Astrology Is a Perfect Placebo in These Uncertain Times
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
03 April 2026
Taare ji sitaron ki tarah chamakte hain
Taqdeer ke faisle sab aasmaan par likhte hain
(The stars that shine like celestial lights / Decisions of destiny, all are written in the sky)
Someone aptly said that nowadays, spirituality and astrology sell like hot cakes. Astrology has an uncanny mystique because there's something arcane to it. To quote Urdu poet, Daaqiz Jalalabadi, " Ik muamma hai insaan ki qismat bhi / Nujoomi toh kya, nahin Khuda ko bhi ilm iss ka " (The destiny of an individual is an enigma / Even the Almighty doesn't know, let alone an astrologer). Despite that we go and seek the guidance of astrologers, numerologists, tarot card practitioners, natal chart readers and all that jazz.
Whether Delphi's Oracle, Cassandra's blood-curdling predictions or the fabled futuristic insights into Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas, mankind has always been curious to know in advance what's going to happen tomorrow and in future. However rationalist or wise a person may be, the lure to know things in advance is so overwhelming that one cannot resist oneself. Carl Gustav Jung observed quite brilliantly, " In the entire history of mankind, show me a single person who has cold-shouldered an astrologer and hasn't shown his / her palm to a sooth-sayer."
No one. No one, I'm sure. It's a spontaneous reaction to ask an astrologer about one's future. And if we delve into this universal tendency, we'll realise that all esoteric phenomena and spiritual mumbo-jumbo have in their roots "a subtle anxiety about the uncertainties of tomorrow." But, isn't it a bliss if we remain ignorant of future? The lamb, that so innocently licks the hand of a butcher, is blissfully ignorant that this very man will soon slaughter him. Had it been aware that it was licking the hand of its tormentor, nay a slaughterer, do you think, it would ever have shown so much love towards the butcher?
The foreknowledge of future takes away the thrill of tomorrow. Alexander Pope wrote, " Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate / All but the page prescribed their present state." Laotse was dying. His friend came to him and said that there was a seer in the village and he came just for him (Laotse) to tell as to where he would go once he departed. Laotse laughed and said, " When just hours are left, I'm not bothered what's going to befall me once I'm no more. Please say thanks to the seer and give him a half bowl of soup that you've prepared for me." It's worthwhile to mention that In South East Asian culture, offering someone a half bowl of soup is considered mildly offensive. But how many of us can have Laotse's disdain for all those who claim to predict future? Don't we all, including yours truly, succumb to knowing our future? That's the reason, an entire industry of sooth-saying has come up all over the world with a number of so-called divinations like tarot card, angel therapy, shadow-study, horoscope-reading, coffee residual predictions and what not.
On my frequent visits to the western world, I've met innumerable psychic healers, claiming to invoke spirits. They call India a country steeped in superstitions and shenanigans but the west is equally, nay even more, immersed in all such mysterious things and weird practices. But then, the human spirit is universally the same. Irrationality isn’t the prerogative of a particular group of people or communities; the entire mankind is committed to it. "Man perpetually at a critical juncture / Is obsessed with his future." Man, indeed is always on the precipice, fearing to fall any moment into an abyss of incertitude. It's the incertitude of today that prompts us all to shelter into a 'certain' tomorrow. We don't exactly peep into the future to know what (bad) is going to happen to us tomorrow. We try to know whether something BETTER is still in store for us.
It's ironically interesting that despite being weighed down by a battalion of despairs, man has the lurking hope that there's still something good to take place in his life. The entire caboodle of sooth-saying is based on this futuristic feel-good feeling. Astrologers console us that all is still not lost and there's the sun of hope in the clouds of depression. That way, astrology also has its positives. After all, there's nothing so bad that there's not some good in it. Astrology keeps our dreams and aspirations alive. To quote an English poet, 'Be still, sad heart, cease repining / Behind the clouds is the sun still shining.' Astrology is a perfect placebo and placebos are required to live and survive, esp. the uncertain times we're in. They're the beacons of hope in turbulent times. 'Dil ke bahalane ko 'Ghalib' ye khayal accha hai' (Ghalib, it's not a bad idea to console a sinking heart). Yet all said and done, 'Kya karoge kal ke baare mein jaan kar /Maza toh tab hai kuchh bhi na tay ho agar ' (What will you do to know about (your) tomorrow? / The real thrill of life lies in being indefinite and blissfully unaware).
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
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