Sounds Like A Cult - The Cult of Astrology

Episode Date: August 10, 2021

Omg, is mercury in retrograde?? Or is this week’s episode analyzing the “cult” of astrology just *that* intense? Co-hosts Amanda (Aquarius) and Isa (Pisces) didn’t realize how little they truly knew about the culture of zodiac signs and horoscopes until discussing with special guest, Jessica Lanyadoo, an astrologer, medium, and podcaster, who’s here to illuminate the culty aspects of astrology in the age of social media (both for good and for ill), explain what astrology even is in the first place, and play a few rounds of “Guess That Cult Leader’s Sun, Moon, and Rising.

This is Sounds Like a Cult, a show about the modern-day cult we all follow. I'm Issa Medina, a comedian and documentarian, and I'm Amanda Montell, an author and linguist. This week's cult is the cult of astrology, and we're going to be chatting about it with a very special guest to try and answer the big question. This group sounds like a cult, but is it really? We've wanted to do this one for a while. It was at the top of the list when we first put it together, for sure. And I feel like everyone talks about astrology.

I've been calling it astronomy by accident. It's a little different. Little different. And then in college, I was like, yeah, I'm in astrology 101. It's like, well, God, you go too. I wish. Really quickly before we talk all things astrology, let's explain what astrology is for our listeners who don't know.

Oh, I don't even know. If someone were to ask me what is the technical definition of astrology or where it comes from, literally, I mean, I talk about my sun, moon, and rising, but I don't actually know what astrology is. I'm like, let's Google a defined astronomy. Oh, I mean astrology. Now, the study of the noun, pronounced astrology, no, I'm just kidding. The study of the movements and relative positions of celestial bodies interpreted as having an

influence on human affairs and the natural world. Yeah. So we'll be able to get keener insight into what astrology is and where it came from from our special guest. What was your first impression of astrology? Because I mean, obviously growing up, you see horoscopes in the back of magazines. I didn't pay much attention to it, didn't take it seriously, thought it was make-believe, and then I moved to LA.

Dude, literally, it's funny because my friend sent me a TikTok the other day and it was someone saying, what's your zodiac sign? And I was like, I know those people don't live in LA because all you have to say is what's your sign. We know what you're talking about. Some people take it really seriously. I still don't. I don't take it seriously.

I don't either. I mean, I use it very casually and with like a wink, wink, twinkle in my eye. It's like how men discuss sports, you know? It's just like something to talk about, like, oh, what's your sun, moon, and rising? It's just like something to make small talk about. Yeah. It's so, I find it like super interesting and I could see myself if I wasn't so lazy and I actually liked to read, I could see myself getting really into it.

Like for me, whoever I meet that is a sign, you are now the representative of all of those signs. Yeah. Even though it's like, I mean, in my view, it's just made up. It's not made up, Amanda. Yeah. Well, I mean, what I realized in Los Angeles upon moving here is that people will use it as an excuse to explain away their bad behavior like, sorry, I'm late.

I'm an Aquarius or whatever. Yeah. I can't date him because he's a Gemini and Geminis are fucking crazy. Yeah. I'm just like, are you really basing real life decisions on this because that's disturbing. It is disturbing when people base real life decisions on things. Or at least so casually without actually knowing anything about astrology. Yeah.

I just can never tell though if they're just using it as an excuse. Right. Or actually making decisions. I will say I do respect the use of astrology as a way to just, we're always trying to understand ourselves. Right. Yeah. Like our personalities and our identities and just life on earth is extremely confounding.

Sometimes you have to engage in a sort of nonsensical spiritual system of thought in order to help you make sense of things. And I do like community as always. Yeah. As always. And I do like the sort of Saturn return idea that like you have certain phases in your life when certain things are want to happen and I think mercury and retrograde. Oh, oh, that's.

