The Sky Speaks — How to Spot Tabloid Astrology

Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/].

Happy Sunday, everybody. A little bonus episode for you guys.

Today we're going to talk about tabloid astrology. This is a phrase that I used recently on the channel. I actually think that one of our subscribers wrote this phrase into the chat section, and then, to be honest, I think I liked that phrase and ended up using it casually in an episode.

So then, of course, I got a lot of people sending me DMs on social media and leaving messages in the YouTube comment section throughout the week talking about this phrase and asking if I would at some point talk a little bit more about what I think defines tabloid astrology.

Initially, I was really resistant to doing this because I don't want to come off like a gatekeeper or self righteous, or like someone who knows what good and bad astrology is, entirely because I don't and I'm not the final authority, and I don't have everything figured out. And you know, if people like my astrology and they like something else, I'm a live and let live kind of person, honestly.

But I do think that there are certain features of this, what we might call tabloid astrology, that it's important to be aware of so that you can have a sense of, you know, what kind of astrology is going to work for you and what isn't.

So I thought, well, I'll tell you what I think about this subject, and you can, you know, hopefully take something good from this and agree or disagree with the categories that I've created for fun. But I also want to talk about what makes it hard to be an astrologer with a social media platform, and why I can sort of sympathize with people who are out there, you know, doing their best to make it with a subject they love, and up against an algorithm and things like that.

So I hope that this will be a human conversation, and really not a judgey one. But that's the agenda for today.

Before we get into it, remember to like and subscribe, share your comments, your reflections. Give us that little thumbs up. It helps us tremendously. You can find transcripts of any of these daily talks on the website that's NightlightAstrology.com. No promotions for the day because it is a bonus episode. So let's get into it.

So I've come up with five different categories. They're not five things to watch for, but you know, five different features of what I might call tabloid astrology.

By tabloid astrology, I know it sounds a little pejorative, it's a little insulting, so I just want to first start by saying that it's really not my intention to be mean. At the same time, it does frustrate me to see certain types of astrology being promoted as astrology's popularity and visibility is growing, as people, you know, venture capitalists, are pouring more money into the astrology industry, as people are trying to develop AI programs married to astrology that have no interest in the actual field.

I am not someone who thinks that I know what good and bad astrology is in some total way, or that I know what makes an astrologer and what doesn't. And so I want to be careful not to posture myself like that, because humility is key for any spiritual practice. Talking about these things at all risks losing something essential when it comes to that humility that should be at the heart of a spiritual practice.

But let's talk about this and try to talk about it in a human way.

The number one thing that to me would define tabloid astrology, as I mentioned it on the channel recently, would be algorithm driven messaging. What that looks like? It's content optimized for clicks, shares and engagement that are often tied to trending transits using viral phrases and emotionally charged hooks.

Now here's where I can sympathize. The algorithm is the algorithm, and just because you title something in a way that is trying to reach a broader audience doesn't necessarily mean that the content itself is lacking heart or care or sensitivity or genuine spiritual commitment or just good astrology.

I know this to be the case because I know lots of my colleagues and friends who are up against this, and who try to walk that line between provocative titling, edgy titling that kind of hooks you in, but also they're really good astrologers whose content is not, you know, just bad ego, ego maniacal, like, you know.

But when astrology is shaped primarily by algorithms, and the nuance and the heart and the spiritual centeredness of the craft get flattened by algorithmic considerations, the goal shifts from careful interpretation of symbols, natural myth, metaphor, spiritual substance to immediacy and reach.

That can often lead to generalized statements and interpretations that are widely relatable but less context specific, without nuance, without care and sensitivity for a traditional understanding of symbolism in astrology. And all of this can sort of flatten and diminish the actual intellectual and spiritual integrity of the tradition.

I think every spiritual tradition, every, you know, art, culture, spirituality, intellectual tradition, in order to remain in integrity, sometimes has to guard against certain kinds of consumeristic trends. If this wasn't the case, we wouldn't have the dilution of many different religious and spiritual traditions all across our planet, you know, or co-opting different traditions just for the sake of money, and this happens all the time.

So the point is to be aware of it, and to be careful. For me, there's content and creators out there that I think are very good astrologers, who are, you know, almost like trying to work with the algorithm while still creating really substantive content. And to me, both things are possible, but we have to be careful. We have to be careful because we're stewards of the trajectory of the field in a way.

The style often serves as an accessible entry point. Don't get me wrong. I think there's nuance here. You know, the clickable titles, the shareable titles, the engagement considerations, those are important to also reach people with an important spiritual message about an enchanted cosmos that we live in. And is there anything really bad about people getting into astrology however they get into it? So try to keep an open mind.

A lot of people will encounter astrology through shareable, little bite-sized contents that are provocative in some way, but somehow speak to them. So I don't underestimate the way that spirit really can use anything. And as much as I get a little frustrated with or protective almost about astrology when I see some of the tabloid astrology out there, I also recognize that spirit's in charge, not me, you know what I mean. So an important thing to keep in mind.

The second one on my list is fear based framing. So fear based framing is just language that emphasizes danger, crisis, looming consequences like "this transit will ruin relationships," or "really watch out for this week." Fear obviously captures attention quickly. Our news cycles and much of social media is rooted in fear or rage or divisiveness.

