Column: Did you read your horoscope today?

Chicago Tribune

4 days ago

Good Monday morning, Georgia Nicols, what have you got to say about me?
'Because the moon is sitting in the sign opposite yours, you'll have to go more than halfway when dealing with others. This is no big deal. It simply means you have to make an effort to be accommodating and cooperative. Smile.'
Well, seems OK, but Magi Helena, what about you?
'Morning doubts should fade, replaced by a surge of optimism and confidence. Use this momentum for presentations to decision-makers.'
These two women are astrologers who write daily columns for, respectively, the Sun-Times and Tribune. Helena comes to you via the Tribune Content Agency, which syndicates her columns to many papers and touts her as 'An astrology pioneer (and) author of two books: 'Build Your Dream Life,' and 'How To Sing the Uni-Verse,' and is currently at work on her third book, 'Astro-Goddesses.''
Newspaper horoscopes are read by more people than you might imagine, millions of you. Even as the number of newspapers has diminished, horoscopes remain a popular offering, much like such non-news items as games, crosswords and comics. There are also, it should come as no surprise, dozens of magazines and websites in the horoscope and astrology business.
Horoscopes are based on the ancient practice of astrology, positing that information about human affairs and Earthly events may be discerned by studying the positions of celestial objects. This study of celestial bodies and their alignment with human behavior has intrigued civilizations for centuries.
Based on that, horoscopes outline opportunities and challenges one may face based on one's zodiac sign, which is determined by one's date of birth. I'm a Virgo, and one website tells me that means, among many things, I am loyal, analytical, kind, hardworking, practical, shy and overly critical of myself and others, and that I like animals and books. I can live with that.
Though astrology has ancient roots, horoscopes did not enter wide public consciousness until about 100 years ago. Some experts point to a 1916 horoscope of then-President Woodrow Wilson that appeared in the Boston Sunday Post for sparking the popularity. Soon, daily horoscopes began to appear in papers across the country, offering information to people born on a specific day, often with additional reading directed toward the general public.
Many other experts credit the widespread popularity to a man named R.H. Naylor, a London astrologer who wrote a 1930 column headlined 'What the Stars Foretell for the New Princess' in London's Sunday Express for the newborn Princess Margaret's birth horoscope. He soon began writing a recurring feature called 'What the Stars Foretell.'
In the United States, a daily horoscope began running in the Washington Post in the 1920s and into the 1940s. During those decades of deprivation and war, newspaper horoscopes offered for many some words of hope. Hundreds of newspapers ran daily columns and so did many women's magazines.
As the newspaper industry has been battered over the last decades, still horoscopes remain popular, and polls consistently show that.
A 2024 report by the Pew Research Center showed that younger adults, in particular younger women, are more likely to consult astrology or horoscopes. Some 43% of women and 20% of men ages 18 to 49 say they believe in astrology, compared with 27% of women and 16% of men ages 50 and older. It's possible that has got something to do with the proliferation of social media platforms, some of which have created communities of individuals interested in discussing astrological topics.
No question, horoscopes are here to stay. As to why, theories abound.
Here are some: that reading horoscopes are useful for meditating on your day; that they appear to be so personal that it is as if someone is talking directly to a reader about their life; they allow people a moment of self-reflection; act as a kind of mirror, reflecting back to readers their hopes, wishes and fears; engaging with daily horoscopes can become a source of inspiration, fostering greater awareness and proactive strategies for navigating the complexities of daily life.
I have a friend who tells me he started consulting horoscopes — he's a Cancer — when sports gambling was legalized in Illinois. My attitude? It's his money.
To me, horoscopes seem pretty harmless. Still, there have always been skeptics. When it was learned that then first lady Nancy Reagan and her astrologer helped shape her husband's schedule based on the location of various planets and constellations, a Tribune editorial at the time described her reliance on astrology as an 'ignorant superstition.' Still, each day in the paper, there was a syndicated horoscope column. And it remains to this day.
So, yesterday I read what Georgia Nicols and Magi Helena had to say. I may do that again this morning, but after that I'll stick with another person. He wasn't an astrologer, and I'm sure he had no idea what a horoscope was. But he had this to say, 'The fault … is not in our stars, but in ourselves.' William Shakespeare was his name. He was born in April 1564, precise date uncertain, which means he could have been an Aries or a Taurus, for what that's worth.