A beginner's guide to astrology

I mean, the sun is a star, and that one definitely affects your life
- earth is a planet. it might play a role, too.
  oh, planets, plural. well, jupiter's massive gravity helped clear and shape the solar system, and the planets (except mercury) align to its orbital plane, not the sun's 'equator'.
  
  also stars helped people to navigate
- Not depending on the time of year you were born though
  
  eh, I have my birthday near midterm season every year, I'd say that's the sun's fault for being where it was when I was born.
- What constellation does the Sun belong to?
  
  The Big Lamp of course
  
  Depends on who you ask!

I once saw the headline

Dog Breeds You Should NOT Get Based on Your Astrological Sign

I did not click but as an optimist, I imagined the content would be nothing but

Sign	Problematic dog breed
♈ Aries	Chihuahua
♉ Taurus	Chihuahua
♊ Gemini	Chihuahua
♋ Cancer	Chihuahua
♌ Leo	Chihuahua
♍ Virgo	Chihuahua
♎ Libra	Chihuahua
♏ Scorpio	Chihuahua
♐ Sagittarius	Chihuahua
♑ Capricorn	Chihuahua
♒ Aquarius	Chihuahua
♓ Pisces	Chihuahua

I thought this was an image.
- Markdown and Unicode can do cool things
- same, specially since i'm using a css style on lemmy and for whatever reason the table is not styled
I like Chihuahuas :(

Let's just say for a moment that the placement of the planet earth at the moment of your birth actually mattered. Hell, if conscience was pulled from dark matter or dark energy at the moment of our birthday as Earth past through a certain area are the universe, that would be a cool idea.
But the problem with astrology is this assumption that our solar system is stationary and that every year, the earth nears the exact same location as your birth.
But this is entirely wrong because the sun is orbiting the super massive black hole at the center of the galaxy. So even if you believed the astrology stuff, you would have to make a calendar for 230 million years.
But wait the universe is expanding and our galaxy is moving! Even after a galactic year you would still not be located at the location of your birth. Woops astrology is dumb.
- The zodiac constallations don't even line up with their original dates anymore, for exactly the kind of reasons you described: the universe and our position in it are not stationary.
  This website has a chart for the updated dates (note also that they had to add another zodiac sign because of parallax or something)
- One thing that could have an effect is the time of year you are born because it seasonal changes. A spring baby will be exposed to more sunlight than a fall baby in the first 6 months of life outside the womb, and the opposite for the second 6 months.
  What that actually affects other than maybe the strength of their immune system early on, I can only speculate about. But it would be a mechanism through which birth sign can be correlated to personality or health.
  And if there is such a correlation, it would make sense that the signs and dates falling out of sync as the constellations process wouldn't have any effect on anything because the stars and planets don't matter as much as the seasons do.
  Though it does make me wonder if there have been studies analyzing personality difference statistics based on birthdate. Though I think it would have to be based on full birthdate (year included) due to year to year weather variations, as well as location dependent due to geographical weather variations. Like if there is such a correlation, it's probably stronger in Canada than California.
  
  It can also decide if you're always the oldest or youngest person in your class, which might be a big deal
- wait wouldn't this mean you could predict people's personalities similar to how we can predict the weather but not change it
  
  Even if there was influence, we're still shaped by the environment in which we grow, especially personality, so no you couldn't predict only from the starting point. Maybe if one day we are able to perfectly simulate a brain and record the entirety of a life, then we may be able to predict a personality. But that's not happening anytime soon.
  
  And a massive reason for legal abortions; I wouldn't want my children to become the passive aggressive, depressive smartass I am. Better to make sure they're born some other date of the year.

That's such an aquarius thing to post

I feel like a random one should say, "your going to have a bad day"
- I was expecting it under "cancer"

Libra: A big promotion is just around The corner for someone much more talented than you
-Weird Al
- Now you may find it inconceivable or at the very least a bit unlikely that the relative position of the planets and the stars could have a special deep significance or meaning that exclusively applies to only you but let me reassure that these forecasts and predictions are all based on solid scientific documented evidence and you would have to be some kind of moron not to realize that every single one of them is absolutely true where was I?

pretty sure the earth is a planet and it does affect my life

Not to be that guy... But stars and planets definitely have the potential to affect all of our lives, just not in any positive w-- the sun goes supernova
- Our sun will never go supernova because it's too small for that. As hydrogen runs out, it will grow to a red giant by burning off the helium it produced and will expand to about Mars' orbit. When the helium runs out too, it will then collapse to a white dwarf and release dust clouds into what formerly was our solar system and then it just huffs out like a candle in the wind.
  To go supernova, our sun would need about 10 times its mass.

