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“The Age of Aquarius...”

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Some might think Amber Joliat's yoga class unorthodox. Her students prefer to call it enlightened.

"Is everyone feeling the moodiness of Pisces?" Joliat quietly asks the rapt crowd. "The watery undercurrent we've shifted into?"

There are nods. Then Joliat explains why some may be feeling a bit off-kilter. "I'm going to rewind to Feb. 15, when there was a new moon and a partial solar eclipse, both at the same time.

"This day was a cosmic gift to remind us all of the endless cycles of nature. A day to reaffirm this year's theme: That we need to shift our perspectives ... swim in that contemplative place ... and begin the process of letting go."

Only when the celestial bodies are properly assessed and taken care of does Joliat focus on the physical elements of her practice.

Since she opened Misfit Studios eight years ago in a former church, a forgotten relic that's been brought back to life on Toronto's Queen Street West, the place has become a star attraction for millennials, particularly women seeking more substance and spirituality in their lives.

"We call it our Saturday morning religion," laughs Danielle Seraphim, a 36-year-old corporate banker, who is a regular. "I'm a logical person by nature, and I'm not overly into astrology, but I like how Amber makes me think about my life."

In the past five years, there's been a renewed interest in astrology - and basically all things mystical including aura readings, mediumship, healing crystals, sound baths and tarot cards, to name a few - that has spawned what its practitioners call the new "Age of Aquarius."

The internet has opened up a whole new space for people to learn about these pursuits, Joliat says. "You can find a tarot deck [called the Wild Unknown, $50] at Urban Outfitters, whereas you used to have to seek these things out. Now, they're readily accessible and available. It's not witchy any more."

Google "astrology," for example, and you'll find more than two million websites, including relative newcomers such as AstroTwins (10 million page views a month), and Co-Star, which crashed three times its first week in October due to demand. Its chief executive, 30-year-old Banu Guler, said in a phone call from New York, "We've seen downloads at rates close to 1,000 an hour."

Twitter is flooded with Zodiac memes, themed to everything from Game of Thrones characters to Marvel Comic villains. (I'm Poison Ivy). Phrases such as "Mercury in retrograde" are part of the hip vernacular.

For the un-hip: When you've had a bad day or slipped it up, it might be because Mercury is in retrograde. More literally, the phrase refers to the period of time when the planet appears to move backward in the sky. (It never actually does - it just looks that way because Earth and Mercury travel at different speeds.) Astrology enthusiasts say the reverse motion can throw our plans off course, and the expression has become a catchall for mishaps, frustrations and delays. Missed an e-mail? It must be because Mercury's in retrograde. As of this weekend we're entering one of three Mercury retrograde cycles that will cause breakdowns in communication and possibly mess up travel plans up to April 15. (So best to stay put.)

And offline, friends gather for wine, cheese and tarot parties. They visit aura readers, who take pictures of the electromagnetic field surrounding their bodies, which are then broken down into the seven chakras (signified by vibrant colours). These offer insight into a person's feelings, emotions, behaviour and health. "I was a skeptic and very much driven by logic, reasoning and science," says Emily Scarlett, a 34-year-old former Torontonian who now lives in Manhattan and works at a major fashion retailer. "But I follow my sign, and I like tarot and crystals. A friend bought tickets to have our auras read at Radiant Human [an aura photography lab]. It was the most accurate reading anyone has done of me in my life."

Even the under-20s are embracing the otherworldly movement. "We have kids in elementary school wanting to get crystals so they can have one in their pocket to rub and keep them calm so they can deal with anxiety," says Alethea Lymworth, whose dad started the New Age bookstore Banyen Books & Sound in Vancouver in 1970. (The shop has also seen a 25-per-cent increase in the sale of tarot cards in the past year.)

Given the zeitgeist, it's hardly surprising that U.S. market-research firm IBIS Worldwide reports psychic services generated US$2.1-billion in revenue in 2015. "Following a dip during the recession, rising disposable income levels have spurred demand for discretionary services like psychic services," the report said.

More interesting still was another reason cited in the report. "Religious beliefs have grown increasingly flexible and accepting ... and according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, more than one-quarter of American adults have left the faith they were raised in, and 16.1 per cent identify themselves as unaffiliated with any particular religion." That void, the report posits, may have left people searching for a spiritual alternative.

After all, humans have always sought insight beyond purse science to answer life's big questions and dilemmas. The Greeks and Romans used astrology to predict weather patterns and forecast natural disasters. In the 1960s and 70s, the hippies and yippies adopted the Age of Aquarius (the dreamy song in the smash hit 1967 musical Hair) to embody a generation of like-minded thinkers - sick of the paternalism and oppression of the Cold War - who stood for love, light and humanity.

Toronto psychotherapist and Jung analyst Christine Becker sees this search in her work, too. She incorporates astrological reading into the sessions of clients who request it, and says the rise of the so-called New Age of astrology is happening, in part, because people "don't have religions that actually can support us in times of chaos like they used to.

"I think a lot of our depression and mental-health issues stem from the fact we don't have a firm foundation to hold us in difficult and challenging times," says Becker, who has practised her hybrid blend of psychotherapy and astrology for 18 years. "We don't live in communities the way we used to. [Traditional forms of] religion used to give us solace but in the last 100 to 150 years it's lost the power to do that for us. For many, it's become dogmatic and lifeless.

"But human beings crave to be related to something larger than ourselves. We are hard-wired to do that. We're the only creatures who actually create stories and narrative because we're trying to find our place in the world," says Becker, who studied at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich, and later at the Faculty of Astrological Studies in Britain.

Co-Star's Guler agrees that a decline in religion has resulted in a "belief vacuum" that's left millennials rudderless. This generation, she says, is wrapping itself in the blanket of the zodiac to try to make sense of a world that seems to be coming apart at the seams.

"Our generation is not in the best situation," says Guler, who founded Co-Star with two tech-savvy friends who worked with her in the high-stress fashion industry. Our daily lives are structured by screens and a rational approach to instability, without any semblance of meaning. We try to shrug off threats such as climate change and nuclear war. The jobs that are paying off our student loans are precarious - if we have them at all.

