Why do we identify so easily with our star sign?

In popular culture, astrology has its share of clichés and many people think it is intentionally vague to make it easier to identify with what is written. This is called the Barnum effect. But is that nonsense? Here are some answers to your questions …

After demystifying astrology and abolishing clichés in this article, we return in this column to the comments and questions that come up most often when we say the word "astrology"!

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Video by Sarah polak

“With the Barnum Effect, anyone can care about any star sign. "

To sum up the Barnum effect: if you are described as " a very daring person, but also very shy", You'll think of all the times you've been daring and shy, and might say to yourself," Amazing, but that's all me! " In short, your brain will try to “fit” you into this analysis and find common points. The Barnum effect does exist, and certainly occurs when you analyze someone's birth chart. This does not mean that the exchange is irrelevant, however.

" Bold but shy at times": Indeed, such a diagnosis is not necessarily of much interest … However, appealing to the astrological symbolic grid in all its richness contributes to create a personal story. It is an exercise to which we all lend ourselves: "I started from nothing and I succeeded thanks to my work", or "in love with the region of my childhood, i carry on the traditions", or "I understood that professional success did not make me happy, I slowed down to reconnect with my loved ones", or maybe "revolutionary, I try to innovate and break the codes with my creation»… We all try to put into words our motivations, our desires, our needs. Astrology offers an additional tool to tell your story.

Here are very brief examples if we analyze two behaviors at work. A person who attacks his professional life like a boxing match to be won at all costs, even if it means playing it a little personal and being criticized for lack of solidarity at work, and who would flourish much better on his own than within of a team, would rather offer a Marsian / Aries archetype in their professional career, with the advantages (personal success, show of force that boosts the ego) and the problems that ensue (bellicose spirit causing endless wars, difficulty think team, shots taken during the match). Or imagine a person who would seek a second family at work, and would find great satisfaction in taking care of others like a caring parent … This lunar / Cancer archetype refers us rather to a keeper of the home, with its advantages. (emotional richness, ability to establish emotional benchmarks) and its drawbacks (mistrust of intruders, lack of personal ambition). Are you committed to protecting, fighting, creating, innovating, perpetuating? Are you drawn to the detail or the big picture, the concrete execution of a task or the conceptualization of big ideas? Each has their own story, each their own story, each their own way of telling!

See as well : You actually have 3 star signs, here's why!

“To separate people into 12 signs of the Zodiac is very simplistic. "

It's quite fair. Fortunately, a person's astral chart brings a lot of nuance by offering a combination among thousands possible (12 signs, 12 houses, a dozen stars, 12 structures to be superimposed: the calculation is dizzying!). This combination constitutes a specific dramaturgy each time. Life also proves to us that we are nuanced beings: we do not always react in the same way depending on whether our interlocutor is part of our close circle or of our professional circle, for example.

Depending on whether the issue is an ego issue, an emotional issue, a creative issue, a concrete issue, we will not always react in the same way. The astral chart illustrates this: one can for example be a structured pillar at work and an explorer or an adventurer in his sentimental life, or vice versa, or even bring an even different energy within the family or associative framework, for example.

See as well : My birth chart, how does it work?

“All astrologers are charlatans. "

Alas, as in all fields, there are malicious people. Better to be wary of those who promise exact predictions, claim that it is a scientifically proven practice, ask to call a premium rate number, make sexist or racist remarks, use the distress of their customers for their purposes. reschedule an appointment. There are all kinds of astrologers: it is essential to learn upstream about the ethics of the person whose work you read or with whom you make an appointment.

If many astrologers offer content accessible to everyone online through social networks, podcast, video broadcasters, some services are indeed paid. When practiced intelligently, astrology requires (like any activity) a real work: after having ingested knowledge for years and having sorted it out, it is a question of thinking, writing, producing stories from horoscopes, and keep getting informed. It takes time and energy, and it is real work. It is therefore normal that some astrologers are paid for their publications or analyzes.

See as well : What can we expect in 2021? An astrologer answers us

"Astrology is the new trendy thing picked up by a lot of brands …"

In recent years, in fact, big business has grabbed the codes of esotericism, obviously finding that it was successful. The figure of the witch is back in fashion: surely thanks to the feminist movements which have once again highlighted this archetype of free and persecuted woman, because considered as dangerous, and also perhaps because for 15 years, the fantastic has profoundly branded adolescents and young adults with franchises such asCharmed, Buffy, Harry Potter, Sabrina, Hocus Pocus… Astrology is not a magical practice, but its codes are found in esotericism. Blaming the practice itself seems absurd, just as it's not feminism's fault that fast-fashion companies use the concept to sell products made under conditions that are anything but constructive for women's rights. .

The history of astrology says a lot about the different eras: considered as a science and practiced exclusively by men for millennia, then as obscurantism in the Age of Enlightenment, finally relegated to the rank of "gossip for good women" at the time of industrialization, picking up the hair of the beast by the New Age in the 70s, then at the end of the 2010s at the time of social networks … To speak of it as a "new trend" is therefore not entirely correct. On the other hand, our society being very different from those of the past, it is interesting to ask who, why and how it interests again.

For further…

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