Power in thinking & creativity, sex & love, and self. Pressure in routine and spirituality. Trouble with social life. That’s today’s forecast, apparently.
I have a confession: I can’t stop checking my Co-Star. For those unfamiliar, Co-Star is an astrology app that, after entering your exact date and time of birth, spits out your birth chart and daily predictions. It explains how tendencies of your sun, moon and rising signs manifest in the everyday, and you can connect with friends to compute deep compatibility. Overall, I think it’s bullshit, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get a Siri suggestion at 7am every morning to check my fate.
I have never really been into astrology, but I also didn’t grow up around it (bar the Girlfriend Mag monthly horoscope that I religiously pored over in the hope it would reveal the exact date and subject of my first kiss). In my experience, star signs were seldom discussed in Australia, while in the US they’re included in an introduction. And it’s fun! I love the fear/interest that is piqued when I’m outed as a Gemini, and I’m fascinated hearing my astrologically-versed friends explain relationship dynamics, but overall I do think it’s merely lore. Why then, have I become so dependant on Co-Star?
I have a hunch that 2020 has been a booming business year for the psychic industry (open to fact-checking). Surely the need for spiritual guidance is directly impacted by how shambolic our lives are, of which 2020 is Shamble-in-Chief. I have a friend who has habitually visited a psychic before every major life decision: an often expensive endeavour that she swears by. Even an overseas move was inspired by the suggestion that a “distant relocation” was on the cards. But guess what? Even she is not particularly convinced of the accuracy of fortunetelling, rather uses these readings as a tool to impartially assess her life in the big picture. Questions about life and love are received differently when they come from a neutral third party, rather than a parent or a friend who undoubtedly has their own opinions and imagined trajectory of your life. Sure, this role could be filled by a therapist, but in a time when so many of our foundations have been quaked surely there is solace in someone with witchy powers letting you know what the heck is up.
Beyond the yearning for clarity, I think a personalised life-forecast indulges a certain narcissism in us. My only proof is the success of internet content: articles that profess The perfect _____ for your star sign! or Insta-comedians on What it’s like to date a _____!!!!!!! For the record: I love this stuff. Yes, I’d love to know which Muppet I, a Gemini, am, TYSM. This variety of astrological profiling, however, doesn’t even feign to provide us guidance. When we see our zodiac sign illuminated amongst the noise of the internet we feel fleetingly seen as one of the 8.3% of readers that “get it”.
I realise that a daily horoscope is not a psychic reading is not a clickbait article, but I do think they scratch the same itch. That is, the mosquito bite on our brain that seeks to understand our selves and our fate.
So, is my newfound reliance on Co-Star a heady blend of fear and narcissism? Probably, though that makes it sound much more negative than it ought. “Are you feeling powerless?” the app prompted today: a question that I may not have asked myself, though articulates a lot of anxieties. Yes, I suppose I am: powerless over my career, travel plans, the election, etc… But by considering feelings of powerlessness, I too recognise feelings of power: over my health, my emotional reactions, what I watch on TV.
This is all to say that perhaps our horoscopes are self-fulfilling. By seeking guidance in a particular area of our lives, we are already taking the first step of self-reflection and ultimately progress. Yes, compulsively checking my Co-Star each morning is a symptom of unrest, but it is also a sign that I am clearly looking toward the future. Girlfriend Magazine never predicted my first pash, just as Co-Star can’t tell me why I’m feeling powerless. It is up to me to assess if there really is trouble in my social life, and if so it is certainly up to me to fix it. However, as a Gemini I am apparently Kermit the Frog, and that is obviously, unequivocally, irrefutable fact.
NB: Gemini Sun, Pisces Moon, Sagittarius rising: do with that what you will.
Katie Muirhead 