The Secret Revealed – Why Millennials Love Astrology

Born 1986 to 1995? Why You’re Obsessed with Astrology

When a journalist from ABC comes calling about Millennial astrology obsession, you know something’s going on. I don’t often look at Google Analytics for this website – I leave that to my colleagues – but sure enough, around one-third of our 2.7 million visitors, over the last 12 months, were born 1986 to 1995.

Myth or Reality? Are Millennials Really ‘Generation Astrology’?

In 2019, online newspapers and magazines repeatedly ran the story that Millennials were helping a boom in astrology. Myth or reality? It’s not enough to hear that the Cosmopolitan US editor-in-chief, Jessica Pels, has expanded the magazine’s print coverage of astrology to nine pages in every issue, owing to demand . In Australia (where I wrote horoscopes for Cosmopolitan) the magazine crashed and burned.

And what numbers are we talking, exactly, in this much-quoted  2017 Pew Research Center poll, claiming 29% of Americans believe in astrology and 41% believe in psychics?

Is this spate of media coverage on Millennial obsession with the stars, really about paid product placement or chequebook public relations? After all, horoscope apps have backing from venture capitalists these days and the stars have become a big (risky) business. Is all this coverage just a way to flog a new app?

I was so curious about the Sagittarius/Aquarius generation (all in their late twenties, and early thirties – and all born with factors in these two astrology-linked signs) that I thought I’d take a closer look.

As an astrologer, that should be anybody’s first question. Is there a horoscope explanation for this trend?

How Millennials are Living the Astrology Life Online

All that coverage in newspapers and magazines is surprisingly coy about actual numbers, but if we take this website as an example of Millennial passion for the stars – there are some real results.

Alexa, which is the Amazon-backed website rank guide the world turns to – ranks jessicaadams.com #1 for astrology books and shopping. It’s at #2 for computerised charts and reports. These Alexa chart placements, in November 2019, make this site a good test for the theory that Millennials favour the stars.

The second largest group of our millions of visitors at this website, from November 1st 2019 through November 1st 2019, was born 1976 to 1985, ranging in age from 35 to 44 years old.

Alexa and Google Analytics

The number of hits (or page views) at this website, jessicaaadams.com has certainly skyrocketed since 2018. Google Analytics compared traffic in 2018 to 2019 and found a leap from 18,447,971 hits – to 20,660,006. That’s a jump of 2 million.

But Why?

Millennials comprise one of the most unusual generations now alive on earth, because they all have factors in either Sagittarius and/or Aquarius. Sagittarius rules belief – astrology. Aquarius rules tribes and tribal thinking – your zodiac sign. Millennials like Lady Gaga were just made this way.

Sagittarius rules Christianity as well as the tarot. Buddhism as well as Judaism. We would expect Millennials, most of whom are born with big Sagittarius chart signatures, to move strongly away from some beliefs and towards others. And that is exactly what is happening – at least, on this website.

I was talking to my friend, academic Garry Phillipson (author of Astrology in the Year Zero)  about this the other day, as he’s just finished his PhD studies of the truth (or otherwise) of astrology. The fact is, even if we just take one website (this one) as a case study – hits have gone up 2 million in one year – and the primary demographic is Sagittarius-dominated. This is something that no astrologer has yet pointed out to The Guardian, The Atlantic or any of the New York newspapers covering the Millennial horoscope boom, to date.

Counting the group born 1986-1995 (the preferred Google Analytics demographic) as our sample, covering ten years of births – within that decade, a Sagittarius-leaning group was born 70% of the time. Only Aquarius, long associated with astrology, came close for slow-moving, horoscope indicators. And, incredibly, 100% of the 1986-1995 generation have personal birth chart factors in either sign.

How Legendary Astrologer Margaret Hone Saw Millennials Coming

The astrologer and author Margaret Hone was born in 1892 but peered all the way into the future of Millennials, when she described people born with Sagittarius planets as concerned with “Philosophical thought, prophecy, religion” and Aquarius types as “Widely friendly without great affection; liking for mental pursuits, especially of unusual and scientific nature.”

