting quizzes to the Enneagram and Meyers Briggs, these questionnaires are designed to make us feel seen or learn more about ourselves—if taken honestly and with a healthy level of self-awareness. Or it can be a silly little thing: Are you a Soldier, a Poet, or a King?
Growing up, I felt pretty self-assured. I often think I was a lot braver then. What’s worse? Mean teenage girls or the crippling fear of never living up to your potential? Eeesshh! Too soon?
A retired Ravenclaw. I loved identifying as the personality traits that made me proud: Witty. Creative. Adaptable.
But somewhere around 25, it wasn’t only about the shiny parts of me. It was the pieces that were floating in the dark when I felt lost. And the pieces that only got to see the sun when really bad things happen.
When circumstances suck, people say things like, “You can’t always control what happens, but you can control how you react.” While an emotionally mature response, it’s not often something that immediately makes the situation any better, especially because it takes practice to emotionally regulate.
I’ve talked about my relationship with control in an earlier birthday reflection post. To summarize, my inability to control hard circumstances in my life led me to dig deeper into not only who I was … but also how I was born and molded to react.
Enter: Astrology.
First things first, if you don’t believe in astrology, this post isn’t here to make you change your mind. I’m not on a quest to prove that fate exists in the alignment of the cosmos to you. But I encourage you to stay curious about the practice of astrology and skeptic of the ways in which astrology has been positioned in society and, therefore, to you.
“What’s your star sign?”
The entry-level question to it all. A star sign usually equates to ones sun sign. The most commonly known piece of astrology. I think it’s also when people decide if astrology “is real or not.”
I learned that I was a Gemini sometime in high school. Geminis are known for their intelligence, curiosity, and adaptability. I identified with the traits that were laid before me, so there were no immediate issues or a sense of denial. I think those who don’t immediately identify with their sun sign traits or find them negative are more likely to deny the whole practice.
In my experience, the two reasons for disbelief are that traits are “too broad” or “they’re wrong.”
However, Geminis are also known for their impulsivity, moodiness, and inconsistency. And I don’t love the “negative” qualities about myself. But it’s the whole “the devil you know is better” thing. If I’m at least aware of my not-so-good tendencies, I can find ways to combat them when put to the test. There is dark and light, evolved and non-evolved. It’s all a balance.
This brings me to a bit of realization of why a majority of cis hetero men typically hate astrology. Astrology asks us to dig deeper into our psyche. To identify reasons why we might act irrationally or without boundaries. And I would argue that women practice reflection a lot more. Women receive more feedback on the daily, both asked for and not. We’re used to analyzing the pieces and putting them back together according to the instructions or much more efficiently. I don’t think that is the experience of the percent of the population who maybe has never been asked to evaluate how their behavior directly impacts the other half of the population. Anyway, I don’t want to make this post all about that. But it does annoy me when I talk about astrology, and I’m met with, “That’s so stupid.” It’s the same tone used on teenage girls when they talk about boy bands or Taylor Swift. It’s tiring and childish and completely disregards the fact that astrology has been practiced seriously for many decades.
The expanded language and components of astrology have entered our social zeitgeist in the past few years. It’s no longer content and horoscopes that focus solely on your sun sign. In its most basic form, it’s knowing your “Big Three.” This consists of your Sun, Moon, and rising sign.
Your Sun sign reveals your life’s purpose
Your Moon sign describes your body and emotional world
Your rising sign highlights your motivation for living and sense of self
The next level (I would say*) is adding your Mars and Venus signs. This doesn’t even include houses and degrees. All of these components can be identified in ones natal chart.
“What time were you born?” jokes come from here.
Once upon a time, it was the question I texted my mother because I wanted to dig deeper than my sun sign. If this resource supposedly knew more about me than I might have known about myself, I would find out.
So, I entered that information, along with my birthday and birthplace, into the free natal chart report from Cafe Astrology. The output looks like the following image.
Looking at this for the first time, my eyes glazed over. What did any of this mean? Luckily, the report on my natal chart provided explanations for my placements. My Big Three were a Gemini Sun, Cancer Moon, and Taurus Rising. Do with that what you will.
After this introduction, I wanted to learn even more. I needed to seek out astrologists who would provide more information and context to the parts of me I was exploring on a deeper level. And that’s precisely what I did! Both unintentionally and intentionally.
Astrology accounts on social media reach a large audience through various mediums and tactics. For the sake of this article, I’m going to group the audience broadly into the following: (1) interested in astrology, (2) neutral about astrology, and (3) not interested in astrology.
