Psychologists often debate whether a person’s behavior is dictated by their genes or the environment they were brought up in- defined by the term “nature vs. nurture”. Those who argue on the side of nature would state that what’s inherited is what shapes you, predisposing you to the personalities and ailments of your family. Those who embrace nurture recognize that behavior is effected more by external factors, like life experiences and treatment during childhood.
There’s another school of thought that people use to assess what makes a person the way they are… astrology. Rather than traits being passed down or learned, the stars and planets determine who they’ll be. This was founded in Babylon about two and half millennia ago, where ancient Babylonians believed that the fortune of a ruler was dependent upon the movement of the planets. Greece, democratic as ever, adopted this idea and applied it to every individual and specifically brought upon the concept of natal astrology, the specific notion that the sun, moon, and planets position at birth was vital.
When you give your “sign”, you’re likely going to name your sun sign, the Zodiac sign determined by the position of the sun when you were born. This goes by the same horoscope established by the Greeks about 2,000 years ago… which presents a problem. The universe is not static. The stars that form the constellations used to determine Zodiac signs are not in the same place they were yesterday, much less 2,000 years ago- yet the dates assigned to them have never been changed. They’ve shifted about 30° since then, about 1/12 of the Zodiac, conveniently about the length of one full sign. If you’re a Capricorn now, the sun was actually in the position of Sagittarius on your birthday.
So, was someone born as a current Capricorn supposed to be snarky, like their given sign, or optimistic, like a Sagittarius, which accurately reflects the position of the sun on their birthday?
There are other reasons that point to the planets not effecting us as much as our genetics or upbringing. For example, Mars didn’t regularly smoke while I was a fetus, unlike my mother. Jupiter never called me a faggot on the playground because I missed a goal in soccer. The random collections of rock and gasses and stardust floating around a giant burning ball of hydrogen and helium have had very little effect in my day-to-day life, unlike my predisposition to mental illness and learned shame from my peers.
Whether biological or a blank slate to be written on, your personality is yours. Realistically, it’s more likely that both nature and nurture contribute. It’s much less likely that an outdated way of looking at the constellations does.
Nature Vs. Nurture Vs. Neptune.
The stars see all, the stars know all- and the stars say to follow @JeffShutUp on Twitter.
Misfit Mementos 