Astrology is an interesting concept because it can be very difficult to understand and grasp, while simultaneously being very intriguing. Naturally, we always want to learn more about ourselves. This is why we always want to take quizzes to find out our personality type or read about the typical attributes of our signs. It wasn’t until a few years back that I took astrology seriously; not “serious” as in I can’t talk to you if you’re a Gemini, but more like I like to read about it and learn why people may act the way they do. To me, it is more of a psychological intrigue rather than something I live by. There is even an app called Co-Star that I downloaded that tells me what all my signs—sun, moon and rising—are, and I can add people to see our compatibility based on our signs. This app is really fun to play around with and has helped me learn a lot about signs and compatibility.

Whether you believe astrology is real or not, it is true that astrologers believe our bodies are influenced by the moon because we are made of 70 percent water. The moon controls the tides of the sea, why wouldn’t it control a being predominantly composed of water? This idea is what sparked my interest in astrology. It made perfect sense to me, so I dove right in by renting books from the Boston Public Library, trying to get a basic background knowledge. So far, I have gathered that …

1. Astrology has been around since as early as 1000 B.C. The Babylonians were the first known people who practiced astrology, and they introduced it to Europe. Once the Romans were intrigued, they established the names that we still use today for the signs. For 2000 years, astrology and astronomy were considered the same. At first, astrology was used for weather prediction, then evolved into personal predictions for those in power such as kings and queens and eventually became what it is to us today.
2. You aren’t just your sign. You also have moon and rising signs that affect you. It all depends on the time you were born at. Sometimes people think they don’t identify with their sign, as they don’t have the typical characteristics others do. This can be due to your moon and rising signs. So to break it down, your sun sign is your basic identity. This is what you typically would reply with if someone asked what sign you were. Your moon sign is a part of you that you tend to keep behind closed doors. You may hide these attributes from others, and you can identify more with your moon than your sun in some instances. Your rising sign is who you are to the world. It is the person you show every day to others and consciously believe that’s who you are, even if it’s not behind closed doors.
3. It doesn’t have to be that serious! If you believe in astrology, awesome. If not, awesome. But at the very least, educate yourself before you decide how you feel about it. It’s so easy to have an opinion, but not as easy to actually have knowledge on a specific subject. If you’re interested, there are a million resources that’ll help you learn all about astrology and how we use it today. Try the library, websites online or YouTubers who dedicate their channels to astrology to learn more.

Astrology can be intimidating and confusing. However, it can also be exciting and fun. Decide for yourself how you’d like to view it—hopefully this article helped you feel more comfortable with dipping your feet into the water.