"Astrology is a way of putting yourself in the context of thousands of years of history and the universe. It gives us a rich framework for talking about how we understand ourselves and each other, who we are, and who we are becoming."

In Becker's practice, she says the clients who ask her to use astrology in their treatment do so because they want to delve deeper into all the influences that might hold sway over their mental health. "They have a sense that what they're suffering from is not all that it seems to be."

Whatever the genesis of this quest for a new form of self-exploration, Joliat, who first had her natal chart read when she was 14, says she welcomes the fact that astrology has moved far beyond reading your horoscope (or sun sign) in a newspaper, or the back of a magazine.

"All of it is like little clues or puzzles that help us to understand our uniqueness, to decipher this vibrant map of who we are, and how we relate to the rest of the world."

As we exit her studio - mind and body worked over - Joliat asks each one of us to "walk into the light. To shed all the things that hold and weigh you down."

I'm not sure if I feel any lighter. And I'm pretty sure the God-fearing souls who built the original Euclid Avenue Methodist Church on this site in the 1800s, are rolling over in their graves.

But I agree with Seraphim, the banker, who tells me, "I always leave Amber's class considering aspects of my life that I normally would never think about. And I feel better for it."

For many of us, astrology means flipping to the back of the newspaper and checking out the horoscope. But to legions of others, it's far more engrossing - and complicated. Students of the stars, planets and other celestial bodies use astrology as a means of self-discovery. Others look heavenward to figure out when to start a new career or get out of a dead-end relationship. Here are a few key phrases to get you started.
Age of Aquarius
The 1960s megamusical Hair hijacked the phrase, but it refers to a time when the Earth moves into the sign of Aquarius, which happens approximately every 2,100 years. In astrology, it's the age of freedom, technology and humanity. Astrologists disagree on whether we're now in it or if we're about to move into this forward-thinking age.
Auras
According to New Age beliefs, each person has an electromagnetic field that shows up in colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue-indigo and violet) that reflect a person's mood, overall health and condition of their chakras.
Birth (or natal) chart
A map that shows the position of the planets, in relation to the sun, at the moment you were born.
Mercury retrograde
Three or four times a year, the planet Mercury appears to be moving backward in the sky for about three weeks. It's an illusion, of course, but one that has come to represent a period of poor communication and decision-making, transportation glitches and overall sluggishness. (Coming dates: March 23 to April 15; July 25 to Aug. 18; and Nov. 16 to Dec. 6).
Moon sign
Different from your sun sign - which most people are familiar with - your moon sign is determined by a calculation of your full date, place and time of birth.It represents your emotional core or inner mood.
Rising (or ascendant) sign
Technically, it's the zodiac sign that was rising on the eastern horizon the moment you were born. This sign determines the face we put on in public and present to the world.
Saturn Return
Every 30 years or so, Saturn returns to the sign it was in when you were born. Often referred to as a cosmic rite of passage (typically because it hits when you're in your late 20s), into adulthood. In astrology, Saturn is the tough taskmasker. It's the time to work hard, strive for your goals and kick butt. Like the personal trainer or life coach of the skies, it tells you to get on with it. You'll be tested, and asked to push through.
Sun sign
It's your zodiac sign, ie. Scorpio, Leo, Cancer etc.

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The Age of Aquarius​: Why more people are turning to astrology for answers

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Some might think Amber Joliat's yoga class unorthodox. Her students prefer to call it enlightened. "Is everyone feeling the moodiness of Pisces?" Joliat quietly asks the rapt crowd. "The watery undercurrent we've shifted into?" There are nods. Then Joliat explains why some may be feeling a bit off-kilter.

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“How Astrology Became a Chic Accessory”

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The surging interest in celestial observations and zodiac signs have given rise to a renewed sense of self-expression and spirituality. In fact, in the melee of our fast-paced and noisy lives, for many of us Millennials, focusing on the idea of astrology is a very attractive prospect. "Astrology is the study of the planetary cycles and their connection to the affairs on earth," explains Rebecca Gordon, leading astrologer, author, presenter, and founder of My Path Astrology. It reveals personality patterns and cycles of time, she adds, and many people turn to it as a possible path of coping or when looking for a change.

As for its skyrocketing presence in our current culture, Gordon believes it has a lot to do with its shareability on social media, referring to things like memes and monthly horoscopes. "Astrology is ultimately empowering; it provides an easy way to say something personal and complex," she says. "When you understand your own sky map, you can make better decisions which will support you, and it also provides a great tool for planning, allowing you to optimize your success and avoid risks."

And with astrology being the gateway to new ideas, productivity, and positivity, it's no surprise that we've begun weaving these energies into our everyday lifestyles. From clothes to nail art and even tattoos, astro-chic accessories have really gripped the mainstream. Think major labels like Vetements and J.Crew with their sign-inspired tees; or couture takes like Maria Grazia Chiuri's astrological-embroidered debut collection for Dior. The messages of astrology are now entrenched in how we choose to express and dress ourselves.

But one of the most recognizable ways astrology has taken physical form has always been through jewelry. Zodiac signs, talismans, and crystals were worn long before they were given the 'gram-worthy polish seen in recent years. "Since the beginning of time, people have adorned themselves with gems from the earth, so these accessories are nothing new," says Gordon. "But now people are keen to reacquaint themselves with the healing and activating properties of such stones and symbols."

And it's not just for show: Assigning meaning - love, healing, protection, strength, balance - to your accessories speaks to the unique energies of each and every moment. Perhaps this is what inspired a new wave of zodiac jewelry, from Claire Weight Keller at Givenchy to the more affordable ranges of evil eyes and crystals at Free People and Satya. And let us not forget all the handmade creations from Etsy sellers.

Photo: @blinkbeauty official instagram

It's not just the fashion set crushing on the astro-chic trend, either: In the beauty scene, astrological-inspired nail art is storming Instagram, with all sorts of creative takes on constellations, symbols, and signs. Celestial makeup is having a major moment, too. You can now wardrobe your makeup to match your star-sign, thanks to beauty products created with specific zodiac symbols in mind. (Some real frontrunners of this being Bite Beauty with their Astrology Amuse Bouche Lipstick shades, Urban Decay with their Elements Eyeshadow Palette, and Fresh with zodiac-inspired soaps.)

