I recently started checking my daily horoscope everyday using a few apps on my phone because I figured that I needed some guidance in my life. I’m new to astrology, so I was understandably apprehensive when it came to if I was going to believe them. How could a simple app predict what is going on in my life based solely on my birthday? After checking my daily horoscope everyday for over two weeks now, I knew I wanted to explore this idea of if horoscopes are trustworthy enough. I also wanted to explore if we should depend on them and live by them, before I went any further. 

Zodiac signs play a huge role in today’s society. More people are starting to rely on them to lead them in the right direction. According to Psychics Directory, some populations strongly believe in astrology and others do not. Those who do, believe that, “The universe is influencing our fate, our future, our character and that the stars may, somehow, provide indications as to how, what and why the universe is influencing us.” Those who don’t, believe that, “astrology is just nonsense.” It truly depends on the person and certain populations of people.

Surprisingly enough, newspaper horoscopes have been around for a long time— almost dating back to the first half of the 20th century. According to Linda Rodriguez McRobbie of Smithsonian Magazine, a British astrologer, R.H. Nayler, was responsible for the first one. He attempted to predict Princess Magaret’s life based on astrology in a report in August 1930. She also added that, “Like most astrologers of the day, Naylor used what’s called a natal star chart. Astrology posits that the natural world and we human beings in it are affected by the movements of the sun, moon and stars through the heavens.” Nayler went on to predict many events after this and was offered a weekly column. This was when What the Stars Foretell, the first real newspaper horoscope column, was born. He set the stage for horoscope predictions in the future, because readers enjoyed them.

Each day for the past two weeks, I’ve checked a variety of different horoscope apps to see if I could make any connections to my real life. I wanted the apps to predict how I was feeling and give me advice on what I should do about it. I’ve slowly learned that some daily horoscope apps are more accurate than other ones. In my experience, a particular app may have been extremely spot-on one day, but completely off on the next day. Some horoscope apps gave me really helpful advice even though pieces of advice are typically very vague. It took me a while to realize that it’s the vague advice that is inspirational and allows you to make those connections to your personal life. The advice can be applied in any situation. 

I interviewed a few ERHS students to see if they could chime in and add something to this argument of if daily horoscopes are trustworthy. Senior Kayann Straker uses both Snapchat and Astrology.com when it comes to checking her horoscopes. In terms of trusting them she said, “I would say my trust level is 50/50 until I start to see signs relating to the content I see.” Straker does believe zodiac horoscopes are accurate because, “After you start reading them you soon begin to see signs that are related to the horoscope which can make you believe that you are heading in the right direction in life.” 

On the other hand, junior Olanna Nwozo only believes in horoscopes to a certain extent. She believes that Zodiac signs and a person’s personality share similarities.  However, when it comes to daily horoscope predictions, Nwozo said, “I don’t think those have credibility.” She went on to add that, “The stars and planets cannot determine when/how anything in my life can happen. I just feel like when people follow those and expect something to happen, the horoscopes give them a false sense of hope.” 

It’s safe to say sometimes you can draw connections between a daily horoscope reading and your personal life, but it’s not a great idea to rely on it blindly. Some apps and websites are truly better than others in terms of quality and accuracy. Daily horoscopes are still so interesting to me and I plan to continue to read them. Overall, they’re okay to read and gain advice from, as long as they are taken with a grain of salt.