Dr The Evidence's Political Blog (with Pop-Culture references)

I know I shouldn't. I know its stupid. I know most right-minded, rational people think its all rubbish. But still I find myself devoting time to it. Its wrong. Its a waste of time...

But enough about Celebrity Big Brother, this blog is about Astrology. The belief that "truth" (inverted commas signifying the subjective nature of said truth) can be found in star patterns, celestial bodies and that the position of the unvierse at the moment of your birth effects the type of person you become.

Now maybe you dismiss this as a load of superstitious nonsense, but the fact remains you probably know someone who believes, or at least knows a bit about it. They probably wear beads and are vegetarian. Maybe they smell faintly of hemp, I don't know. Regardless, everyone knows their star sign, and most people will identify certain characteristics that are common within themselves and others of their 'sign'. For example, Capricorns like myself, are said to be clumsy (check), goal orientated (partial check) and sometimes overly sarcastic (double check). There are common traits associated with other signs too, as I'm sure many of us will have heard said hippy friend of ours describe a person as a "typical libra" or some such.

Now I consider myself a rational person. I don't believe in ghosts or miracles and the subject of God causes me to scratch my head as I sit on the sceptic fence. But maybe there is something to this astrology stuff. I mean considering our place in the universe, and both the amazingly small portion of time and space we can hope to occupy in our lives, perhaps the allignment of stars, planets and galaxies at the moment we begin life does have some significance. It is our closest link with what comprises the 'rest' of the universe, is it not? And if all matter was created at the birth of a star, then surely THEY are the only truly creative forces in existence? If the universe is mostly space, stars and planets, then maybe the composition of those things affect who we are on some fundemental, basic level? As Moby said "We are all made of stars".

Yes, thats right. I just quoted Moby. Deal with it.

Ok so this is a strange story. It is slightly relevant though. When I was at school we had a assignment one day to write down any recurring dreams we might have. (Weird lesson I agree, but it was a catholic primary, so we had Double Guilt in the afternoon to make up for it.) I wrote down mine, involving me on a multi-lane, super wide motorway (or freeway, you Yanks), standing there on this vast deserted road, as suddenly a wall of traffic makes its way towards me. I turn to run, but can only do so in slow motion. They catch up quickly as I struggle to move. Then one of the cars hits and BANG, I'm awake.

Odd? Yes.

Signifier of some deep routed psychosis? Possibly.

But the strange thing is, there was this girl in my class who wrote down the same thing. Not just near, almost EXACT. To the word. So much so, the teacher thought we'd copied eachother. And what did her and I have in common?

Same birthday. In fact we were born in the same hospital.

Is that odd? Well for me and her it was. Does it have any greater significance? I'm not sure. But when thinking of astrology, I always come back to that memory. Because its weird. In my mind, either our star signs were the cause of such subconscious syncronicity, or the staff at Dudley Road Hospital were experimenting on newborn babies. I know which once I'd prefer to believe. Or of course its all just a coincidence, and I have been told its quite a common dream.

But I digress. As I often do.

The point is, not so much the back-of-the-newspaper horoscopes that say things like "tommorrow you will eat and talk", but what about the underlying belief, the cosmic ordering, does that have any real value? Any worth?

Back in the olden times, when people wore rags and kept warm by campfire and Snickers bars were called Marathon, and there was no such thing as "health and safety legislation" us human beings looked to the world around us to explain our existence. The Sun god, the bringer of rain, creator of mountains and valleys etc. As we venture out into the stars, and our understanding of the universe increases, will we look further afield to satisfy our yearnings for "truth" (theres that word again) or will our newfound knowledge replace the need for a God at all? If so, maybe we'll return to the stars, galaxies and planets, as an answer for our divine questioning.

What do you, faithful reader, think?

One thing is for sure, despite what the future brings...tomorrow we will eat and talk.