If you have been skeptical of exactly how many people seek out astrology content and information, I encourage you to view the followership of the accounts I have screen-captured below. Of course, these accounts are not the complete representation of astrologers on social media — they are just a few quick ones I pulled up through my feed.
The algorithm across social platforms will not show astrology content to uninterested parties as much as to neutral or interested parties. So, once you interact with astrologers and adjacent accounts, your feed will naturally share more of that content.**
Astrology on social media usually flows into two categories. Information on the different signs, planets, houses, placements, etc., and how those placements will be affected by the current map of the sky. For the latter, think of when you’ve heard the term “Mercury is in retrograde” or “It’s eclipse season.”
When I first started learning and engaging with astrology on social media, I was excited and would consume almost everything that came across my feed. From informational graphics to weekly horoscopes and personalized moodboards, my likes were filled with everything you could find on my natal chart. Nothing felt intense or untrue, even the breakdowns on my “dark” or “unevolved” sides.
Then TikTok and the rise of some pop astrologers altered how I interact with astrology via social media and email.
I’m paraphrasing (and maybe being slightly more dramatic), but at every scroll on TikTok, I was told that certain transits would reveal deep secrets, challenge my relationships, compromise my health, or block my goals.
I want to be clear: It wasn’t that I didn’t believe these transits were happening. It was the constant usage of terms such as “secrets,” “revelations,” “big challenges,” and “intense energy.” All. The. Time.
Currently, it’s tense not only astrologically but also politically, socially, economically, etc. But it’s clear that even if transits are challenging, these creators increase their dramatic language as a scare tactic to gain high viewership, engagement, and online success.
In addition to scare tactics, there are also urgency tactics. “You don’t want to miss this…” and “Take advantage of” all these various forms of manifestations during this timeframe so that you can have the life you want.
Maybe these kind of posts originated from a good place. But in a world where a to-do list can feel eternal, sometimes alot of these feel like they end with “… or else.”
Which like, fine.
I’m not the online police or here to govern what’s acceptable. All I can try to verbalize is my experience with the constant feed of feeling out of control. Absorbing these messages daily made me suspicious and hyper-aware of everything to a harmful degree. It had me questioning whether things would ever be better, whether I was neglecting my health, or whether I should invest in relationships and endeavors that would fail or end in betrayal or untrust. There was constant noise in my head.
So, like any other topic that can quickly catch fire, we can only control how we react. And although it’s easier said than done, we can choose not to engage with certain creators and content to the best of our abilities. We can take a break.
Which is what I decided to do.
At its core, I think astrology serves as a tool to reflect, be better, or manage turbulence the best we can. Astrology isn’t fixed. It isn’t fateful. Astrology isn’t saying you are and will always be like this. Your actions shape your destiny.
It’s the hero’s journey. You cannot control or change the environment or obstacles, but you can choose how you decide to deal with them. With practice, there is hope that things will get easier because we have learned how to manage. Even if new challenges are on the horizon, so are new experiences.
There is always a balance of dark and light. Life comes from us as equally as it comes at us. Sometimes, it might just be harder to remember this when the narrative is doom and gloom.
I had to remind myself that even through life’s turbulent chapters, unexpected joy and moments of peace were written in the margins.
Where to go from here?
I’ve significantly reduced the amount of astrology content I interact with by relying on a few select astrologers I feel I can trust. I also choose to receive updates through slower media, such as email subscriptions via Substack and Patreon. The information I receive feels more fleshed out and thoughtful. They’re not trying to catch my attention and explain everything in a 20-second window.
It’s not a bulletproof plan. Even if I don’t interact on the level of having them flood my feeds anymore, my Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok feeds are still subject to popular astrology posts. But a small change is better than no change. And I can say my mental health is a lot healthier.
In the grand scheme of things, everything I’ve written almost feels silly and insignificant as I wrap this up. But we’ve all gotten that screen time report at the end of the week. In many ways, this is our new reality. We have to be intentional with how we spend it.
*Friendly reminder: I am not an astrologist. I know a bit more than the everyday astrology consumer, but I have not professionally studied the art and do not claim to be a source of reliable truth on the exactness of terms and practices.
**content, Content, CONTENT!!! I know that word is annoying and begins to stick out like a sore thumb. I’m— what can I do about that? I’m sorry…
***I did not get to incorporate this excellent Pisces Hozier video, so please view it for your own pleasure!
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The paragraph breaking down why cis hetero men usually don't like or believe in astronomy is the best, most on-point explanation I've ever heard for why.