Astrology: An Unlikely Coping Mechanism

I was never a big believer in astrology until I hit my thirties. Turning a new decade made me reassess everything with fresh eyes and I was looking for some guidance. Was I going in the right direction? Or, the big one: was I just waiting for life to happen to me, as opposed to making the life I wanted for myself?

Growing up, I was one of those “it’ll just happen” women. Ever the eternal optimist, I presumed life in all its glory would just ‘happen’ for me, paying little mind to the concept of actually working to make life happen, or thinking about fate and how that ultimately has an overriding consequence on any choice we make.

It took me longer than I’d care to admit that you can’t just leave everything to fate – I watched too many movies as a teen (and still do as an adult), leaving my perception of life always slightly rose-tinted – it was hard work and effort that would make life happen, not my daydreaming. But I still wanted a sign that I was heading the right way. And that led me to astrology.

Starting out, it wasn’t even whether there was any meaning in the words. It was more that, the fact of astrology's existence - the fact that there might be even a small blueprint - implied that life was not random – fate coming back around once again.

I remember the first time I had my cards read. I went in with an open mind, with no specifics, and was told that “everything would happen, but don’t be afraid to give fate a nudge.” Looking back, that seems entirely accurate advice but back then I focused on other details, the three children she said I’d have, with one needing special care (that part I always remember). But years later and currently single, I feel I’ll have to hurry up to have all three or, perhaps, she was thinking of my life then, and not as it is now.

People change, circumstances change and your life course along with it.

Back then, I lapped it all up; I read every tarot reading under the sun. However, what I also remember is the friend who accompanied me asking specific questions around getting married, meeting a partner etc (what they advise not to do, as it happens) – and all the tarot reader had said actually happened. Even though I felt I’d done the right thing and asked nothing, I remember feeling hard done by.

I began to realise that using ‘fate’ as my excuse for putting things off as I once tried to, could be dangerous for someone like me. I loved losing touch with reality, convinced that my daydreams would will a certain life into being, leaving me to forget about the harder parts: fear, rejection, change – all of which you must go through for anything tangible to come to fruition.

I needed to give the tarot universe a break.

Then, a couple of years later, I was in the office when coincidently Heyday founder Ellie Balfe mentioned Susan Miller to me. Known as an elite astrologer, her website, AstrologyZone, attracts millions of visitors per month with free horoscopes and some daily readings which you can pay for (naturally, I do).

It’s her readings that have changed my whole perception of astrology. She always gets things eerily close to the nose; she’s never far off yet her predictions are always based in reality. Her readings said I’d change jobs, only to quit the new job a year later (I did), said that 2020 would force me to pause (it has, but for other reasons which are non-Covid related) and this month, it said that I’d run into money issues, which, you guessed it, are still ongoing.

Whether everything comes true or not is beside the point (there’s always a chance some of it is, and can be coincidental); she is the first astrologer I’ve read who doesn’t take the sun, moon and star shifts as fate doing its job, leaving you to sit back and await the results. I remember one reading to the effect of, “sitting around and waiting is only letting your life go by – get out there and try. “

She doesn’t let the readings do all the work – if they are to have any significance, you must work also.

It’s a comfort, these guiding words, for only the reminder that we are not doing this thing we call life alone. Some say believing in a higher cosmic power is essentially an expression of faith, but at its simplest, it is reassurance. To be closer to the transcendent, to something bigger than ourselves.

In fact, there’s evidence that astrology is good for us: a review of more than 3,300 recent scientific studies into the relationship between religion/ spirituality and mental health found that, on average, people who had some kind of faith were less likely to be depressed, reported higher self-esteem, were generally less anxious and less prone to suffer from problems with addiction.

Take it with a pinch of salt or none at all, astrology can give meaning and help make some sense out of difficult life circumstances.

In 2020, I think we all need that more than ever.

Jennifer McShane, August 2020.

Are you an astrology fan? Tell us in the comments box below…