I've noticed this trend in popular culture and on the internet where people are suddenly really interested in astrology.

There are eyeshadow pallets based on signs, T-shirts and people get tattoos, all based on zodiac signs. Which can be cute but do the people creating these things, or the people buying them, know anything about astrology?

I've also noticed that there are quite a few Odyssey contributors who love to write articles such as "The Signs As X" and I can almost guarantee they don't know anything about astrology except sun signs. I would also assume that they probably haven't met a person of every single sun sign and have had the ability to truly study the patterns between them.

What most of these writers, designers and artists may not know is that you have an entire birth chart, sometimes called a natal chart, and each planet has a corresponding sign. Some planets are natally retrograde and your chart is composed of twelve houses.

Again, I'm gonna guess here and say most people don't know that. I'm also gonna guess that most of these people don't know that some people relate more to their moon sign than their sun sign based on the aspects in that person's chart.

I'm gonna guess here and say these "creatives" don't know that every chart is separated into twelve houses and that having the same sun as someone else but in a different house may affect those two people in different ways.

Also, I've noticed that SnapChat does this thing where they show a lot of astrology content but they especially love making people overreact about retrogrades. I talked briefly about retrogrades earlier, but some people have retrograde planets in their natal charts.

And then there are transits, which indicates where the planets currently are in the sky and how that may affect you. On SnapChat, they especially love to overestimate the importance of mercury retrograde. They make it seem like all of your electronics are gonna break and you're gonna die.

Yes, mercury rules communication but you aren't going to die. You may have more difficulty getting your point across and might find yourself hurting other people with your words unintentionally, but the world isn't ending.

Also, retrogrades in general really aren't that bad.

It's really just a time to learn about others and about yourself. Also, it's probably not the best time to make big decisions in the area that affects things associated with the ruling planet. However, that doesn't mean you should just stop talking, it more so means that you should think before you speak.

All I'm saying is you people who have a Libra necklace or an astrology eyeshadow palette; and especially those of you trying to predict what someone would wear, where they'd live or what they'd eat based on a sun sign, yet you know nothing about astrology and don't even know someone from each sign but you want to write about astrology, please stop. All of you!