On whether this is more of movement or passing trend, Gordon points to how the planets are aligned. "The planet Neptune is now in Pisces (2011-2024), and Neptune shows what people are naturally drawn to - what we think is really sexy at the moment," she says. "Overall, spirituality is very popular while Neptune is in Pisces, meaning the veil is thinner these days and more people are finding it easy to tap into their intuitive powers." And for the more cynical among us? There's really no denying the increased interest in astrology and its impact on fashion.

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How Astrology Became A Chic Accessory - Glam

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The surging interest in celestial observations and zodiac signs have given rise to a renewed sense of self-expression and spirituality. In fact, in the melee of our fast-paced and noisy lives, for many of us Millennials, focusing on the idea of astrology is a very attractive prospect.

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“Finding Meaning in the Stars”

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Missed your flight? Mixed messages with your boss? Just having one those weeks? It used to be called "bad luck," but today you're more likely to hear someone blame it on "Mercury retrograde."

Mercury retrograde, which scientifically refers to the three-week period when Mercury appears to go in reverse as it surpasses Earth's orbit around the sun, has become imbued with this cultural meaning because of the rising popularity of astrology.

Long relegated to the annals of the " Age of Aquarius" generation, astrology is back in vogue and in particular among millennials. According to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey, 37 percent of women and 20 percent of men believe in astrology, with the highest numbers among people between the ages of 18 and 49.

And it's becoming a lucrative business with Americans spending an estimated $2.1 billion on the " mystical services market " in 2018.

So what's driving this renewed interest in the zodiac?

Chani Nicolas, Oprah Magazine's resident astrologer and the author of the new book, " You Were Born For This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance," believes astrology's resurgence is because "astrology is perfect content for memes."

But on a deeper level, she says the renewed interest in astrology might be because people are looking to it "to quell our panic" about the news cycle and current era.
On the role of social media in making astrology popular among millennials and Generation Z

"I think that astrology is the perfect content for memes. It's very sharable. And human beings really want to know about ourselves. I want you to tell me something where I'm like, 'Oh my God, that's so me. I relate to that.' And so when you have a meme with like all of the signs on it, let's say, then you can like tag all your friends and everyone can kind of be dragged and loved up a little bit the same tire. And because we're living in such a social media-saturated moment, I feel that astrology is like this perfect fit of self-reflection, humor and identification."
On the similarities between baby boomers and millennials
"I think the baby boomers came out of a time when they were part of a culture change that was really breaking away from this fake nuclear family facade that was very like white supremacist and very classist and very 'you fit into the mold.' And the baby boomers came along and they were like, 'No, we need to break this whole thing open.'

"... It was a huge kind of crack in the psyche, like, 'Oh, we can't trust all the things that they've been telling us to trust. And maybe we knew that all along.' But it's really a departure. And so astrology was huge back then. If we would've had the internet then, we would have been seeing, I think, the exact same thing [as today].

"It's like now that millennials are now like tearing away from the boomer generation, and so it's the next iteration of that. We're trying to evolve ourselves. We're trying to clarify our purpose and understand what are the biggest emergencies to tend to. And people really need to know, is there some reason for this? And astrology is one lens that can be like, 'Well, this is the time frame and this is what's happening in this time frame.' ... And so if we can look back and see that time frame versus this time frame, we can kind of get a context for what's happening and that can help to quell our panic and maybe move toward solution in the moment. That's my hope for it."
On people calling astrology a pseudoscience
"Astrology comes out of scientific roots and because we are studying the movements of planetary bodies over time and coming up with facts about them, it's not to say that there is nothing scientific about astrology, but, and also, obviously it's speaking a symbolic language. And so it's not necessarily quantifiable in the same way as we would study other things. And then we have to get into the conversation about what is science and empirical knowledge? What are we looking at and what are our biases? So, people can call it whatever they want."
On the potential for astrology to foster radical self-acceptance
"I think radical self-acceptance is the ability to accept our hopes and dreams and desires and talents as they are so that we can work on perfecting them, making them better, and getting more integrated with our skills so that we can apply them to the world and be of use in the best way possible.

"I've sat in front of so many people and read their chart and said, 'Oh wow, you really should do A, B and C. Doing A, B and C, does that interest you?' And they'll be like, 'Yeah, how do you know? And I never thought I could do that.' Like most people seem to have this buried desire that they feel they need permission to accept [to be themselves]."
On how interested people should use astrology in 2020
"I hope that people find themselves in it and in the finding of themselves, feel a little healed and motivated to just get on with life, to use those skills and those talents and those definitive marks that have been placed upon them and just go forth with some confidence."
Cristina Kim produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Peter O'Dowd. Kim also adapted it for the web.

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Finding Meaning In The Stars: Astrologer Chani Nicholas On Why More People Are Turning To Their Horoscopes

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Missed your flight? Mixed messages with your boss? Just having one those weeks? It used to be called "bad luck," but today you're more likely to hear someone blame it on "Mercury retrograde."

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“The New Age of Astrology”

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In a stressful, data-driven era, many young people find comfort and insight in the zodiac-even if they don't exactly believe in it.

Astrology is a meme, and it's spreading in that blooming, unfurling way that memes do. On social media, astrologers and astrology-meme machines amass tens or hundreds of thousands of followers, people joke about Mercury retrograde, and categorize "the signs as ..." literally anything: cat breeds, Oscar Wilde quotes, Stranger Things characters, types of french fries. In online publications, daily, weekly, and monthly horoscopes and zodiac-themed listicles flourish.

This isn't the first moment astrology's had and it won't be the last. The practice has been around in various forms for thousands of years. More recently, the New Age movement of the 1960s and '70s came with a heaping helping of the zodiac. (Some also refer to the New Age as the "Age of Aquarius"-the 2,000-year period after the Earth is said to move into the Aquarius sign.)

In the decades between the New Age boom and now, while astrology certainly didn't go away-you could still regularly find horoscopes in the back pages of magazines-it "went back to being a little bit more in the background," says Chani Nicholas, an astrologer based in Los Angeles. "Then there's something that's happened in the last five years that's given it an edginess, a relevance for this time and place, that it hasn't had for a good 35 years. Millennials have taken it and run with it."