Oh, that's what people in LA started doing. Literally when I was working as a beauty editor, we sat down to a meeting one Tuesday and everybody was late. And you know, it's like unprofessional to be late to meeting with your superiors. And truly the underlings were like, Oh my God, it must be mercury and retrograde. Like I didn't get the calendar update. And they were serious. They complete the higher ups completely accepted that I was like, I'm just like this town of

Los Angeles is bad shit. It's bad shit. Crazy. It's like, Oh, mercury and retrograde is an excuse, but I woke up at 11 a.m. isn't I know, I know. So I get, I get wanting to have this cultural framework to help you understand yourself and others and the periods of your life and the ups and downs. I just worry because astrology at this point has spun out of control on social media and

people use it to exploit others' desire for answers. Like when people use someone's sign as a way to draw them in to buy a product or to join a club or to follow them and to, you know, think that they have access to this spiritual wisdom, especially nowadays, the astrology new age community has bled into the conspiritualist QAnon community in a way. I think. That like the anti-vax community exactly. My sign is Pisces, sun and moon.

I know emotional. I would love to pretend I know what you're talking about. I only vaguely know what, what I'm talking about with yours, but I'm only arising really quickly for those of you at home being like, no way. I, uh, well, despite not wholeheartedly believing in astrology. I am very proudly in Aquarius. Okay. See, that's the thing is like, I don't know what it means for anyone else, but I knew,

I know everyone knows that Pisces are emotional and it is true. Uh, yeah. I'm a fucking Aquarius son, Leo moon cancer rising. Okay. That's probably why we get along cancer rising. Oh, okay. Well, that Leo moot. Oh my God.

I get along with all Leo's because I'm a Leo rising. Okay. Sorry. Let's talk out when people talk that much about it because I don't know what's going on. Also, here's the thing. I am a possessed with talking about things. Like I know what I'm saying.

Yeah. A lot of you are. I have no idea. Yeah. I think maybe that's one difference between you and me. I get so nervous to talk about things I don't know shit about. You like to do like two weeks of research before you do. Before I have any conversation.

Yeah. I'm like, let's go get drinks. You're like, what are you going to talk about? Yeah, I need to prepare. Yeah. That's so funny. Yeah. All right.

So clearly we are astrology novices, so we're that's the difference right there. So we're going to learn more from our special guest, Jessica Lineato, who is an internationally respected astrologer with fans and clients across the globe. We had a fascinating conversation with Jessica and then played a little game. So stick around, stick around. Hi Jessica. Thanks so much for agreeing to do this. We're just going to jump right in.

First, could you please introduce yourself to our listeners? I am Jessica Lineato and I am a podcaster and writer and astrologer and psychic medium. Wonderful. We love that tight intro. Yes. We love to see it. Okay. So first, this is going to sound like a very basic question, but what is astrology and

what role was it intended to serve in people's lives? Do you think? Okay. So astrology is not a belief system. That is the first way I'm going to respond to it. Now, a lot of people say that they believe in astrology. A lot of people also say astrology is not a real science, but no one ever said it was a science or a belief system.

Astrology is a tool for understanding human nature and events that occur both in our individual lives and in society. Astrology empowers us to understand cycles and trends of development. It empowers us to understand ourselves and others. There is a season for everything. And it kind of articulates what those seasons and times are, how long they're going to last and why they're happening. That's my first answer to your first question.

Did that nail it? I love that. What I'm hearing is that astrology can be seen as sort of like a framework, a lens, but it's not, say, a religion or a school of scientific thought. No, not at all. And I'm always really confused by people being like, it's not a real science. What astrologers walking around being like, no, seriously, this is a science? I mean, we don't say that about psychology.

We don't say that about a lot of things. That's so true. I know practicing astrologers of all religious denominations. I know very woo-woo astrologers. And I know very kind of like leaning on atheist style astrologers. There's so many different ways to practice astrology. And I should just say, horoscopes are like the cotton candy at a carnival of astrology, which is to say they're delicious.

It's a gateway. If you've never eaten food or sweets, try it. And then you'll be like, oh, I love food. I love sweets. Let me try more different kinds. It's not the centerpiece of astrology, but it's the most easy to consume. According to one of your other questions, astrology has been used since before Christianity existed in every culture.

Because when humans interact on this earth that has seasons, and we can see stars and planets and such, we get inspired. Now for the bulk of human history, astrology was used by kings. It was used by scholars. It was not accessible. What people fail to understand about astrology is that it is a huge amount of math. It is a lot of memorization to practice astrology before computers. You needed to be a mathematician.

