You know it by heart. You read it every week, and yet you’re not quite sure about it – it’s your horoscope! I (a Leo) am one of those whose guilty pleasure is reading her horoscope every week – I mean, who can resist those Monday morning horoscopes on Cosmo’s Snapchat story. Do I believe that ALL Leo’s are destined to make a life-altering decision this week? Nope. Yet, reading horoscopes is a part of my weekly ritual. I know its kind of weird to indulge in something I don’t believe in, but I can’t be the only one who does it! I can’t help but wonder, why it is that even though we don’t necessarily believe that our fate is written in the stars – we still make the effort to check?
I thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that we believe in them because they connect people – they being horoscopes. Horoscopes are essentially a web that unites strangers. They have the power to bring people together under the premise that we supposedly share a similar destiny, and similar characteristics all because our birthdays our relatively close together. Even if those characteristics don’t hold true, we would like to believe that each Leo or Taurus embodies the traits that make the star- sign notable. One of my best friends happens to be a Leo, and we can constantly be found comparing the personality traits Leo’s are “supposed” to posses. These traits aren’t usually true for the both of us, but they do give us a sense of self, and confidence and knowing that we hold a special set of characteristics that individuals who fall under other star-signs don’t. There is absolutely no fact behind this statement, and a Gemini may have an equal sense of pride as a Leo, horoscopes encourage us to practice qualities that are in our “nature” with a community of individuals who have the “same destiny”.
The ability to know one’s fate is something humans have desired for years. Our horoscopes act as an outlet for hope. We savor those five minutes of reading them, in which we believe that the events before our eyes will happen, satisfying our curiosity for a moment. We understand the invalidity that every person holds the same fate, but it allows us to escape into a hopeful mindset that this week will be life changing. I don’t personally believe that a couple of sentences predict how my life will be fulfilled but that doesn’t change the fact that I am a Leo. I am always a Leo, and whether or not I was born with courage and to be a leader, those are the qualities I take with me. My sign is not accurate in describing me as a person, but it serves as a small reminder of my connections to others, and the qualities I want to project.