Many people I spoke to for this piece said they had a sense that the stigma attached to astrology, while it still exists, had receded as the practice has grabbed a foothold in online culture, especially for young people.

"Over the past two years, we've really seen a reframing of New Age practices, very much geared toward a Millennial and young Gen X quotient," says Lucie Greene, the worldwide director of J. Walter Thompson's Intelligence Group, which tracks and predicts cultural trends.

Callie Beusman, a senior editor at Broadly, says traffic for the site's horoscopes "has grown really exponentially." Stella Bugbee, the president and editor-in-chief of The Cut, says a typical horoscope post on the site got 150 percent more traffic in 2017 than the year before.

In some ways, astrology is perfectly suited for the internet age. There's a low barrier to entry, and nearly endless depths to plumb if you feel like falling down a Google-research hole. The availability of more in-depth information online has given this cultural wave of astrology a certain erudition-more jokes about Saturn returns, fewer "Hey baby, what's your sign?" pickup lines.

A quick primer: Astrology is not a science; there's no evidence that one's zodiac sign actually correlates to personality. But the system has its own sort of logic. Astrology ascribes meaning to the placement of the sun, the moon, and the planets within 12 sections of the sky-the signs of the zodiac. You likely know your sun sign, the most famous zodiac sign, even if you're not an astrology buff. It's based on where the sun was on your birthday. But the placement of the moon and each of the other planets at the time and location of your birth adds additional shades to the picture of you painted by your "birth chart."
"The kids these days and their memes are like the perfect context for astrology."
What horoscopes are supposed to do is give you information about what the planets are doing right now, and in the future, and how all that affects each sign. "Think of the planets as a cocktail party," explains Susan Miller, the popular astrologer who founded the Astrology Zone website. "You might have three people talking together, two may be over in the corner arguing, Venus and Mars may be kissing each other. I have to make sense of those conversations that are happening each month for you."

"Astrologers are always trying to boil down these giant concepts into digestible pieces of knowledge," says Nicholas. "The kids these days and their memes are like the perfect context for astrology."

Astrology expresses complex ideas about personality, life cycles, and relationship patterns through the shorthand of the planets and zodiac symbols. And that shorthand works well online, where symbols and shorthand are often baked into communication.

"Let me state first that I consider astrology a cultural or psychological phenomenon," not a scientific one, Bertram Malle, a social cognitive scientist at Brown University, told me in an email. But "full-fledged astrology"-that goes beyond newspaper-style sun-sign horoscopes-"provides a powerful vocabulary to capture not only personality and temperament but also life's challenges and opportunities. To the extent that one simply learns this vocabulary, it may be appealing as a rich way of representing (not explaining or predicting) human experiences and life events, and identifying some possible paths of coping."

People tend to turn to astrology in times of stress. A small 1982 study by the psychologist Graham Tyson found that "people who consult astrologers" did so in response to stressors in their lives-particularly stress "linked to the individual's social roles and to his or her relationships," Tyson wrote. "Under conditions of high stress, the individual is prepared to use astrology as a coping device even though under low-stress conditions he does not believe in it."

According to American Psychological Association survey data, since 2014, Millennials have been the most stressed generation, and also the generation most likely to say their stress has increased in the past year since 2010. Millennials and Gen Xers have been significantly more stressed than older generations since 2012. And Americans as a whole have seen increased stress because of the political tumult since the 2016 presidential election. The 2017 edition of the APA's survey found that 63 percent of Americans said they were significantly stressed about their country's future. Fifty-six percent of people said reading the news stresses them out, and Millennials and Gen Xers were significantly more likely than older people to say so. Lately that news often deals with political infighting, climate change, global crises, and the threat of nuclear war. If stress makes astrology look shinier, it's not surprising that more seem to be drawn to it now.

Nicholas's horoscopes are evidence of this. She has around 1 million monthly readers online, and recently snagged a book deal-one of four new mainstream astrology guidebooks sold in a two-month period in summer 2017, according to Publisher's Marketplace. Anna Paustenbach, Nicholas's editor at HarperOne, told me in an email that Nicholas is "at the helm of a resurgence of astrology." She thinks this is partly because Nicholas's horoscopes are explicitly political. On September 6, the day after the Trump administration announced it was rescinding DACA-the deferred-action protection program for undocumented immigrants-Nicholas sent out her typical newsletter for the upcoming full moon. It read, in part:

The full moon in Pisces ... may open the floodgates of our feelings. May help us to empathize with others ... May we use this full moon to continue to dream up, and actively work toward, creating a world where white supremacy has been abolished.

Astrology offers those in crisis the comfort of imagining a better future, a tangible reminder of that clichéd truism that is nonetheless hard to remember when you're in the thick of it: This too shall pass.

In 2013, when Sandhya was 32 years old, she downloaded the Astrology Zone app, looking for a road map. She felt lonely, and unappreciated at her nonprofit job in Washington, D.C., and she was going out drinking four or five times a week. "I was in the cycle of constantly being out, trying to escape," she says.

She wanted to know when things would get better and Astrology Zone had an answer. Jupiter, " the planet of good fortune," would move into Sandhya's zodiac sign, Leo, in one year's time, and remain there for a year. Sandhya remembers reading that if she cut clutter out of her life now, she'd reap the rewards when Jupiter arrived.

So Sandhya spent the next year making room for Jupiter. (She requested that we not publish her last name because she works as an attorney and doesn't want her clients to know the details of her personal life.) She started staying home more often, cooking for herself, applying for jobs, and going on more dates. "I definitely distanced myself from two or three friends who I didn't feel had good energy when I hung around them," she says. "And that helped significantly."

Jupiter entered Leo on July 16, 2014. That same July, Sandhya was offered a new job. That December, Sandhya met the man she would go on to marry. "My life changed dramatically," she says. "Part of it is that a belief in something makes it happen. But I followed what the app was saying. So I credit some of it to this Jupiter belief."
A combination of stress and uncertainty about the future is an ailment for which astrology can seem like the perfect balm.
Humans are narrative creatures, constantly explaining their lives and selves by weaving together the past, present, and future (in the form of goals and expectations). Monisha Pasupathi, a developmental psychologist who studies narrative at the University of Utah, says that while she lends no credence to astrology, it "provides [people] a very clear frame for that explanation."

