Lunatics Radio Hour
The history of horror and the horror of history.
Lunatics Radio Hour
Episode 156 - The History of Astrology
This week Abby sits down to discuss all things Astrology. From the earliest uses of star divination in ancient cultures, to Mercury in retrograde, and everything in between.
Sources
- Time Magazine article: Where Do Zodiac Signs Come From? By Olivia B. Waxman.
- Academic Paper from Richard Fitzpatrick as part of the physics department at the University of Texas, Austin: Ptolemy’s Almagest: Fact and Fiction.
- National Geographic article by Catherine Caruso: What are the ancient origins of your zodiac sign?
- 14 Famous Predictions by Nostradamus by Robert Johnson.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Lunatics Radio Hour podcast. I am Abbey Branker and I am incredibly excited for today's topic. I am going to be talking to you solo today, but again, rest assured that Alan is alive and well and yelling to me about how Nostradamus is a hack from the other room. Ever since I was a very young child, I had a deep fascination with astrology and my personal zodiac sign, which is Taurus. During childhood, my mom would point out to me all the time that my stubbornness was really a direct result of being a Taurus, which I'm proud to say I think I still exemplify. But from horoscopes and birth charts to Mercury and retrograde, today we're going to talk about some of the history of astrology dating back thousands of years. In some ways, astrology has shifted and evolved over the centuries, and in others it's still oddly similar to its origin, and I am not an astrologer nor a historian. So, as always, this information was validated by research. But if we missed anything or left anything big out, you know where to find us. Today's sources are a Time Magazine article by Olivia B Waxman when Do Zodiac Signs Come From? An academic paper from Richard Fitzpatrick as part of the physics department of the University of Texas, austin. Ptolemy's Almagest Fact and Fiction, a National Geographic article by Kathleen Caruso. What Are the Ancient Origins of your Zodiac Sign? And 14 Famous Predictions by Nostradamus by Robert Johnson. Your zodiac sign and 14 famous predictions by Nostradamus by Robert Johnson.
Speaker 1:And I hate to be that person, but I'm literally pulling the definition of astrology from Merriam-Webster. I want to set a really clear baseline for what we're talking about today. So, according to the dictionary, astrology is the divination of the supposed influence of the stars and planets on human affairs and terrestrial events by their positions and aspects, and the zodiac is defined as an imaginary band in the heavens, centered on the ecliptic, that encompasses the apparent paths of all of the planets and is divided into 12 constellations or signs, each taken for astrological purposes to extend 30 degrees of longitude. I think a lot of the times we think of the word zodiac as the name of the belief in signs, but at its definition, zodiac refers to the belt-shaped region or band in the sky that has been divided into these 12 equal parts, each representing a different constellation. The word zodiac comes from the Greek word meaning circle of little animals. A horoscope is defined as quote a diagram of the relative positions of planets and signs of the zodiac at a specific time, as at one's birth, for use by astrologers in inferring individual character and personality traits and in foretelling events of a person's life, or an astrological forecast. End quote.
Speaker 1:So what I'm aiming to do today is to really take astrology, the zodiac, horoscopes, but generally the practice of astrology. So much of astrology is pretty intense math and equations that I certainly don't have the type of brain to understand or to communicate to you guys directly. So we're talking about really the history right today and how it's evolved through different cultures, where it stands now, famous astrologers, kind of fun history. But you should know that there's astrologers out there who could talk in a really in-depth, clear way about the math behind astrology and I don't want to deny that. Whether you believe in its effectiveness as a system or not, the system itself, right, is very much embedded within the science of the planets and how they move, and we're going to talk about how that's evolved over the years. So, like I've said a few times now, astrology dates back thousands of years.
Speaker 1:In Mesopotamia, patterns in the sky were observed and then linked to earthly events like harvests or conflicts and wars, things like that. In ancient China, eclipses and sunspots would be studied to make predictions for the emperor, though it's important to note that this practice was applied only to him, no one else, right? It's not like today, when everyone has a personal understanding of astrology your own zodiac sign. At this point in time, in China, astrology was only for the emperor, so everything that was interpreted by the priests of the time were to advise the emperor alone. And again, this might seem pretty different to how we interpret astrology today, but I actually think it makes a lot of sense. In eras where the lower classes felt like they did not personally control much of their lives, astrology would have felt pretty pointless. It also speaks to the power of the emperor, I think, and the mentality that the one leader is so important. Even the planets and stars had messages to guide this one person, right? It feels almost biblical in that way.