Her classic Textbook of Modern Astrology appeared around 70 years ago, but she was anticipating the late twenties/early thirties passion for prediction and the unusual business of the New Age. Hone was right.

The Fact is, Astrology is Ruled by Sagittarius and Aquarius. So are Millennials.

The vast majority of people born in these years have the slow-moving outer planets, or the North Node (also on a long 19-year cycle) in just two signs. Sagittarius and Aquarius.

1986 – Jupiter in Aquarius, Saturn in Sagittarius, Uranus in Sagittarius
1987 – Saturn in Sagittarius, Uranus in Sagittarius
1988 – Saturn in Sagittarius, Uranus in Sagittarius
1989 – North Node in Aquarius
1990 – North Node in Aquarius
1991 – Saturn in Aquarius
1992 – Saturn in Aquarius, North Node in Sagittarius
1993 – Saturn in Aquarius, North Node in Sagittarius
1994 – Jupiter in Sagittarius
1995 – Jupiter in Sagittarius, Pluto in Sagittarius

Going Gaga for the Stars on the Worldwide Web

Gaga was born with Saturn and Uranus in Sagittarius. Millennials, also known as Generation Y, or simply Gen Y, are all born with slow-moving outer planets, or the Moon’s Nodes, in either of these two signs and so might be seen as Gen Sag/Aqua as they have either of the signs, and sometimes both, looming large.

Vice, The Guardian, the New York Post and The Atlantic have all covered the story by now, that millions of Millennials are driving astrology traffic. What’s been missing so far is any analysis of the actual horoscopes. What’s going on, with these Tinie Tempah fans? Seeing as they are buying the astrology books, and downloading the podcasts, are there are any other astrological reasons for their passion?

For a start, Millennials are approaching their Saturn Return, living through it, or recovering from it. The Saturn Return, which comes at around age 28-29, is the toughest call in astrology. The planet of obstacles, life lessons, tests and trials (Saturn) returns to the zodiac sign and degree where it began, on the day of birth, and it frequently arrives with decisions about marriage, sexuality, career, babies and so on. In a situation like that, especially if you have a Sagittarius factor in your chart, you’ll want the comfort of belief. A philosophy. An explanation for the universe that makes sense. Just knowing about your Saturn cycles can be really reassuring. At least you know when it ends!

People Born 1985 to 1995 – Generation Astrology or Generation Potter?

In astrology we look to the twelve zodiac signs for astrology indicators. Aquarius is one, because it involves groups (most astrology is based on networks, circles, friendships, organisations, schools, conferences and the like).  There is a vast sweep of ‘astrologies’ represented within the business. Horary, Vedic, Chinese, Psychological, Sun Sign…it’s a broad church. Yet, in true Aquarian fashion, the different interest groups rub along. Beyond this, astrology thrives in forums (this website alone has 9,047 voices in various forums, on just one day). Horoscopes are very much about tribalism, as each of the 12 Sun Signs identifies with her/his zodiac brand.

This is a very old association for astrology. The idea of being in your own tribe, among other tribes or groups. An ‘Aquarius’ in Ancient Rome was the water-bearer who supplied the communal baths. The sign echoes the job description, about 2000 years ago. Today we associate Aquarius with the symbolism of group supply. It’s about networking and very much about being part of a wider community online. Meetups is another obvious place where astrology flourishes with people in their late twenties and early thirties. Last time I checked, a Meetup in Melbourne, Australia with myself and my colleagues, full-time professional astrologers Stephanie Johnson and Joanne Madeline Moore had booked out in hours. (Just The Australian branch alone is nearing 650 members).

Aquarius groups are male/female, usually asexual, based on platonic friendship, and all very…Harry Potter. We know that J.K. Rowling has created at least one hand-decorated horoscope in her time and astrological archetypes gallop across the pages of Harry Potter like the centaurs she so adores. So, is this where the mass interest in astrology is coming from?

Generation Potter is one way of thinking about Millennial astrology obsessives. They know this stuff. They grew up with it as small children. Thus, Emma Watson (born in 1990 with the North Node in Aquarius). Astrology just doesn’t seem all that fringe or weird to you, if you grew up with your nose in a Potter paperback, because J.K. Rowling seamlessly wove it into so many of her books.