It does give one a pleasing orderly sort of feeling, not unlike alphabetizing a library, to take life's random events and emotions and slot them into helpfully labeled shelves. This guy isn't texting me back because Mercury retrograde probably kept him from getting the message. I take such a long time to make decisions because my Mars is in Taurus. My boss will finally recognize all my hard work when Jupiter enters my tenth house. A combination of stress and uncertainty about the future is an ailment for which astrology can seem like the perfect balm.

Sandhya says she turns to astrology looking for help in times of despair, "when I'm like, 'Someone tell me the future is gonna be okay.'" Reading her horoscope was like flipping ahead in her own story.

"I'm always a worrier," she says. "I'm one of those people who, once I start getting into a book, I skip ahead and I read the end. I don't like cliff-hangers, I don't like suspense. I just need to know what's gonna happen. I have a story in my head. I was just hoping certain things would happen in my life, and I wanted to see if I am lucky enough for them to happen."

Now that they have happened, "I haven't been reading [my horoscope] as much," she says, "and I think it's because I'm in a happy place right now."

For some, astrology's predictions function like Dumbo's feather-a comforting magic to hold onto until you realize you could fly on your own all along. But it's the ineffable mystical sparkle of the feather-gentler and less draining than the glow of a screen-that makes people reach for it in the first place.

People are starting to get sick of a life lived so intensely on the grid. They wish for more anonymity online. They're experiencing fatigue with ebooks, with dating apps, with social media. They're craving something else in this era of quantified selves, and tracked locations, and indexed answers to every possible question. Except, perhaps the questions of who you really are, and what life has in store for you.

Ruby Warrington is a lifestyle writer whose New Age guidebook Material Girl, Mystical World came out in May 2017-just ahead of the wave of astrology-book sales this summer. She also runs a mystical esoterica website called The Numinous, a word that Merriam-Webster defines as meaning "supernatural or mysterious," but that Warrington defines on her website as "that which is unknown, or unknowable."

"I think that almost as a counterbalance to the fact that we live in such a quantifiable and meticulously organized world, there is a desire to connect to and tap into that numinous part of ourselves," Warrington says. "I see astrology as a language of symbols that describes those parts of the human experience that we don't necessarily have equations and numbers and explanations for."

J. Walter Thompson's Intelligence Group released a trend report in 2016 called " Unreality" that says much the same thing: "We are increasingly turning to unreality as a form of escape and a way to search for other kinds of freedom, truth and meaning," it reads. "What emerges is an appreciation for magic and spirituality, the knowingly unreal, and the intangible aspects of our lives that defy big data and the ultra-transparency of the web." This sort of reactionary cultural 180 has happened before-after the Enlightenment's emphasis on rationality and the scientific method in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Romantic movement found people turning toward intuition, nature, and the supernatural. It seems we may be at a similar turning point. New York Magazine even used the seminal Romantic painting Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog to illustrate Andrew Sullivan's recent anti-technology essay, "I Used to Be a Human Being."

JWT, along with another trend-forecasting group, WGSN, in its report "Millennials: New Spirituality," lump astrology in with other New Age mystical trends that have caught on with young people in recent years: healing crystals, sound baths, and tarot, among others.

"I think it's become generally less acceptable to just arbitrarily shit on things as like 'that's not rational, or that's stupid because that's not fact,'" says Nicole Leffel, a 28-year-old software engineer who lives in New York.

Bugbee, the editor-in-chief of The Cut, noticed this shift a couple years ago. "I could just tell that people were sick of a certain kind of snarky tone," she said. Up to that point, the site had been running slightly irreverent horoscopes with gifs meant to encapsulate the week's mood for each sign. But Bugbee realized "that people wanted sincerity more than anything. So we just kind of went full sincere with [the horoscopes], and that's when we saw real interest happen."

But a sincere burgeoning interest in astrology doesn't mean people are wholesale abandoning rationality for more mystical beliefs. Nicholas Campion, a historian of astrology, points out that the question of whether people "believe" in astrology is both impossible to answer and not really a useful question to ask. People might say they don't "believe" in astrology but still identify with their zodiac sign. They may like to read their horoscope, but not change their behavior based on what it says. There is more nuance than this statistic allows for.

Many mainstream examinations of astrology as a trend are deeply concerned with debunking. They like to trot out the National Science Foundation survey that measures whether people think astrology is scientific and remind readers that it's not. Which, it's not. But that's not really the point.

While there are surely some people who blindly accept astrology as fact and view it as on par with a discipline like biology, that doesn't seem to be the case among many of the young adults who are fueling this renaissance of the zodiac. The people I spoke to for this piece often referred to astrology as a tool, or a kind of language-one that, for many, is more metaphorical than literal.

"Astrology is a system that looks at cycles, and we use the language of planets," says Alec Verkuilen Brogan, a 29-year-old chiropractic student based in the Bay Area who has also studied astrology for 10 years. "It's not like these planets are literally going around and being like 'Now, I'm going to do this.' It's a language to speak to the seasons of life."
"We take astrology very seriously, but we also don't necessarily believe in it. It's just a way to look at the world."
Michael Stevens, a 27-year-old who lives in Brooklyn, was in the quarter-life crisis season of life around the time of the total solar eclipse in August this year. "Traditionally, I'm a skeptic," he says. "I'm a hard-core, like Dana Scully from X-Files, type of person. And then shit started to happen in life." Around the time of the eclipse, in the course of his advertising work, he cold-called Susan Miller of Astrology Zone, to ask if she would put some ads on her site.

She was annoyed, he says, that he called her at the end of the month, which is when she writes her famously lengthy horoscopes. But then she asked him for his sign-Sagittarius. "And she's like, 'Oh, okay, this new moon's rough for you.'" They talked about work and relationship troubles. (Miller doesn't remember having this conversation specifically, but says "I'm always nice to the people who cold-call. It sounds totally like me.")