Speaker 1:Chinese astrology is, I think, the astrological system outside of Western astrology that most people would be familiar with, because it uses this 12-year cycle and it assigns an animal based on your birth year, right? So, for example, 2025 is the year of the snake. I think I was born in the year of the horse. I think people generally kind of know their Chinese astrology animal. Different animals are associated with different traits, similar to the Western zodiac system, right, but this time it's by year instead of by birth date and time.
Speaker 1:Vedic or Indian astrology is almost 3,000 years old. Vedic astrology uses actual star constellations. Birth charts in this system are referred to as kundalis, and astrology also incorporates karma and dharma. In Vedic astrology there are 12 signs, which differ from the Western signs but have some similarities. Vedic astrology also includes lunar mansions, which are moon-based constellations.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite types of astrology is Mayan and Aztec astrology, because there's still evidence of it in Mexico and South America in the form of pyramids, and I've been lucky enough to have visited a few of these sites in the last few years, both in Mexico, and it's incredibly profound and impressive. I really cannot stress that enough. One site that I went to was outside of Mexico City and then Chichen. Itza is about an hour or two from Tulum.
Speaker 1:Mayans were both astrologers and astronomers. They had the ability and the skills to predict planetary events with precision Even to this day. For example, their pyramids work as intended when built, so some of these pyramids that they built worked as calendars and they still hold true to today. So during an eclipse, for example, a shadow this is on a pyramid in Chichen Itza. A shadow appears along the steps of one side of the pyramid, depicting serpents. The Mayan calendar was a sacred 260-day calendar and we actually have a Mayan calendar that we got from the pyramids that I'm recording in front of today. But personal astrology for the Mayans combined your birth date with one of these 13 unique tones and that combination would come up with a unique reading for you.
Speaker 1:The Babylonians and Sumerians practiced astrology dating back to the second millennium BCE and they would use the Venus tablet of Amisaduka to track where gods were in the sky. It was used as a way to interpret messages and omens from the gods, but only the qualified could read the stars, so typically priests were actually in charge of interpreting the celestial. Quoting from the Time article by Olivia B Waxman, quote this tablet, which is dated to the first millennium BC and tracks the motion of Venus, is one of the earliest pieces of what's been called Babylonian planetary omens. The ancient Egyptians contributed the idea that patterns of stars made up constellations through which the sun appears to move at specific times during the year end. Quote. There was also the Enuma Anu Enil, or a series of 70 cuneiform tablets that contained around 7,000 celestial omens.
Speaker 1:Some historians believe that Alexander the Great actually played a fairly big part in the history of astrology. He conquered Egypt around 330 BCE and historically the Greeks had been very focused on mathematics and science. So when cultures clashed here, it's generally thought that the Greeks brought the math and the structure to the Egyptian astrology, and it sort of really formed the precursor to how we think about astrology in modern times. Quoting from the National Geographic article by Catherine Caruso, quote the Babylonians developed 12 astrological signs, some of which were later incorporated into the Western Zodiac. However, it was the ancient Greeks who named these 12 star signs after constellations and linked them to specific dates based on their alignment with the sun's orbit. These signs are Aries, taurus, gemini, cancer, leo, virgo, libra, scorpius, sagittarius, capricornius, aquarius and Pisces.
Speaker 1:Despite the Greeks' contributions to astrology, horoscopes were not prevalent in ancient Greece. Instead, the focus was on using the stars to connect with the gods through divination. Jumping ahead in the quote Over time, babylonian astrology, which interpreted celestial events, merged with Greek divination practices. This blending led to the development of more personalized horoscopes we see today. End quote. The zodiac became really popular in the Roman era, based on concepts from Babylonian astrology and ancient Greek astrology, often referred to as Hellenistic astrology. So I want to take a moment to talk through some important astrological texts throughout history and this is different from astronomy, right, as of course we know but I'm really just focusing on texts that feel important for astrological reasons, but it is a thin line.
Speaker 1:In 350 BCE, aristotle wrote On the Heavens. On the Heavens lays out Aristotle's theories on the universe. He defines types of motion away from a center, towards a center and around a center. He talks about how earth and water the elements are heavy and thus move towards the center of the earth, while fire and water are light and move away. A lot of it is also about the elements and these four elements really being the building blocks in a lot of ways. Notably, aristotle starts to define gravity in this book when he explains that the heaviest elements fall. He also lays out that the earth spins around a pair of poles and he notices that the spinning is a consistent speed. All pretty major revelations. He defines the elements and notes that there must be a finite amount of earth, air, fire and water, because there is no way to make more of those elements. He also defines heavy and light.