Generation Potter is also what I call ‘Generation Three Harry’s as these Millennials are fascinated by Harry Potter, Harry Styles and Prince Harry. For the record, Harry Styles, born in February 1994, is a Sun Aquarius. In fact, he’s so typical of the sign, I just had to namecheck him in a recent edition of GQ when I was asked to describe the 12 zodiac tribes from a fashion perspective…

Harry Styles also has the massive ambition of another sub-group in this spread of Millennials. He was born in a year when Neptune and Uranus were both in Capricorn, the sign that rules the biggest career, status and success dreamers. If you are curious about this side of Millennial-dom, you may want to read more (below). Beyond our Sagittarius and Aquarius brands, there is a seriously career-minded strand of Millennials, who want to change the system. What system? Well, any system you have going! In a moment I will look at the charismatic American politician A.O.C. and how she and Harry Styles both share this great need to take their profession and shake it up.

Harry Styles landed on the planet at just the right time for Harry Potter fans. What the Three Harry fan generations have in common (although Prince Harry is too old to be an actual Millennial) is a huge interest in relationships and friendships which go across race.

These ‘three Harry’ Millennials are drawn to honest, pure friendships with transcend sexuality. They are also far more interested in partnerships or marriages which don’t recognise gender rules and roles. Race is not an issue. Background is not an issue. It may be Harry falling in love with Meghan Markle. Harry Potter and his complex friendship with Hermione – or Harry Styles and his highly enriched feminine side which speaks so strongly to female fans. Really, advertising and marketing gurus should be giving Gen Y another name – Gen HarrY – fits.

https://www.jessicaadams.com/2018/03/25/generation-capricorn-and-generation-aquarius

Mainstream Media, Millennials and Astrology

Metro, the most widely-read free newspaper in Britain, recently interviewed me about Millennial astrology obsession. Is it because church attendance and religious belief has declined? (Yes). Is it because younger people are more worried about money? (Yes. Nobody in London in their twenties can afford to buy a flat based on an average salary!) This brings me to another point about the future of Millennials, and that’s the arrival of the long Uranus in Taurus cycle, which is about an economic revolution (perhaps even the Green New Deal of A.O.C.) which turns the usual system upside-down. There is a real push for independence, freedom from debt, and a breakaway Bitcoin movement showing up for Millennials, long-term. In fact, by the year 2025, the majority of Millennials now reading this will have experienced Uranus square their Aquarius factors. What they can’t square and refuse to square about banks, Wall Street, consumerism and the rest will fuel a completely different 21st century economy.

This is the generation who are required to work as unpaid interns, or who are asked to provide content for websites, for nothing, in return for free publicity. Believe it or not, when Cosmopolitan magazine in Australia used to run my horoscopes, just before they folded, they were not paying me. Nope. Not a cent! I quit. It’s this kind of ‘Freeconomics’ which Millennials are most likely to kick against, as Uranus in Taurus takes hold.

One of the really obvious issues for Millennials is the way the internet has been used against them (the expectation that everyone can and will work for nothing). Being an influencer on YouTube takes hard work and the fact is, it doesn’t always pay. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Generation Rent, continues to rent. The fact is, Millennials have the incredible global reach of their Aquarius or Sagittarius chart signatures, that the big corporations want. During the new Uranus in Taurus cycle, though, it seems unlikely that Generation HarrY are going to work free for much longer.

I was also asked by Stylist about the Millennial fixation with Mercury Retrograde, as part of a general multi-million hit traffic swing, towards astrology. It’s always good to explain Mercury Retrograde, as so many people get it wrong (it starts earlier and ends later, than so many people think.)

My favourite interview about astrology recently came from an ABC journalist who had spotted the trend and wondered about a sceptic’s point of view. So she asked him on too! You can listen here.

