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“Y’all accept and admit that the moon affects the tides of the whole ass ocean, but deny that the moon has any effect on humans even though we’re 70+% water?”

-Morgan Freemans official twitter

I did not grow up in a corner of the world that recognized any merits of astrology- even as a pseudoscience or mystical tradition. I grew up hearing ridicule of astrology and dismissal of anyone that used it as a guide. That’s a somewhat cultural thing in the American South at large. 

As I aged, I became interested in learning about all things possible and forming my own conclusions based on looking at all the information with an open mind, rather than blindly assuming that cultural biases are informed. I was especially interested in anything that was especially taboo or ridiculed. In the same way one becomes fascinated by banned books- I found myself wondering what was so threatening about some “errant” philosophy that it needs attacking. This was the beginning of my interest in astrology. 

My interest grew another leap when I began to encounter people that gave astrology as a system to gauge personality types and the cycles of human behavior more creedence than personality tests or global events/climate. Have you ever noticed that people tend to be chatty, silent, irritable, sad, happy… en masse? Sometimes there are events that seem to cause that, but sometimes there’s seemingly no event at all. People who teach elementary schools and prison keepers dread the full moon. Did you know that most people in the United States are born in August because they were conceived around the holidays? I never paid much attention to these patterns. I paid more attention to what to do with the problems before me rather than looking for any patterns at all. However, if there is any sort of probability knowledge that could be gained from those patterns, then theoretically one could live a more strategic existence. 

I have yet to able to say whether there’s any conclusive evidence that I’ve seen to be able to make a statement as strong as “Astrology can be used to understand the probabilities of personality types and human behavior,” but after a more in depth look at it, I certainly don’t dismiss it either. 

In a desire to understand and order then world, the ancients developed much of what we call astrology now. We often think of astrology as a new age pseudoscience, but civilizations as early as Sumeria, Ancient Egypt and China and the Aztecs and Mayans cataloged movements of the heavenly bodies, their effects and birthdates and began to correlate patterns. 

There is a whole host of data and theory to the Astrological traditions with which I am unfamiliar. The basic premise of astrology in all of them is “as above, so below:” the idea that the patterns and movements of the celestial bodies can in some way impact and be correlated with human traits and behaviors. As you might imagine, this theory is difficult to test and widely open to infinite interpretation. My people view astrology as a fortune cookie: anything vague enough can be considered true. There is certainly some of that in modern astrology and the horoscope. However, the beauty of it is that- like most mystical traditions- it’s magic is in a hint of the unknown and the unprovable. I’ve heard it theorized that people believe their horoscopes and find a way to make them true by finding some perspective of events that supports their horoscope. I’ve heard it theorized that inaccurate horoscopes were “misread” or “misinterpreted.” Who’s to say? Maybe acknowledging the chaos around us and that sense of our own uncertainty is right where we belong. Maybe.

The patterns that are hard for me to find coincidental personally are the basic personality descriptions provided by the 12 western astrological signs and the related theories. I’ve met a fair few people, and been very close with some of them . The people that I have been very close to provide the only real data set I’d be willing to pull from, and many of the personalities of those people almost laughably reinforce their signs. What they like, how they think, who they do and don’t tend to connect with all align with pretty reliable symmetry to their western astrological sign. This is anecdotal evidence, naturally. But as someone that didn’t come in primed to buy in, I find it interesting. And as many of those people don’t have any relationship to astrology at all, they rule out the possibility that they’re subconsciously informing their own behavior based on how they expect to be. I find that interesting as well. 

As with everything including the perceived implications of provable science, this and all things should be taken with a grain of salt. Test it for yourself. But it is wonderful to wander over the religious, spiritual and cultural traditions that have become buried under what we call modern astrology. 

This series from me digs into the roots of astrology- often pulling from the symbolism of multiple astrological traditions and cultural associations. Buried in these images are details from Sumerian, Greek, Chinese, Indian, and Egyptian cultures. And all of that interpreted through my imagination based on the people that I know that represent their signs so well. This series was a joy to make, and I hope is a joy to view. 

I will refrain from explaining my thoughts for each creative decision in the hope that, if this series piques your interest, you will research your own sign and the signs of your loved ones to find the meaning behind the hidden imagery in these illustrations.