In the late 1970s, when I was first learning astrology, the most hated sign was Capricorn. It wasn’t “just” that it seemed to be the opposite of all the most cherished hippie ideals of the time, but the two most famous Capricorns of those days - Richard M.Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover - actively fought against hippie ideals. A politician, ugh! A businessman concerned with only profit, ew!
While it is certainly true that Nixon and Hoover deserved every syllable of vilification directed at them, the sign Capricorn was wrongly maligned. The general public, the “consensus” segment of the population, ignored the fact that Martin Luther King Jr, Muhammad Ali, Simone de Beauvoir, and Janis Joplin Herself all were Sea-Goats. But I suppose it was easier to give a blanket dismissal to an entire sign, in order to prove that one was “in on the joke” with a more elevated and thorough comprehension of life.
Scorpio came in for a lot of abuse, too. I wrote just this morning (!) about hating my own birth chart because it wasn’t Venus-oriented “enough.” And the reason for that was the abysmal reputation of Scorpio, the 8th House, and Pluto at the time. There were no delineations of the sign being a “smoldering sexpot” or a “powerful healer” - everything was about how twisted, vengeful, and toxic these natives were supposed to be.
Fast-forward a few decades, and suddenly it’s Gemini’s turn for opprobrium. And as in the 70s, we have an example of Gemini at its very lowest and worst, Done-Old Rump, occupying the same powerful office that Nixon held. But even before the Apricot Abomination was sworn in - so much Gemini hate on our dashes.
The problem with all of this is that it’s crappy astrology. In effect people are trying to mold and contort the Zodiac into fitting their particular world view of the moment, in an effort to demonstrate their own superiority.
And, I haven’t accepted “it was only a joke” for many years now - as a woman, how many times have I heard that after someone makes a sexist joke and gets called out on it? If it’s wrong then, and it is, then it’s always wrong.
We are dealt enough bullshit in our everyday lives, and certainly we all see enough real malevolence in the real world beyond our laptops and devices, to waste each other’s time with crappy astrology and over-sensitivity. There is a “fake Buddha quote” (dating back only to 1846) we all know: “Before you speak, ask yourself: is it true, is it kind, is it necessary?” We all, myself included, must regulate what comes out of our fingers on the keyboards, as well as out of our mouths.
