Do you believe in horoscopes?

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Originally Posted by JuniperWoolf

Yeah, I don't really understand how it works either. I think that it has something to do with which constellation is in closest proximity to the moon when seen from the hemisphere that you're born in at the time of your birth, and then you're assumed to have certain character traits depending on the "personality" of that constellation.

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Is that how they did it? I wonder how they measured the distances (whoever "they" were) considering that each star in the 88 constellations has a different distance from the rest that "belong" to the same constellation.

(and why on earth did they exclude Orion which is the most impressive of them all?)

Does it really matter? I just like reading things about myself on occasion.

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Originally Posted by manolia

Is that how they did it? I wonder how they measured the distances (whoever "they" were) considering that each star in the 88 constellations has a different distance from the rest that "belong" to the same constellation.

(and why on earth did they exclude Orion which is the most impressive of them all?)

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I'm far from an expert on this, but I suspect that astrology could be considered a sort of "wave theory". The stars are used as a clock to measure the length of the waves. That is why Orion is excluded. It is not part of the zodiac clock.

The theory would claim that our personalities are different, but dependent on where in the wave pattern we were born.

There are some serious wave theories out there (not saying astrology isn't serious :) ). One that I find interesting is Elliott Wave Theory that Robert Prechter promotes as a stock market technical analysis tool:

http://www.elliottwave.com/

Some people think Prechter is even nuttier than the astrologists, especially today when the US DOW Industrial Average has closed above 11500. He is anticipating a severe crash, perhaps to DOW 1000, although I don't remember exactly how low he expects the DOW to go this decade. I do find his analysis interesting.

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Originally Posted by Brian Bean

Now let me say that I think the whole idea of star signs controlling our lives is nonsense. But recently, after a number of years, I met someone who has a very great affinity with the way I think and the things I believe in. She is a little toughie not given to self-deception, so I was surprised when she asked me my star sign and I found we were both born under the same sign. I still think it is nonsense but what do other Litnetters think about Astrology?

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Personally I don't believe in horoscopes, or astrology, or any of the other stuff like tarot etc, and although I have met a few Librans who resonate with my way of thinking, I also know far too many who are nothing like me.

What springs to my mind when I read your encounter is that maybe you both share similar personality types (a la MBTI > something some other people do try to dismiss as modern astrology but which I disagree with lol).

I know someone who not only shares my MBTI type, but also my western horoscope and chinese one, I dismiss the horoscope connection and believe our extreme similarities come from our shared MBTI type.

Maybe this person you met also shares a similar type?

Personally I have more faith in the 4 letters resulting from a test, than my sign according to when I was born.

I'm an Aquarius on the Western zodiac and a tiger in the Chinese zodiac.

In terms of accuracy, I think it's all crap, BUT it's fascinating to study the history and origins of zodiacs.

I wonder if it's an ancient way of trying to make sense of, and categorise, personality traits and different characters? I think Dodo's point about stereotypes suggests this. Stereotypes are not always negative, but do help us to make sense of people. We may have our own stock of useful stereotypes that we apply to people whom we meet so we can make judgements about them.

I was also thinking about those personality tests they use these days - you know the management ones where group are assigned types according to what part of a complex task they complete, (I forget the name) - or those tests they get you to take when you apply for a job. Are they so dissimilar I wonder to the purpose of astrology?

Can we take a class action suit for all the times the astrologers' predictions have been wrong?

What's a class action suit?

As far as horoscopes in magazines and newspapers and such, I don't believe in them. For the same month, each one is saying something different.
I've never had my horoscope told by a reliable source, though, so I wouldn't know about that.

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Originally Posted by Paulclem

What's a class action suit?

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It's what men in suits do all the time in America, and occasionally Julia Roberts gets involved

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Originally Posted by MystyrMystyry

It's what men in suits do all the time in America, and occasionally Julia Roberts gets involved

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I'm no wiser. What do men in suits do all the time in the US?

Class Action is when a group of people whom a large company has individually screwed over, come together for the purpose of suing the arse off of it, something they would be unable to pursue alone because the manner in which a large company tends to do its screwing usually involves taking as much of a person's lifesavings as possible

I see.

Doesn't that make the whole business of planning ahead/ making projections even more dodgy?

Well I believe horoscopes exist, yes because they are in every newspaper and women's magazine.

But do I believe horoscopes

Well, no, they are sly, ambiguous trash propagated by the same con artists and liars who 'tell' fortunes and 'read' Tarot cards.

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Originally Posted by Patrick_Bateman

Well I believe horoscopes exist, yes because they are in every newspaper and women's magazine.

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This raises an interesting question, namely, why are women more likely to be attracted to horoscopes than men?