Walk On Podcast Episode 60 : Astrology

Astrology was one of the first sciences humans ever engaged in. It was seen as a fact that the celestial bodies around us had a profound effect on our life. Originally, it was used to predict weather patterns for agricultural purposes. The art form, the poetry, the story of the stars was considered a well-respected and highly useful science. So why has it been relegated to an after-thought, some pseudoscience nonsense on the last page of your favorite gossip rags?

I think this has everything to do with the colonizer mentality.

When I was in public school in Virginia, we were taught the propaganda of the American Dream. This is the white supremacist story of how we (““former”” Europeans lol) escaped religious and tax persecution and landed in America and then proceeded to “civilize the natives.” As if colonizing someone was doing them a favor. Literally, this is what I was taught in school. No real discussion of how the Indigenous people of these colonized places felt about it (other than a weird amount of focus on scalping????) or that Indigenous people still existed to this day. Pre-industrial Industrialization/Colonial Expansion, and this conquering-and-claiming-ownership way of being was portrayed as virtuous, as more logical—as more evolved—than living in harmony and having a spiritual connection with the land.

There’s this NPR program Offshore that (albeit imperfectly) portrays this centuries-old conflict. It’s about the fight between native Hawaiians and colonizer scientists who want to build a giant telescope on Mauana Kea, a sacred place to the Indigenous population. To them, it is the birthplace of the universe (their spiritual tradition knew about the Big Bang before science did, btw). It is the home of their Gods. It is a portal to the cosmos. And the spirit guides who inhabit that place have communicated that they do not want the scientists there. This is not enough for the scientists to stop. They see this spirituality as ridiculous—as not a good reason to not move ahead with their plans. They see themselves as smarter, more logical, more civilized. NPR tells a beautiful story, while still doing it’s usual both-sides-of-the-story-why-can’t-we-all-just-get-along bullshit. Nothing has changed.

Money beats rock, paper, and scissors.

Some things are better understood internally, I think. Emotionally, spiritually. Sometimes making the spiritual material does it a disservice. Some things will never be understood logically. I think the way we dogmatically engage with logic and reason has swung the pendulum so far, that we’ve rendered ourselves numb to the answers that call from within.

While trying to be mindful of disrespectful appropriation, because I understand that I come from colonizers, I make an effort to learn about, learn from, understand, respect, and love any and all Indigenous expressions of spirituality. There is something there that white people (and anyone too indoctrinated into our most successful method of colonization, Christianity) are missing. Our White Christianity is more rooted in political control and capitalism than any kind of self-actualization or growth or higher connection to what we call God. It discourages critical thought, a personal relationship with the divine, and calls anything actually spiritual or autonomous the work of the devil, including astrology.

So many are so quick to write off things they have barely taken the time to understand. Most serious astrologers are extremely academic. They publish papers, they present at conferences, they teach classes, they are scientists. They know more about their field of study than many astrology deniers know about anything.

At some point in human history, some Chaddeus decided that astrology was nonsense and every Chad he begot perpetuated his legacy. All I ask is that, before you call something factually false, you consider reforming your statement to “I actually don’t know enough about that to comment on it.” Or don’t, I really don’t care. I’m just saying you look like a close-minded asshole.

All of the people I know who are into astrology are self-aware, focused on healing, always-trying-to-better-themselves people. They use the tool of their birth chart to get to know themselves better, the state of the world better, our collective wounding as human beings better. They are working towards making the world a more loving, more compassionate, and more unified place. Why does that make skeptics so angry?

Astrology: sense maker of the great cosmic mess we're all a part of. So why is it considered silly woo-woo pseudoscience nonsense? Probably misogyny and a colonizer mindset. Need guidance, feel lost in life, want to get a better idea of what you came here to work on in this lifetime? Maybe do what your ancestors did... consult the stars. Listen here.