• @cuerdo@lemmy.world
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    251 year ago

    I would argue that the zodiac is the proto-science of psychology.

    This is people trying to find behavioral patterns

  • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥
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    171 year ago

    Considering how the universe is full of stuff circling around stuff circling around stuff circling around… the zodiac signs have moved over the last couple of millenias.

    • @dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Not that I believe in astrology, but just because the constellations moved doesn’t mean that humans weren’t able to track them. They still form a ring around Earth and the precession of the Zodiacs still occurs.

      • @Perfide@reddthat.com
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        31 year ago

        The fact humans are able to track them is how we know the zodiacs are no longer accurate. According to astrology if you were born on Dec. 1 for example, you’re considered a Sagittarius… except you’re ACTUALLY a Scorpio, due to the constellations shifting.

      • @shoop@lemmy.ca
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        91 year ago

        I believe the point is not that the zodiacs don’t occur at all, it’s that the time you are born is no longer the same time the original zodiac occured.

  • @Swallowtail@beehaw.org
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    81 year ago

    The actual signs exist (get yourself a planisphere or a stargazing app, find some dark skies, and discover them for yourself!), it’s just all the magic personality nonsense associated with them is bullshit.

      • ℛ𝒶𝓋ℯ𝓃
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        11 year ago

        Smiley faces don’t exist, they’re just a random collection of polygons (that are interpreted by the human brain as being analogous to a specific thing and thus have meaning through comparison…)

      • ZephrC
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        31 year ago

        Stars don’t exist, it’s just a random collection of hydrogen.

        • @beardown@lemm.ee
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          31 year ago

          It’s one thing to say that constellations of stars don’t exist. It’s another thing to say that the constellation “Leo” doesn’t exist because it isn’t a lion and our perception of the spatial relationship of those stars has nothing to do with lions, or with mystical astrological significance.

          Those stars are present in space in a certain way. And we can perceive them in our sky in a certain way. But whether those stars are “connected” in any meaningful way, or whether they contain any inherent Lion relevance is purely a creation of human imagination derived from real observable objective phenomena. We could just as easily have said that Leo was Orion, and Orion was Leo, and have been equally correct. It’s subjective. Which doesn’t mean it’s meaningless for us, otherwise art would be meaningless. But it does mean that it isn’t “real” in the same way that gravity or the sun are real. Anything whose continued existence is conditioned on belief isn’t “real” in an objective sense.

          Belief can certainly will unreal things into meaningful reality though. But, absent that belief, those things will not exist.

          Really this is a discussion centered around the inadequacy of the English word “real.” Perhaps other languages have specific words that would more clearly demonstrate this distinction. Because clearly gravity and Pisces are not both “real” in the same way. The former is objectively real and the latter is subjectively real. And we’re talking past each other by not simply having seperate words that distinguish between those concepts

          • ZephrC
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            11 year ago

            Except there really isn’t anything more “objective” about all the stars in a direction vs all the hydrogen lumped together in a hot spot. I agree that the dense place fusion is happening is far more interesting and important than a direction of sky that got named after a pretty picture someone imagined a long time ago. That’s a purely subjective distinction though. That direction from Earth, and everything in it, exists without us just as much as a star does. Words just describe the groupings we think are interesting enough to want to communicate about regularly. Sometimes other people like to talk about things we think are silly. That doesn’t make us more “objective” though.

          • @Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            It makes me feel really dumb when I watch this stuff. The entire time I try to be open minded. I’m left being impressed with the individuals ability to research and articulate an obviously very thoroughly studied topic. They are obviously intelligent, I guess more so than I can relate, because all I am left with from the content is how pointless of a topic it is. No kidding words that we created are a method of communicating within the environment we exist. It’s like the stupid boat example, most generally when referring to the boat people are referring to the one registered, just as he said in the video. The others made from the scraps are boats made from the removed components of that registered vessel. None of this stuff seems complicated to me. He and others even seem aware of the pointless ridiculousness of it when he discusses the eyelash in the fridge example. So I’m left feeling that I’m obviously too stupid to understand the value, or objective, in such a pointless pursuit where everyone already recognizes conditions to words apply to communication while somehow finding value in beating the horse to death and picking it to death, for what I imagine is some goal I just can’t understand.

