actually getting into astrology fucking sucks because you realize that 99.99% of the time when you see other people talk about astrology they have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. and whenever you try to talk about astrology it's like you're sending out free pizza coupons to the 99.99% convention
(thread. it's a rant)
the funny thing is that the more you get into actual astrology, the more you realize that the people shitting on astrology are right. because they're shitting on horoscopes. and horoscopes are fucking dumb as hell!
ignoring every other usage of astrology, birth charts take into factor every planet in the solar system. some astrologers take into account some meteors. traditionally, certain stars were looked at as well. you are not a gemini, leo, or whatever else. you just have a gemini / leo sun
so when somebody says "i'm an aries sun" - that's useless. is that sun rejoicing (in a house it prefers) in the 9th house? is that sun hidden away in the 12th house? is it in the career focused 10th house? is its ruler weakened?
and how about its relationships to other planets? because that's also a thing in astrology! planets can be in harmonious relationships, contentuous ones, or conjunct, which represents a melding of two planets' energies.
that sun in aries, for instance, might come with a lot of baggage if it's stuck opposing multiple planets in libra, especially if one of those planets is saturn, which is exalted in libra.
which is all to say that there are an absurd amount of factors at play when one looks at a birth chart, and almost *none* of those are reflected in horoscopes.
(and while we're at it, cusps aren't a thing. stop that. first / last degree placements within a sign can be significant, but cusps are not a thing.)
so *why* did we settle on the sun sign?
because remembering the exact hour of your birth is a hell of a lot harder than the month (give or take a few days) you were born in. and that's what horoscopes boil down to - convenience. you don't want people to have to think, or study, or whatever else. you want people to open up their newspaper, read a few sentences, and feel like they're tapping into Secret Knowledge. horoscopes turn a spiritual practice into a platitude generator.
also: people who discriminate based on one's "sign" are genuinely the most wretched morons on the planet. like you don't even understand the thing you're using to discriminate against people with. if you do this you are dumb as hell. sun sign - sun sign compatibility isn't even close to a comprehensive indicator for relationships.
speaking of which, did you know that's a thing? there's two methods - composite charts are like the median of two charts, while synastries overlay them.
I studied astrology a long time ago. People love to mix up astrology, constellations, and horoscopes.
Example: Ophiuchus and the precession of the equinoxes (also referred to as precession of the stars)
FKFTSH
Rusty Shackleford
