I am kind of a quite grounded person in most ways - well with my feet hovering fairly close to the surface (who is that laughing out there?). Some years ago in Romania i met a guy who - after half an hour - guessed my star sign and ascendant and proceeded to give me the most accurate character analysis - it was SPOOKY! Ever since then i have had this on-off relationship with astrology - and i just got my chart done - and it is weird - like looking in a mirror (and having to look away sometimes too).

So i am a Virgo with Scorpio rising (i have a lot of Virgo friends - one of whom describes us as Virgos with Hysteria rising). What are you and do you believe in it? 

I dont beleive in horoscopes, I think its all a form of cold reading and that you can read into them whatever you like... BUT... I do read them, and I do tend to relate what they say to the issues in my life, but as far as I know I dont ever really act on the stuff I read, I just kind of enjoy reading them for entertainment value..

Zorro (pisces - rising sagitarius!) 

I'm with you, BB; I'm an 'Aastrologist' as well.

I did get into it, and all other psychic/new-agey stuff when I was younger. But not now. Seems like a lot of hooey to me now. I could relate to all the signs in one way or another, no matter how you looked at them, where you put them on the chart, etc. The language too is so open to interpretation, Same with palmistry and taro reading, etc. So, like you, BB, I am not even going to say....

-Mebenji

Do I beleive in horoscopes or astrology - no but do I read them and wonder - definitely.  Everyone know that Aquarians are a little odd - so I raise it to help others relax with some of my more "out there" ideas.  I like to read about Chinese astrology best - I am an ox - sturdy and surefooted - always hangs in until the job is done.

I have a link to a horoscope through my google home page.  Somedays it is the one thing outside of what is planned or predictible that will really challenge me.  I wonder as Zorro says if I am just reading into the messages what I want but the messages are rather more about challenging myself than predicting an event or future.  One day the message was along these lines " Do not be so impatient with others who do not work in the same what or at the same speed as you do.  Your impatience shows up your own weaknesses in having too high standards and being too demanding of yourself.  If you are more patient with others you may learn patience with yourself".

I work with a close friend and showed it to him and he just laughed and said something like it was something that people had often thought they should raise with me but were always too fearful (I am a very terrifying person apparently).  I got the message - but not because I believe in horoscopes - just because I like to be open to thinking about different things.

UM

Aquarian/moon Libra/Rising Cancer - though I am not certain of the exact time of birth. 

Hi all, hey roze, Horoscopes can be a bit of fun, not always harmless, and that is all. No way but no way do I believe in them. Sorry to spoil the fun and perhaps comfort they may give you. But then again, what with my angst spilling and feable jokes on here, that seems to be quickly becoming my role.

Anchored fast to the scientific realities myself. Why should our particular planet going round this sun be special?

On the scale of the unimaginatively vast universe the earth is not even a spec of dust going round a micro grain of sand on a beach with no end! Why should this particular tree, in a forest of countless billions, be the only one with a leaf on it - life.

It is all too understandable that mere insecure beings such as ourselves, who do not yet understand the workings of most of our own brain, should seek out some relatively easy explanations and crumbs of comfort - sorry if it offends but that includes all religion - to help us on our very brief and uncertain way.

If man made magic helps you on your way, perhaps I envy you. I really hope it can bring you some comfort - but not complacency. For myself John Lennon had a way of summing it up

No hell below us

Above us only sky

If we can get that one right perhaps we can begin to sort the damned mess we have made of this world. Hope this is not too strident and I will still be spoken to on here

Ever hopeful 

Yours ever so caringly

summer 76 X

No S76 - you don't get off that easily.  No point trying to think that you can end a conversation just by being strident.

I don't believe in horoscopes but find the language that is used in their writing fairly facisnating from the way that it seems to say much but really nothing - we don't want the politicians to learn this technique - that would be the end of any policy work.

But just because we don't believe in something doesn't mean that I am going to not engage in it - well unless it is promoting an " 'ism" or violence or hatred.  I enjoy the discussion the way that people with different beliefs can have a different  perspecitive from mine - and sometimes although the beliefs are fundamentally differnent we can arrive at fairly similar positions in terms of what we want to do to in terms of actions.

My life has been fortunate in this regard - although I am an atheist I have some wonderful friends who are fundamentalist muslims, and  not fundamentalists, devout jews, buddhists, Anglicans, Catholics even some pencostal Christians and some how we can find enough to bind together to work even though we have such broad and differing beliefs - and of course I should have mentioned my friend the white witch who regards horoscopes as mumbo jumbo.  Despite the potential for internal conflict it brings a rich relationship.   I am sure Blanche would have agreed with this too.

Thanks a bunch lovely people, after reading my post I went to bed feeling I had caused so much offence, not least to the originator of this post, roze. That is another major proplem I have. I can do guilt better than most Catholic's I know (I mean that nicely and from lots of experience). As I said elsewhere, that is the piscean problem of two fish in opposite directions..............wots he like.......I wish he could make his mind up! There is some really thought provoking philosophical stuff in your replies that for now would take too long. Suffice to say I wish 'the street' were talking about this rather than ' where is my next meal coming from ' or ' do I look fat in this? '

The head is deep red socialist atheist, the heart is all yours. Churchill got somethings right?

If you are not a communist when you are 18 you have no heart

If you are still a communist when you are 28 you have no head

 Perhaps I never grew up?

Love, S76 X

I certainly do believe in Horoscopes - because they do exist.  Do I believe that they are correct?  Ahhh.  Now how can each twelfth of the entire population of the world have the same horoscope? 

I was married to an Astronomer once, and he looked at the star charts for the year I was born [some fair time ago, folks, I assure you] and the sun was rising in Aquarius, not Pisces, which is nominally supposed to by my "thang".  He pointed out to me that the star charts that the horoscopes were based on are very very old, and the sky has moved along a little in those years.  Uh oh. 

So now when/if I read the Horoscopes, I read them all until I find one that I like, and then I have that.  So if my lucky colour is beige for Taurus, but I want the Taurus Horoscope, I take the Taurus and call it colour rising from Virgo.  Heh heh.  Here you meet true genius for self-deception combined with scepticism from the boots up...

Brilliant, Crowsister!

I wonder how much they have moved about since way beck when? Wouldn't that just totally mess up all the charts people have been paying lots of money to have made for themselves - the satrologer relying on such out-dated information like that! Buyer beware!

-Mebenji

I completely agree with the previous statement that we are "more interested in confirming and maintaining beliefs" ... I see that in action all around me.  We all want to validate ourselves.

BUT I also have a weird addiction to my horoscopes.  Each Sunday I cut out my three horoscopes from the weekend papers and put them on top of the fridge.  I am always convinced that they are true and correct and these things are going to happen to me. By Wed/Thurs I have forgotten about them.  Then on Saturday I read them again.  They are never, ever, ever correct.  Not even once.  

Sigh.