San Francisco, CA
It's around 9:30pm on Thursday night and it's live in downtown SF. The party that started as a casual after work night of recreation with co-workers has now turned into a full blown official party, a typical night for young working professionals in SF. The party has now doubled in numbers as the co-workers call their fellow peers telling them to come join- 'the bar is crackin'. Co-workers introduce their friends to the party and visa versa, everyone seems to like each other and have a general interest for the new strangers; conversations spark on the side, jokes are told, and politics is a given for San Franciscans. But there is one topic that becomes the party blower; the tasteless, presumptuous, type casting question of them all that seems unavoidable to SFers. . . What is your zodiac sign??
It's not that the topic of astrological signs can not be a fun conversation to have while pounding a couple of beers, because it could be. The problem is that in the Bay Area it's rapidly becoming a 'matter of fact' conversation. People use zodiac signs to assume compatibility with others, who they date, and even who they are genuinely distrustful towards.
Ana was the interrogator, Steve was on the spot light, Steve answers Ana by saying 'Aries'. Ana then replies, 'interesting', as if she now has some deep insight into the world of Steve. . . Steve then makes a shrug gesture conveying his disapproval. We all become observant. Steve lets it out, "yeah, I'm not really into that zodiac stuff, I think it's just a way to type cast people." I agree with Steve. The argument begins.
I had a similar experience to Steve's. I've had the question of 'what sign are you?' asked thousands of times and every time I say 'Aries', I get the same reply, 'oh Ok, that makes sense', 'interesting'. . . etc. I would usually take it with a grain of salt, that is until recently when it just became too much. Like, 'really, my sign is suppose to give you some insight of me.' Forget shallow, this is just a corny version of prejudice: a lazy copout to getting to know someone on a deep and intimate level.
To put things into perspective it's important to understand that zodiac signs are based on the alignment of the stars from roughly around 2,200 thousands years ago, meaning that the dates to which signs correspond are not even relevant today because of precession caused by the gravitational attraction of the Moon on Earth's equatorial bulge. This means that if you were born on exactly the same day and time 2,200 years ago, you would be a completely different zodiac sign. The equinox has moved roughly 30 degrees westward since 2,200 years ago. So whatever sign you think you are based on the celestial zodiac map. . . that's not your sign, the earth is not pointing in that direction anymore!
Ok, now that we have the more pragmatic issue squared away lets just go into basic psychology.
First off, if there were such a thing as astrological archetypes, there wouldn't be a need to ask people what sign they are? If these archetypes really existed, you would just know based on their personality right!? It would be more appropriate to, instead of asking, say something like "So, you're an Aries right? I could tell by. . . blah blah blah."
Secondly, what could you actually 'know' about a person based on the date they where born? Our entire psychological make up is a composition of memories and trauma and more importantly trauma that we don't remember from the time when we couldn't even talk.
I explained it to a colleague of mine as she tried to beat the skepticism out of me. She said that I reminded her of different Aries she knew, making generalized comparisons of people born in the same month as I. She went on about me being a self starter and a leader and being emotional and defensive. I explained to her that I was born during war times in El Salvador and had deep family issues. I explained to her that as I grew older and begin observing more Salvadorians my age, I was able to connect the dots as I saw a lot of post traumatic stress disorder in Salvadorians who lived through the war. In El Salvador the youth have deep violent tendencies, many of them have a fearless demeanor to them, and western family values are not typical in many households as the general attitude is that there is a lot of healing that needs to be repaired. It is typical to have youth only raised by their mothers and not having the fathers around, it is to some degree part of the general culture of the Salvadorians ghettos.
I asked her, in the general make up of these youth who have lived a civil war, what does a zodiac sign have to do with anything? Some of these tendencies don't apply to me, but some do. Yes I was there during the war but I left to the USA as a boy. I had accessibility to education and a stable home, making me a leader not because I'm an Aries, but because I was taught to value the opportunity I was given.
I talked about how in my career as a service provider in the non-profit sector I've worked primarily with youth in an institutionalized setting, from group homes to juvenile halls. In many Bay Area facilities I have met plenty of hard-core violent youth criminals whose personalities could easily be generalized who don't match their astrological signs. For example, most of the guys who have deep ties to a street gang are usually violent, have anger management issues and have a 'f#ck-it attitude.' All of these characteristics could easily be linked to poverty, race, socialization, parenting, etc.
I mean how silly would this scenario be..? I go to a juvenile hall to do an anger management session with a young inmate, he's facing 10 years for attempt of murder, has a big ol' tattoo on his neck. . . And I'm like, 'so what zodiac sign are you?'.. 'Oh, Virgo, makes sense.'
She wasn't convinced and neither was I. She said that my response sounded like the 'Aries in me'. I guess it's because she's a Leo and I'm an Aries. Stubborn.
I saw this movie back in school about horoscopes.. Check out this scene.
Email any comments to hgonzalez@auspicemedia.com and we'll be posting them every few hours. Thanks.