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Illustration of all zodiac signs
Photo: Sarayut Thaneerat / Getty Images
Happy New Year!
Are you so glad that this disgusting 2020 is finally over?
Me too, but I have to say: How stupid is that?
That you think something will get better because the date changes, or in other words, because the earth is now around the sun again, but to be honest, it continues on the same path as before.
Which brings us to the topic: the view of the stars.
For a few years now there has been a trend among people who are roughly my generation and who are often feminists and / or queer as well, which is moving towards occupation with astrology.
Fashion labels print clothes with horoscope motifs, astro apps are surveyed, Instagram filters with Leo or Libra symbols are placed over the selfie, in dating apps some people only search for certain zodiac signs, you can set it that way.
Margarete Stokowski, arrow to the right
Photo:
Rosanna Graf
Born in 1986, was born in Poland and grew up in Berlin.
She studied philosophy and social sciences and has been working as a freelance writer since 2009.
Her feminist bestseller "Bottom Rum Free" was published in 2016 by Rowohlt Verlag.
In 2018, »The Last Days of Patriarchy« followed, a collection of columns from SPIEGEL and »taz«.
To put it straight: I don't believe in horoscopes.
I think it is extremely unlikely in the sense of impossible that any constellation in space will have an impact on personality in the minute that is noted on the birth certificate.
Still, I find most of the criticism of the astrology trend to be as silly as astrology itself, or sometimes significantly worse.
I don't think (this will surprise some) that people who declare astrology to be the devil's stuff are principally sexist or racist.
There is this view because astrology is traditionally practiced by women and often by non-white people - but this was not always the case: In the early days of the natural sciences, astrology and astronomy were not as separate as they are today, there were court astrologers in the for a long time Services of very different rulers, and Ronald Reagan often postponed appointments when it did not fit astrologically.
Friday the 13th is number magic too
In any case, people who declare astrology to be silly and dangerous don't necessarily have to be sexist or racist, but they often make it too easy for themselves.
First of all, a lot of people believe in some mild kind of number magic, see "Friday the 13th" or see above the joy that 2020 is over, and they do not harm anyone.
Second, people who consult their horoscope are often fully aware that it is not a scientifically proven factual situation.
The star-believing people I know usually pursue their beliefs with a mixture of interest, irony and self-care, and I cannot blame them, especially since their hobby does not run the risk of considering themselves to be above-average rational and free of ideology : They usually know that nothing proves the credibility of horoscopes.
And thirdly, people who do astrology as a hobby are unlikely to be religious fundamentalists at the same time - although there are of course connections between religions and astrology, and also between esotericism and fascism, but not in terms of how much is worth a life depending on the zodiac sign.
There are also engineers who become murderers, but not because that would somehow be part of engineering.
Fourth, but only briefly: Natural science, which is often used as a counterpoint to astrology, is also not free from ideology.
There is dangerous esotericism, e.g. anti-vaccination, and there is an overlap between astrology and conspiracy theories, but there is also an overlap between organic nutrition and conspiracy theories and organic is no worse because of that.
I found a particularly funny example of politically unsympathetic astrology in a podcast (approx. 9:05 p.m.) that dealt with the corona crisis: »Mercury rules our communication and the media and while it connects with Neptune, we realize that we are not told the truth.
(...) So be aware that the facts are not the facts when they come from the media! ”But what if an astrological medium says that?
Religions are no more rational than astrology
Anyone who attacks astrology has to attack religion at least as hard, because religions are no more rational than astrology and have - as of today - caused much more damage.
As far as I know, a dictatorship has never been based on signs of the zodiac or even anyone has been banned from sitting on the bus because of their sign.
Whereas, however, people with supposedly magical abilities have often been murdered, keyword »witches«.
There are definitely effects of astrology that should be viewed critically: A woman once told me about her mother who rejected her grandson because she had made him a horoscope and the baby was then born earlier and was somehow "wrong" for her. was.
Or, even worse, when infants are killed on the assumption that a child will be born in an ominous year according to the Chinese horoscope.
But that is usually not what the critique of astrology is about.
On the one hand, one should of course be skeptical about any system that ascribes innate, unchangeable character traits to people, but I personally would start with the patriarchal division of men and women and not with people who read horoscopes as a hobby.
Hengameh Yaghoobifarah once wrote about queer, non-white people who practice astrology: "White types can destroy a lot, but not the cure that Femmes of Color find in spirituality."
Sometimes criticism of astrology is about the capitalist aspect, because it is of course true that people in capitalism are not afraid to throw some confused mixture of individual aspects from different, often marginalized cultures on the market, keyword »gypsy look«.
This is also how money is made with astrology, but if in doubt you should attack those who take advantage of people's need and not those who try to get help with lovesickness in the stars.
Because it is mostly at about this level what people are looking for who join the astrology trend today: They pursue a desire for simplicity, stability, explanations - which cannot be blamed on anyone.
On the contrary, these people reflect their strengths and weaknesses.
If you then say that you will never date a Aries - it's a free gift, other people don't date Hertha fans or Saxons.
In a country where it can be an insane effort to get a place for psychotherapy or analysis, one shouldn't be surprised when people install horoscope apps.
And if they then cost money, well: church tax is also money.
No more than average psychological observations
I once had a personal horoscope created because a friend was so enthusiastic about the analysis of a special astrologer.
You not only had to give the date and place of birth, but also the gender, and then mine said that in conflicts I would often pay more attention to the needs of others than mine.
All right, but: This applies to an extremely large number of women, you don't have to walk to Uranus for this assessment.
The same applies to analyzes such as: The approval of your parents is perhaps more important to you than you think.
Yes, of course "maybe".
A lot of things in horoscopes are just pretty average psychological observations that apply to a lot of people.
If a horoscope says that the mother's love was unconditional and that the father's love had to be worked for, then that is true for many people, but to be honest, it is better worked out also with Erich Fromm ("The Art of Loving").
Out of anger about my column in which I criticized homeopathy, a reader once created a brief horoscope for me.
Unfortunately, it was technically not well done because he did not have all of my data.
What he found, however, was "that you have a moon / Lilith / Chiron conjunction in the sign Gemini, in opposition to Saturn and Uranus retrograde in the sign Sagittarius, and that in the square of your Pisces-Jupiter".
I have "a very problematic relationship to knowledge / wisdom" and a well-founded "fear of madness", as you can see from my "unrealistic article".
I read that with great interest, but - as is so often the case with the subject of astrology - I can say that this analysis could have been made much easier.
Just let out the rejection normally.
But if he has to ask the stars first, go ahead!
We all have to go our own way and if someone knows how to help himself: all the better.
Icon: The mirror
