Astrology gains popularity among Gen Z and Millennials
HAS A RISE IN POPULARITY AMONG GEN Z AND MILLENNIALS
For as long as she can remember, 22-year-old Taylor Doyle has known she was a Leo, the astrological sign for people born in the peak of summer between July 23 and August 22.
Before Doyle was born, her mother had a birth chart written up for her that outlined personality traits, interests and even events that may take place in Doyle’s life.
Doyle is a psychology major at Middletown’s Middlesex Community College, a subject she chose based on career paths an astrologer recommended for Leos.
“I read (the birth chart) when I had gotten a little bit older and I just thought it was so interesting how accurate it still was, and how someone could know so much about a person that wasn’t even born yet and so much about their life when, you know, they didn’t know anything about their life yet,” Doyle said.
Astrology is not a science, but rather a type of spiritual practice that “involves the forecasting of earthly and human events through the observation and interpretation of the fixed stars, the sun, the moon, and the planets,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
There has been a rising trend in the past three or four years of Gen Z and Millennial interest in astrology and spiritualism. While the practices have been around for thousands of years, with significant peaks in the 60s and 70s, a 2018 article in The Atlantic titled “Why are Millennials so into astrology?” credited the internet and the introduction of memes — think, “Mercury in retrograde” — as a successful conduit for astrology.
In Connecticut, there are many astrologers who have dedicated their lives to the practice and predict everything from business trends and stocks to health issues and career choices based on the position of the stars and planets.
Janet Booth has practiced astrology in West Hartford for 22 years — 20 years parttime until she moved into full-time astrology work in 2019.
“You know, it starts when you’re a teenager and you want to know about boys. What sign is he and what sign are you,” Booth said. “But I didn’t really formally study it until after I was out of college. I had a degree in behavioral studies, which was a combination between psychology, sociology and anthropology, which turned out to be an excellent background for going into astrology, but of course, none of your guidance counselors ever looked at your chart and go ‘oh yeah, you’d be a great astrologer.’”
Booth said she has seen astrology trends come and go throughout the years, but that she’s noticed an uptick in younger clients in the past five years.
“I think it’s a trend,” Booth said. “At this point in time, planets that have a lot to do with astrology and spiritualism and the science involved with that are featured strongly on a sort of temporary basis, but it can be a tide.”
“I’m also thinking about how so many of the youngsters now were born during a period when things were really shifting,” she said. “So, you know, if you’re in your 20s and your 30s, maybe you were born in the late 80s and early 90s. There were a lot of things going on astrologically then that laid the groundwork for an interest to be arising now.”
Even the Connecticut art scene has entered the spiritual world. In Ridgefield, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is hosting a tarotinspired exhibit by Brooklynbased artist Adrienne Elise Tarver.
“The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth” is Tarver’s interpretation of the major arcana of the tarot, focusing on a tropical environment and reclaiming the symbols imparted on Black and Brown women by Western civilization, such as the faraway temptress and the Black Voodoo priestess, according to previous reporting.
“I just find the idea of tarot cards and the history of tarot really interesting, or how people use tarot and this idea of foretelling the future to be really interesting. And I think in a period of uncertainty, like the pandemic, it was really comforting to think about the future and to project into the future,” Tarver said in a previous interview. “So (the exhibit) really came out of this like desire to see the future and to see positivity in the future.”
Angela Alden has been an astrologer and tarot reader in Connecticut for 27 years and runs Angela Marie Astrology. She started professionally reading tarot and birth charts when she was 15 years old. Like Tarver, she sees astrology and spiritualism as a way of living life with positivity, using her skill set to help people.
She also warns against taking serious guidance from people on social media, like TikTok or Instagram, who haven’t put in the years of study that professional astrologers have.
“It is a fairly big responsibility, which is why it’s so important when you are looking for an astrologer, that you make sure that they have the experience and that they know what they’re talking about. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about astrology, where people are doing it from a two-dimensional view,” Alden said. “I have a lot of younger clients like all my Generation Z kids. I love it because (they) are coming, asking the questions and really starting to study. My biggest wish for anybody that’s interested (in spiritualism) in that age group is please look up symbols... don’t just flip through TikTok or an Instagram post or a Facebook post and think that’s just it. There’s so much more to it.”
Doyle agrees with Alden that it is up to the consumer to ensure the one-minute sound bite they scrolled past on TikTok is coming from a reliable source.
She also believes Gen Z is interested for spiritualist content because they are a generation that is rectifying past harm.
“I think our generation is a lot more aware. On social media I see a lot of posts about people wanting to like break generational curses,” Doyle said. “People talk about having toxic traits and how to break your toxic traits… and I feel like astrology gives people a feeling like they understand themselves better. And I think it’s kind of something to work with. I think sometimes when you realize you have certain traits, you’re like ‘why am I like this?’ And for some people it kind of gives them something to identify with.”
One common theme among these astrologers seems to be the impression that Gen Z and younger Millennials are not as involved in religion as previous generations. In the end, spiritualists like Doyle, Alden and Booth believe astrology, tarot, numerology and spiritualism are all ways for humans to connect not just with each other but, as Doyle said, with some greater, unidentifiable power.
“Why do I and all these other people feel the need to connect to our to something bigger than us? I feel like that’s such a common goal of anyone that’s spiritual or religious or whatever, however they identify. They just want to know that there’s something out there that’s bigger than them that has some sort of power that they don’t.”