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Why I Finally Believed Astrology Was Real

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Overview

The speaker, an astrologer, explains how they gradually came to believe astrology was real. They describe the process as a “refusal of the call” narrative: repeatedly turning away from occult ideas due to fear, only to be pulled back by experiences that felt meaningful and predictive.

Early Skepticism and Fear of the Occult

  • Childhood fascination with the strange: As a child, they were intrigued by phenomena such as ghosts, aliens, and possession.
  • Late-20th-century materialist worldview: School and ideology shaped them into a framework that rejected God and spirits, treating science as the only reliable approach.
  • Resulting emotional stance: They became cynical and anxious about the future.

First “Call”: A Moon Realization in Thailand (2010)

While working as a journalist in Thailand, they became fixated on the “weirdness” of the moon—especially how its apparent size matches the sun’s, enabling “perfect” eclipses.

  • They interpret this as cosmic design, not coincidence.
  • This challenges their materialist worldview and leads them to suspect they might be wrong.
  • They briefly investigated occult ideas (including divination), but resisted fully because it felt like it would change them.

Second Transformation: Papua New Guinea (2016 onward)

Working for an international humanitarian organization, they moved to Papua New Guinea—described as:

  • resource-rich, but
  • also marked by violence tied to clan conflict.

They emphasize that magic is treated as real there, including:

  • accusations of magical attacks, and
  • extreme consequences (including claims such as burning people alive).

Living in this environment leads them to view Western “spiritless” materialism as arrogant and incomplete.

Dual Exposure to “Magic”

  • By day: local beliefs and lived reality around magic.
  • By night: podcast and discussion culture around “real magic,” including:
    • The Duncan Trussell Family Hour
    • Mitch Horowitz
    • Ragu Marcus
    • Jack Kornfield
    • Jason Lou (an online “magic” school influenced by Crowley)

A Third Refusal: Resisting “Magic School” (Kiev, 2018)

After being unhappy and disillusioned with humanitarian work, they signed up for a magic course. Still, they “chickened out” of making a serious declaration to become a magician.

  • Their caution remains driven by fear of occult danger—particularly misfortune, madness, and damnation.

Turning Point: Astrology Through “True Will”

They describe a course that framed practice through “true will” (connected to Crowley’s Do what thou wilt). The course argues that to work with magic effectively, one must understand one’s inner purpose, using astrology as an “ancient science.”

Experiencing Astrology as Accurate

  • They start with basic chart reading on astro.com.
  • Their chart interpretation feels unexpectedly accurate to their real life—especially themes like:
    • communication,
    • their work in communications, and
    • their writing projects.
  • This pushes them to take astrology seriously.

Book Catalyst: Cosmos and Psyche (Richard Tarnas)

A major breakthrough comes when they read Richard Tarnas’s Cosmos and Psyche.

  • The book argues that planetary archetypes resonate with historical events and their rhythms.
  • It also claims astrology was removed from academia as part of the West’s “disenchantment.”

The speaker says the book:

  • articulates something they felt personally (a sense of estrangement from a meaningful universe), but
  • also triggers fear—because if history and meaning follow astrological structure, their stable worldview could collapse.

Anxiety from Predictions About 2020

They begin reading astrologers who forecast a near-term:

  • “world crisis,”
  • “great transformation,” and
  • “societal reset.”

This produces anxiety that resembles earlier dread linked to occult rumors and past fear events (e.g., nuclear war talk in 1999; climate collapse discussion in the early 2000s).

  • They try to abandon astrology in early 2019.

Confirmation: The Pandemic Aligns with Astrology (2020)

During lockdown in East Jerusalem, they binge “doom” themes less through news and more through reflection.

  • They then notice that astrologers’ language fits what’s happening.
  • They search for astrological writing before 2020 and feel they must accept astrology as real.
  • They emphasize that fear fades once they believe events follow a cosmic plan.

Learning Predictive Astrology (Hellenistic Timing)

They discover:

  • The Astrology Podcast (Chris Brennan and guests)
  • and take a course focused on Hellenistic astrology, described as more predictively grounded than modern methods.

They highlight zodiacal releasing as especially eerie in precision.

Explanation: Mundane Astrology via Saturn–Pluto (Jan 12, 2020)

They connect the pandemic to a specific planetary alignment:

  • a conjunction pile-up in Capricorn involving:
    • Saturn, Pluto, Jupiter, Mercury, and the Sun

They cite Tarnas on Saturn–Pluto cycles involving:

  • contraction,
  • crisis,
  • oppression,
  • violence,
  • and “end of an era.”

“Near-Coincidence” Detail

They add an alignment detail:

  • the conjunction date (Jan 12)
  • matches reporting of an early Wuhan death a day earlier (Jan 11).

Corroboration: André Barbault’s Long-Range Predictions

They claim French astrologer André Barbault predicted the 2020–2021 pandemic window—and even earlier events like:

  • the 2008 financial crisis, and
  • the fall of the Soviet Union.

This is presented as reinforcement that astrology can track future events.

Personal Synchronicity Claim: Saturn–Pluto and Their Midheaven

They argue the exact degree/minute of the Saturn–Pluto conjunction (22°46’ Capricorn) matches the degree and minute of their own natal midheaven (career/public role).

They interpret this as proof that astrology predicts not only world events but personal destiny—seeming to fit their decision to:

  • dedicate themselves to astrology, and
  • move away from humanitarian work.

Conclusion

Overall, the speaker’s argument is that astrology shifted from “parlor game” to lived certainty through escalating experiences:

  1. personal awe at cosmic design,
  2. seeing belief in magic treated as real in Papua New Guinea,
  3. finding chart interpretations that match their life, and
  4. interpreting 2020 events as confirmation of mundane astrological predictions—especially Saturn–Pluto—plus personal timing coincidences tied to their chart.

Presenters / Contributors (mentioned)

  • Joseph Campbell (mythologist)
  • Charles Tart (psychologist; consensus trance)
  • Duncan Trussell (podcast host)
  • Mitch Horowitz (cult historian; podcast guest)
  • Ragu Marcus (podcast guest)
  • Jack Kornfield (meditation teacher; podcast guest)
  • Jason Lou (runs an online “magic” school)
  • Aleister Crowley (occult writer; “Do what thou wilt”)
  • Richard Tarnas (author of Cosmos and Psyche)
  • Thomas Meaney (Wall Street Journal literary critic; quoted)
  • Chris Brennan (host of The Astrology Podcast)
  • Austin Coppock (podcast guest)
  • Kelly-Ann Zertis (spelled “Certis” in subtitles) (podcast guest)
  • Patrick Watson (astrologer; private lessons)
  • André Barbault (French astrologer)
  • Vetus Valins (as named in subtitles) (associated with zodiacal releasing text)
  • NASA (source mentioned for number of moons / eclipse context)
  • Boris Yeltsin (mentioned via nuclear war memory; misspelled as “Yeltson”)
  • George W. / Ukraine (no individual named; humanitarian career references only)
  • (News figure mentioned): reference to “a 61-year-old man” in Wuhan (no name given)

Original video