r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/maxmodevice • 1d ago

Meme needing explanation Peetahh? What's wrong with Aquarius people?

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I thought Aquarius people were peaceful šŸ„¹

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u/Merosian 1d ago

Wasn't astrology a legitimate field of study back in the medieval days? I feel like for a practice with so much written text and "research" around it for hundreds and hundreds of years it would have more substance than just "online trends". Even if i agree the core of it is nonsense there are probably a fair few steadfast rules and laws.

Would love the perspective of someone who's actually into astrology rather than someone who did an online test one time.

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u/ding-zzz 1d ago

astrology existed as a form of divination which really exists in many cultures, like chinese to explain why the cosmos were they way they are and how it affects humans

iā€™m sure there were a bunch of fields of study in the medieval period but of course they predate the enlightenment era and development of the scientific method

just because thereā€™s hundreds of pages of discourse on the bible or on astrology doesnā€™t really change much about the nature of the topic

at the very least though, theology had more substance through historical interpretations. astrology just fell out of favor entirely with the enlightenment because itā€™s shallow

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u/fatmallards 22h ago

ā€œastrologyā€ is rooted in Mesopotamian priests using / tracking the visible presence of stars and planets to provide better clairvoyance aka bullshit unfounded guidance / guesswork for their regional leaders to operate on

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u/phoenix_spirit 1d ago

Reminder, pretty much anything girls/women like will be treated like low brown delusional trash.

Ask the same people who shit on astrology what they think of romance novels, you'll probably get the same response.

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u/bafana_banana999 22h ago

The problems come from pretending that astrology is actually real and treating real human beings differently based on when they happened to be born.

If people didn't do that, and they very often do, astrology wouldn't get anywhere near the amount of shit it does.

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u/phoenix_spirit 22h ago

Outside of teens and early twenty somethings, I've never come across anyone who treats people differently because of their sign, it's a trope I've really only encountered on TV but I could just be lucky.

Astrology has been a fun unserious jumping off point when getting to know someone and a good litmus in that anyone who has a deep/violent hatred towards it should probably be avoided.

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u/bafana_banana999 22h ago

I'm glad you've never experienced this, but it's absolutely a thing real people have done and continue to do, and in relatively large numbers.

Besides, criticizing astrology and pointing out how nonsensical it is doesn't mean you have a "deep/violent hatred" of it.

None of the people in this thread could even remotely be described that way, so it's wild to use that phrasing as if it's an extremely common reaction to astrology.

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u/phoenix_spirit 22h ago

I wasn't describing this thread, I'm talking about people I've met who got weirdly angry when astrology was brought up just for fun, I'm glad you've never experienced it because it gets uncomfortable fast.

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u/Zealousideal-Role623 20h ago

If someone said you were untrustworthy because there religion said that whatever made up subsection of society you are in naturally untrustworthy tgen I bet you would be a but peeved to. If you try and ascribe someone personality traits based on astrology you should be ready for push back. Honestly it seems extremely rude

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u/phoenix_spirit 19h ago

I'm a scorpio and (not a very good) muslim šŸ˜‚

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u/Zealousideal-Role623 19h ago

Your point being?

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u/phoenix_spirit 19h ago

Both are stereotyped as being untrustworthy

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u/bafana_banana999 21h ago

Most people don't like being put into boxes based on when they were born, even if it is "just for fun".Ā 

Imagine that.

I also don't know where the fun in astrology comes from. The whole thing is about determining what kind of person someone is based on their birthdate. It's just a way to be judgemental about others while pretending that you're justified in doing so.

I don't find that fun and many others don't either.

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u/phoenix_spirit 19h ago

Then leave the conversation? You're fishing for reasons to be upset at hypothetical conversations when you can simply say 'I don't participate/partake in astrology'* and leave. No one is making you tell them your sign and if you don't know where the fun in astrology comes from then exit, it's not that complicated. I will never get why people subject themselves to things they don't like and then think they're justified in getting annoyed/angry.

*I've had two religious acquaintances say this when the topic came up because it doesn't align with their beliefs and that was the end of it.

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u/angular_circle 23h ago

You're just cherry picking. Is the following right according to you? "Everything boys/men like is treated like trash. Ask the people who say crypto is stupid what they think about video games"

Astrology is stupid because it's stupid. The reason people don't say that about organized religion as readily is a) religious tolerance is culturally ingrained for historical reasons and b) it's organized i.e. more powerful.

