Like any other girl, I was fascinated with astrology as a teenager. I distinctly remember buying books (which I only partially read) and jumping from website to website, trying to discover more things that apply to being a Gemini - I was born on June third, thus falling under that sign. I believed that at that point, most of the interest that a person could truly have in astrology, zodiac, horoscopes (whatever you wish to call them) lies not in the predictions or advice that the columnists would give you, but rather in the personality descriptions of each and every astrological sign that you fall under. What are you like as a person, a parent, a friend, a lover? What star signs will you be more comfortable with as friends? Which star signs make for your ideal romantic or life partner? At a time when I was very much confused about who I was something like astrology, which clearly and decisively tells me who I am, is very much welcome.



Now, it's almost a decade later, and it fascinates me to realize that much of what those books and articles claim about the personalities of Geminis still pretty much apply to me. As a matter of fact, I realize that many of the Geminis around me (including my father, mother and brother - my darling youngest sister is the only family member born a Virgo) are somehow described well enough in terms of disposition and interest by that particular astrological sign. Of course, I still believe that whatever newspapers and magazines publish for the day as horoscopes (you know, the ones that go 'you will be challenged today, and the best route will be diplomacy; go get 'em tiger' - pretty much like a fortune cookie, only without the perk of the sugary sweet nibbles) cannot actually be relied on as a guide for going about your particular day because they claim that something will happen that day according to the charts when there is no actual way of proving that it happens. I, for one, don't actually run into anything that those horoscopes claim I run into. The only thing that astrology got right for me, it seems, would be describing my personality type.

Funnily enough, having some basic knowledge about personality types and people's star signs have somehow helped me develop a strange proficiency when it comes to predicting what will happen to particular people - provided that I am told their situation in life first. I don't claim to be perfect at it, of course (I am much better at reading fortunes when using Tarot cards), but I tend to be accurate enough that people would come back to tell me how right I had been. The strangely empowering feeling made me wonder if this is the reason why an astrologist does what he or she does - because people look up to you for your advice, even if they're not sure about it. On second thought, perhaps the grandstanding and preening in front of the 'audience' is merely myself being a show-off Gemini.

Getting back to the subject, I suppose the point that I'm actually trying to make right now would be that perhaps the so-called predictions that one would get out of astrology or horoscopes are less taken from the stars and more taken from who the people are in relation to the stars. That is to say, perhaps the celestial bodies under which we are born do not in fact tell us what will happen to us but instead tell us who we can possibly be. And upon showing us just who we might be, it would be much easier to predict what would happen to us in the future.

It seems to me that picking up prescience is simply a matter of understanding people - their motivations, their spiritual needs, their inclinations all add up to how they will react in certain situations. And once you've picked up the knack of knowing what is happening in their lives (I'm still working on that, mind you), then there really shouldn't be too much of a problem in figuring out the possible future scenarios. In the end, astrology just may be best for advise, and not full-out predictions.