      • JackbyDev
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        01 year ago

        That’s like saying people don’t exist and they’re just random collections of particles.

        • @beardown@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          No it’s like saying a person-shaped cloud doesn’t exist.

          To describe it as person-shaped is subjective and another viewer may describe the same cloud as butterfly-shaped. Because it’s a subjective interpretation of a static objective object. Like abstract art.

          People/animals exist and are “real” in that all of us have agency and a sense of self that is not conditionally dependent on the identical perception of others.

          A person-shaped cloud is only “person-shaped” if viewers claim it is. An arrangement of viewable disparate stars is only “Orion” because the Greeks, and now us, decided it was. But I am me and you are you regardless of what anyone else thinks, and always will be.

          We aren’t a collection of particles, we are more than the sum of our parts. We have agency and a mind and self-identity. A cloud or a star constellation has none of those things. They are inanimate unfeeling objects that only gain meaning, (astrological, imaginative, or otherwise) when humans/sentient beings ascribe that meaning to them. Human beings, and all living things, have inherent meaning because of their sentience and inherent uniqueness. Which is why genocide is a greater loss than the destruction of a rock - it’s the permanent death of unique living beings.

    • @ExLisper@linux.community
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      91 year ago

      Gemini, Virgo, Libra and Sagittarius also are not animals. Almost half of them isn’t. But you’re technically correct that ‘most’ is. Which is the best kind of correct.

    • @joranvar@feddit.nl
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      181 year ago

      In Dutch we don’t use the Latin names for zodiac signs (and we call them “sterrenbeelden”, which means “star images” or maybe “star statues”). Aquarius is “waterman”, which I guess would translate to (surprise) “water man”.

      Why? Not sure, but it might be because of Simon Stevin who insisted we use Dutch words for mathematical concepts, and thought up some words like “evenwijdig” (“same distancey”) for “parallel” and “wiskunde” (“certainty knowledge”) for mathematics.

        • @joranvar@feddit.nl
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          41 year ago

          I agree, and I love how it has these younger words with a vivid etymology, how it shares so many common roots with English, German, the Scandinavian languages, and a serving of French, but also sprinkles of many other languages from its seafaring and otherwise trading history. And I love the grammar rules that allow one to be precise and concise in many things (but there we must definitely bow to German).

      • @psud@lemmy.world
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        21 year ago

        Aquarius in English is normally called “the water bearer” so a person carrying water (probably back from the well)

      • @rbhfd@lemmy.world
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        101 year ago

        Literally, “water man” is correct. But I would translate it a bit more loosely as “water bearer”.

        Most, if not all, names of zodiac signs in Dutchare are literal translations from Latin. But while most people understand that Leo means Lion, how many know Cancer is Latin for crab?

        • @joranvar@feddit.nl
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          21 year ago

          Water bearer makes much more sense, thanks! I did notice the images where a guy carries a jug, but as a kid, I always imagined the water man to be some kind of elemental, and I never consciously challenged that idea. Haha.

    • @Perfide@reddthat.com
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      61 year ago

      Only half of the Zodiacs are inspired from real animals. Gemini is two humans, Virgo is a virgin woman, Libra is a Weighing Scale, Sagittarius is a Centaur with a bow, Capricorn is a Sea Goat, and Aquarius is… a cup of water, I guess?

  • The Menemen!
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    531 year ago

    This is dumb. Dinosaurs looks are so diverse. He should have chosen a specific one.

  • BlanketsWithSmallpox
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    61 year ago

    Zodiac signs are literally constellations… Which are quite real.

    Astrology is also real, in the fact that it’s a uselessly real thing. Women love it though. Same with tarot. All you do is make plausible sounding shit up and then they placebo themselves into happiness or nocebo into a sour mood.

    • @deft@lemmy.wtf
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      21 year ago

      Which lowkey is magic.

      Placebo effect, confidence, trust.

      They’re not really things. Intangible and hard to understand. With them in your corner somehow you just have more, you’re empowered.

      Magic dude wtf

  • @Kedly@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Primal Zodiac (Which combines Western Zodiac with Eastern Animal Years) doesnt have the Dinosaur… but it DOES have the Unicorn