The stars and planets affect the lives of astronomers every day though.

Most stars (comparatively), I'm pretty sure there's one pretty close to us that lights up the only half the world at a time, that one might be more relevant.
- True. It should say "the positions of planets and stars at the time of your birth won't effect your future in any meaningful way" but that's a little long.

My favorite thing is that astrologers are working with a 'zodiac' of stars which is so old, the stars have changed position in the sky and their zodiacal charts aren't even accurate if you just up.
- Also IIRC there should be thirteen astrological signs but that number was unpopular so the charts were fudged to make them fit twelve. So they aren't accurate for any age.
  
  the 13th, if anyone's interested. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus(astrology)
- I mean… there is sidereal astrology, which does account for the precession of the equinoxes. And tropical astrology has explanations and justifications to be how it is. It’s not just “oh dumb astrologers don’t even know the stars changed!”. Like, their whole thing is looking at stars and stuff. They sure know it.
  If you are actually interested or curious, here is a thread with explanations (it’s unfortunately on Reddit): https://www.reddit.com/r/astrology/comments/wr1iok/tropical_astrology_explanation/?sort=top
  
  Like, their whole thing is looking at stars and stuff. They sure know it.
  They just don't care 🌚
  Also, with how popular astrology now, I'd wager that more than half astrologists don't know it and only care about some cargo cult attributes
  
  Like, their whole thing is looking at stars and stuff. They sure know it.
  They look at stars the same way flat earthers look at the world around them.
  That link doesn't explain it at all, it's like watching fundamental religious people argue about how the Bible actually makes sense and applies to today.

That's not true! They can soothe your mind while watching them, they could light your path on a very very dark night in the wilderness, they help you navigate, they're a nice hobby for some people, even a profession for some. Boom! QED mate!

OMG that's such an Aquarius thing to say.

I've read before that astrology can actually be a good indicator of personality IF the person actually believes in astrology in the first place. It becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy where the person models their personality after whatever they've been told they're supposed to be like. Astrology seems to just use alot of universal personality traits that probably anybody could manifest at some point in their life. So then a person who believes in it probably internalizes a few specific traits as "their" personality and after awhile just turn to that trait automatically.
No idea how true it actually is, but it seemed to make some amount of sense. It could potentially be useful if you're dealing with a person who believes in astrology, but it's such a random thing that it'd be just as useful to study Myers-Briggs personality types.
- Love the subtle Myers-Briggs roast you slipped in there!

Not true, I will travel to view a solar eclipse, therefore at least one star is affecting my life.

How could they? They're not real and the earth is flat
- Exactly. Also, there are 3 moons. Most people think there's only moon because only 1 at a time is visible.
  
  And don't forget that time is cubed!!

Actually, this planet affects my life every day.

a capricorn made this smh

But what about if Mercury is in retrograde?
- Mercury in your Gatorade will have a definite impact on your life.
- https://www.ismercuryinretrograde.com/
  
  Reminds me of this:
  http://www.howdovaccinescauseautism.com/

Dinosaurs have been put on notice.

Man, there sure are a lot of smart people in this thread!
- The well ack-shually crowd is showing the fuck up

Mine told me I am the true lord of the dance, no matter what those idiots at work say.
- Ok then, off with the shirt and get to clogging!

You won't be saying that when Earth drifts into the path of a gamma ray burst.
- I won't cause I'll be dead

found the virgin

If the moon pulls waves from the sea, it definitely has an effect on us too

i love reading daily astrology columns.
i can never remember what i am supposed to do so i just read those
so much easier than task lists
- If I’m bored with a newspaper, I specifically read all but mine. Helps to prevent any subconscious influence it might have on me.
  Or I read the previous newspaper and rate how many of the 11 could apply for the past day/week.

I can't even with how virgo this is

If they fall on earth, they do.
- Also the sun probably has the most influence on us than any other thing in our lives.
  
  Forgot about that.

We're all using gold from a supernova right now to look at this

https://youtu.be/sPvyrWYutDQ?si=Dcn21RMQAAVt8xBw

That all depends upon how far away from any given Planet or Star you are, doesn't it?
- I am very close to a planet and an comfortable distance from a star. I don't think radically changing either would improve my life.
  
