Coping With the Very Real Experience of Being a Human on Earth and Human Fallibility

It seemed so good when you read your horoscope prediction. You waited, you hoped, you did everything you thought you should do, and then….nothing, or worse: it blew up in your face. And now you’re angry. Surely, this should have been predicted, right? Someone should have warned you! Your horoscope was WRONG!

But maybe not. Maybe life isn’t a rose garden, maybe you are supposed to experience all the beautiful and horrible things in life, and there is no avoiding them, not even heartbreak or disappointment. Sagittarius is so unused to actual disappoint that you really have no idea what to do when it actually happens, the way a penguin has no idea what to do in a heat wave.

Please understand: the problem for the astrologer is that we have to tell someone about a person they’re not yet. We are all fated to some things, and we are all likely to choose one path over another, but with each successive day that we survive, we grow and change a little more. But we’re not the person we will be in the future.

The problem for the person receiving the reading is that they’re hoping for the best and experiencing a subjective reality. Just look back on who you were when you were sixteen years old. You’re not that person, right? Now, think about who you thought you would be by now. Chances are, you’re not that person either. You didn’t grow tall enough to be a runway model, or you found out that no one makes a living as an avant-garde poet without waiting tables on the side. Or maybe better things happened to you, like falling in love or having children, and that changed your dreams completely.

Imagine you’re an astrologer, and a young person comes to a reading and asks you, “Will I be famous?” but has a chart that shows no particular talent or reason for the world to pay attention to them. The desire shows up in the chart. You can tell them with confidence that they will always want to be well known. But will they become famous? If it were me, and I were asked the same question from the same person twenty years ago, I would have to say no. However, currently, all the famewhore needs is the desire and the shamelessness, so yes, I could tell them that they may become famous after all. I may tell them that, even though I secretly hope they go for the more meaningful, lasting things I also saw in the chart but didn’t talk about because they didn’t want to talk about them.

An entire chart must be taken into account, but you may not get to it in a reading. If someone wants to know about love, they don’t want to hear about their health or money. If someone wants to know about their vocation, they don’t want to hear about how meeting their future spouse could change their career trajectory. One could study the same chart for weeks, months, and years, and continuously learn new things about that chart. Usually, an astrologer will either cover all the basics, or a particular question, because otherwise, there is too much to say. There’s too much potential for one reading. With time, an astrologer can intuitively pick up what a client needs to hear. A client’s Sun sign shows what they want the most out of this life, so all things eventually point to what the sun wants. Sagittarius wants freedom, for example. The moon sign shows how the client needs to hear the truth, and the Mercury sign shows the language they want the astrologer to use.

But even with experience, the fact is that not everyone listens to everything they hear. This is not exclusive to astrology. I have had quite a few experiences where I’ve told someone something point-blank, only to have it misconstrued or argued over. Of course, years later, I may hear that I was right. Some people think that by arguing with the astrologer, the universe changes. This why I hate the phrase “the customer is always right.” If you think this means something, try arguing it in court and see where that gets you. If you actually win [I’m sure you won’t. Trust me on this one.], go outside, shout it to the night sky, and wait for it to apologize and rearrange your life and erase all your previous choices for you. You may be the astrologer’s client, but the universe owes you nothing.

And yes, an astrologer could be wrong. A Western astrologer worth their salt isn’t going to honestly tell you anything will happen with 100% certainty. They could read something incorrectly, or miss something else entirely. They may put too much emphasis on one thing and not enough on the other. Or, you may simply miss an opportunity. You may come to a crossroads and choose to do the same thing you always did. You can’t find new love if you refuse to meet new people. You can’t find a new job if you don’t go out and apply for one. You can’t be healthy and strong if you live on a steady diet of buffalo wings and orange soda.

Your astrological chart is not a map. It’s a blueprint. This is not the way to the end. It’s the life that you build with the materials you are born with and the ones you pick up along the way. When you expect something to happen and it doesn’t, or it doesn’t happen the way you thought it would, even though you were sure your reading said otherwise, it doesn’t mean that the blueprint is wrong. Someone could read it incorrectly. Or, you could have used the wrong materials or fallen asleep on the job. It happens.

But all is not lost. One of the things about being alive is that whatever you don’t experience and learn will come around again. You rarely lose your one and only chance to do something unless you close yourself off to it. So maybe the stars said that the time was right to meet Prince or Princess Charming, but they turned out to be a frog. The good news is that now you know what a frog looks likes. Dust yourself off and try again.