Why I don't fk with astrology
+why I don't have beef with you if you do
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As many of us know, Cracks in PoMo is a haven for religion-enjoyers. And while most of us are Catholic, we are very much interested in other religious and spiritual experiences. We’ve written lots about Anglicanism, Orthodox Christianity, Islam, and various iterations of paganism. Our contributors and readers come from various (and no) religious/spiritual backgrounds—including practitioners of astrology and New Age stuff. Some of them have written openly in our pages about their interest in reading the stars.
Because of this, many of you have asked me personally how I feel about astrology. I’ve already written about my thoughts on New Age stuff here , on occultic symbolism in pop culture here and here, have discussed New Age spirituality on the internet with
and here, and have been interviewed on spiritual warfare here. But I thought I’d spell it all out for you in one main post so I can just send you the link to this article rather than have to write out my response again and again.As we all know, I grew up in a culturally religious family. My mother’s Greek Orthodox side—despite not being super pious—had a strong “spiritual sensitivity,” as I like to call it. I had distant aunts and uncles who were nuns and monks in Greece (I think they died in the 1940s or 50s). My second cousin was a clairvoyant who received visions from (spirits who claimed to be) dead family members. An icon of the Annunciation once spoke to her. My grandma read fortunes in coffee cups (they almost always came true). My mom checked her horoscope fairly regularly.
After reading Harry Potter, I took an interest in my family’s experience with New Age/witchy stuff, and started reading up on magic. I learned how to do someone’s star chart. I asked my grandma to teach me her ways. My clairvoyant cousin bought me a Ouija board and tarot cards for my 11th birthday. The Ouija board board sent us messages from “dead family members,” telling us stuff only they would know. Then it started predicting the future, telling us oddly specific details about things that would happen—and it all came true.