What the Media Doesn’t Get About Millennials 

What the media doesn’t get about Millennials and their fascination with astrology, is pretty simple. The software for figuring out horoscope details, including the asteroids, based on your time, date and place of birth – is now astonishing. Who can resist finding out the truth about themselves in just a few seconds? We’ve now reached a point where you can go to Amazon and pick up my ebook, 2020 Astrology: Your Five-Year Horoscope Guide. From there, you can hand over the price of 1-2 coffees, depending on what your local Starbucks charges, and have a personal birth chart appear on this website, ready to use (straight away, no messing) with your book.

Beyond this kind of bespoke, personal, exclusive experience now available to Millennials from astrologers, there is another reason that people in their late twenties and early thirties love astrology. It works.

I am always amused at the mainstream media being so shocked by this. It works? Yes, sure. Otherwise it would not now be at its highest-ever point of popularity, after 2000 years of continued evolution. Come on? Do you really think Millennials are going to spend time on something that doesn’t deliver?

Moreover, the quality of astrologers has skyrocketed, thanks to the subject now being taught at college and University level. We’ve also seen professionals in other fields, like the media, medicine or law – retraining as pro astrologers.

Do You Have the Millennial Aquarius/Sagittarius Signature?

If you are a Premium Member you can check your personal birth chart now to see what you have in Aquarius and/or Sagittarius. The more factors there, the more you are a typical Millennial or Gen HarrY citizen. Not a Millennial, but you are a parent, godparent, aunt, uncle or grandparent to one? Check your chart! If you also have a Sagittarius and/or Aquarius signature, you speak to this generation and it also speaks to you. You ‘get’ each other on a soul level, despite a difference in age and life experience. Why? You’re tribal and global.

[contentblock id=show-chart]

Meet The Eighties Millennials – Born 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989

If you’re curious about the way Eighties Millennials differ from Nineties Millennials, you only have to look at Lady Gaga (1986), Ronan Farrow (1987), Tinie Tempah (1988) and A.O.C. (1989). Of these, you’d have to say that A.O.C. or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the most important, as she is the wave that the Democrats can surf to victory in the White House in 2020.

What we’re looking at here is game-changers and system-changers. How each Eighties Millennial achieves this, is down to his/her personal birth chart. Each one has a unique path.

We have the A.O.C. chart, thanks to Astro.com and as she was born with Venus in Sagittarius and the North Node in Aquarius, with a Sagittarius Ascendant, she is a classic example of Generation Sagittarius-Aquarius. Also known as Generation Astrology, perhaps. No wonder her staff so freely gave her birth time to astrologers. Aquarius rules groups – like her political party, the Democrats. She’ll shake them up.

How Millennials Take Over the System 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

What we’re looking at here, particularly with the Eighties Millennials, is a system takeover as the old ‘Age of Capricorn’ (with the South Node, Pluto, Saturn, Ceres and Jupiter in Capricorn) gives way to the ‘New Age of Aquarius’ commencing Christmas 2020, and extending into 2021, 2022, 2023 and beyond as Pluto goes into Aquarius. These are the Ronan Farrow years (born 1987) and artists like Tinie Tempah provide the soundtrack. Lady Gaga brings her Little Monsters fan base in to vote – and you can predict the rest.

What is different about this generation, born with such a powerful signature in Sagittarius and Aquarius? It is a generation unconcerned with racial difference. In fact, Millennials don’t see it. Sagittarius is about one-world thinking. Aquarius is about people power within a group. So, this is not going to be about the cliche of rich old men in suits (or even some women in suits who should know better) trying to dictate and dominate to democracy. It’s about new power, shared across.

You know the Millennial obsession with foreign food? Lebanese. Thai. Indian. Japanese. This is also Generation SushY as well as Gen Y. This comes partly from the Sagittarius chart signature in their horoscopes. So many Millennials have it and it is truly global. There is zero interest here in McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken with American Millennials. Oh please! They want…a vegan falafel.

Sagittarius has this global/travel/exotica/foreign fixation, as a sign, yet it is also associated with lifelong learning, self-education, workshops, seminars, online courses, webinars, podcasts and the thirst for knowledge.

It has long been associated with college and university, but it is also about ‘knowing and growing’ for its own sake. No matter what your Sun Sign, Moon Sign and Ascendant Sign happen to be, if you are a Millennial, you will have an outer planet or Node signature in Sagittarius, or have a friend/partner with it.

