Despite the jokes made about believing in zodiac signs, such beliefs still persist. It is somewhat strange, but people who refuse to accept the idea of one Creator God are more inclined to give themselves over to some imagined rams running among the stars. The housewife ignores Christ’s words: “Love your neighbor,” but listens intently to the woman on the TV who says, “You will have a difficult day today, avoid conflicts with your relatives.”
The fact that a person is drawn to the mystical side of existence speaks to the duality of human nature. On one side is the immediate, visible world, and on the other is the mystical world—unknown, uncertain, yet mysteriously present within us all. Man is inclined to believe; if not in God, then in something else. For example, students in Iasi avoid passing by the wall of the former “Junimea” publishing house during exam sessions, fearing something might go wrong with their exams. Others, for the same reason, avoid stepping on manhole covers.
The inner world of these people is a kaleidoscopic, fragmented world, leaving its marks on their way of thinking and perception. From here arises the fragmentation of the modern world, and especially the post-modern world, the world of clips and collages.
Man searches for points of orientation in the universe; he cannot exist in isolation. The experienced feelings of fear and loneliness push us toward the strangest of beliefs. True, there are stars and constellations, each with its name and trajectory, but how can we believe that some irrational body could somehow influence such a complex being as man? In fact, man, in his complexity, may believe that even the moon—nothing more than a large rock—can determine his fate! This belief reminds me of the myth about Creanga, who cried, fearing the lump of salt on the edge of the stove.
The Holy Fathers say that habits are our second nature. That is why a person who follows horoscopes for a long time begins, at the very least, to turn into a shadow of their zodiac sign. These people do not realize that they are becoming exceedingly vulnerable because it is enough to know their sign, and you can do whatever you want with them, manipulating them like a zombie—this is especially true for women.
We are called to imitate Christ, or, alternatively, to imitate the zodiac’s rams, bulls, or crabs. By imitating, we become exactly what we imitate, claim the Orthodox ascetics. But, of course, everyone is free to decide what they want to become.
