Opinion | The ladies and their horoscopes

Was that a strange sensation, last Wednesday: four men who talked about their constellation on national radio. « I’m a ram, » said presenter Carl-Johhan de Zwart. « I a bull, » called his guest David Cocheret. Bad news: such stubborn signs are never to be convinced, so not of the value of astrology.

The other two men in the broadcast: reporter Thomas Schuurman and astronomer Rob van Gent. Indeed: no astrologer speaks in a radio item about astrology, but only a stemperist who says that he does not believe ‘scientifically’ in horoscopes. Nice and fascinating. Tell me in which house Mercury stands with you, Rob, then we will continue to talk.

Astrology seems to be especially popular among young, highly educated women. A friend of mine told me recently told me that she is no longer talking about it in conversations, because most people – especially men – respond so horribly predictably, just like the above. A friend of hers gets irritated as soon as she claims something about his constellation. « He is a virgin. Virgins rarely believe in astrology, so that’s right. »

It drives men to madness: may the ladies finally take a seat in the lecture halls, not even behind a curtain anymore, they still choose to believe in something as unscientific as astrology. Why right?

According to Rob van Gent, astrology offers guidance, as religion used to do. If the Lord does not decide whether you will soon meet a nice person, then Venus should do it. Another explanation that is regularly given is that astrology is a useful framework to be able to talk about life, psychology and, last but not least, yourself.

I am now thinking of the 64 -page horoscope that my parents had ordered shortly after my birth. Very interesting matter indeed, if you ask me.

And yet, listening to that cynical commentary on the radio, I suddenly knew for sure that women simply turn to astrology to hunt men on the closet. I mean the kind of man who has clamped himself to the ratio and no longer grants someone else. « Horoscopes are not real, » he says, and leans back with satisfaction. He might as well claim that God is not real, that would be just as dull, but it is of course easier to do more contemptuously about something that almost only women value. Not necessarily smarter, if he wants a second date.

In the fifth season of the NTR program Dream School the students get lessons from a professor of theoretical astrophysics. The first thing he does: claim that horoscopes are ‘fairy tales from the primal time’. The Babylonians turn around in their grave. And as fast as the interest of the students was aroused, it has disappeared again as quickly.

« I am a scorpion, » says school leaver Nina in front of the camera. Her eyelash extensions blink wild. « So I thought I was just tough, and cool. I am too, but yes, that guy says not. » She gets support from fellow student Kimberly – also a scorpion.

The pleasure you can have from something irrational does not get smaller if others try to take it. On the contrary, you feel like going in with stretched leg. Does anyone roar again that horoscopes are fables? Then there will undoubtedly be something to be wrong with Mars. Anyway, the planets should never be an excuse for such boring claims. That’s how I see it now, but I’m in the middle of my return from Saturn, so ask me again later.

Tessa Sparreboom is Neerlandicus and former editor of Propria Cures.

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