Astrology & Tarot for the skeptical souls
My first “serious encounter” with Astrology was with a friend’s mom who was really into reading Tarot Cards as well as psychology. She looked up my chart and saw my Virgo Sun and Virgo Rising and immediately told me that in order to be happy I had to be needed and to serve others. And I hated her for it. For days, weeks I mumbled to myself “what the hell does she know, I don’t wanna serve people what about me no I’m not like that” and I resented that woman for telling me that the stars’ plan for me was servitude and selflessness. I also resented myself for presumably:
- Being destined to help others all the fucking time and
- Believing in that stuff.
I was around 17 at the time, and I already had an affinity for the occult, mysticism, spiritualism and all that good stuff that makes you “the weird kid” all through your pre-teens and teens. I was reading about wiccans and trying to contact the dead the ouija-board-way with my cousin in abandoned houses. My mom being a very spiritual person too, I guess I never really questioned any of it — the unknown was part of my life.
After that disastrous and defiant first step into Astrology, I started learning more about it, about the stars, constellations, the zodiac, the Chinese zodiac, the moon, tarot, intuition… And I began reading birth charts and tarot cards to friends, family, to myself. What I found out was not so much a “oh my god it’s all true and I can predict the future of everyone”, but more of a subtle way to get people — and myself — to look at themselves and think for a minute.
Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in astrology and tarot. As soon as I learned about astrological placements, houses and planets, I understood a lot more about myself. I learned that my Aries Moon is why I’m emotionally raw and angry-sad. I also grab my Tarot deck as soon as I feel emotionally overwhelmed and I often cry at the reading. But I mainly learned that it helps to make an effort, to try to understand yourself: even if you don’t believe in Astrology or Tarot, there is a special space in them that allows you to take some time away from the tangible world to reflect on your habits, your emotions, your patterns, your Self.
Like the personality test, or those “which pizza topping are you based on your rating of those raccoon pictures”, Astrology is a way to -well- check your Self. It’s a bottomless well of human characteristics that you can explore, relate to or reject. When I discovered my moon sign and what it meant I felt relieved. I felt like I finally understood my emotional self — I thought “Oh yep, that’s me” and from then on I was able to acknowledge my patterns, be kinder to myself, and pick myself up when I got down. I see Astrology as a way to focus on learning about your deeper self: reading a birth chart gives you a wide range of aspects of your personality to think about and reach out to. For example, “your Mars sign and House” doesn’t have to sound all mystical to your skeptic brain if you view it as “let’s think about how I pursue my goals, how I put myself forward, and in what aspect of my life I do that or react that way in particular”. Reading about it makes you inevitably wonder about yourself, whether it’s “oh yeah that’s true about me” or “nah this is bullsh*t I react that way not that way”. So why not take some time to just think about it?
On the other hand, Tarot for me is a way to check on your belief systems and your intuitions. It’s a way to see yourself in the moment by creating a bubble of mindfulness and focusing on the present. In a short film about Tarot, Jodorowsky said “The tarot will teach you how to create a soul.”
and that “The tarot is a language that talks about the present. If you use it to see the future, you become a conman.” A good Tarot reading is an opportunity to focus on the immediate soul, as in your mind, feelings and intuition in the moment. It’s also about interpretation — the Tarot is a visual practice full of symbols that can be interpreted in different ways by different beings. I’ve done Tarot reading with very skeptic people starting with the phrase “There is nothing witchy about this, this is about you right now” and all those readings yielded openings. Focusing on visual cards and symbols associated with aspects of life (contemplation, death, rebirth, fulfillment etc.) unequivocally takes anyone into a space of self-reflection, perceptions and acceptance. Nothing mystical about it!
In the preface for “The Way of Tarot”, Marianne Costa writes “the Tarot constitutes first and foremost an apprenticeship in seeing”. I believe that applies to both Tarot and Astrology — It’s about creating a moment, a bubble suspended in time, where you see yourself through a prism put before you. You can relate to aspects of your birth chart or reject them, you are still spending an instant focusing on thinking about it. “Am I like that, is it true?” is the step back all of us need and crave when we seek help through therapy, meditation, self-help methods. You can dismiss the Tarot’s symbolic and serendipity or listen to them, you are still focusing on the present and what’s in front of you in your life at that moment, gathering your intuitions and hopes to analyse, which is another important aspect of psychoanalysis.
In a 2019 article in The New York Times, Jonathan Kaplan, a clinical psychologist in New York, states that he “recently noticed that more and more of his clients are referring to Mercury being in retrograde*. “I’m not familiar with cosmic cycles,” he said. (Instead, his specialty is cognitive behavioral therapy.) “Nor do I try to be, but I want to understand what that means to a person and how that influences their understanding of the world.” I have noticed myself that Astrology, Tarot and mystic practices or interests are getting more and more popular over social media and amongst millennials and gen z, two generations known -and mocked for- introspection and a focus on self, identity and image. It’s no wonder that with those initial focuses and the various lockdowns, people are turning to both mystical and self-learning practices. There is a wider need for content with yourself, open-mindedness, and self-care through self-acceptance. It’s also about belonging to a tribe of people who -literally- look at the stars and acknowledge all human differences, moods, intuitions etc.
I myself find solace in learning about Astrology, human character and myself through daily instagram Tarot readings, short videos about current planet placements and their influences on mindsets, bits of insights on astrology, or memes about my fellow Aries emotions and Virgo issues. It’s comforting to firstly take some time to check on your Self and decipher your patterns, and then find out if you can belong or relate to your fellow Person through the way you feel.
Astrology or Tarot aren’t just for the believers, they’re for everyone, and those practices are here to — if you’re willing — help you know yourself, know others, and open your mind. Look up at the stars, dream, spend some time thinking about what makes you you, what makes you tick, what calms you down, and reflect on your Self to navigate more easily through the present.
- What does “Mercury in retrograde” actually mean? In Astrology, Mercury is the planet associated with communication, and its retrograde phase means it is seemingly moving backwards — bringing issues into all aspects of communication and causing misunderstandings and frustrations.
- A few nice IG accounts to follow (linked in the article and other): thestarryeyedmystic / zodi_am / alizakelly / mystical_af / bitch.rising / stellarmatch and so many more ♥︎
