The Zodiac and Ascribing Meaning to a Random Existence

January 22, 2024

The twelve Zodiac signs are the most famous (and infamous, if you talk to scientists) way of imposing order and grouping onto our lives. Personality tests, Harry Potter houses (which have to be the laziest version out there), “What sandwich am I?” quizzes, these all apply a person’s traits and responses to fundamental questions about their being to give them their best “match” for whatever category is being used on that particular day.

Generally, these are harmless, joking fun. They are a source of gossip and lighthearted passing of the time, comparing your result to your friend’s and whatnot. But the Zodiac is very real – at least to the followers of astrology.

A quick summary of the Zodiac is that its believers think that the position of the sun and the stars has influence on the events in people’s lives, and that these events will change depending on the Zodiac of the present day, as well as when that person was born. These believers also say that a person’s Zodiac influences their behavior. To be clear, this is a pseudoscience. Astrology is an unfalsifiable theory. Does the position of astronomical objects have an effect on the personality and behavior of humanity? Common sense says no, but even if you wanted to humor the idea, it is impossible to test. Sure, some descriptions of how a Taurus or Gemini behave will match up with people born under those signs, but this is only due to random chance.

And this leads to the bigger point of my thoughts. The Zodiac is simply the most popular and non-religious phenomenon of trying to apply order, logic, and meaning to what is inherently a random existence. Why do we exist alone in a universe unfathomably massive? The idea that we just happened and that our lives could easily have never formed to begin with is a frightening one. A few random coin flips hundreds of millions of years ago, and the formation of Earth is altered, and perhaps humanity never evolves and we never exist. That we are all stumbling through life on a giant rock that might as well be non-existent on the universal scale with no end goal in sight is sobering.

But if existence is random, then that means life is random in the sense that we are capable of doing what we want – within the constraints of physical, economical, and societal material conditions. There is no set path; no “fate” we are bound to.

Landon Peaden

Class, General, Observables, Stars

astro2110, astrology, blog1, zodiac, zodiacsigns

3 responses to “The Zodiac and Ascribing Meaning to a Random Existence”

Julian Delamaza

January 22, 2024 at 8:41 pm

Hi Lavender! First I want to thank you for explaining to me why in the world people seem to believe in the Zodiac. I have personally never understood it or even researched why people were basing traits of people off of the stars in our galaxy. I do really appreciate your overall take on our “inherently random” existence and the Zodiac’s attempt to bring order to it. I would argue that there are more popular attempts such as religion that would fall into the category of explanations for existence. Or you could argue that the Zodiac and astrology IS some people’s religion. Either way I think it is an interesting way to think about how humans have always tried to implement order on a seemingly orderless world. I also thinks it brings up questions of whether any of these explanations do us any merit?

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Tejas Mahesh

January 23, 2024 at 6:48 am

Hello Landon! I found your existential philosophy to be very fascinating. More generally, do you think we have free will or the illusion of free will? One of the things that Jung implied with his categorizations is that the projections we apply onto the empty space around us to search for meaning is a biological impulse hardwired into our brains. How do you propose for us to walk through life, without making meaning of the things around us, even if they be absurd?

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1. Landon Peaden
  
  January 24, 2024 at 10:25 am
  
  I have not taken any studies in philosophy, so my take may be lacking in refinement. To my understanding, I would classify myself as an absurdist – or at least, I relate to that vein of thought the most.
  
  My take in this post may have been unclear. While I do not worry about finding meaning, order, and purpose to existence in a metaphysical sense, finding those things on smaller, personal levels is still worthwhile. Understanding the world around us, other people, and how everything interacts together to create reality as we know it is meaningful. Attempting to apply these lines of reasoning to existential questions – the meaning of life, existence of God or a higher power, humanity’s place in the universe, fate, etc. – would fall into the absurdist category as these are things we cannot qualitatively determine.
  
  To summarize, I don’t hold much thought towards the “big” questions in life, because they are unable to be solved, and thus do not NEED to be solved. I *do* put much thought and effort into the “small” interactions of our lives, because those can be understood, directly affect us, and we have control over them.
  
  As for free will, yes, I do believe that we have it. Again, this is something that cannot be measured or determined, so I choose to believe that it exists. To think that some greater power or thing has direct control over our lives only invites anxiety and fear of not having control. We are free to do what we want. The “script” of free will can be overridden by a rash, purposeful choice to go against it. If objectors say that this rejection and lashing out is part of the script, then there is no discussion to be had, because how can we know this?
  
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