Happily computers have just kind of done away with that barrier of entry. That is a wonderful thing. And also, unfortunately, it has inspired thousands and thousands of people to think that they can just practice it without learning the foundations, which can be problematic. The internet has pros and cons. So you were talking about this spectrum of astrology and how you have more woo-woo ones and even some atheistic ones. What role does astrology play in your life?

What kind of framework or guidance does it provide you? Do you use it to make decisions? And if so, what kinds of decisions help us understand your approach? So I have been a consulting astrologer, which means I've been a professional astrologer meeting with clients since 1995. I started young and I'm old, double whammy. The way that I have used astrology in my personal life has really evolved as my competency and mastery of the craft has evolved.

I use astrology to navigate so much of societal issues from the pandemic to other kind of political and environmental frights, you know? When COVID actually hit, I mean, my house was already prepared. I hit the ground running. I knew it was coming. I wasn't shocked. So you saw something in a chart in the stars indicating that this was going to be a major crisis just to confirm?

Yes. I thought it was going to happen. I have lots of ideas about what I think is coming next politically, for instance, but there's no value in it because I have no power to change it. So instead, what I do is I try to create content that helps people to build emotional intelligence because I believe we need that in times of turmoil. And to be more educated in a call-in instead of a call-out kind of vibe, as my vibe is call-in not call-out, as a way to kind of empower people to think of others and to be

a global citizen, I use astrology when I'm scheduling things, you know? I absolutely will look and if I see somebody ask me to, I don't know, chat on their podcast about their delightful book or something, I will check and make sure that there's not like a drama transit occurring that day and if there is, I will suggest a different day. The most simple way of putting it is I use it as a weather report, you know? If it looks like it's going to snow and be cold, I'm not going to wear shorts. I just use astrology to manage life. What I don't use it for as a way to avoid or evade living in the present and taking

accountability for my choices. This is a problem with kind of the user end of astrology is that life is hard and life is scary. When somebody engages with astrology and it says something about you, that you're like, oh, fuck, that's me. That's me and no one's ever said it so clearly, I feel seen. People can start to give away their agency and their authority and their common sense. This is a really dangerous thing with, I think, all spiritual content, but certainly with astrology.

People kind of abandon common sense and give too much power to it. So I think the key is if you're not an expert and can't do your own interpretations, weigh it like you would weigh the advice of a friend who is not God, who is not telling you the truth 100% of the time because that's unrealistic, but instead a person who has an insight and you can just put it on a table with other opinions and insights and weigh it against your own. Also, it depends on what you're asking an astrologer for because people come to me with like, should I leave my marriage and children?

What cancer treatment should I pursue? If you're coming to an astrologer with a really deep question, you better fucking trust that person and believe they're an expert. Otherwise, just ask if you should get the bowl cut or not. People ask me about the vaccine a lot. There's so many things I could say about that, but I am an astrologer. I should not be your go-to. Every election, I get tons of DMs from people being like, where am I supposed to vote?

What do I do? I'm glad that you trust me and I'm happy to help if I can, but I am an astrologer. I should not be your go-to for that. This is such an important point to make because people will even come to me, an author who writes about language, to comment on everything from the election to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because people just want a guru to tell them the answers to everything. Yes. That's it.

That's exactly it. That puts content creators in a really high-stakes position. It's like an ethical quandary every time you engage. I'm obsessed with critical thinking and with people taking agency for their participation in their lives and in the world. Likewise. Right. Huge fans.

We could wear hats or get a baseball jacket with, I don't know, some sort of cute. It's hard to unify critical thinkers into one fanatical cult because they're just going to be questioning it. Yes. Absolutely. It's a tricky thing because people have a tendency to really like certainty. This is definitely what's going to happen. Don't question it.

Just listen. If you have your son in this placement, it means you're this person. I reject that form of astrology. We have agency, and ultimately the only person who's responsible for your life is you if you're an adult. It's just like, let's keep on using common sense, you know? Love that. Radical.

Wait. I'm responsible for the consequences of my own actions. Okay. Can you talk a little bit more about how you first discovered astrology and developed a love for it and then how you perlated that into a career? Yeah. I'm from Montreal, Quebec. I was born in the mid-70s, the last heyday of astrology.