Studies have shown that if you write a generic personality description and tell someone it applies to them, they're likely to perceive it as accurate-whether that's in the form of a description of their zodiac sign or something else.

Stevens says he could've potentially read into his conversation with Miller in this way. "She's like 'You're going through a lot right now,'" he says. "Who isn't? It's 2017."

Still, he says the conversation made him feel better; it spurred him to take action. In the months between his call with Miller and our conversation in October, Stevens left his advertising job and found a new one in staffing. Shortly before we spoke, he and his girlfriend broke up.

"[I realized] I'm acting like a shitty, non-playable character in a Dungeons and Dragons RPG," Stevens says, "so I should probably make choices, and pursue some of the good things that could happen if I just [cared] about being a happy person in a real way."

Stevens's story exemplifies a prevailing attitude among many of the people I talked to-that it doesn't matter if astrology is real; it matters if it's useful.

"We take astrology very seriously, but we also don't necessarily believe in it," says Annabel Gat, the staff astrologer at Broadly, "because it's a tool for self-reflection, it's not a religion or a science. It's just a way to look at the world and a way to think about things."

Beusman, who hired Gat at Broadly, shares her philosophy. "I believe several conflicting things in all areas of my life," she says. "So for me it's very easy to hold these two ideas in my head at once. This could not be true at all, and also, I'll be like 'Well, I have three planets entering Scorpio next month, so I should make some savvy career decisions.'"

This attitude is exemplified by The Hairpin's "Astrology Is Fake" column, by Rosa Lyster, with headlines like " Astrology Is Fake But Leos Are Famous," and " Astrology Is Fake But Taurus Hates Change."

It might be that Millennials are more comfortable living in the borderlands between skepticism and belief because they've spent so much of their lives online, in another space that is real and unreal at the same time. That so many people find astrology meaningful is a reminder that something doesn't have to be real to feel true. Don't we find truth in fiction?

In describing her attitude toward astrology, Leffel recalled a line from Neil Gaiman's American Gods in which the main character, Shadow, wonders whether lightning in the sky was from a magical thunderbird "or just an atmospheric discharge, or whether the two ideas were, on some level, the same thing. And of course they were. That was the point after all."

If the "astrology is fake but it's true" stance seems paradoxical, well, perhaps the paradox is what's attractive. Many people offered me hypotheses to explain astrology's resurgence. Digital natives are narcissistic, some suggested, and astrology is a navel-gazing obsession. People feel powerless here on Earth, others said, so they're turning to the stars. Of course, it's both. Some found it to be an escape from logical "left brain" thinking; others craved the order and organization the complex system brought to the chaos of life. It's both. That's the point, after all.

To understand astrology's appeal is to get comfortable with paradoxes. It feels simultaneously cosmic and personal; spiritual and logical; ineffable and concrete; real and unreal. It can be a relief, in a time of division, not to have to choose. It can be freeing, in a time that values black and white, ones and zeros, to look for answers in the gray. It can be meaningful to draw lines in the space between moments of time, or the space between pinpricks of light in the night sky, even if you know deep down they're really light-years apart, and have no connection at all.

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american psychological association survey data

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worldwide director of j. walter thompson

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ineffable mystical sparkle of the feather

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In a stressful, data-driven era, many young people find comfort and insight in the zodiac-even if they don't exactly believe in it.

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Four centuries after his death, we are still using Shakespeare's phrases in our everyday speech. This list of phrases Shakespeare invented is a testament that the Bard has had a huge influence on the English language.

Some people today reading Shakespeare for the first time complain that the language is difficult to understand, yet we are still using hundreds of words and phrases coined by him in our everyday conversation.

You have probably quoted Shakespeare thousands of times without realizing it. If your homework gets you "in a pickle," your friends have you "in stitches," or your guests "eat you out of house and home," then you're quoting Shakespeare.

A laughing stock (The Merry Wives of Windsor)

As dead as a doornail (Henry VI)

Eaten out of house and home (Henry V, Part 2)

I will wear my heart upon my sleeve ()

In a pickle (The Tempest)

In stitches (Twelfth Night)

In the twinkling of an eye (The Merchant Of Venice)

Mum's the word (Henry VI, Part 2)

Neither here nor there (Othello)

Send him packing (Henry IV)

Set your teeth on edge (Henry IV)

There's method in my madness ()

Too much of a good thing (As You Like It)

Vanish into thin air (Othello)

In many cases, scholars do not know if Shakespeare actually invented these phrases or if they were already in use during his lifetime. In fact, it is almost impossible to identify when a word or phrase was first used, but Shakespeare's plays often provide the earliest citation.

Shakespeare was writing for the mass audience, and his plays were incredibly popular in his own lifetime ... popular enough to enable him to perform for Queen Elizabeth I and to retire a wealthy gentleman.

It is unsurprising therefore that many phrases from his plays stuck in the popular consciousness and subsequently embedded themselves into everyday language. In many ways, it is like a catchphrase from a popular television show becoming part of everyday speech. Shakespeare was, after all, in the business of mass entertainment. In his day, the theater was the most effective way to entertain and communicate with large audiences. Language changes and evolves over time, so the original meanings may have been lost to language.

Over time, many of the original meanings behind Shakespeare's words have evolved. For example, the phrase "sweets to the sweet" from Hamlet has since become a commonly used romantic phrase. In the original play, the line is uttered by Hamlet's mother as she scatters funeral flowers across Ophelia's grave in Act 5, Scene 1:

"Queen:
(Scattering flowers) Sweets to the sweet, farewell!
I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife:
I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
And not have strew'd thy grave."

This passage hardly shares the romantic sentiment in today's use of the phrase.

Shakespeare's writing lives on in today's language, culture, and literary traditions because his influence (and the influence of the ​ Renaissance) became an essential building block in the development of the English language. His writing is so deeply ingrained in the culture that it is impossible to imagine modern literature without his influence.

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16 Surprisingly Common Phrases Invented by Shakespeare

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Four centuries after his death, we are still using Shakespeare's phrases in our everyday speech. This list of phrases Shakespeare invented is a testament that the Bard has had a huge influence on the English language.

