What's Your Sign?

Looking up at the sun, moon and stars have been a marvel for millions of people. It all seems to be the unspoken eighth wonder in our world. They can give you a feeling of insignificance and purpose at the same time. For many people, the stars and sky hold the deepest secrets within our universe that we can only dream of fully understanding.

Astrology has been a constant fascination from the beginning of civilizations like Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Zoroastrians, Mithraism, and the Druids and Norse gods (Astrology and Religion: One World, One God, Many Names, Many Faces, n.d.). Considering the moon and sun bring tides to the earth, it seems reasonable. They hold a power science will never be able to replicate on such a large scale.

The moon and stars have shaped so much of the civilization we have today. Algeria, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey hold a crescent moon and star on their flags.

It’s understandable that people want the stars to guide them to their destiny. But who actually writes what is in the stars? Who decides what personality a person will be given? Could it really be from something as simple as a birthdate? I hope not!

I am a triplet. My sisters and I were born October 6. That’s right… you heard it. We were all born on the same day. We fall under the Libras zodiac sign.

In my teenage years, my friends and I worshiped our zodiac signs. If we had a potential new friend want to join our group, we had to ask the fundamental question... "what's your sign?" and then researched to see if they would be a good fit, although, we would eventually let them in regardless.

The zodiac sign told us everything we needed to know. If we would meet our boyfriend this month. If we would run into a large sum of money. It even told us what would happen in our occupation... which we shamelessly read, believing every word. Not that we even had a job. We took turns passing around the latest edition of the horoscope section of CosmoGirl and waited eagerly for the words to come true. It felt like a rite of passage.

One day a realization hit me: Are my sisters and I destined for the same thing just because we share a birthdate? Are we all three destined to have the same personality, career, and money prospects? Are we only the most compatible with an Aries or Sagittarius?

Even though we look identical, we are very different, from our personalities to our career aspirations and the guys we are attracted to. We each travel by the beat of our own drums. We always have. Which makes me extremely skeptical of things like the significance of a zodiac sign.

Fast forward to today, while our own personal decisions have influenced each other from time to time, we each have very different personalities and lead much different lives.

According to Asrology-zodiac-signs.com, “people born under the sign of Libra are peaceful, fair, and they hate being alone.” Reflecting on this information: my sisters and I are all peaceful, but we do not hate to be a lone. Being alone gives us a way to recharge after a busy day. While our personalities don’t align with the zodiac sign, it’s important to note, they don’t align in the same way. Would this be part of nurture vs nature? After all, we were all three raised the same way and by the same parents.

Is it possible that horoscopes simply list a few items in hope that there might be one or two coincidences or commonalities that the majority of people would inherently have? Really… who isn’t peaceful? And if, by chance, they aren’t peaceful… wouldn’t that require being around others?

Other parts of the zodiac might be focused on making a prediction for what is to come and creating a significant item or items to watch out for. For example, if my horoscope tells me I will run into a stranger wearing an orange shirt… wouldn’t I be on the lookout for this person? I see people wearing orange shirts all of the time. It’s usually something I never pay attention to. The horoscope highlights a common action that is likely to happen. Unless the person reading it lives outside of the city, the chances of this actually happening are pretty good.

While I am a skeptic of the significance of the zodiac signs, that's not to say it can't be meaningful to someone else. I believe it is up to us to find our own meaning in the world. Meaning can come in several different shapes and forms, and for some, it might be with the zodiacs. For me, I believe the sun, moon, and stars hold secrets and, in some ways, impact our day to day lives. However, there is a special kind of beauty in never getting to know all of the secrets in the universe. It leaves room for mystery. The stars will always shine brighter that way.

Sources:

https://www.astrology-zodiac-signs.com/zodiac-signs/libra/

http://www.factsbehindfaith.com/default.aspx?intContentID=33