This will be a series of me breaking down personality tests/related things and how it's actually good (and okay) for them to be wrong. And no, I am not an expert.
I am not an astrology girl. But, I do love astrology.
Growing up, I hated astrology. As a Gemini, I never liked being characterized as two-faced. And their whole spiel about how Geminis are afraid of commitment has never sat well with me because I couldn't be further away from that.
Then someone told me to do my birth chart. So I did and lo and behold, my Venus is in Cancer and now suddenly everything makes sense. I still find astrology to be iffy. But, there's something comforting and helpful about being told who you are, even if you don't agree.
This is the way I have thought about every personality test. It's okay if you don't agree with your result because the test is still kind of doing its job: it's telling you who you are. If you get told that you're an introvert, and you think that's accurate, the test did its job. If you get told you're an extravert and you know that is not accurate, the test did its job, just in a roundabout way. You're still figuring out who you even if you don't agree.
Does that make sense? Personality tests — and things similar to those — can point out new things to you just by phrasing them in ways you haven't heard before. One of those "Aha!" moments. But they can also confirm what you already know about yourself by being wrong. One of those "Nuh-uh!" moments.
Personality tests (and astrology) are interesting because they tell you that they know who you are. They attach certain labels to your personality. I am a Gemini Sun which means I have child-like energy and am curious about everything. I guess that's true. I am a Leo Moon and apparently need a lot of validation from other people. Oof. But true! And I am a Cancer Venus which means I am sentimental and love love. Also sounds about right. But the thing is, I already knew these things, deep down. But the way they were phrased had me going, "Oh dip! You right!"
I love astrology not because I believe in their horoscopes and think that they have (or will) accurately predict my week (although sometimes I wish they could), but because they try and point things out about myself and I have the choice of whether or not to believe it. Sometimes you'll read something about one of your signs in whatever house it's in and think, "This couldn't be further from the truth." And that's okay! You're still learning something about yourself — or having what you already knew further validated. To me, I see astrology as a way a starting point to finding out who I am.
I do love love. I love intimacy and being close to people. I didn't need an astrologist to tell me that or attribute it to having a Cancer placement, but it's nice to have something to support what I know. I know I need validation from others, but that's not because I'm a Leo Moon, it's because I have big old problems with my self-worth. Buuut, maybe I wouldn't have come to that conclusion if it wasn't pointed out by someone outside my own head — "Oh dip! You right! I do crave validation from others!" And then the question becomes, "Why?" and "How do I stop wanting that?" thus leading to the deep internal work we all so desperately need to do. Seriously, reading that for the first time was eye-opening. I really do crave that validation and it's not good.
The horoscopes you find in the newspaper are especially bogus because they try to predict your day, which is a very easy thing to debunk. But, if you follow the AstroPoets on Twitter, their weekly horoscopes are so cryptic that they can mean almost everything, and that's kind of the point; it's all up to interpretation, and therefore, anything can be right.
This is, however, where things can get complicated. If everything is up to interpretation then you can make anything mean what you want it to, which can be detrimental. I find that astrology doesn't feel as "accurate" until there's something I want or if I'm going through a particularly tough time.
Astrology, in that sense, becomes akin to religion. A lot of people turn to religion when a big life-changing event happens; it helps to have something to hold on to, it helps to have faith that things will be okay in the end. I am not a religious person, so astrology becomes that comfort. I never even check my horoscope when I'm in a good place, but as soon as something big and painful happens, suddenly I am a lot more invested. And that's because I need something to help ground me, something to help explain what I'm going through and why. It's not even that I really believe it, but it is comforting. And, like finding out what your placements are, it can help guide you to thinking about things in a way you hadn't thought of them before. Maybe it can even help you heal.
Astrology is weird like that. Astrology is whatever you make of it (and I do love astrology).
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