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For many, language is the biggest barrier to understanding Shakespeare. Perfectly competent performers can be paralyzed with fear when they see bizarre words like "Methinks" and "Peradventure" - something we call Shakespearaphobia.

As a way of trying to counter this natural anxiety, we often begin by telling new students or performers that speaking Shakespeare aloud isn't like learning a new language -it's more like listening to a strong accent and your ear soon adjusts to the new dialect. Very soon you are able to understand most of what is said.

Even if you are confused about some words and phrases, you should still be able to pick up meaning from the context and the visual signals you receive from the speaker.

Watch how quickly children pick up accents and new language when on holiday. This is evidence of how adaptable we are to new ways of speaking. The same is true of Shakespeare and the best antidote for Shakespearaphobia is to sit back, relax and listen to the text spoken and performed.

Modern Translations at a Glance

Here are modern translations of the top 10 most common Shakespearian words and phrases.

1. Thee, Thou, Thy and Thine (You and Your)
It's a common myth that Shakespeare never uses the words "you" and "your" - actually, these words are commonplace in his plays. However, he also uses the words "thee / thou" instead of "you" and the word "thy / thine" instead of "your". Sometimes he uses both "you" and "thy" in the same speech. This is simply because in Tudor England the older generation said "thee" and "thy" to denote a status or reverence for authority. Therefore when addressing a king the older "thou" and "thy" would be used, leaving the newer "you" and "your" for more informal occasions. Soon after Shakespeare's lifetime, the older form passed away!

2. Art (Are)
The same is true of "art", meaning "are". So a sentence beginning "thou art" simply means "You are".

3. Ay (Yes)
"Ay" simply means "yes". So, "Ay, My Lady" simply means "Yes, My Lady."

4. Would (Wish)
Although the word "wish" does appear in Shakespeare, like when Romeo says "I wish I were a cheek upon that hand," we often find "would" used instead. For example, "I would I were ..." means "I wish I were..."

5. Give Me Leave To (Allow Me To)
"To give me leave to", simply means "To allow me to".

6. Alas (Unfortunately)
"Alas" is a very common word that isn't used today. It simply means "unfortunately", but in modern English, there isn't an exact equivalent.

7. Adieu (Goodbye)
"Adieu" simply means "Goodbye".

8. Sirrah (Sir)
"Sirrah" means "Sir" or "Mister".

9. -eth
Sometimes the endings of Shakespearian words sound alien even though the root of the word is familiar. For example "speaketh" simply means "speak" and "sayeth" means "say".

10. Don't, Do, and Did
A key absence from Shakespearian English is "don't". This word simply wasn't around then. So, if you said "don't be afraid" to a friend in Tudor England, you would have said, "be not afeard." Where today we would say "don't hurt me," Shakespeare would have said, "hurt me not." The words "do" and "did" were also uncommon, so rather than saying "what did he look like?" Shakespeare would have said, "what looked he like?" And instead of "did she stay long?" Shakespeare would have said, "stayed she long?" This difference accounts for the unfamiliar word order in some Shakespearian sentences.

It is important to note that when Shakespeare was alive, language was in a state of flux and many modern words were being integrated into the language for the first time. Shakespeare himself coined many new words and phrases. Shakespeare's language is, therefore, a mixture of the old and the new.

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Yes, You Can Understand Shakespearean English

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For many, language is the biggest barrier to understanding Shakespeare. Perfectly competent performers can be paralyzed with fear when they see bizarre words like "Methinks" and "Peradventure" - something we call Shakespearaphobia.

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Facts about Shakespeare can sometimes be hard to find! To help you sort the fact from the speculation, we've put together a Shakespeare "crib sheet" ... a single reference page packed with facts - and only facts - about Shakespeare.

The links are there to help you delve deeper into the subject.

William Shakespeare was born on 23rd April, 1564

He died on 23rd April 1616

The dates above are approximate because there is no record of neither his birth nor death. We only have records of his baptism and burial.

If we accept the dates, Shakespeare was born and died on the same day - in fact Shakespeare's death occurred on his 52nd birthday!

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, but later moved to London for work

Shakespeare had three children with his wife, Anne Hathaway

When he left for London, Shakespeare left his family behind in Stratford. He did, however, retire back to Stratford at the end of his career

There is evidence that Shakespeare was a "secret" Catholic

By the end of his life, Shakespeare was a wealthy gentleman and had a coat of arms. His final residence was New Place, the largest house in Stratford-upon-Avon

Shakespeare was buried inside Holy Trinity Church in Stratford

Shakespeare's grave has a curse engraved upon it

Shakespeare's birthday is celebrated worldwide every year. The main festival is in Stratford-upon-Avon on Saint George's Day

The theatre experience in Shakespeare's time was very different to today - crowds would eat and talk through the production and plays would be performed in the open air

The Globe Theatre was made from the materials of a stolen theatre that Shakespeare's theatre company dismantled at midnight and floated across the Thames River

Shakespeare described the Globe Theatre as the "Wooden O" because of its shape

The original Globe Theatre was demolished to make way for tenements in 1644 when it fell out of use

The building that currently stands in London is a replica built from traditional materials and techniques. It is not on the original site, but very close to it!

Today, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is the World's leading producer of Shakespeare and is headquartered in the Bard's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon

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Learn All The Fun Facts You'll Ever Need To Know About Shakespeare

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Facts about Shakespeare can sometimes be hard to find! To help you sort the fact from the speculation, we've put together a Shakespeare "crib sheet" ... a single reference page packed with facts - and only facts - about Shakespeare. The links are there to help you delve deeper into the subject.

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William Shakespeare (April 23, 1564-April 23, 1616) wrote at least 37 plays and 154 sonnets, which are considered among the most important and enduring ever written. Although the plays have captured the imagination of theatergoers for centuries, some historians claim that Shakespeare didn't actually write them.

Amazingly, little is known about Shakespeare's life. Even though he is the world's most famous and popular playwright, historians have had to fill in the gaps between the handful of surviving records from Elizabethan times.

Fast Facts: William Shakespeare

Early Years

Shakespeare was probably born on April 23, 1564, but this date is an educated guess because we only have a record of his baptism three days later. His parents, John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, were successful townsfolk who moved to a large house in Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, from the surrounding villages. His father became a wealthy town official and his mother was from an important, respected family.

