StarGazing: Is astrology the new religion for the digital age?

By Linnea Wingerup Illustrations by Stella Richman

The mug I clutch in my hands steams with English-Breakfast goodness as I set it down on the table where I plan to sip tea and check my phone for the first time that morning. Gently easing myself into a chair and as the soft light filters through the window, I pick up my phone only to be greeted with what can generously be described as a blunt notification: “You should probably go see a movie by yourself today.”

This message was not a friend attempting to give me a bit of brutally honest advice. Rather, but from Co-Star, an astrology app designed to bring you your daily horoscope. Just as someone would read the news or check in on loved ones, it’s become a habit of mine to check my horoscope every morning when I wake up.

Astrology has found its place in the younger generations. Television, websites, apps like Instagram have embraced the trend, allowing for astrology to be more accessible than ever to a much wider audience. The stress of our fast-paced, modern world has given young people a reason to look to the stars, and they’re doing so on their devices.

Modern-day astrology, as we know it in the West, began in 1930s England with an astrologer by the name of R.H. Naylow who rose to fame after a few vital predictions about the royal family at the time. He proclaimed that something unusual would occur around the time of Princess Margaret’s seventh birthday and that later she would grow up to have a “scorn of restraint.” Both turned out to be true. Her uncle’s abdication of the throne fell on her seventh birthday, and she caused quite a stir when she took an extended vacation to the Caribbean with a friend, therefore neglecting her royal duties.

The Sunday Express newspaper gave Naylor a regular column and he began providing more general predictions to the public according to the date on which they were born.

Flash-forward to the late 1960s and early ‘70s, a time of counterculture movements, hippies and general social upheaval. Linda Goodman’s best-selling astrology book Sun Signs began to take over the “Age of Aquarius” with force. Proclaiming that astrology could tell you everything about your personality, who you were best compatible with platonically and romantically and what paths were best to take in your future, Sun Signs proved a massive success that aligned with the dawn of New Age thinking. The book inspired other media, including television, radio and other books detailing how the key to making decisions was in the stars.

Astrology continued to reign in the ‘70s yet fell out of social prominence in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Although it remained present in books, television and radio programs, the cultural impact of astrology decreased. In a National Science Foundation survey from 1999, only 12 percent of Americans would check their horoscope daily, compared to a more recent study by the American Federation of Astrologers, which cites 23 percent.

When asked about how she first got into astrology, Emily King, a 19-year-old undergrad at AUP and proud Aries, mentioned that her sources remained mainly offline. “I used magazines for sure. I also had a little calendar in middle school that gave you your horoscope for the day.” Jessica Cruz, a 20-yearold AUP student, and Scorpio, recalls reading The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need by Joanne Martine Woolfolk and watching television segments by Walter Mercado, a Latino astrologist from Puerto Rico, with her grandma. “He would talk about each sign and also do horoscopes for the New Year,” she recounted. “He was such a crazy guy in my eyes, and I loved watching him talk, so when I got older and stopped watching his segments, I did my own research and became even more obsessed.” These kinds of experiences were only the beginning of a new awakening in the world of astrology.

This brings us to the most modern way to interact with, consume and learn about the practice today: the internet. In the early to mid-2000s, online communities congregating in internet chat rooms turned to astrology and mapped birth charts to analyze compatibility between signs and found out about their own characteristics.

I vividly remember mapping out my birth chart on CafeAstrology.com for the first time on my cousin’s fluffy carpeted flooring in her bedroom and being pestered with questions about my exact birth time and place, which would later determine my astrological fate. After a few boxes on the site were dutifully filled in, a chart of tiny symbols and attached meanings was conceived on the pastel pink and green background, forever wrapping me into the world of what it meant to be a sun Sagittarius with my moon in Virgo. Long, elaborate descriptions of the different facets of my personality came up, each seemingly more accurate than the next to my 13-yearold self. It was as though a world of explanations and answers had opened up.

CafeAstrology.com, a site dedicated to mapping birth charts and providing personalized knowledge about the stars, was founded in 2002 by a woman named Annie Heese. On the site, Heese whimsically describes its creation by saying, “Both the idea of creating this website and its name were conceived one sunny, breezy afternoon over cups of steaming coffee. The Sun was in Aries, which is generally considered a good time for starting anything new.”

The site, according to Cafe Astrology itself, belongs to “anyone interested in astrology, whether that interest is a casual or compelling one.” The site is just one of many that drove audiences of all ages to tap into the world of astrology through the convenience of a digital platform. Many young adults today can remember where their early introductions to astrology on the internet. For Lea Zipstein, a 20-year-old Laguna Beach native and Sagit- tarius, is no different. “Tumblr or anything I could find on Google,” she recalled.

As Zipstein experienced, communities formed and grew on the internet with the common goal of spreading and better understanding astrology. It was not necessarily that astrology was becoming more popular—it was the fact that it could now reach an enormous audience with ease.

Online journalism outlets quickly caught on to this digitization of astrology and worked in regular horoscope columnists for their readers. The New York Times notes, “seemingly every cool-girl online brand — including Lenny, Bustle, Broadly, Girlboss and The Cut — features its own astrology column.”