I was always really interested in it, and the adults around me were like, oh, you'll be a philosopher. Oh, you'll be a therapist. Then I went to an alternative C-JEP, which in Quebec C-JEP is a two-year government-funded college program that allows you to take university courses to decide what you actually want to do in university. Oh, I love Canada. Free college before free university.

It is genius. I went to an alternative C-JEP where the Jungian psychologist from the main college taught astrology, and I was hook, line, and sinker in. I made the decision that I would move to San Francisco to become an astrologer. This was a time before the internet. It was a time before astrology was a career, but my values are very anti-capitalist, and I wasn't driven by any kind of worldly concerns. I just was like, this is what I want to do.

I started my private practice, dedicated myself for a decade to independent study, and I developed really strong competency. That's my general broad story. So you were talking about how the seventies was a time when astrology was really peaking, and now, again, we see astrology really peaking, and that invariably has a lot to do not only with the internet and social media, but also with this time of cultural tumult when people are looking toward these alternative sites of wisdom for answers and closure. What do you think of social media's role in this astrology spike?

Social media has democratized astrology. The world of astrology, like every other industry, is dominated by heterosexual white men. Wait, really? They are the gatekeepers of publishing. They are the gatekeepers of all manner of things. Oh, yeah. The vast majority of astrology consumers and clients are women. It's remarkable how many men you see who are leading the pack with these big social media

followings. Do you have any names? I couldn't drop names, but I do have names. Of course, I have names. I have terrible names. Here's the thing. Astrology is this thing I'm deeply in love with, and I've spent my whole adult life using it responsibly, and I am living through this moment, along with everyone else, where social

media has made it so that every single person has a microphone. So if you read something in a book that someone else wrote and you restate it in a cute way, people are like, oh my god, you're an expert. Also people love meme astrology, garbage astrology. I am such a grump about it because astrology always suffers a backlash from institutionalized religion, from so many forces that are conventional. When I say garbage astrology, I simply mean like memes and stereotypes. All water signs are constantly late.

Well, bitch, everybody's late. Bitch, yes, everybody is always late. Normalize that. I mean, come on. So there's like these gross generalizations that are fun, but they're less cotton candy and they're more deep fried snicker bar. Like they're instantly going to be a problem. And for those of us with long game with astrology, this is not doing any favors to the integrity

of the craft. I have complicated feelings about people who are not yet experts, posing themselves as experts, and we see it online all the time, especially on TikTok. Like scientists will get on to TikTok or some other social media platform and talk about science, their education. And people are like, your opinion's wrong. My opinion's just as valid. And it's like, hmm, people actually have expertise.

And then there's people with opinions. But with astrology, because there's no governing, what's the word? Regulatory body or whatever. Yes, that's it. And because there's no regulatory body, it's really hard to know who to trust. Totally. So people trust who makes them feel good or who agrees with them. That is literally all social media is trusting strangers who might not know what they're

talking about. On my show, ghost of a podcast, I've put out episodes about like ethics and astrology. I've put out episodes about conspirituality and QAnon. In my world, there are astrologers who I feel to be very irresponsible. And all the astrologers share my values and my understanding of reality. I was going to say, I feel like there could be plenty of so-called experts, people with years of experience, who just because of the nature of social media and its ability to bring out the most narcissistic clout chasing qualities in any of us, they could be using

it in a nefarious way, even though they seem trustworthy. And another thing that you said that made me that I'm really where to begin. Another thing you said that's making me have thoughts. Breathe Amanda, find your words. You got this. You were talking about how psychology is not really a hard science in the same way that geology or microbiology is. And I feel like there are experts and non experts on social media who take advantage of people's

need for mental health help and lack of access to it and everything else that's making people vulnerable right now with meme mental health advice. And that can be destructive in similar ways to what I'm hearing you say. Identical ways. I say this to people all the time and I will never shut the fuck up. When you Google, the first page of Google results is paid SEO. It is good SEO. It is not good astrology.

It is not good mental health necessarily. When we are using search engines, we are not reliably going to find good answers, especially with something esoteric or nuanced. Marketing says we use a hammer and not a feather. But when you're dealing with something as important as spiritual wellness, mental health, it is a feather. It's nuanced and complex. It's not one size fit all.

