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How millennials and Gen Z turned astrology into a billion-dollar industry

More and more Millennials and Gen Z are heeding astrological advice to protect themselves from life’s stressors and uncertainties.

Harper's Bazaar India

Once a foreign language to many, the lexicon of the stars now permeates Slack channels and coffee breaks, peppers pithy Instagram captions and has sparked an entire category of meme culture. Terms such as birth chart, rising sign, and planetary transits are no longer relegated to the fringes of society; they’ve taken centre stage in our social media feeds, our friendships and, increasingly, the economy. The mystical services market, which includes astrology, mediumship, tarot, and palm readings, is estimated to be worth US$2.2 billion (approx ₹178 billion) globally, with an average growth of 0.5 per cent per year since 2017.

While the astrological cultural takeover is happening whether you believe in star signs or not, according to a report by trend forecasting agency WGSN, most of us do. Sixty-two per cent of Gen Z and 63 per cent of millennials say their zodiac sign accurately represents their personality traits, with many also leveraging astrology to help make life decisions—from dating to career direction and even finances, including property and investments.

So why has a concept that has been around for thousands of years taken over the zeitgeist again? Studies show that stress, uncertainty and compound collective trauma often leads to moments of self-discovery, and the past few years certainly tick those boxes. Emma Vidgen, an astrologer and author of the recently released book The Astrology of You: Unlocking Love, Creativity and Soul Purpose in Your Birth Chart, has seen this in practice and adds that astrology can give its followers a sense of control in chaotic times. “Learning to understand the natural rhythms of the universe and live life with an awareness of that flow makes you feel like you’re part of something bigger,” she says. “That is a beautiful thing to hold onto when we are living through difficult times.”

Co-Star, the app that launched in 2017, to give lay people the tools to explore astrology in the palm of their hand, has been downloaded more than 26 million times. An anonymous astrologist from Co-Star says technology provides an easy entry point into a complicated system previously only available to those who were willing to pay through the nose for it. Add in a few years of pandemic-induced isolation and a new-found desire to connect with each other on a deeper level, and there you have it.

“Astrology provides a jumping off point for going deeper with whoever is in front of you,” the astrologist explains. “It’s hard to talk about your feelings, it’s hard to ask people what they really think about you, hard to speak honestly about your worries or dreams about the future. Rather than chat about the weather or what you had for lunch, people who are into astrology make small talk about who we really are, how we relate to and see each other.

“(While) astrology has been around for thousands of years, complex, interpersonal astrology has historically been restricted to those with access to personal astrologers,” they continue.

“Tech allows us to give everyone the tools to compare and contrast themselves with other people, and have real, vulnerable conversations in a world where people feel more isolated than ever.”

Co-Star isn’t the only daily access point. No matter your preferred platform, there’s an astrology account for you. Since 2012, professional astrologer Chris Brennan has been putting out an episode of The Astrology Podcast, each week; and Astro-influencers such as Twitter’s Astro Poets (@poetastrologers; 710,000-plus followers), Instagram’s Chani Nicholas (@chaninicholas; 517,000 followers) and TikTok’s Zodiac Boyfriend (@zodiac.boyfriend; 2.6 million followers) produce daily astrological content for their legions of loyal fans.

Vidgen says that as astrology reaches peak saturation point, it’s important to recognise where spirituality leaves off and “woo-woo washing” begins. “Brands pay attention to what’s popular, and right now astrology is on trend,” she says. Haley Nahman, a Brooklyn-based writer and the author of the pop culture newsletter Maybe Baby, also considers this a red flag. “The mainstreaming of astrology seems, if not an ill portent, at least representative of a broader intellectual apathy,” she wrote recently. “Some might generously call it a deeper spiritual yearning. But I could also (less generously) call it a scammy, pseudo-existential branding exercise.”

“Even though woo-woo washing is alive and real, it’s not all bad,” Vidgen concedes. “If it means more people become open and interested in astrology, it’s only a good thing. The more we talk about it, the more it’s seen as a valid form of spirituality and expression. (But) it’s important to be critical and cautious of anything that is really fear mongering or total doom and gloom, especially on social media.” She’s referring specifically to Mercury retrograde, which is often considered to bring chaos to communication and technology. It’s a heavily meme-fied celestial moment, which has just ended a couple of days ago (January 18).

While astrology’s ability to predict the future or break our hard drives may be dismissed by the academic set, the calculations behind the concept are taken seriously. You could say Alexander Boxer is arguably a rationally minded man. He is a data scientist with a PhD in physics from MIT, a master’s in the history of science from Oxford University, and a bachelor’s degree in classical language from Yale. And yet, in his book, 2020’s A Scheme of Heaven, Boxer chose to uncover the links between astrology and the birth of modern science.

“The art of weaving a story out of numbers and figures, often to encourage a specific course of action, is used everywhere today, from financial forecasts to dieting advice to weather models,” he writes of what he refers to as “the ancient world’s most ambitiously applied mathematics problem”. Likening its “ability to generate a dizzying array of possibilities from a few simple rules” to games such as chess, Sudoku or poker, Boxer offers astrology can be consumed as a simple pastime or become a subject of mastery.

From daily readings to a mere dalliance with the stars, there are many places to fall on the spectrum of belief. But like all forms of spirituality, it’s a personal choice. “Astrology 101: we’re not in the business of trying to convert anyone because it’s not organised religion,” Vidgen says. “What might feel really enlightening and tender to one person will seem like utter rubbish to another. If you’re not into it, that’s totally fine.”

This article appears in the January 2023 issue of Harper’s BAZAAR Australia/New Zealand.

 

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