I recently tried to book to go see a psychic for kicks. My hairdresser was telling me about her experience with a reading coming true and this spurred on a rather amusing debate in the salon. I decided it would be a fun activity for me and best friend to go see a psychic and I was shocked to discover the psychic was fully booked until early summer- I couldn’t believe that many people would be interested in seeing a psychic and that they would book for as far away as July for a reading.

I started digging around on the internet as to why astrology still plays such a huge part in our society. What I discovered was astrology, like religion has guided people throughout the ages on how to succeed in all their endeavours. The 17th Century however, marked a change in astrological substance, the rise of scientific developments and opposition met an alleged decline in astrological popularity. Yet, astrology still exists in our modern culture. The iconic figure of Mystic Meg, television channels and programmes devoted to astrology, horoscope columns and the paranormal still appear in newspapers and magazines today. The form of astrology has progressed over time from religious connotations into a type of entertainment; a product of our consumer culture.

The horoscopes column is a direct extension of consumerism; it provides its readers with joy, comfort and advice like the majority of material commodities produced by capitalism. It also offers knowledge and understanding of our characteristics and human nature which can often provide ego boosts. It is often criticised that people recognise the hits and value these above the misses in a reading; meaning readers often believe horoscopes if one sentence relates to their life, despite the fact that the rest of the forecast may be vague and not applicable.

Television acts as an influential portal in further increasing astrology’s popularity and is embedded with paranormal propaganda. Dynamo, a Bradford-born illusionist who took to the streets with his magical tricks in recent years, has received a vast amount of media attention causing his popularity and fame to grow swiftly. In one of our recent weekly brainstorms we thought about using Dynamo for an experiential activity to create a buzz on the high streets and were not the only ones who have been inspired by the weird and wonderful. In 1997 car insurance company, Touchline launched the ‘Drivers’ Zodiac’, a campaign based on research which highlighted the type of star sign to make the most amount of claims and what they claimed. The research was collated in a press release which detailed drivers’ horoscopes for each sign, this was then issued to national and regional print and broadcasters. The results were a success, it was covered in The Sun, Daily Telegraph as well as a number of regional titles and trade magazines, it also went far and wide with regional radio stations.  Similarly, in 2010 Honda launched ‘The Honda Year in the Auto Zodiac’ based on astrologically led predictions regarding the purchase of a new car, which car was right for the buyer in relation to what zodiac year they were born in.

Astrology has increasingly become an important aspect of our popular culture; as one of the pleasures and entertainment elements in contemporary life which exist alongside the likes of music and television as aspects of diversion used by the public.

Natalie.owen@ptarmiganbp.co.uk

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