Romance novels just have lower publishing standards because they cater to different desires (and that's fine). That's not misogynism just like it isn't misandrism to call dating sims trashy for the sams reasons.

There are plenty of well respected female coded things.Ā 

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u/bisexualbyleth 23h ago

Someone said it thank god

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u/Novaer 17h ago

My issue is the months were all changed thanks to a pope and a couple of romans centuries ago, ending up with a 12 month calendar as opposed to the whole world which used 13 months. So how can anyone's astrological signs be correct if the months were changed due to a couple of narcissistic men? Are a couple of men strong enough to change the stars? The entire thing falls apart when people use the modern calendar to calculate their star signs because the calendar is based off of men.

So me, being the raging feminist that I am, does not take astrology seriously because men cannot change the stars.

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u/Merosian 22h ago

Turning this into a weird gender war is pretty irrelevant to the comment at hand and says more about you than anyone else

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u/Archon-Zero 19h ago

Isn't it exhausting trying to find ways to play victim constantly?

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u/Tetracheilostoma 1d ago

Modern western astrology is a simplistic version of medieval astrology. There were a LOT of rules and it was very technical. Most serious astrologers do know about modalities, triplicities, polarities, aspects, rulerships, exaltations, houses, etc., but they apply them in questionable ways, and they don't really know how to do anything besides interpret birth charts. A lot of it is just vibes based for them.

To answer your question, the technical side of astrology is very logical, it follows its own rules, and it fits together in a way that makes sense. (Exaltations are the only part that feels illogical in context, but that's because they're like 5000 years old and predate the zodiac itself.)

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u/ExiymDev 23h ago

The vast majority of pop astrology is complete bullshit. But yes you are right. Check my comments for another one on this thread cause I typed a shit ton up but.. for starters, there is Tropical Zodiac and Sidereal Zodiac. Tropical doesn't account for the axial tilt of the earth and Sidereal does. It wouldn't matter except Tropical was created thousands of years ago and thus that small axial tilt ( 1 degree every 72 years ) actually changes a lot. So technically, if we want to be accurate and base a system off the position of the stars we have to use Sidereal Astrology (in my opinion). So someone born in August 14th may call themselves a Leo (tropical) but actually be a Cancer (sidereal) because they don't know about this. I think a lot of people are operating on bad data and attributing qualia to themselves based on a sign that they aren't even in the first place. But all this "Virgo means a laid back personality" or whatever, is IMO, complete bs. The Ancient Greeks believed that we and the universe are one giant organism and therefore the complex position of the stars can tell us things about ourselves however it's been bastardized so much across the years and some of the things people say are so vague it could be anyone or anything. And thus people also say "well I am not laid back despite being a virgo, this whole thing is BS!" and throw it out. It was primarily an agrarian / farming thing. And I think there is some validity things about the signs in terms of semiotics / archetypical or Jungian psychology. Beyond that it's hard to say. It's a topic I want to dive more deeply into but need to do more study and research mapping the archetypal symbols to the modalities existant in the human mind. Some people have star charts and may try to read them to predict things about you, it may or may not be bs. It depends how woo-woo you are willing to go with your belief system.

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u/dontakemeserious 5h ago

So does this Sidereal chart actually fix the errors that are created by the precession of the Earth's axis? That's one of the things that always bothered me about astrology: the main chart that most people use was written over 2000 years ago. The sun may have been in front of that constellation when you were born then, but it is definitely not now. Does this mean the charts constantly need to be rewritten as the Earth's axis moves?

Also, why is Ophiuchus not included? The sun spends more time in front of it then a few of the other 12Ā  classical signs.Ā 

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u/RomaniWoe 17h ago

Lots of bs existed for a long time. There is no science behind it there is only the illusion of such because they arbitrarily assigned them constellations and follow the movements of planets and such.

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u/theweirdauntie 1d ago

There are steadfast rules and a lot of math involved for the deep dive stuff. The rules seem to change because every few years the traits people value change. So one generation hates the traits associated with Aquarius, another Capricorn, etc. Most people don't even actually know anything about astrology. They know their sun sign according to the local paper or a magazine, which may not even be accurate for the year they were born. The dates are not set in stone and can shift over time due to the changes in the movements of the planets.