Astrology is Not Personality

            It’s fun to think of astrology as personalities. The most reductive forms of astrology are the tastiest sugar all over our teeth.

            Personality prescriptions are many of those astrology memes, or when someone says, “You’re a Leo. You must be obsessed with romance (or yourself).”

            Despite that, astrology is useful to me because I do not see astrology as a personality prescription. Before I dive into what that means, I must recontextualize astrology for you.

            Pattern-seeking and meaning-making are our earliest creative technologies. They helped us identify what was poisonous and gave us the desire to look up at the sky, give it a name, and call the earth Mother.

            There are many examples, besides astrology, of thought or presence shaping reality. Quantum physics has the Observer Effect—an example from atomic physics in which particles change when they feel watched. We can rewire our neural pathways with positive affirmation practices. Collective fear and stress affect our health and our media arts, and vice versa.

            Documentation of astrology goes back to our earliest forms of civilization. We know that astrology is a simultaneous human conclusion, an idea that has appeared in almost all prominent cultures. Interpreting stars is almost as much a part of human history as the technology of agriculture.

            Astrology is humanity.

            Astrology is a guidebook of lessons.

            What do I mean by lessons?

            Trauma shows up in our genetics as compromised immune systems, mutated hormones, and reproductive conditions. Epigenetic plasticity means we are malleable to our personal and broader environments. From genealogy alone, we can trace dozens of potential lessons—from overcoming oppression to finding healthy romantic relationships.

            Astrology can help us identify those lessons so we can move from being inside the lesson—thereby unable to see it — to being outside the lesson, able to take control of ourselves, our lives, etc. Inside the lesson, we repeat it over and over without awareness. Outside the lesson, we see our pattern and can stop ourselves, ask for help, heal, etc. 

            For example, Aries are known to be impulsive, bold, loud, and aggressive. However, I have some Aries friends who are quiet, soft-spoken, and gentle. If you talk to them further, you’ll learn that their upbringing restricted them. They didn’t feel heard. Evolving has meant tapping into their inner fire and strength so they can learn to speak up for themselves. 

            I also have Aries friends who more accurately fit Aries’s typical patterns. They’ve done the work to slow themselves down, become better listeners, and learn to channel their expansive energy into what they love. 

            One sun sign, two different lessons. 

            Zoom out, and there’s an entire birth chart with aspects affecting one another, and then there’s the birth charts of the people who raised you, your siblings/companions/peers, and the astrology of your surrounding climate.

            I study Tropical astrology and Sidereal astrology/Vedic astrology.

            Tropical astrology is Western astrology based on ancient Western planetary alignments. They believed that the planets moved in circular orbits, which is inaccurate. Vedic astrology is an Eastern astrology based on an Eastern planetary alignment, which is elliptical and correct.  

            Sidereal Astrology will shift your astrological placements depending on your birthdate. For example, my Venus placement moves back from Scorpio (Tropical) to Libra (Vedic), the one before. 

            Venus rules love and relationships, so I can examine both Scorpio and Libra to get a fuller picture of my lessons in relationship dynamics. Scorpio and Libra do not tell me who I am; they give me insight into what I could be and, sometimes, where I have been. I compare their data patterns to my life experience to determine where I am in my journey and where I want to be. It can be useful to use language like “evolved” or “unevolved” traits, terms of change, instead of seeing astrology as fixed labels.

            I have struggled with falling in love intensely and sacrificing much of myself for the person I love. These are unevolved Scorpio Venus traits. I’ve become much more balanced, valuing spaciousness, which are Libra Venus traits that I see as more evolved. Then, I can combine those traits with my evolved Scorpio Venus traits, such as devotion, and loving a whole person, flaws and all.

            You can get extremely specific data. Recently, I learned that I have a “-41 Opposition between Jupiter-Lilith,” meaning “There can be disappointments in love until moderation is practiced,” (Café Astrology), which is an excellent summary of my romantic lesson.

            Every astrological sign has struggles and room for growth, as well as conversations, conflicts, and balances with one another.

            Astrology is just one tool that gives language to our internal and external processes. It is a tool that has grown alongside us for thousands of years.

            Astrology can reveal our patterns and remind us we are all stories of change.

Malachi Lily, also known as The Magick Artist, is Inglenook's Transformation Features Writer, with over a decade of experience in the art of divination.