It's hard for people because we want quick answers and we're already scrolling. I would love to pivot into something a little maybe more lighthearted to get some insight into the astrology community. Are there astrology conventions, conferences, festivals? And if so, what goes on there? What's the vibe? Okay. So there's astrology conventions, yes.

And I've been to many of them. I have found historically, they're not diverse spaces at all. Now that's been changing over the past couple of years and I'm really thrilled to see it. Now when we talk about the astrology community, if you had asked me this question 10 years ago, I would have had a really tight answer. But now there are so many astrologers and a huge amount are new astrologers. And I'm, unfortunately, I think that while I certainly have a lot of friends and contacts that are astrologers, I wouldn't necessarily say that it's like a clear community.

I'm queer. I grew up in queer community. I was in San Francisco, so there was multiple queer communities. In the world of astrology, it's different. And like I said with the astrology conventions, they're glorious nerd festivals. Instagram would have you think that astrologers are hot girls talking about what's coming next. But the reality is most astrologers, certainly up until recently, are old-ass people who

have been studying many, many years of history and politics. If you're an astrologer, spoiler alert, you're a nerd. Spoiler alert. So this is a theme I find time and time again with people who are interested in any kind of alternative cultural practice. Like they're not freaks, they're nerds. They're nerds. Okay, I have a couple more questions and then we're going to play a little game.

Okay, weird. I like it. Oh, strap in. The game is the best part. But before we get there, you were talking earlier about people dismissing common sense sometimes when dealing with astrology. Do you feel like people ever take astrology too far? And if so, what does that look like?

Yeah, definitely people take astrology too far. It can look a number of different ways. One is people who live their lives with a reverence for astrology, but don't actually educate themselves about it. It becomes really problematic because then they talk a lot about these details but don't have the power of synthesis, which is the essential component for any field of expertise. At first when you're learning the first years of learning something complicated, you learn the details.

And you've got lots and lots of data points. So, in order to become really competent with the thing, you have to synthesize those details effectively. When people don't have that capacity, no shame, slash also, I think really wild choices and leaps in logic. Not using common sense is tempting. I would love to believe that there's like a magic unicorn out there who runs the planets and tells me that, you know, if only I go out when Venus is trying Jupiter, that I'll

fall in love. But life isn't that simple. We must, again, take responsibility for our choices, and most people don't really want to hear that. I mean, there's this whole movement of the wide brimmed hat is what I call it, LA astrology world, like white ladies in wide brimmed hats talking about astrology, but they don't have a monogamous relationship to astrology because they haven't comprehensively studied it. So they put astrology and herbies and crystals and energy and Reiki, all these things together

because they don't have a comprehensive study of any of the things. So they put in all the things. The reality of the situation is that whether we're talking about astrology or anything else, when as we age, we do not challenge our assumptions and take greater responsibility for ourselves. We age into something that no one wants to be. I mean, listen, the internet is noisy. At the same time, if you only follow and engage with content that you agree with, your mind doesn't stay as sharp.

The overreliance on agreement is not a way to grow and evolve. It is a way to get stuck. So I'm going to put that in their pipe and smoke it. Going to hit you with the most important question. What do you think is the cultiest part of astrology in either a good way or a bad way? That's a good question, which is why I grow and I'm so sorry. The answer I'm going to give you is different than the answer I would have given you even three years ago.

This is really something I've seen develop through the Trump years, probably made worse with COVID. People have a cultish reverence for astrologers and I think that's more than dangerous. I discourage it when people do it to me and I discourage anyone doing it to anyone. It is often associated with meanness or penniness and misinformation. But again, I would never have said that three years ago or at any other time in my 20, more than 25 year long career. So I have a little game for us.

It's called Guess That Cult Followed Figures, Sun, Moon and Rising. Oh, weird. Okay, I'm very bad at guessing Sun, Moon and Rising, but let's try it. Guess That Cult Followed Figures, Sun, Moon and Rising, round one, Elrond Hubbard, founder of Scientology. What was Elrond Hubbard's Sun, Moon and Rising? I mean Aquarius has got to be in there, but Jesus, see this is the thing. I don't know anything about these people personally.

