Written in the Stars

Astrology has a 5,000 year history. It was taught at universities, used by scientists, and shaped decisions at the highest level of power. So how did it end up at the back of a magazine?

This episode of Cup of V goes back to where it all began, and asks who decided astrology wasn't serious. And why we believed them. 

Pour yourself something good. 

Always use the fancy cups! 

Transcript

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Picture a scene. A romcom office. A man in a suit crosses the floor towards a woman at her desk. She's checking something on her screen. He clocks it, she clicks it off. Too late. He eye rolls, issues his demand, walks back into his office and opens up his own screen. Graphs, charts, economic forecasting. She was checking her horoscope. He's a serious economist. One of those disciplines has been around for 5,000 years. The other didn't predict 2008. Just saying. Welcome to Cup of Fee. I'm Victoria Catherine. Pour yourself something good. This is for you. So the world is unstable. People are reaching for something. Two camps are emerging. Religion returning and astrology rising simultaneously. Same impulse, different expression, both reaching for meaning in chaos. Both wanting something bigger than themselves. And the numbers back this up. 83% of millennials consider themselves astrology believers. 73% of Gen Z trust astrology more than science when it comes to love. This isn't niche, this isn't the back of a magazine. This is the majority. Even religious people are using astrology now alongside faith. And not in a contradictory way, in a complementary way. Astrology has moved from today you're likely to have a good fortune, the throwaway line at the back of a magazine, to something completely different. Houses, charts, planetary transits being used to draw out themes for business, relationships, major decisions, serious publications running serious astrological forecasting pieces. Not hidden at the back, but front and centre. The conversation has shifted. The depth has shifted. The audience has shifted. Astrology didn't come back, it grew up. JP Morgan apparently once said, millionaires don't use astrology, billionaires do. But what's more interesting than that quote is what's behind it. He had a personal astrologer, a woman named Evangeline Adams. She read his chart, she advised on business, politics, the markets. She was shaping decisions at the highest level. You won't have heard of her, but you've heard the quote. Astrology wasn't always a backpage of a magazine. It has a solid record in history going back 5,000 years. Religious texts they used the stars to find Jesus. Islam preserved it and advanced it. Astrology and religion ran side by side for centuries. The great philosophers and scientists like Galileo, Newton, they all studied astrology seriously. Men at this time they held the title of mathematicus, and this was a professional role that combined mathematics, astronomy, and astrology, all three together, as one respected discipline. Casting horoscopes for patrons, clients, for family members, that was just the job. Tuesday's to-do list, nothing woo-woo about it at all. Galileo read horoscopes for his daughters, his friends, his wealthy clients. He taught medical students how to create horoscopes at university. This was the curriculum. This was science. This was normal. Woo-woo it was not. And then something more interesting took their fancy. Physics. I can't really imagine that, but that's what happened. Not just in science here, but every discipline has its unanswered questions. Physics has dark matter. Economics has 2008. Medicine has conditions it still can't explain. No field has it all completely figured out. Astrology just has the misfortune of being associated with women when it didn't. So back in the day, Catherine Thompson, she was a Boston astrologer, she was writing horoscopes for newspapers from 1913. And she wrote for King Ferdinand. At R. H. Naylor, he's a man, obviously, writes one column for Sunday Express in 1930 about Princess Margaret. He gets credited as the inventor of newspaper horoscope column. Conveniently, Catherine is forgotten from history, while R. H. Naylor got crowned by royalty. I don't want to say there's a pattern here, but do you spot the pattern? Men moved on, women moved in. As astrology found its way into newspapers and magazines, the prestige dropped. Funny how that timing works. We now have a generation of women using horoscopes not only as a prediction tool, but also to aid them in using the planetary activity in their daily life. Not the back page. Charts, houses, mathematics, the real thing. And yet, if a male CEO backs his gut on a billion-dollar decision, he's a visionary. A woman, though, checks her rising sign before a big meeting. Irrational. Embarrassing. Unserious. Same instinct, completely different reception. And here's the stat that says everything. Men spend more on astrological services than women. Apparently they're spending $83 a month on astrology services. The same men who eye roll at the Roncom desk. They're quietly spending more than women do. The discipline that missed 2008 is 95% male at the top. Weather forecasting gets it wrong regularly, but no one calls it woo. The tide seems to be turning with astrology, and it's on the verge of losing its woo status. With only one last blocker before it can do a 4180 and become a mainstream science again. Men. And I'm popping on my prediction hat here. It's only a matter of time. Because here's what astrology actually is, and what it isn't. It isn't a fortune teller. Okay, it isn't dictating your path or telling you what will happen. It's a framework. It's a map of themes that you might encounter. A weather report, dare I say it. But ways you can use your planetary energy to your advantage. Things to be mindful of. Your birth chart's not your fate. It's a portrait of you and who you are and how you might best move through the world. And if that sounds familiar, it should. That's what psychology does. That's what coaching does. That's what therapy does. We just don't mock those disciplines for helping people understand themselves. So here's some interesting stats for you. 72% of young astrology believers say it guides critical life decisions. Romance, health, career. I love this stat. 41% check a potential boss's star sign before accepting a job offer. 56% check a date star sign before agreeing to go. If it didn't work, people wouldn't use it. Not for 5,000 years. Not across every culture on earth. Not to the tune of a billion dollar industry right now. So the date debate about whether it's valid is almost irrelevant. The behaviour tells you everything. Every bonus episode I do on this podcast, I look to the stars for you. And every time someone messages me to say that their reading landed. And that's not coincidence. That's pattern recognition with a 5,000-year track record. So what does all of that tell us? Well, astrology has always been a science and was once respected as such. It's lost its credibility through association, not through merit, and has quietly worked hard in the background to get back into mainstream. When the Mathematicus title disappeared, when men moved on, astrology lost its institutional protection. It had no title, no university, no serious men putting their name to it. And without that, the story changed. It was never really woo-woo. That was just the story we were told. Told by the same people who left it behind. So let me leave you with a few questions. When did you first decide astrology wasn't serious? And who told you that? What would it take for astrology to be taken seriously again? What else have we been told isn't serious? And by whom? For forty years, women kept astrology alive. With no honorary degree titles, not requiring it to be deemed a serious subject, no institutional protection, just women doing the work quietly, reading the charts, creating the horoscopes, and keeping astrology alive. That's not woo-woo. That's dedication. And now it's a billion-dollar industry. Serious publications, front page, men spending $83 a month on it. History has a habit of forgetting who kept the lights on. But we remember. Astrology grew up. We always knew it would. That's all for this week. I'll be back next week. Until then, pour something good and relax. And don't forget, use the fancy cups.