What I Learned When I Started Embracing Astrology
You guys do know that stuff is all fake, right?” There always has to be that one person to kill the fun, and for the longest time, whenever it came to astrology, it was me. Whenever I heard friends talking about the difference between a rising and moon sign or saw an astrology-related meme online, my inner skeptic would come out in full force. But in the past year or so, I’ve tried to embrace astrology — Here’s a little bit about that journey.
The truth is, even though I may not always show it, I have always felt connected to my zodiac (sun, to be specific) sign. I’m an Aries, which is the first sign in the zodiac. According to Co-Star: “At their core, Aries do what they want and do things their way. They are unafraid of conflict, highly competitive, honest and direct…They throw themselves at the world eagerly and without fear.”
“Aries are driven by a desire to prove themselves and their strength. They naturally take charge and are competitive and ambitious. Aries are spontaneous and courageous. They have a sense of adventure and love to explore.”
This description closely resonates with me — I’ve always felt a passionate spirit inside of me, a version of myself that radiates confidence and is always working to carve out her own path in the world. I often feel internal forces dulling that magical Aries energy: I’ve always been on the shy side, and a good dose of imposter syndrome certainly doesn’t help my case.
Last year was the first year I ever “celebrated” #ariesszn (March 21 – April 19, szn standing for “season”). With school and seemingly the whole civilization shut down, why not, I thought? Why not, just for a minute, in the comfort of my quarantine bubble, suspend the disbelief I had about astrology, and learn to enjoy it?
They say you should “fake it til’ you make it,” and I guess that’s what I did. Reading tweets and memes commemorating the bold, brash personality of the ram, I thought that maybe I could embody those alluring Aries traits as well, or at least pretend to. “I am an Aries,” I told myself. I started to work on some projects during that month that I had long been putting off, and I began to discover that inner strength and drive that I knew I had in me somewhere.
Time flew by, and one year later, it was Aries season again. This year, I experienced even more growth and pushed myself even further, but in a different sort of way. 2021 challenged my expectations of what it meant to be connected to my zodiac sign. Coming into the days before March 19th this year, I had convinced myself that some supernatural wave of self-confidence, power, and inspiration would wash over me. I thought that somehow, the stars would align just perfectly to take away all the stress, introversion, and everything else that was holding me back. In fact, it seemed that the opposite happened. I’m not sure if it was burnout from school or Covid fatigue or what, but I can remember that this March and April were particularly stressful.
In previous years, this cosmic change-of-plans might have led me to take off my rose-colored glasses and give up on all hopes of having an Aries-season character “glow up,” but this year, I decided to push through it. I realized that developing my inner confidence and power is not something that is going to happen easily, but something I have to work at, even on the days (or weeks) when I feel drained, anxious, stressed, sad, or afraid. While the phrase “everything happens for a reason” usually goes in my nonsense-clichés-to-roll-my-eyes-at pile, in this case maybe I’ll believe that the Murphy’s Law case-in-point that the universe threw at me had a purpose: to make me stronger and realize that I can come out of difficult situations feeling confident and strong.
I definitely think that my astrology journey has only just begun. I’m still learning all the nuances of houses and planets, and not to mention how my moon sign (Leo) and rising sign (Scorpio) also affect my character! Surprisingly, the more I learn about my astrological chart, the more I think it seems to fit my personality, even if there is some confirmation bias in there.
My chart can figure out what qualities are hidden within me and what I need to do to uncover and unleash them. Even traditionally negative qualities can be looked at and utilized in a positive way. For example, one negative quality of Aries is impulsiveness. But as someone who often overthinks decisions and is paralyzed by the question “What if this goes wrong?”, I think a bit of impulsiveness could actually be good for me.
I’m also learning to have greater trust in the world. I’m learning that optimism has its benefits over skepticism and cynicism and that learning of new ways to think of the world or my personality, even if they require some suspension of disbelief, can be beneficial as long as I take them with a grain of salt. I don’t have to 100% fully believe in or even understand something to learn from it, I can do that just by engaging critically and creatively with it. I can use astrology as one tool out of many to better understand myself and the complexities of the world, something to inspire and energize me.
In the meantime, I’ll see you in 2022, #ariesszn. I can’t wait to see what the universe has in store.