What Cara and Ed Know About Millennial Life – According to the Astrology

Born in 1991, Ed Sheeran is part of the Saturn in Aquarius group of Millennials, heading towards their serious Saturn Return from the end of 2020, forward into 2021 – when Jupiter is also in Aquarius. Cara Delevingne, born in 1992, is also part of the Saturn in Aquarius group. So, it’s time to talk about that sign.

This is a really powerful political force, as we go into the New Age of Aquarius, with Jupiter, Saturn and finally Pluto all gathering in the sign of ‘we the people’, in slow stages, from December 2020.

Aquarius is the sign which is associated with tolerance, inclusiveness, diversity and equality. It’s the most accepting of difference. It’s also very much about ‘all for one’ and ‘one for all’ – Musketeer thinking.

I find it really funny that on Twitter in the year 2019, people are still talking about Donald Trump as a serious contender for power, from the election in 2020. That’s just not going to happen, according to the astrology. Why not? Trump is not in charge of a diversity/community/equality agenda. Millennials who have one or more factors in Aquarius in their personal birth charts just don’t get that. They are also the protester generation, able to create vast crowds in hours, via Twitter. We are already seeing how Millennials in Hong Kong are shutting down a whole city – a whole economy.

Generation Aquarius is about freedom. Independence. Tolerance. Space. These ideas have been swirling around for decades, in connection with the sign. How else does a group work, unless there’s room to move?

What Cara and Ed know, from their fan base – but also their own friendships and social media circles – is that the 21st century is not going to be about old men in suits, any longer. That looks as though it’s going to explode into the biggest transformation in the political system in 248 years, from the year 2023. The old men in suits are the mountain goats who climbed to the peak. That mountain is coming down, by all the laws of astrology, in January 2020, as Saturn and Pluto form a conjunction in Capricorn.

What Millennials know about astrology, is that (above all) it’s a great leveller. The generation born with Sagittarius and/or Aquarius chart signatures are not really interested in an all-white golf club of power, or some old Chinese men’s club of privilege and wealth. Enter the zodiac. Why? It honours the sign, not the salary, the class, the skin colour or the gender.

This ancient twelve-sign system does not care if you are white, black, straight, gay, lesbian, transgender, red-haired, rich, poor, or anything else. See – at the heart of astrology is a very different kind of classification. At its most simple it is based on Sun Signs. (How we shine). At its most complex, it is about angles, aspects, synastry and transits.

This makes for an interesting generation, who also happen to be – obsessively – interested in checking their horoscopes. From the year 2021 this will become more powerful than anyone might have thought, as astrology itself begins a new and influential phase at the White House, in Westminster, Beijing and other seats of power. You doubt it? Seriously, we saw the same Pluto cycle in Ancient Rome, when an empire ran on the zodiac signs and their planetary rulers.

If you take a look at your birth chart, if you are a Premium Member, and look at any Sagittarius or Aquarius factors, no matter if they are planets, asteroids, the Ascendant, Descendant, Midheaven, Immum Coeli, trans-Neptunian objects or whatever – you’ll find your way into your tribe.

The tribal thinking, across language and race barriers, class and wealth obstacles and the usual gender rules – is what will make the Twenties to come so different. In fact, you might say that Millennials have incarnated specifically to come of age in the Twenties (2020-2029) as we see the mighty Pluto turn in the direction of Aquarius, after over 240 years away, to finally unleash the internet’s real purpose as the Climate Emergency takes hold and it becomes clear that ‘Form one planet’ thinking is about survival.

In Ancient Rome, which gives us our astrology today, an Aquarius was the water-bearer who supplied the baths. The communal baths were for small children and old women alike. Slaves and senators. This idea of pooling resources – for the people, with the people, by the people – is at the heart of what Millennials are about. It really doesn’t surprise me that Gen Aqua-Sag is so interested in astrology, that great leveller. The gap between Greta Thunberg (teenagers are heavily Aquarian) and grandparents, even great-grandparents, is really not that big, once the new Aquarian era of the Twenties kicks in. Watch this space.