The owner of this account, Jake Register, is, in fact, a Libra. He’s also the author of Cosmopolitan’s weekly horoscopes and does astrology readings. His love for astrology content led him to create the “Jakesastrology” account, which currently has over 122k followers.
For Jake, memes aren’t about following a trend that’s quickly going to die off. Instead, it’s more about delving deeper into his passion for horoscopes. Jake told Business Insider that what drew him towards astrology growing up was a sense of validation that he struggled to find elsewhere.
“I found astrology to be such an empowering belief system because I was able to comfortably 'fit in' as a queer person—there are no rules for being a believer in astrology, whereas I felt excluded and uncomfortable with some of the implied stipulations that come with Christianity," he said.
Jake adds that feeling left out of traditional belief systems has pushed many of his peers towards astrology too.
"We're all able to find a practice and belief that we fit into perfectly, and we can explore and play with different spiritualities to find out which ones we like or believe in most," he said. "I also think that astrology and other 'unconventional' belief systems feel empowering to many people — especially marginalized groups of people."
This page is far from being the only one with such a huge following when it comes to astrology memes. There are hundreds of astrology-specific Twitter and Instagram accounts created to satisfy a community of astrology-obsessed followers, which started growing in 2018.
But for those who have been interested in this for a long time, such an increase in astrology-related memes comes as no surprise. Astrologer Ophira Edut, who has been in the business for around 30 years, isn’t shocked that people are turning to astrology for answers. According to her, when politics aren’t as favorable in people’s eyes, the demand for astrologers grows.
"People are looking for answers and meaning because the world seems to make no sense right now — especially with the political climate we're in," she told Insider. "I think people are like, 'Well, this doesn't make sense from a logical point of view. Maybe there's a bigger spiritual lesson for the world that we're learning? Maybe astrology can explain it.'"
Bored Panda reached out to astrologers Babs Cheung and Julia Mihas, whose opinions concerning astrology memes seem to be mixed. Mihas says, “As both an astrologer and a millennial, I love astrology memes. I can carry whole conversations with my friends using memes alone.”
Meanwhile, Cheung tells us that they can be a great way to form a community. “As an astrologer, I find astrology memes to be, at best, touchpoints that connect people to each other through humor, and at their absolute worst, they can drive people to develop "low-key zodiacal bigotry" and prejudice over longer periods of time.
I don't personally share them with friends or clients, but plenty of friends and clients share them with me...and some of them are really hilarious!”
She further explains the double nature that these jokes have. “Memes have a way of being inductive, in that they take one specific experience with a sign and attribute that one single experience to the general population, which sounds an awful lot like the ways in which people develop prejudice.”
Something she doesn't approve of is creating negative stereotypes about certain zodiac signs, similar to this one: "Never date a Scorpio because if you have to break up with them, they will give you hell and seek revenge.”
She says, “This type of meme is common in the marketplace, in fact, the most hated signs of the zodiac tend to be Leo, Gemini, and Scorpio, which creates the false perception that these signs don't have any redeeming qualities, which couldn't be farther from the truth." Therefore, she urges us to keep in mind that astrology is a complex emotional language that helps us communicate our lived experiences.
However, according to Mihas, it’s hard to prevent similar issues from happening. “Modern astrology has always had a history of 'trash astrology;' I'm talking about the glib horoscopes you read in a monthly tabloid. In fact, even the most intellectual astrologer was probably introduced to astrology through something culturally trashy - whether that's reading a cheesy book or a meme on social media.”