It is widely assumed that Shakespeare attended the local grammar school where he would have studied Latin, Greek, and classical literature. His early education must have made a huge impact on him because many of his plots draw on the classics.

Shakespeare's Family

At age 18, on November 28, 1582, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway from Shottery, who was already pregnant with their first daughter. The wedding would have been arranged quickly to avoid the shame of having a child born out of wedlock. Shakespeare fathered three children, Susanna,born in May 1583 but conceived out of wedlock, and Judith and Hamnet, twins who were born in February 1585.

Hamnet died in 1596 at age 11. Shakespeare was devastated by the death of his only son, and it is argued that "Hamlet," written four years later, is evidence of this.

Theater Career

At some point in the late 1580s, Shakespeare made the four-day ride to London, and by 1592 had established himself as a writer. In 1594, an event occurred that changed the course of literary history: Shakespeare joined Richard Burbage's acting company and became its chief playwright for the next two decades. Here, Shakespeare was able to hone his craft, writing for a regular group of performers.

Shakespeare also worked as an actor in the theater company, although the lead roles were always reserved for Burbage himself. The company became very successful and often performed in front of the Queen of England, Elizabeth I. In 1603, James I ascended the throne and granted his royal patronage to Shakespeare's company, which became known as The King's Men.

Shakespeare the Gentleman

Like his father, Shakespeare had excellent business sense. He bought the largest house in Stratford-upon-Avon by 1597, owned shares in the Globe Theater, and profited from some real estate deals near Stratford-upon-Avon in 1605. Before long, Shakespeare officially became a gentleman, partly due to his own wealth and partly due to inheriting a coat of arms from his father who died in 1601.

Later Years and Death

Shakespeare retired to Stratford in 1611 and lived comfortably off his wealth for the rest of his life. In his will, he bequeathed most of his properties to Susanna, his eldest daughter, and some actors from The King's Men. Famously, he left his wife his "second-best bed" before he died on April 23, 1616. (This date is an educated guess because we only have a record of his burial two days later).

If you visit Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, you can still view his grave and read his epitaph engraved into the stone:

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.

More than 400 years after his death, Shakespeare's plays and sonnets still hold a special place in theaters, libraries, and schools around the world. "His plays and sonnets have been performed in nearly every major language on every continent," notes Greg Timmons writing on Biography.com.

In addition to the legacy of his plays and sonnets, many of the words and phrases Shakespeare created infuse dictionaries today and are embedded in modern English, including these sayings from some of his plays:

Few writers, poets, and playwrights-and Shakespeare was all three-have had the influence on culture and learning that Shakespeare has. With luck, his plays and sonnets may still be revered and studied four centuries from now.

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Biography of William Shakespeare, History's Most Famous Playwright

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William Shakespeare (April 23, 1564-April 23, 1616) wrote at least 37 plays and 154 sonnets, which are considered among the most important and enduring ever written. Although the plays have captured the imagination of theatergoers for centuries, some historians claim that Shakespeare didn't actually write them. Amazingly, little is known about Shakespeare's life.

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It's very easy to think of Shakespeare as a unique genius with a singular perspective on the world around him. However, Shakespeare was very much a product of the radical cultural shifts that were occurring in Elizabethan England during his lifetime.

When Shakespeare was working in the theater, the Renaissance movement in the arts was peaking in England. The new openness and humanism are reflected in Shakespeare's plays.

The Renaissance in Shakespeare's Time

Broadly speaking, the Renaissance period is used to describe the era when Europeans moved away from the restrictive ideas of the Middle Ages. The ideology that dominated the Middle Ages was heavily focused on the absolute power of God and was enforced by the formidable Roman Catholic Church.

From the 14th century onward, people started to break away from this idea. The artists and thinkers of the Renaissance did not necessarily reject the idea of God. In fact, Shakespeare himself may have been Catholic. The Renaissance cultural creators did, however, question humankind's relationship to God.

This questioning produced enormous upheaval in the accepted social hierarchy. And the new focus on humanity created new-found freedom for artists, writers, and philosophers to be inquisitive about the world around them. They often drew on the more human-centered classical writing and art of ancient Greece and Rome for inspiration.

Shakespeare, the Renaissance Man

The Renaissance arrived in England rather late. Shakespeare was born toward the end of the broader Europe-wide Renaissance period, just as it was peaking in England. He was one of the first playwrights to bring the Renaissance's core values to the theater.

Shakespeare embraced the Renaissance in the following ways:

Shakespeare updated the simplistic, two-dimensional writing style of pre-Renaissance drama. He focused on creating human characters with psychological complexity. Hamlet is perhaps the most famous example of this.

The upheaval in social hierarchy allowed Shakespeare to explore the complexity and humanity of every character, regardless of their social position. Even monarchs were portrayed as having human emotions and were capable of making terrible mistakes. Consider King Lear and Macbeth.

Shakespeare utilized his knowledge of Greek and Roman classics when writing his plays. Before the Renaissance, these texts had been suppressed by the Catholic Church.

Religion in Shakespeare's Time

Elizabethan England endured a different form of religious oppression than that which had dominated the Middle Ages. When she took the throne, Queen Elizabeth I forced conversions and drove practicing Catholics underground with her imposition of the Recusancy Acts. These laws required citizens to attend worship in Anglican churches. If discovered, Catholics faced stiff penalties or even death.

Despite these laws, Shakespeare did not appear to be afraid to write about Catholicism nor to present Catholic characters in a favorable light. His inclusion of Catholicism in his works has led historians to hypothesize that the Bard was secretly Catholic.

Catholic characters included Friar Francis ( "Much Ado About Nothing"), Friar Laurence ("Romeo and Juliet"), and even Hamlet himself. At the very least, Shakespeare's writing indicates a thorough knowledge of Catholic rituals. Regardless of what he may have been doing secretly, he maintained a public persona as an Anglican. He was baptized in and buried at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, a Protestant church.

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How the Renaissance Affected Shakespeare

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The Renaissance in England was in full swing during Shakespeare's time and the Bard was a product of the huge cultural shifts occurring at the time.