Our daily bread

It is England, late 1930. Princess Margaret had just been born and the London Sunday Express commissioned astrologer R H Naylor to write an article on the astrological significance of her birth. When the article appeared, the public response was so huge, sales of the newspaper soared. As a result, Naylor was commissioned to write a regular astrology column in the paper, and thus the regular appearance of the daily horoscope in newspapers and magazines far and wide began.

Eighty-odd years later, the daily horoscope seems to have found a place in the lives of everyone I know. Newspapers, popular magazines (and now almost every site on the internet I tend to visit) have taken to providing a regular horoscope column with fervour. These days there are very few things to read without a horoscope column, written either on a weekly or monthly basis, some even provide special annual supplements that seem to be getting more and more detailed each year. If it is their extreme popularity that keeps horoscopes being written and published on such a regular basis, it would be easy to presume that thousands of people must be reading them every day. So why, if most people probably know that the information is so general and vague that it can’t possibly be as personal as they expect and have any real relevance to their lives, why are they still so widely followed?

Long gone are the days when a king might summon his personal astrologer to see whether the stars aligned well for a battle or whether a drought was on its way. At least these ancient astrologers probably read the sky. It would be hard to believe that these days all these horoscopes are written by trained and practising astrologers. But you never know.

Intrigued by the whole daily horoscope thing, I decided to ask a number of my friends and colleagues why they read them despite the fact that the information provided could never be considered true, scientific or accurate for every person on the planet. The answers were amazingly quite similar and therefore remarkable enough to give some consideration. Just about everyone replied that they were looking for positive comments about their days or weeks ahead and some support in understanding what might be going on in their lives. This quote from one respondent appears to sum it up:

‘So, what is it that drives me to read my daily horoscope? To be completely honest, it is to be told that there is happiness/love in store, a hope that things will get better. I also find them useful to get an idea of where other people are at. Sometimes the stars give me clarity on what I am feeling or recognition that things might actually be low. What I have noticed is that when I am happy, I don’t read my stars.’

A little stargazing towards the heavens on a clear and cloudless night can be quite relaxing, exhilarating; even inspiring. But if there is only an off-chance that one day your horoscope readings will offer a glimmer of hope, is there really any pressing need to keep checking them? Perhaps it is time to consult a qualified astrologer, or perhaps we might we just turn the page, do the crossword or hit the mouse and find something more interesting on the ‘net’ to enable us to ponder our personal journey. And get on with our lives.

Do you agree with Jenny?  What do you think about horoscopes?

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