My name is Rhiannon and I read my horoscope. Unlike an AA meeting, I'm not here to stop; I'm here to tell you why you should too.
Before you roll your eyes and condemn me a time-wasting day-dreamer, allow me to present three facts about myself:
-I do not believe that constellations & astrology can predict the future
-I do not consider myself particularly spiritual
-I am career-driven and ambitious
The last one is particularly important to take note of. I read my horoscope for the same reason people listen to friends, have life coaches and employ personal trainers at the gym: advice and direction.
Horoscopes (daily horoscopes being the most affective for this) generally focus on one or two areas of your life and offer advice or direction on how to improve it. Therefore, reading your horoscope from somewhere which suits the lifestyle you have, or the lifestyle you want to have is important if you want to get the most out of it.
For example, I want to go into fashion and lifestyle journalism. My horoscope comes from one of the Uk's top fashion magazine's websites, aimed at 20-30 something females with an interest in fashion, a creative mind and an ambitious perspective on careers and personal goals, ticking most of the generalised boxes in my personality.
One of my daily horoscopes from last week read like this:
"The Moon moves into your career zone today, Virgo. Over the next few days, make professional endeavours into your top priority, because you can make some serious progress. Seeds you plant now can bear fruit in a few weeks - don't hesitate to make it happen as soon as you can."
Let's break this down, taking out the 'fun' references to the moon and stars and getting down to the useful advice. The horoscope advises that the reader 'make professional endeavours into their top priority', gives the reason why - the possibility of great progress - and finally, a sign of encouragement, that 'seeds you plant now can bear fruit in a few weeks'.
If we consider a similar sentence and language structure in a gym with a personal trainer, it would probably sound something like this: "Today, we're going to work on sprints because it'll help to build your stamina for that marathon. You did really well last week so push for more today and you'll start to see the results quickly". This scenario is actually very reminiscent of a realistic conversation between trainer and athlete, no?
And, just as our athlete here has a particular goal, the marathon, we as individuals have goals- for life, for career, for love etc. Horoscopes are generic, there is no denying that. They must be relatable to the large group of people reading it. Whilst you can reduce the generalisation by getting your horoscope from the appropriate site or magazine, as discussed, it is up to you to fill in the blanks, and translate 'professional endeavours' into that metaphorical career-marathon you've been thinking about.
This 'translation' process involved in reading horoscopes is also a very interesting way to learn about ourselves and what we want. We will naturally read what we want to read out of a generalised horoscope and sometimes this can surprise us. If we don't think of something right away, it forces us to think, re-establish goals and perhaps re-collaborate that part of our life in our heads.
Reading your horoscope can be a bit of fun to procrastinate, but it can also be a great self-help tool. Retrain your mind, reschedule your life and achieve your goals. My name is Rhiannon and I read my horoscope, do you?