I know about their crazy fucking followers, no disrespect to their followers. I know nothing about this guy. Did he have a face like a potato? Fun fact, the rising sign dictates a lot of how you look. So if he looks the way I'm thinking, oh, super potato-y and now that I'm seeing. Okay, that's cool. And also balding patterns in men, I don't fucking know, listen, I'm going Aquarius Gemini Taurus.

Oh, wow, interesting, curveball, apparently it's Pisces Virgo Saj. Oh no, he was a Pisces. You know who else is a Pisces? Rihanna. So whatever. Okay, Pisces Virgo Saj, what's kind of cool about this, wasn't he like the messenger of Scientology? Things were told to him, or am I confusing that with Mormonism?

Yeah, Scientology, he was basically like a sci-fi writer who took it way too far. Yeah, and by way too far, Amanda means that he like created a religion from his creative writing. I love the origin story. It might not love what's come of it. Okay, so those are all mutable signs. You said Virgo Saj, Pisces Virgo Saj. Yeah, they're all mutable signs, which is all about communication.

Okay, I love communication. When you see somebody who's so mutable, you see somebody who's really great at spreading a message and marketing. Oh, the marketing of Scientology, they really, they crushed it. I was locked in a room by Scientologists once. Me too. A lot of us were. If you move to California at some point, hasn't happened to me yet, but it's bound to happen.

You're going to be locked in a room by Scientologists? Indeed. I wrote about it in my book. I am dying to get my paws on your book. Oh, I'm going to send you. Did I send you one? I'll send you one. Next round of guess that cult followed figures, sun, moon and rising.

The cult followed figure is Jeff Bezos. Oh, that fucking guy. Okay. I don't know anything about him other than he's an asshole and he's also very tough. Don't forget Sobald and Divorce that he had to escape Earth. I don't know. Give me the answer. Okay.

He is a Cap's son, a Saj moon and an Aries rising. Wish I knew what that meant. I'm not surprised that he's the Aries rising from his little, like he, he shaves off his hair, but he's going to cut that widow's peaky thing in his bald spot, I think from remembering correctly. Oh, he shaves it. I just thought he was bald. It's fire rising.

I love how a balding patterns are so salient because all cult leaders have crazy balding patterns. Rising signs are described by the, by the body. A new fucking Bezos had something in Capricorn, which whenever a Capricorn is a disgusting capitalist, I am a Capricorn, I just feel like you asshole. You're just being the worst part of our stereotype. Yeah. So that leads us nicely to the next round.

Guess that cult followed figure sun, moon and rising. The cult followed figure is Taylor Swift. Oh God. She is a cult followed figure. I don't understand it. Okay. She's got to have a lot of air in her, but she's got that horse face of a Saj rising. I don't know.

She's going with some Aquarius or Libra and also Saj. So she's Saj sun, cancer, moon, Scorpio rising. What does the Scorpio rising mean? Cause Scorpios have like a bad reputation. I feel. Yes. The ones with the worst reputation seem to be Scorpio, Gemini and Cap. Scorpio is a zodiac sign that's governed by Pluto, which governs like shitting and coming

and toxic waste and revolution and war, you know, so Scorpio people, they're great at being cult leaders because they make you feel like either you're in my group or you're not. The thing about Scorpio people that I think is misunderstood is that so many people don't know how to be around intensity. All right. If people want to engage with you DMU appropriate questions, where can they find you? You could listen to my podcast, ghost of a podcast where I real talk all the live long day.

You can follow me on Instagram or Twitter. If you wanted to engage with me, hop on over to my Patreon, I want to have a book, Astrology for Real Relationships. It's a pretty, pretty fun book, pretty queer, pretty good. You can read my weekly horoscope because I believe in cotton candy. Also personal responsibility. So all the things, all the things. Thank you so much for being here.

Yes. Thank you so much. We loved having you. Joy. It has been thank you. So Issa, out of these three cult categories, live your life. Watch your back and get the fuck out. What do we think about astrology?

What category of cult is it? I want to hear what you think first. Okay. And not because it's going to affect my decision at all. Oh, it's tough. I'm oscillating between live your life and watch your back, but I think it's a watch your back. And my answer, had you asked me 20 years ago, would have been different.

