Why Astrology is Making a Comeback Among Millennials

You may have noticed that astrology is no longer a New Age woo-woo practice. These days, you won’t be surprised to find tarot cards on department store shelves or hear your friends chalking up their life troubles to Mercury in retrograde. Astrology has made real a comeback and some folks are studying why. Bertram Malle, a social cognitive scientist at Brown University, told The Atlantic, “To the extent that one simply learns this vocabulary, it may be appealing as a rich way of representing (not explaining or predicting) human experiences and life events, and identifying some possible paths of coping.” Millennials are a particularly stressed generation. Reports show that they are the highest to report increased stress in the past year since 2010. The 2017 edition of the APA’s survey reported that 63% of Americans admit to being remarkably stressed about the future of their country. While aspects of astrology can be traced to ancient Babylon about 4,000 years ago the practice as we know it today is only about a century old. During these times, seeking comfort and boundaries through this modern-day touchstone can make an otherwise very chaotic world feel a little more easy to navigate.  

  “Then there’s something that’s happened in the last five years that’s given it an edginess, a relevance for this time and place, that it hasn’t had for a good 35 years,” Chani Nicholas, an LA-based astrologer, told The Atlantic. “Millennials have taken it and run with it.” Astrology finds meaning in the position of the sun, moon, and planets.  Where they are in the 12 sections of the sky connect to the signs of the zodiac. When life gets tough, astrology is yet another reason to turn to the night sky and ask it for a little guidance. “Astrologers are always trying to boil down these giant concepts into digestible pieces of knowledge,” Nicholas goes on. “The kids these days and their memes are like the perfect context for astrology.” Whether or not ascribing astrological elements meaning and force is your thing, maybe we can all agree that being offered guidance and structure is always comforting, especially in times like these. Curiosity piqued? Check out Eric Francis Coppolino’s horoscope column in the Daily News. Coppolino is an investigative reporter-gone-astrologer and we think he has an interesting spin on star stuff.