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When Astrology Memes Do More Harm Than Good

Okay, okay. I know. This is supposed to be Part Two of my series on Neptune in Pisces and the entertainment industry. But the story about Dave Chappelle got in the way of that yesterday. Today? Mars has been in Aries way too long once again and is beginning to square my natal Mars. Again. So I’m going to put on my Grumpy Old Man hat today. Hey, I do my best to control it, okay? If you don’t like it, you kids can get out of my yard.

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Astrology has grown increasingly popular in the last few years, especially with a group that demographers and opinion piece writers like to call “Millennials.” Personally, I think that’s great. Who wants astrology to die off as the old ones go, right?

Unfortunately this has brought a disturbing trend. I’m referring to the increasing popularity of astrology memes, and their cousin, the astrology TikTok video. Memes can be entertaining, no question. They can also be an easy way to dumb down a complicated subject, or spread actual disinformation.

(And before I get to cranky here, hats off to Astrolocherry and Maren Altman. You actually manage somehow to do good and informative work in these formats. As for the rest of you? Sit down, shut up, and listen.)

I’m getting a bit tired of seeing things like a picture of a train hitting a school bus, with the train labelled “Scorpio” and the bus labelled “a Gemini who talked too much” or something. Although this sort of thing can entertaining — and I have engaged in a bit of it myself — oversimplifying astrology does a disservice to both people with an interest in the subject, and astrology itself.

In the above example on the right that I posted, you’ll see exactly the sort of thing that gets my knickers in a knot. This sort of generalization is not only inaccurate, but seems be designed to either make people feel bad about their birth charts, or worse… give people a bad astrological excuse to blame their shortfalls on. Unless you clutter up your birth chart with a bunch of largely useless asteroids and TNOs, you are going to have empty houses in your birth chart. A lot of people are concerned about their empty houses. But for example, if your Second House is empty? No, that does not guarantee that you always be broke. Astrology, like life itself, is more complicated than that.

Of course, meme-based disinformation isn’t just mucking up astrology. Other areas are under attack from thought-cancelling memes too. Like, virology.

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In conclusion: bad astrology memes are bad.I’m having my Mars square. Both of these things are making me cranky. Now don’t ask me anymore questions until I finish my coffee, okay?