Five Life-Changing Insights from Astrology

An essay for the skeptics and the curious.

A few years ago, after my first few psychedelic-induced mystical experiences, I was sitting across from my then-therapist, terrified. My rational and materialistic understanding of the world had been shattered within a mere couple of months. I had seen and experienced things I had no framework for understanding. And my body was doing weird things I didn’t feel in control of.

However, in the middle of this existential maelstrom, my greatest fear wasn’t that I was losing my mind or that I couldn’t really function in my 9 to 5 anymore (both were sort of happening). Nope–my greatest fear was that I would become a hippie.

There were many things that repelled me about that what I imagined to be the hippie lifestyle: mainly the laissez-faire-love-and-light attitude, the fact that someone always seemed to have a drum or didgeridoo on them (how?!), their reliance on woo-woo practices like tarot or astrology instead of cold-hard, rational thinking… Plus, I had higher sartorial expectations for myself. That hippie business (or, better said, lack of busyness) was definitely not for me.

If I now stumbled across a time machine, that therapy session would be my first stop. I would bust the door open, like I’m in a poorly scripted Hollywood movie, and walk in with my shamanic drum, astrology books, tarot decks, and herbal concoctions. I would laugh (oh, how I’d laugh), but I would also give that younger me a big, reassuring hug. And I’d kindly tell her she has no clue what she’s talking about.

My road to astrology has been a long one. Five years ago, I would’ve never guessed that I would ever end up studying this matter with such scholarly gusto. But here I am, halfway through my foundation diploma, six or so textbooks in, sharing some of the most insightful ideas that made me take humanity’s first model of psychology so, so seriously.

Keep reading to discover how astrology can help you understand who you really are, why you have issues with your parents, how to apply an evolutionary perspective to your life, why polytheism can be therapeutic, and how self-understanding comes in different flavours.