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| This blog is a Cancer. What are you? |
CONFESSION: Every year for Christmas I get an astrological calendar. One of those ones that tells you your horoscope for every single day of the year. I love it. Every time I get to the end of a pregnancy, I read it like a Bible searching for some hint that tomorrow will be the day I finally start to get my body back to myself.
But any hint I find is totally and incorrectly inferred on my part. Things like this tend to have very little truth behind them; how could they, being such a mass produced product for so many people?
But as of 2009, Americans were spending at least $200 million a year on astrological products including horoscopes, tarot cards, and personal readings. So someone must be doing something right. Right?
Think Claire in Lost. Remember how she went for a personal session with a psychic (is that the same as an astrologist? Just pretend it is for the sake of my example.) He was reading her palm or feeling her chi or something like that and was very concerned about her baby; so concerned that he put her on a flight he knew was going to crash so she couldn’t give up her baby for adoption.
(Sorry for the pseudo-spoilers, but if you haven’t seen it yet, I figure you really don’t want to.)
Astrologists can do things like that in real life, too. Maybe not quite as specific. It was a TV show. But there are some who can create an entire star chart for either a specific period or the entirety of your life/personality based on the time of day and location where you were born. I’ve always wanted to get something like that, but the real thing costs hundreds of dollars. And I just don’t know if I’m that eager.
I do believe, though. The problem is it’s hard to know what’s good to believe in a prescriptive manner. Descriptive context makes it easy to discern a real from a fake, but the whole point of readings and horoscopes is to be predictive, right? For instance, my friend has this really cool book that has you look up your general life’s horoscope based on your birthdate. Whoever wrote this book had skills. We looked up our own and that of our friends, laughing and blushing when the good and bad aspects of our personalities and tendencies were revealed with startling accuracy. But the only reason we know it’s good stuff is because our lives and personalities have already come a long way in taking their form.
How about financial horoscopes? Again, I wouldn’t make any major money decisions based on them, but they can be fun to check out. Here’s a link to all twelve of them for the current year. It includes career info with the finances. (Click on the pic below.)
How is yours looking so far? Incredibly accurate? Insanely off? Do you buy into the booming industry as a science or something silly that cons people out of their hard earned cash?
I used to be pretty skeptical about horoscopes, but they can be very accurate sometimes. Since I stopped subscribing to the newspaper I haven’t really checked my horoscope since. The ones that profile a specific birthday are definitely the most interesting since they seem to be so accurate.
I agree. The more specific they are to your date/time/location of birth the better they seem to be.
Call me a skeptic, but I only believe they’re accurate to the extent that they can influence your outlook on a situation – placebo effect, I guess. That said, the placebo effect can be pretty strong in medicine, so if you believe the good fortunes, maybe that will help you reach big heights!
I largely agree with you. Except for that book that my friend had….it was terribly accurate in an after the fact kind of way. The placebo effect can be so strong…I hope that people it works on don’t have a nasty fortune for the day!
I also agree. I think they heighten your awareness about your situation so you start to see where your actions are taking you. They give you something to focus on.
Astrology is a lot of fun. As long as you don’t get carried away with it, and can be cool and entertaining.
Great way to include a “Lost” reference. I totally loved that show until the last season. They didn’t do a very good job explaining anything…
THE FINALE WAS THE WORST THING EVER! So incredibly disappointing.
As far as the past and current predictions, mine has nothing at all to do with anything that’s happened in my life. Usually the horoscopes have a thing or two that could be plausible, but this one didn’t for me.
I don’t really buy into the astrology and psychic stuff, but it would be fun to give a psychic a try one of these days. It’s fun every once and a while to check out the horoscopes, but it’s only a few times a year that I do it. 🙂
I’m not really surprised. Mine’s not super accurate either so far. These things that are produced for the masses are usually no-good. I’d probably spend money on some type of individual reading sometime in my life, though.
I am also a Cancer (as is my wife), and when I read the generic descriptions of the sign, it always seems to describe both of us fairly well..
However, the day to day stuff always feels purely random.
Yay! You guys both share a sign with my blog! I hope she had a great time at FinCon, by the way. 🙂 I think you’re onto something there. If you’re describing a personality, it may be easier to nail it with generic wording than the specifics of what tons of people who happened to be born in the same month experience on a day to day basis.
I agree with Jefferson; the generic descriptions are usually pretty spot-on. I’m a Taurus and they always say we are a stubborn bunch. It’s true!
Mine are spot on, too! But then my daily horoscope rarely is.
I don’t really believe in that stuff….I never read it ;( It sounds like it could be entertaining and I have some friends that are super into it.
The generic stuff can be kind of disappointing. But if you get into the stuff tailor made it can be really interesting.
I sometimes believe in astrological signs. My career horoscope seems to be somewhat accurate though, not 100%.
Yay! We have one that’s kind of sort of on the money! (Pardon the pun.)
I have to admit, I kinda believethe astronomical signs…. so much in fact, it there are certain signs I would never have children under. I know that’s completely weird! But I also believe in creating your own destiny, as in positive thinking can lead to positive outcomes. But then again, I’m religious.
I’ve never put much thought into astronomy and planning conception, but it makes sense! I’m into the positive into positive, too. I’m not particularly religious, but do consider myself somewhat spiritual.
I just loved the shout-out to Lost. So classy…ah, miss that show! So many times I just wish someone could tell me where to go or what I should do next…
Maybe that’s the real underlying issue here….is that people want to trust someone to tell them what to do next. And they’re willing to pay tons of money to make that happen. Or at least society is as a whole.
I opened a fortune cookie while taking the three people who worked for me to lunch one day. It read, “When you point the finger, three point back at you!” I still wonder why three and not two or four? It was creepy cool. My employees got a good laugh at my expense, too….
Lol. I keep hearing that fortune cookies aren’t even Chinese. That they’re a completely American invention.
I’ve never been a huge believer of horoscopes and fortunes. I took a peek at the link and I could totally fit my current financial situation to mesh with the predictions that it made. It’s easy to spin them to fit any situation!
I’m more impressed with the people who write these things!
I like astrology just for the fun, but I know many intellectual friends who believe in it with every ounce of their faith. No wonder that it has become $200 million + industry now.
Oh I love that! I love astrology for fun and yes, would never make any big decisions on it- but if I have inspiration from it with my wallet: that would never hurt!
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