And I would have said it was a live your life. But because of the exploitative nature of astrologers on social media and how people are putting so much more pressure, there's so many people jumping on the bandwagon and so much misinformation surrounding what it's for and what it can do. I think it's got to be a watch your back. Really? Okay. I was also oscillating between the two.

I have a really wide vocabulary. It's a good word, right? Yeah. Yeah. Oscillating. It sounds like what it is. Yeah. Rotating.

That's a synonym, right? No. Sort of like moving back and forth. Yeah. Moving back and forth. Okay. Linguist. I was also moving back and forth between live your life and watch your back.

But honestly, I think it's a live your life. I think this might be the first time. I don't think it's maybe first time we landed on something different. Oh. Heart disagree? Yeah. Oh no. I know.

I just think this is based off entirely personal experience because I do follow the astrology accounts on Instagram. I just don't see any tangible ways of it growing roots in my day to day life. You know what I mean? Yeah. I think it is one of those things where you have to educate yourself and check in with yourself. Who are the astrology gurus you're following and are they safe for you, et cetera?

Yeah. I think just sort of like believing in astrology, vibing with astrology. Even though it's not for me, I don't want to judge it. That's not what we're about. I think just what astrology has spiraled into makes it a little bit more of a watch your back in 2021. I could see that also because the reason I think it's a live your life is also a reason why it could be a watch your back because I think when you really read horoscopes and

things like that, everything is up to interpretation. Yeah. Right? So that was the Bible. Yeah. But that's why I think beliefs are a live your life because it's really entirely up to you. But nothing is ever just beliefs.

See what we're getting at here is that any kind of organized spiritual practice, organized religion and newer old would be a watch your back or even to get the fuck out. That's why I think it is a live your life because I don't think it's an organized religion. I think it's really unorganized right now. Like there's no one leader, you know, it is a hot mess astrology, get your shit together. Yeah. It's just a bunch of like queer people being like, I don't want to dismiss or invalidate the role that it clearly plays in the lives of so many queer people who don't feel accepted.

I mean, we're both are queer. Yeah. So it's like something that we also like, oh, no, that's like the only reason I fuck with it to be honest is just like be able to talk to other bisexuals in particular. Yeah, exactly. It's like, I mean, have you heard of gay astrology? Yeah. The like event.

Yeah. Gay astrology for those of you who don't know is like a produced nightclub like they do it at different venues. It's for like LGBTQ women and it's a night where all women go and dance and have a blast and think about how few spaces there are in LA at slash the world in general for queer women. There are. Did you know that there are only 23 lesbian bars in America?

In the whole. In the whole America. America. Isn't that crazy? Should we start one? Yeah. A cult themed one. Yes.

That sounds like a fun entrepreneurial endeavor for us. Honestly, I've always wanted to start a bar that was also like an art gallery. Yeah. And a podcast studio. We just need one of our rich listeners to finance us. Yeah. Um, any rich listeners who want to fund our queer bar slash our gallery slash podcast studio.

So you know where to slide. It's a safe space for everyone. Even if you're straight. Yeah. Well, no. No. We love everyone. Amanda.

Oh, oh, oh. Do we? Okay. Yeah. We, we love everyone who listens to this podcast. Exactly. Like if you're straight and listening to this podcast, we love you. If you're straight and not listening to this podcast, I don't believe that anyone is straight

anyway. So. Oh yeah. You're born in the middle. The only true cult is heterosexuality. In my view. It's true. It's true.

Anyway, I, yeah, I think, I think astrology is a live your life. I'm, I'm sticking with watch your back, but I might, I might categorize it as a watch your back light. Okay. Yeah. Well, that's our show. Thanks for listening. We'll be back with a new cult next week, but in the meantime, stay culty, but not too

culty. Hey. Yay. Oh, this audio quality is so much better. Isn't it? We do want to apologize. Last week we had a tough audio situation. I was in San Francisco and I borrowed a friend's boss's mic and it was just like not as good

as we thought it was going to be. Just in case you didn't know, we produce, edit and record this podcast entirely ourselves. We don't have a team. Yeah. So we do apologize for that. And ask that you kindly give us some grace because we do this all completely ourselves for free. We love doing it, but it's a lot of work.

Yeah. Thank you so much for being with us today and we'll see you guys in the next video. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.