The Memeing of Two Minds: Astrology & the Internet

Astrology is everywhere today. No one can escape it. If you’ve managed to escape it, I regret to inform you that by reading this article, you’ve been drawn in. Welcome. But for most of you, the memes are in your feed, the subtweets are in your timeline, the social banter is at every party or show you go to. It is a massive part of our current social flavor, as is internet culture, and the two have come together to create astrology’s most modern treasure: the astrology meme.

The two have an interesting partnership. Astrology has existed for millennia, but the internet has only been around the average household for a couple of decades. Historically, both have influenced every corner of life — politics, relationships, psychology, and religion. Though psychological astrology like any other psychological exercise holds space for the entire range of human emotions (sadness, anger, pain, joy, Living Laughing Loving as it were), comedy and roasting are the roots of its recent popularity. Internet culture has a way of stitching comedy into every tedium of human correspondence, no matter how serious, and astrology has been no exception.

Astrology began as a scientific practice on par with astronomy, eventually becoming a tool used by politicians to predict the future of their nation and leadership. Some leaders occasionally executed their astrologers if they didn’t like the predictions. Astrologers in the United States were imprisoned for their practice as recently as the 1990’s. Astrology has dealt with stigmatization throughout its history, both in these more serious circumstances, and also in the world of intellectualism, where the reductiveness of the newspaper horoscope has shaped the collective unfavorable opinion of the study. Yet we owe it to the newspaper horoscope for keeping astrology alive, and we owe it to the internet for minimizing the more serious stigmas, while simultaneously reinvigorating the daily horoscope with less reductive, more researched interpretations. Memes may be jokes, but they are self-aware, and important for the astrology community.

My introduction into real astrology was a meme. I saw it one winter evening in 2014 while lying in bed scrolling. It was a picture of a person struggling to keep their balance on a cliffside while a frantic swarm of seagulls appeared to be threatening to tip the person over. Each seagull was labeled with an astrology sign based on its particular action in the photo, and the person was labeled as Gemini. The meme implies that all of the zodiac signs are in agreement that the sign of Gemini is openly disliked and berated by the other 11 signs. I’m a Gemini, and though I laughed, I was confused. I wanted to know what made Gemini the butt of the joke. I set out on a mission to learn more, and this learning led me to the path I’m on now. It is because of a meme that I am an astrologer today.

Though memes were my introduction to the world of astrology, eventually I found myself really loathing them. After all the hours I was putting into my studies! The YEARS! I was frustrated to find that most people didn’t want to go as deep as I was, to really parse out what the memes were saying. With disdain I dubbed memes the neo-newspaper horoscope. But in Galaxy Brain fashion, I recently came back around to them. I began to appreciate the value they bring astrology in this world where all our earthly and intellectual faculties seem to orbit the same new center of gravity - the internet. In a bid to learn more about and accept this format, I sat down with astro meme extraordinaire Courtney Perkins of @notallgeminis fame.

Courtney Perkins (@notallgeminis) Natal Chart

The Not All Geminis Instagram account has amassed over half a million followers. If you’ve seen an astrology meme in your feed, chances are, you’ve seen one of hers. A lifelong follower of astrology, Courtney is uniquely invested in keeping up with pop culture and its intersection with the internet. If a popular new meme or reaction image shows up online, she is quick to apply her knowledge of astrology in a charming way that captivates her audience. She is funny, cool, quick, and she knows her astrology. “I moved to LA to pursue screenwriting, and my first job was as a production assistant. I had just wrapped up as a PA at the Porn Awards, and I had a few weeks off […] so I was just bored out of my mind […] and eventually just started making memes. Once I started it was just kind of a like, breaking of a damn, like I just had a billion ideas and so I made a new account and it kind of just snowballed from there.”

Courtney regularly experiences people reaching out to ask her for book recommendations. “One of the great things about astrology memes is that it’s so not the end. […] They wanna go deeper than you know, the standard sun sign astrology meme.” On my past hesitancy with astrology memes, Courtney comfortably answered, “I think it’s the intro, and it’s also like, it is totally exaggerated for the sake of humor. […] Like if an astrology meme isn’t funny, it’s kind of pointless. I think something that is helpful is to think about the subject matter of the meme, and think about what that placement should actually be that you’re thinking about. Like if it’s a meme specifically about like, anger, or something you dislike, or like, sex, maybe you should be looking at your Mars sign to evaluate whether or not this applies to you. Because if your Mars sign is like, a very different energy than your sun sign, then yeah, you may not relate with your Sun sign’s meme.”

Social media often feels like a plague on the earth, but it is an undeniable cornucopia for community. Meme accounts have been a place for astrologers and hobbyists alike to congregate and laugh. For astrologers, memes are inside jokes, and for those who have yet to understand the joke, memes are their gateway into the world of astrology. It’s hard to say where astrology will go from here, but Courtney and I agreed that it will likely be here forever; it’s already been around for millennia, after all. She does expect that the meme bubble will burst at some point, but she doesn’t seem worried. Maybe this is because of her appreciation for the fact that Not All Geminis has already opened so many doors for her career as a writer. Or maybe it’s because, like myself and uncountable others, we know that as long as the planets continue to orbit the sun, astrology will be here to help us understand ourselves and form real human connections with the people in our lives.

“The world doesn’t make a ton of sense right now and people are kind of looking for a form of therapy and spirituality when the world feels chaotic and when people feel disconnect from themselves. It feels like something that is spiritual and reflective, but it’s not restrictive. It doesn’t really ask a lot of you. It’s not a major commitment. And everyone has a birthday, so it’s not exclusive in any way. There’s no barrier for entry.”

To listen to the full interview with Courtney Perkins, tune into the latest episode of Jess’ podcast, Astro Blast.