Speaker 1:Ertothenes of Cyrene is credited with most accurately defining earth's radius, around 200 BCE. And while this may seem heavily mathematical again because of the calculations that go into astrology it's actually quite important. Hipparchus of Nicaea is credited with explaining the seasons through astronomy, around 150 BCE. In the second century, claudius Ptolemy wrote the Almagest, a mathematical text on the paths of the stars and the planets. It's thought to be one of the most important astrological texts from history. For one thing, it solidified the belief that Earth was the center of the universe and that the moon and the sun orbited around the Earth. It became a main source of truth for Greek astronomy and it was accepted as fact for nearly 1,200 years across the medieval European, islamic and Byzantine cultures, until Copernicus. Claudius Ptolemy also wrote Tetra Bilbos, in which he created the foundation for modern astrology and zodiac signs.
Speaker 1:This is where many trace the origin of personal horoscope reading to, but generally people were reading personal horoscopes for a very, very long time before this. I do want to take a moment to talk about Claudius Ptolemy, because he is so important to understanding the history of astrology. So Ptolemy was born around 100 AD we don't know exactly when or where, and because he had a Latin name, it's generally assumed that he was a Roman citizen, but his last name was Greek. Beyond his work on astrological theory, he also spent his time studying music theory, math and geology. He died in the 160s or 70s in Alexandria, egypt, as part of the Roman Empire.
Speaker 1:Between the 8th and 13th centuries, muslim scholars translated the Roman and Greek texts to Arabic. Islamic astrology had a heavy focus on math. Many astrologers were also astronomers. Astrology had a heavy focus on math. Many astrologers were also astronomers. Astrology wasn't just used for personal predictions, but also for medicine and politics.
Speaker 1:In the Middle Ages, astrology became incredibly widespread in its practice, especially across Western Europe. So it kind of has gone through these different phases and dips and flows in popularity, right, but okay, so Middle Ages, it's becoming a widespread practice again, really talking about Western Europe here. So, quoting again from the National Geographic article quote during the Middle Ages, astrology was widespread and significantly influenced everyday decisions. It was practiced not only by doctors, astronomers and other scientific professionals, but it also played a crucial role in the development of alchemy, a proto-scientific precursor to chemistry. So just pausing here to say how important astrology has been to sciences, right, it really broke away at some point and became coined as a pseudoscience, and I'm not saying that's wrong at all, but it's really fascinating that all of these things kind of came up together. Right Back to the quote.
Speaker 1:In 14th century Europe, astrologers were commonly found at royal courts, where they regularly provided personal horoscopes to monarchs. This practice was so prevalent that Charles V of France even commissioned the translation of astrological texts. However, astrology's reputation shifted during the 15th century witch trials in England, where it became associated with sorcery and paganism. As a result, some monarchs began to distance themselves from individual horoscopes. End quote.
Speaker 1:When we really talk about anything on the podcast and we trace back the history of a thing, we end up talking about a lot of these same cultures, of course, because they've been so influential throughout history the Egyptians, the Babylonians, mesopotamia, of course, ancient Greek and Rome. But it's so fascinating to see how different things pull away and how different things are condemned. Right, and so interestingly, astrology is pulled out as something bad during the witch trials in Europe, but astronomy or other things aren't. And obviously there's a difference between those things, right, because one is divination and another is pure science. But you start to see this pull during this time period in the 14th century and the separation. Whereas previously all these things kind of came up together, right Now there's kind of a separation, and part of that is certainly that some of these things are based on science and there's a scientific revolution going on, but of course there's also political and religious reasons, right, something that is purely not Christian goes through a different phase and era of being, you know, condemned as something pagan, right, like the quote calls out. But by the Renaissance there's a resurgence of astrology. This time period really solidified astrology as a personal and, most importantly, accessible practice. So where, kind of before the Renaissance, astrology needed to be done with an astrologer or a scientist in a lot of ways right to really understand? During the Renaissance, a lot of the barriers for the everyday person went away because charts and calendars and different tools that were really easy to understand were developed and so the everyday person could understand their zodiac signs. Quoting again from the National Geographic article, quote While the Western Zodiac is widely recognized, other cultural practices have also shaped astrology worldwide. In India, vedic astrology incorporates ancient Hindu beliefs and practices, offering a unique perspective on celestial influences. Chinese astrology, rooted in Taoist philosophy, assigns animal signs based on birth years, influencing cultural practices and societal beliefs.
