The zodiac was created by ancient Babylonians by dividing the sky into twelve sections, which were named after the largest constellation that was present in their section. This calendar tracked time and prediction by observing the planets’ movements, which happened to correspond with events on earth, both positive and negative. The Romans then adopted the zodiac at the beginning of the first century, expanding on the stars and planets’ roles through mythology. With the combination of meticulous observation and folklore, astrology was born. For centuries astrology played a massive role in academia, including science and philosophy. However, as technology and education have developed, astrological evidence has been debunked and has resorted to a way in which we observe ourselves and our romantic compatibility. Nonetheless, whether you believe it holds truth or is solely just wishful assumptions, astrology is now a 2.1 billion dollar industry.

Aiding in this expanding market is Banu Guler, who founded the app Co-Star in 2017. The app is only 3 years old and has more than 3 million registered accounts. The app gives you a detailed breakdown of your natal chart (birth-chart) and provides a daily horoscope telling you what areas of life you are feeling powerful, pressured or having trouble with.  It also gives you the ability to compare your horoscope and birth chart with your friends right on the app. To many, astrology seems to be this outlandish idea, however, Guler claims as the decline of religion in the younger generation has increased, there is still a common yearning to believe in something bigger than ourselves. Additionally, the younger generation has much more freedom to expand within their self-expression and self-discovery. Social media has attributed greatly to the rise of astrology’s popularity as has COVID of course, because what else are we supposed to do except use our star sign to justify all of our bad decisions?

The zodiac sign everyone is most familiar with is the sun sign, which dictates your overall identity and essentially is your truest personality. The second most influential sign is the moon sign, which represents your emotions and inner mood. Together the sun and mood signs are said to heavily influence your emotional operation. The third most influential sign is your rising sign, also known as your ascendant which represents your social personality or rather how you present yourself to other people. However, there are many other aspects of your overall zodiac personality that you can delve into in your birth chart.  These signs are all determined by what position the planets were in at the time and place of your birth.

When you take a deeper look into your birth chart and examine the aspects of each sign and their meaning, there is much more to take away about yourself than solely that because your an aries you have anger issues (yes I am an aries and I approve this message). There are an array of little details that provide an explanation for almost every aspect of your personality which can give you a greater insight to yourself. While many people find astrology meaningless and argue its existence, Tanya Ghahremani put it best when she said “only a very insecure person takes the time to tear down belief systems that bring positivity into the world.”

I truly believe astrology is a positive belief system and a valuable aspect in people’s lives because it makes us more aware of ourselves and those around us. For example, when I receive a notification from Co-Star such as “be more brave today you’re having trouble with self-expression,” I am not immediately offended or put all my faith in that message, however I do look at the aspects of my life where maybe I do need to be braver or challenge myself, and I appreciate the motivation it provides as well as the thought that maybe the stars want to send me a message.  Whether you fully believe in astrology or not, you cannot deny some of the freakishly accurate assumptions zodiac signs make about you and the people you know.