Astrology

I should make it clear, from the outset, that astrology is rubbish. The idea that the movements of planets millions of miles away can impact your life on a daily basis is ludicrous. Sort of.

In truth, the planets do impact us, as do the stars. Their alignments will impact the gravitational pull on you, but by a microscopic amount. The difference will be less than if you are upstairs or downstairs - less than if you are standing up or not. So yes, they do affect us, but far less than everything else.

But so many people seem to think that they do, it always makes me wonder - what is really going on here? It strikes me that pretty much all astrology is based on your birth sign, that is the time of year when you were born. I wonder whether this may be what is really at play here - your star sign does have an impact, but not because of the celestial bodies.

If you are born in mid-winter - say late December - then your early and very formative days, months and weeks will be short days, long nights, cold times. Parents may also find this a difficult time, with the pressures of Christmas.

If you are born in the middle of summer, your early experience will be different - long, warm days, probably outside more in these early days. What is more, the pregnancy will have been through the colder months, although the last few months may have been quite warm and difficult for your mother. So Easter - the most popular time for having babies - coincides with pregnancy through the colder time of year. Similarly, October babies mothers will have had - potentially - several months of hot uncomfortable pregnancy.

Then again, those children born early in the school year will spend their school time as the oldest in their year, whereas those at the other end will be the youngest - something that may have a significant difference in terms of social development through the crucial teenage years (especially). So the time of year you are born could have a significant impact on you throughout your life, in many ways, many aspects. What is more, there might be similarities between people born at a similar time of year.

All of which makes me think that there might actually be something in the principles of astrology, that the time of year you are born can have an impact on you throughout your life, in all sort of aspects. the point is, this is not because the celestial bodies are impacting your life. It is because our society, our structure, the natural order or the seasons affects us.

But then. of course, I'm a Gemini, so I would say that.