Why I Believe in Astrology

Copyrighted by Lorna Tedder. Originally published in Third Degree of Separation.

While dropping  by  Books-A-Million  for  a  couple  of books on quantum physics and plasma waves (yes, a little light reading), I saw an interesting book on the remainder table.

A remainder table is the one most authors don’t want to see their books on because they’re not selling—and if they sell on the remainder table, marked down to $2 from $30, the author usually gets nothing. Such was the case with this book on astrology.

Do I believe in astrology? Yeah, moreso than I believe in Myers-Briggs or any of the dozens of personality tests they give us at work. Skeptics like to sneer at me for this and ask how I can be so intelligent and believe that far-off stars have any effect on me. That’s simple.

Everything in the Universe moves in patterns. The sun will come up tomorrow. Not because I say so, but because we have an  established, long-term pattern of the sun coming up every morning. Even if our sun goes supernova or something, there’s a pattern to that, too, and its demise would be part of a greater pattern that we’ve not yet witnessed.

The patterns of the Universe include the sun, moon, planets, stars, asteroids. Even the cycles of our own bodies have patterns—menstrual, aging, healing, sex drives, and so forth. It’s all an  intricate, elaborate, beautiful tapestry of patterns—that’s the fabric of our existence, the music of the spheres.

If certain influences are present in our lives and follow a certain pattern that we can interpret using the language of astrology, then why not? I’ve found horoscopes—the real ones, not the crap in the newspaper—to be far more accurate than any of the expensive personality tests I’ve been given in my career.

Looking too far ahead in the astrology forecasts doesn’t do me  any good because too much can happen between now and then, but it’s interesting to look at natal horoscopes to understand personalities better,  especially of the people I work with.

As for forecasts of the future, it’s always good to know what influences are in the patterns around me…will my energy levels be strong  while under deadline, will my creativity most likely flow when I need to finish a manuscript, will my focus be, um, focused.

So when I stumbled across this huge astrology book in the remainder bin, I just had to pick it up. It lists, year by year and sign by sign, the personality traits and the relationship characteristics of anyone you want to look up, provided you know his or her birthday. So, of course, I looked up a couple of men I know…whose birthdays I remember. Lest  that should sound stalkerish, once I hear a birthdate, I rarely forget  it…just the way my brain is wired, but it sometimes spooks people.

It’s meant as a fun moment, looking up personalities in this book, but there’s more of an a-ha feel to it. The first man to catch my eye after my  marriage broke up? Ah. The book says that silver-haired-but-youthful devil can’t stay faithful to save his life and no woman can ever measure up to his standards. Don’t even bother having a Coke with him at the food court during your lunch hour. Dead on. Okay, well, maybe not dead on in regard to the food court, but close enough.

The Treat? Ah, this explains a lot. He’s shy. I wouldn’t have thought it, given his energetic, talk-a-mile-a-minute, other- wise outgoing personality, but he’s…shy. I find that very sweet and endearing—and dead on.

The engineer my friends tried to fix me up with all through March and April? According to the book, not interested in a relationship but prefers it uncomplicated. That’s the way I would have preferred it with him, too, since I didn’t feel we had much in common but he was pretty to look at.  I  guess that wasn’t enough for me, and all I ever did was say maybe to him and later no. But again, dead on.

One cute young thing a friend tried repeatedly to get me to date is a hopeless romantic who always finds the positive in every situation and soothes the negatives in his life with spirituality. That’s dead on for what I learned about him on the couple of  occasions  we  shared  a  meal  with  mutual  friends.  I  also learned—from friends, not from the book—that  he  was still married, and that was that.

I can’t remember any other birthdays—probably never heard them—so I flip over to my own birthday. The book calls me  a  compassionate visionary and  a  rebellious romantic.  I  have  to chuckle when I read that strength of purpose is a turn-on for me… because it is. Never thought of it that way before. But when I read the part about needing a partner who is real, I’m hooting with laughter. How true that I’ll bolt over a hint of artificiality from either sex, and that a man who has many different interests to share is irresistible to me. Yeah. Dead on.

Fortunately, I wasn’t born two months later or, according to the book, the kind of guy who’d appeal to me would be a romance novel cover boy.