Astrologer Madame Clairvoyant, for instance, writes weekly horoscopes for fashion and culture online platform The Cut, with her stories garnering 150 percent more clicks and engagement in 2017 than 2016. Her ethereal writing style and the allure of astrology itself appeals to The Cut audience. Each astrologer columnist seamlessly adapts their voice to that of the publication, in order for the writing to be familiar to intended audiences. In a weekly Sagittarius horoscope published in March, for instance, Madame Clairvoyant predicts, “what you’re really doing when you connect with others is creating the conditions for magic, and this week, nothing else will work quite as well.” Meanwhile, at Man Repeller, a notably witty and whimsical fashion platform, Sarah Panlibuton Barnes writes, “If your appe tite is whetted for more scenic astrological fodder, read on for more specific and less vague metaphor-based guidance on how to best join the astrological tango that February has in store for us all,” in an introduction to her February horoscope.

The rise of the internet horoscope inspired a budding phase of astrology apps and social media. Astrology accounts have notably cropped up on Twitter, some like Astro Poets amassing just under 600k followers. Their updates include weekly horoscopes, which are obligated to follow the character limit of Twitter itself, as well as various astrology and star sign-specific memes. These memes have made their way onto dedicated Instagram accounts, also appealing to and amassing a large audience.

AUP undergrad and 22-year-old Libra Sophia Scalzo notes that astrology tends to show up in her everyday life. “I use Co-Star. I have my notifications on, so it sends me my horoscope every day,” she explained. “I also follow Libra and astrology meme accounts on Instagram.” While she doesn’t check them on a regular basis, she enjoys having them on her feed. This kind of integrated content naturally lends itself to immediate and everyday use, whether a user is actively searching out horoscopes and astrology or not. Apps allow for an immediacy in astrology, and the daily presence of horoscopes through notifications compels user interactivity, allowing for astrology to be worked into everyday life.

Founded by the self-proclaimed “very Scorpio” Banu Guler, Co-Star is the astrology app and topic of conversation throughout the digital world of astrology. With just under 500,000 monthly downloads, in an interview with Cosmopolitan Guler details the roots of the invention of the app and further explains where it fits in the context of the loud, attention-grabbing age of the internet. “Anxiety, loneliness, despair ... all of those things are on the up-and-up,” Banu notes, “and social media is accelerating all of that.” The app’s memorable and blunt daily notifications, like the one I received that morning months ago, draw the users back in and ground astrology in the quick-witted language of younger generations.

Each daily notification, however, is not created by humans, but by an algorithm. On the Co-Star website, a statement reads: “Our powerful natural-language engine uses NASA data, coupled with the methods of professional astrologers, to algorithmically generate insights about your personality and your future.” A fusion of technology and a very much human-created phenomenon of astrology is thus married in a single app.

Banu further notes that the app is created in the presence of a “meme culture, and the idea of creating your own knowledge base and democratizing astrology is something that the internet created in a lot of ways.” Its clean-cut black and white aesthetic simplifies the app’s use and brings in a distinct element of calm and centeredness. Co-Star and astrology itself are there for users “not to predict the future” but rather “to explain and create the present.”

But why are younger generations so inclined to follow these astrology accounts on their various social media feeds anyway? What kind of answers do they provide, and what purpose do they serve in this digital age, backed by science and ever-evolving technologies? “Maybe young people are turning away from religion, and woo woo spirituality is filling the gap. Or maybe the unpredictable results of the last election have encouraged us to throw out traditional scientific methods and look to the stars,” notes Amanda Hess for The New York Times. Young generations, much like teenagers of the ‘60s and ‘70s that came before them, are looking for direction, wherever they may find it, and astrology is there to provide just enough of a whimsical guide.

Katie Taylor, a 20-year old AUP undergrad and Capricorn, states that astrology can help with this indecisiveness and uncertainty of the modern age. “I definitely think nowadays there’s a lot of displacement in where younger generations find faith and find a sense of relating themselves to this cold, dark, universe.” She laughed and went on to note that “the idea of astrology helps you, sort of, find meaning in something where there’s no meaning.”

According to TIME, younger generations are facing more stress, anxiety and depression than their older counterparts. “Gun violence seemed to be a particularly large source of stress for the school-aged generation, with 75 percent of those in Gen Z calling mass shootings a significant source of stress,” as well as issues of sexual assault, suicide rates and family separations. In each category of stress, Gen Z was reported to be about 10 percent more stressed than older generations.

The general sentiments toward astrology of many young people, however, remain curious and upbeat, an energy akin to the trend-focused, fast-paced content-driven attitude that circulates in digital culture. “I think astrology is really fun even if you don’t believe in it,” notes Scalzo. “It’s become a way for people to bond over similar sign traits or a mutual dislike over a different sign.” Zipstein adds that astrology exists to be “just that: a way of inspecting the natural patterns of life and assuaging some anxiety.”

The act of stargazing and looking to the cosmos for meaning may be an ancient practice, but there is a distinctly human need for direction and guidance in this crazy-loud world we have created. As Zipstein says, “almost everything in our lives is cyclical and interconnected. And I think now that more than ever, we’re immersed in a digital world— it’s nice to be reminded once in a while to look at the moon.” Young people continue to look to websites like CafeAstrology.com or apps like Co-Star, as they can easily find solace and comfort in the information that is both in and beyond their control. Sometimes, all it takes is for someone else to tell you that you’re going to be just fine for you to actually believe it.

I cannot say that I genuinely believe in the notion that the stars and movement of the planets dictate my personality, actions and everyday occurrences. However, I can say with absolute faith that something does not have to be real to be helpful. If my horoscope is telling me that I need to look out for others today and be kind to myself in times of turbulence and difficulty, then who am I to reject the advice on the basis that it doesn’t come from anywhere scientifically backed?