Speaker 1:Nostradamus was born in December of 1503. He was a French astrologer, seer and physician and, of course, he famously published his book of prophecies in 1555. Nostradamus claimed that his predictions were based on astrology, mainly judicial astrology. Many of his predictions came in the form of quatrains or four lines. For example and these are a little more poetic maybe than you expected quote the young lion will overcome the older one on the field of combat in a single battle. He will pierce his eyes through a golden cage, two wounds made one. Then he dies a cruel death. End. Quote Many believe this ended up being a prediction of the death of Henry II, because in 1559, king Henry II of France faced off against Comte de Montgomery on a field of combat and both had lions on their shields.
Speaker 1:The king was hit with two wounds, and one through his eye, just as the poem predicted. He then survived for 10 days before he passed. Certainly a cruel death. Another example this one is about the fire of London. Certainly a cruel death. Another example this one is about the fire of London. Quote the blood of the just will be demanded of London burnt by fire in the year 66. The ancient lady will fall from her high place and many of the same sect will be killed. End quote.
Speaker 1:In the year 1666, a small fire started in a bakery in London and burned on for three days, completely decimating the city. And finally, world War II and Hitler. Quote from the depths of the west of Europe. A young child will be born of poor people, he who by his tongue will seduce a great troop and fame will increase towards the realm of the east. End quote. And also pairing that with a second one quote beasts ferocious with hunger will cross rivers. The greater part of the battlefield will be against Heister. In a cage of iron will the great one be drawn when the child of Germany observes nothing? End quote. And the atomic bomb quote near the gates and within two cities, there will be scourges the like of which was never seen Famine within plague, people put out by steel crying to the great immortal God for relief. End quote.
Speaker 1:There are many, many examples of these predictions by Nostradamus. Some are more on the nose feeling than others. Some, you know, feel okay, there's some direct facts here, like the year 1966. Others just generally maybe feel pretty vague. And though his language can sometimes feel specific, if not poetic and flowery. It's generally believed that much of his work is based on ancient end-of-world biblical prophecies. So again though, astrology is in full swing today. After the Renaissance, it dipped again in popularity with the rise of the scientific revolution right. So another reason that it kind of got pulled back.
Speaker 1:In the 1600s, william Lilly, a British astrologer, was born. But beyond just being an astrologer, lilly had a really interesting life that I want to briefly discuss. He was born as the son of a farmer in the countryside, and he traveled to London to be a servant. But seven years after starting his employment, he ended up marrying his former master's widow, which is an insane move and allowed him to one, become rich and, two, study astrology. He went on to publish many texts on astrology, including one called Christian Astrology, which is considered a seminal work of Western astrology. By 1659, he was selling about 30,000 copies a year of his annual almanac.
Speaker 1:Cherio was an Irish astrologer born in 1866. Cherio is a stage name taken from Cheriomancy or palmistry, and I love a historic astrologer, a tarot reader or general fortune teller that served the rich and famous, and Chirio was just that. So he actually learned palmistry, astrology and numerology in India. He had been in Bombay for quite a bit of time as a kid and really kind of took up with one teacher and mentor. Similar to Nostradamus, he also made predictions on world events Around the same time, evangeline Adams rose to popularity as an American astrologer in New York City. So she ran a popular service where she would read people's birth and natal charts. But she gained even more popularity after she was able to successfully defend the validity of her business in court. And this was because she was arrested three times while practicing in New York City, once in 1911, 1914, and 1923.
Speaker 1:And just as a side note, our friend Marie Carter has an excellent book called Mortimer and the Witches which is not about astrology per se but it is all about fortune tellers, specifically female fortune tellers in New York City around this time and even a bit earlier, and the perils and the life that they live. And there's a lot of comedy and lightness in the book. But it's also really a reflection of a dark time and fortune telling astrology these kinds of professions became in a lot of cases the only way for a woman to break out financially right. That was the options where you could marry somebody rich, you could work in a factory, be a seamstress, something like that, or you could be an astrologer and really work for yourself. So highly recommend Mortimer and the Witches by Marie Carter.
Speaker 1:But Evangeline Adams also released many books on astrology and, interestingly, occultist Alistair Crowley actually ghost wrote them. She also contributed to his work the general practice of astrology. But eventually their relationship became sullied and a copyright battle ensued. She was also met with criticism from skeptics because despite several successful predictions to the stock market, she didn't quite understand the economic landscape enough to make clear predictions.
