astrology, enneagram, and understanding who we are

for the past few years, millennials have been desperate to cling to something that made anything make sense. the world seemed to be crumbling around us, mostly thanks to our {now former} presidential administration, and we were desperate to cling to whatever we could control. as it turned out, the only thing we could control was ourselves.

so we dug in, trying to understand ourselves and each other via birth charts and enneagram numbers and anything else that could make sense of the world around us.

I was certainly not immune. I’ve learned so much about myself in the past couple of years - my moon in sagittarius, my aquarius rising, and my enneagram 4 self make so much more sense now. studying the planets allows me to understand that who I am is just who I am. I have a lot of feelings, I like to be alone, and I’m always going to be the weird one.

but that’s not to say that it’s acceptable to use these systems as excuses for bad behavior. it seems that modern astrology can oversimplify the bad qualities of our charts, allowing us to be like “sorry, I’m a gemini.”

I’ve learned that astrology is about so much more than your personality. learning the patterns of the planets can show you when you’ll have career changes, relationship changes, new living situations - it’s truly a map of your life.

I’m not really a person that can just get half-into a new hobby - I’m more of an all-or-nothing kinda lady. so when I figured out that I’m not just a capricorn, it seemed like a whole new world opened up. I dove all the way in, asking everyone I know for their birth time, making my closest friends download co-star and sanctuary and follow all of the enneagram IG accounts. I got to work, combing through books and apps and googling “which astrological sign is most likely to be an enneagram 4?” and “does being a quadruple sagittarius explain why I’m like this?”

while it’s so tempting to use these systems to place people into little boxes, I think it can also show us that while we all need to take ownership of our decisions, our flaws, and our best qualities, we were all created from the stars and all made a tiny bit differently, because it truly takes all kinds.

most people that I talk to about astrology are deeply interested, and while they don’t have a desire to learn the ins and outs, they want me to tell them what it all means. I don’t blame them - it’s a complicated subject - but we all want the quick answer to explain it all - why is everyone acting like today is the end of the world? why do I feel so blah this week? why am I considering a career change all of a sudden?

I think humans are endlessly interesting, and learning these patterns has added another layer to my fascination.

and also I just love blaming everything on the moon.