  I fail to find where improve was offered. I believe the discourse is upon the "have an affect" and I assure you being under the influence of a high gravity VS low gravity and even not mentioning the various radiations and their levels, the stars and planets affect you 100%af

Dank

Wait, does anybody knows what happens for ophiuchus people? :/

I know what it means but... Uh... It's technically quite wrong.
If a star does a Gamma Ray burst right in Earth's path we'll all be pretty strongly effected.
That's not even going over that Earth is a planet and the Sun is a star, both which are effecting us on a daily basis.
And the sun is gravitationally effected by other stars which in turn effects Earth which in turn effects us...
- If that happens, the debate would be moot because we'd all be vaporized, or we'd be sent back to the stone ages, depending on how far away the star is.

It's too bad when people take these things too seriously. Astrology taken as an amusement or even as a personal meditation/problem solving toolbox (IMO, Tarot excels in this) can have some value. The horoscopes and natal charts haven't really never interested me, but there are some variations like horary astrology that are a bit quirkier.

- Maybe it's possible that some kind of memory in our DNA remembers being from space
  Man, people really want to believe in some wacky stuff.

Crazy to me that people make it their life's mission to shit on others for the most random things
- This really doesn't seem like shitting on others, just more like shitting on Astrology itself. It's also really not that harsh, in my opinion, at least.
  It's crazier to me that people will make life changing decisions based on Astrological readings. They can be harmful. It's not wrong to criticize the idea itself, as long as it's not directly towards others.
  
  was more talking about the comments that crop up when memes like this come around. The post itself seemed mostly fine if a bit primed for these kinds of conversations
- Crazy to me that it is acceptable for the irrational beliefs to remain unchallenged. That somehow pointing out that people are being conned is oppression.
  Astrology impacts your life. It might not seem like it if you live in the West but it is hardly just for entertainment in Asia. The very demographics of humanity has been altered because of the people trying to have kids in the year of the Dragon.
  
  ah yes. c/dankmemes the penultimate place for discourse on the social impacts of science and religion. Y'all taking this shit too seriously which is my entire point. Obviously if it's an issue it's an issue. But the meme is clearly for a western audience by a western audience. And most people on forum aggregators like Lemmy attack people for stuff they barely understand. The average latte drinking middle class valley girl isn't harming anyone by talking about their chakras and tarot cards. It's literally just a comfort thing for their subculture. You sound like my mom yelling about starving children in Africa when I wouldn't eat her spaghetti. Just straight to the dumbest extreme
- I think there's a distinction to be made between the people who use this as a bit of light entertainment and the people who substitute contemporary mysticism in lieu of empirical observation and confirmation.
  Also the grifters. There seems to be a disproportionate amount of grifters in this space. Which is interesting to note.
  Contemporary mysticism seems to reinforce a disregard of scepticism as well as serves to obfuscate the true wonders of the observable universe.
  
  of course! Not saying that this isn't an issue at the extreme. But social circles like Lemmy are quick to jump to conclusions and start judging people. The meme is clearly from a western context for a western context where by-and-large the effects are mostly aesthetic and harmless
  
  Disproportionate? For what? Religion? Seems to me it has just the right amount of grift for made-up mystical belief system
- It’s not my fault, the stars made me do it

Men will mock astrology then wear dirty panties week to week so their favorite sports team will win.
Magic thinking is in all of us. It makes more sense to view the sky and seasons as affecting your personality than half the luck, karma, prayer bullshit half the people mocking this stuff do
Personally I think there is reason in astrology. Animals literally have babies at a specific time of year, this habit predates fucking mammals themselves.
So babies born in winter might have a different temperament than those born in summer it makes sense to me evolutionarily. More than any other magic think I can think of.
edit: panty wearing magic thinking sports boys triggered
- I'm pretty sure I don't have any beliefs like this, at least not consciously. If I noticed myself falling into a mindset like that, I would probably chastise myself for such foolishness.
- You're logic be like: I'm an irrational guy => everyone is irrational => my kind of irrational is better than their kind of irrational because reasons.
  
  or you know the more normal, awareness of magical thinking and still able to enjoy really normal things without being a dick lol
- Men will mock astrology then wear dirty panties week to week so their favorite sports team will win.
  I don't wear the same pair of underpants game to game, but then the Astros also didn't clear the ALC so to everyone in Houston I extend my formal apologies.
- I'm with you. In ye olden times, hitting different development milestones during points of the year with different resource availabilities probably had an effect on personalities, and once a pattern is observed people like to make up a story to explain it. If you aren't letting it rule your life it's a bit of harmless fun. Like a lucky number or color. People are too protective of their own irrationalities while denouncing other's.