Speaker 1:In 1930, british astrologer R H Naylor published a horoscope for Princess Margaret in the Sunday Express. Naylor used her birth chart to predict that she would have an eventful life and that events of tremendous importance to the royal family and the nation would happen near Princess Margaret's seventh birthday. Soon after the article was published, naylor started consistently publishing weekly columns with birth chart information for birthdays that fell during the next week. The column was called what the Stars Foretell. Other newspapers were inspired and started running horoscopes and columns, even the Boston Globe in the United States, and in the 80s many major newspapers also incorporated astrology phone lines, which I did not know about, where readers would call for personalized readings. I sort of wish that still existed today. Could you imagine calling the New York Times for your personal horoscope for the day?
Speaker 1:And finally, jean Dixon gained notoriety when she predicted the assassination of JFK In the May 13, 1956 issue of Parade magazine. Dixon wrote that the 1960 election would go to a Democrat and that the election would be dominated by labor. She continued that the Democrat would either die in office or be assassinated, but not necessarily in his first term. The Jean Dixon effect is a term that came from John Allen Paulus at Temple University, who pointed out that Dixon and her followers seemed to only promote her accurate predictions and ignore her many, many false predictions. Dixon died of cardiac arrest in 1997, and before passing away she is said to have uttered the words I knew this would happen.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we talked about the history of astrology famous astrologers but let's take a moment to talk about modern belief. Modern personal astrology has expanded largely from just knowing your one zodiac sign right when I was a kid I think it was like, okay, you're a Taurus, I'm a Libra, whatever to complex birth charts with different planets, nodes and houses. And while this always existed, I think it's become much more common for the general person the general, you know, amateur astrologist to understand all of that. So you can visit many different free websites to get a birth chart by inputting your birth date, time and location. So think of a birth chart or a natal chart as really a snapshot of the sky the moment that you were born, for the location that you were born and I've heard recently that there's like about a five minute buffer. You know, things don't really change that dramatically in the course of five minutes, right? So it's really this map of the celestial above you the moment that you came into existence. Now, all that's well and good and scientific, right, but you have to then take the leap of believing that this arrangement of planets and stars has some sort of power or influence over you and your personality and your tendencies, which I think is a big leap and I'd have not necessarily taken it right, right? So there's sort of like two threads of astrology One is your personality and then the other is the events and things that are going to happen based on the planets right, and the movement of the planets during a period of time. So, for instance, when you're reading a horoscope, right, it could be like ah, saturn moves into the house of whatever you know, you're going to have a bad week in love. That kind of thing is really a reflection of the movement of the planets.
Speaker 1:One phrase you may have heard is Mercury in retrograde. So about three or four times a year, mercury appears to move backwards in the sky as the earth orbits the sun at a different speed. Many think that the time while mercury is in retrograde is especially fraught with disaster. Generally, believers think that it impacts communication, travel and technology. But it also, I think, has become in the last few years like just this phrase, like Mercury's in retrograde. You know, or is I'm having a really bad week? Is Mercury in retrograde? It's just kind of like thought of as this time, this universal time when things are horrible. You know whether it's little things, like stepping in a puddle, or like big, big life things. It's kind of like, well, mercury's in retrograde. But this is just one example of an astrological event that has some sort of belief or interpretation paired with it. Right, this is really what astrology is. Modern day astrology often combines the general zodiac with a framework of 12 houses, planetary placements and aspects. So again, that's really like a 401 class where I have very little understanding.
Speaker 1:I've had my birth chart done many times and it's very interesting to sit down with an astrologer and take it all in. I love doing it, but I think it's quite complicated to grasp because there's so much, it's so large and also there's so much science and kind of like astronomy involved in it. So of course there's websites that will do this for you now, but you still have to kind of like astronomy involved in it. So of course there's websites that will do this for you now, but you still have to kind of understand how, what all these different things mean. So I think, as a way to expand upon just being like I'm a Taurus, but to keep it a little bit more contained than doing a full birth chart, a phrase you might also hear is the big three of astrology, which refers to someone's sun, moon and ascendant or rising sign. So your general zodiac sign is actually your sun sign. So Taurus is my sun sign. So I just popped in my birth date time into cafeastrologycom, which is a free website where you can do that. So my sun sign is Taurus, my moon sign is Capricorn and my rising sign is Libra. Generally, the sun sign represents kind of who you are right, the very core of who you are. The moon sign, though, kind of governs your inner feelings and how you respond to your emotions, and then your rising sign is really how you present yourself to the world, right? So there's sort of like who you are generally, who you are on the inside and how your emotional center works and then how the world perceives you.
