A few years ago, I did a month-long meme in which each days post was centered around a letter of the alphabet, and each letter was handled sequentially. I don’t know if the original meme-host is still hosting it, but I like having a theme to work with, however loosely structured it may be, and since Sky has asked me to share my thoughts on Astrology, I thought I might just do the whole alphabet, while I’m at it.

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Your Horoscope For Today

It would be easy to begin this with something easy like, “I am Leo, hear me roar,” but the truth is that most of the time I don’t feel very Leo-ish. I’m horribly awkward in large groups, inhibited until I really warm up to people, and generally disinterested in 98% of the population of the world. (The remaining 2%, however, which is made up by the folks who are competent, talented, intelligent, funny, etc., fascinate me to no end. If you’re reading this, or if I read your stuff/hang out with you/interact with you at all, you’re in that 2%, and I probably have completely inappropriate fan-girlish feelings about some aspect of what you do or who you are.) So, apparently, I’m a Leo who had her self-esteem reserves removed at birth.

Anyway, while I have a very vague understanding of the signs of the zodiac and how they apply to personalities, and while I recognize terms like ‘rising sign’ when they are tossed about, I don’t really have true comprehension of what it all means and how it applies, and, as with many spiritual things, I’m extremely skeptical, and I just don’t like the notion that any external force guides or controls what we as individuals do with our lives. (I feel the same way about organized religion, actually, and the truth is that I embraced (semi) regular church-going more for the sense of community than for any burning desire to get closer to someone else’s concept of God. Well, also, I like the music, and singing in the choir is fun. Ecept for the robes. So not loving the robes. But I digress.)

It may not be entirely fair to lump Astrology in with organized religion, and in truth, I don’t dismiss any of it out of hand. I’ll confess that when it comes to such things, I tend to pick and choose the bits that are relevant to me, and pretty much ignore the rest. Do I read my horoscope? Once in a while, sure, but more for entertainment than for actual information. (I gravitate to Free Will Astrology as much because it’s snarky than for any other reason.) Do I blame Mercury being in retrograde when I have a sucky day? No. Because I don’t think Mercury is responsible for what I do. And I’m far more influenced by the weather report than by any particular alignment of planetary bodies. (And come on, horoscopes are vague on purpose. Anyone can interpret them in any way possible. As with any prophecy, at some point it’s all self-fulfilling.)

Do I think my friends who DO believe – truly believe – in all this, are stupid or naive, or wrong? Never. But I think it’s their belief that makes it so. Religion, after all, isn’t about fact, it’s about faith. It doesn’t matter if the religion involves praying at an altar or calculating the paths of stars in the sky. And deep down, or maybe not so deep, a part of me envies their ability to just trust, accept, and get something out of it. It’s just that my mind doesn’t work that way. I’m not wired for it.

Sky, this doesn’t mean that I don’t want to hear your thoughts, or interpretations, and it doesn’t mean that I disbelieve everything. It just means I’m skeptical. I love hearing your thoughts and ideas, because even when I don’t entirely agree with them, they make me think about things in a new way. And a change of perspective is NEVER a bad thing.