Speaker 1:There's also a really interesting societal shift when it comes to gender roles in astrology. I noticed when I was researching some of the most famous astrologers from history, so many of them were men, the vast majority right. Some doubled as mathematicians and scientists, physicians, geologists, musicians in some cases, depending on the era, or priests, right, special spiritual advisors to emperors and kings. So it's quite prestigious right In a lot of cases. But now generally astrology is thought of as a pseudoscience at best, and even though it's had this massive resurgence and just this increase in following during my lifetime and even starting right before my lifetime, I think it's still quite polarizing. It also certainly skews female and non-binary, I would say, and no kings or presidents would openly admit to using astrology to make any decisions and I'm certainly not saying they should, to be clear, but I'm just reflecting on the evolution of astrology, and though it's shifted quite significantly, it's still very much present.
Speaker 1:I really think of it now as something that comes up. Not that I'm on dating apps, of course, but my friends who are right where guys will have, people will have in their profiles you know, roll my eyes if you ask me my birth date, or you know my my, for my birth date and location to get my birth chart read to understand our compatibility. It has this kind of like. A lot of people have this chip on their shoulder.
Speaker 1:I think about astrology you're kind of like either in it or you're not, and I certainly dabble I I'm not sure that I'm a huge believer in it one way or the other, though I do think sometimes it's pretty fun. Again, the same way, I kind of think about the paranormal to believe that I live in a world where there's kind of deeper meaning and you know deeper powers that be, and hell yeah, I'd love to live in a world where the planets kind of rule everything. That sounds pretty fun, but I'm not certainly confident that that's the case. But I'm not certainly confident that that's the case. Either way, though, I think it's really fascinating to think about how astrology predates astronomy in a lot of cases, or at least came up alongside it, and as the scientific pieces of astronomy kind of took off, that became much more obviously is like a totally valid scientific language and skill set, which is true and correct. But it's just funny to think of a time when all that was different, right, and they were thought of as really similar. And then, through both the introduction of certain religions and the evolution of politics and, of course, the rise in science and the understanding of true science behind the natural world, it all has kind of shifted and fallen into different places. But I think it's kind of cool that it's still here, like people are still studying astrology and playing with astrology and using astrology and offering services, paid services, right to read your birth charts in a really big way, which is just I don't know really. It's really quite something.
Speaker 1:I think in a lot of cases the people around me at least, right and I know that's a very specific population, but the people around me, I would say, are much more into things like tarot and astrology than things like religion, and maybe we're in kind of another era right now of a deprioritization of religion, which has been the ruler for so long of so many different cultures and kind of this rise in the spiritual and people who maybe don't identify with religion or weren't brought up in a religion that they really connect to anymore found through astrology or tarot other ways to bring deeper meaning into their lives, right? Or other ways to kind of try to connect with the universe in a bigger way, and I feel like for me that's very much what it is right, or other ways to kind of try to connect with the universe in a bigger way, and I feel like for me, that's very much what it is right. Again, I don't necessarily believe in the divine power of tarot cards or any kind of cards or astrology, but I practice those things almost logically as a way to meditate or reflect on myself and as a way to try to find some sort of spirituality or connection or meditation to something more than myself, or to look outside of myself, and I think that's pretty ethereal. But I think a lot of people around me might feel similar to that. You know, at the end of the day, we're all looking for something more, something deeper.
Speaker 1:Anyway, that is my deep dive or pretty shallow dive, I would say, but deep dive into the history of astrology, hopefully in an accessible, high level way, because, again, there's so much here. You could have episodes and episodes on each of these cultures, right, and their interpretations of astrology and the stars and how that impact their day to day lives and the Mayans and the Aztecs and the ancient Chinese people, like it's just so much to get into. But you know, at Lunatics, we are here to offer high-level, digestible insights into these kind of big, sweeping topics. I think, if anything else, that I hope people who practice astrology and didn't know a lot of this, or people who don't, can kind of come away from this episode with an understanding for its historic impact. Right, it really has shaped a lot of culture and society over thousands of years, which is not something that's true of a lot of things that we talk about here.
Speaker 1:You know, tarot cards started in the 1500s. Astrology started thousands and thousands of years ago. There's a massive difference, even though those things are thought of, I think, pretty similarly today. There's a really rich history here which we've only scratched the surface of. As always, thank you all so much for listening. Stay spooky, stay safe and we will talk to you soon. Bye.