But when the primary way of delivering astrological content is through fear based, disaster based, or even an overemphasis on peak states of spiritual crisis or transformation, there's a trauma in those kinds of experiences and events. If you've had a peak experience, a transformative life spiritual crisis, emergency spiritual situation, you know that for as positive as it is, it can be traumatic.

And so trauma, fear, anger, division, when the astrology is fueled by these kinds of hooks and always expresses an understanding of transits through these hooks, it's something that can hook people on a spiritual subject. And at its best, it's better to be hooked on a spiritual subject than heroin, you know? Truly.

And yet, complex symbolic processes like transits and aspects and lunar cycles and outer planetary cycles shouldn't be reduced to just hyper-catalytic, transformative, you know, peak experiences, or, you know, it shouldn't be so dramatic all the time.

Sensational, fear based astrology does describe challenging periods, though, so the issue isn't about naming some difficulty or some transformative events. I try to do that myself when I genuinely think that this is a loaded, very powerful kind of event.

I think it's when these challenges are presented without context, without the nuance or balance of transit coverage that isn't sensational. Like, if you're going to talk about Saturn Neptune, and it's a sensational transit, it really is sensational, you know. Look at some of the things that have happened around it quite clearly. Or Saturn Pluto back in 2020 with pandemic.

It's not to me about sugar-coating life, you know, but it also doesn't mean we need all of our content to be hooking us on a kind of addictive fear based adrenaline tendency that we have.

The reason that it's hard not to go this way is because this is what gains followings, and when livelihoods are concerned, following is important, so it's a consideration that you can't ignore as a content creator. But how do you again, how do you sensitively incorporate enough drama that it's exciting because it is content, and on a level, it's entertainment, but we're also talking about psychic weather patterns that are part of a spiritual, animistic cosmos that we live in, that is trying to aid us in a process of peaceful, conscious enlightenment. So the astrology really should be part of that process as much as possible.

Number three would be cliches and over generalizations. You can always tell that you're dealing with a kind of tabloid astrology when repetitive words, phrases, simplified descriptions of signs or planets, like when someone says "Leos, it's all about you," or "this Full Moon is in Libra, a sign that's all about relationships."

These simplifications, and again, I'm going to say something in defense of them in a minute, but these phrases are easy to recognize and repeat, like "Libra is all about relationships," or "Scorpio is all about transformation," or "Leos are all about needing attention," "Mercury Retrograde, don't buy a plane ticket."

Over time, these kinds of cliches reduce living archetypes into stereotypes, and they obscure the richness of astrological symbolism.

To my mind, an astrologer's job is, in a sense, to always help us turn the archetypal jewels, because we catch light bouncing off from them in different directions, and we come to realize that while Libra, being a Venus-ruled sign, can easily connect to the subject of relationships, in ancient astrology, you don't see them saying this sign or this planet is solely the ruler of a topic.

Venus, obviously being the most obvious planet of love and sex and relationships, but it's not the only context in which the topic or conversation about relationships appears through astrological symbolism. Neither is the sign of Libra exclusively about relationships, nor has it ever been. A lot of that comes from modern astrology's conflation of signs with houses. Seventh house, Libra equals love, equals relationships. Libra and the seventh house, traditionally, have nothing to do with one another.

This kind of stuff is part of why I think it's also important to be educated about traditional astrology, not because tradition and innovation don't have a relationship with one another, but because the basic rationale behind houses, signs, planets, if you understand it really deeply, innovation can be at its best because it can riff off from an understanding of where things came from, as opposed to making stuff up entirely without an understanding of the tradition itself. I think that tends to be more problematic anyway.

Cliches persist because they contain a grain of truth. Everyone is at different levels in their expression of astrology, of the symbols, and their ability to articulate them creatively. I even get stuck in ruts and fall into cliches. So I have a lot of sympathy for how hard it is if you're creating regular content to do this flawlessly all the time. It's not easy.

And generalizations and cliches sometimes hit on truths that are just true. So yeah. But if you notice the combination of algorithm driven messaging, fear sensational based framing, cliches and over generalizations, then you can start to recognize, okay, this is something that may not be the best for my process as a student of astrology or for my spiritual path, and perhaps in a bigger sense that we can debate, the healthy stewarding of the field itself.

I think that professional astrologers can have conversations about these things and healthy disagreements as well, but that's where I stand at this point. You know, just observing it, being in it for 16 years.

Number four would be, I called this sensationalism and extremes, which is a little bit like the fear based framing. But the difference here, to me, is the highly dramatic and absolute claims. "Everything is about to change." "This is the most something transit of your life."

When astrology becomes constantly urgent and constantly some kind of spiritual, transformational gauntlet or spectacle, this can actually overshadow the steady, cyclical and often very subtle nature of planetary influences that require sensitive cultivation of your body, your mind, your psyche.

I will tell you that a lot of people say everyone is experiencing this thing right now. That is hardly ever true. Each individual person is in such an individual karmic ecosystem in an interesting body with an interesting history, and the way that we experience archetypes is radically diverse. So when people say "everyone is experiencing this," or "we're all about to go through this," it's hardly ever true.

We may all be in a period of time where we can talk about a certain set of symbols meeting in the sky. But the reason that we need to cover that from a sensitive, variegated, multi-dimensional, multivalent perspective is specifically because of how important context is: karmic context, soul context, cultural context, familial, socio-economic, you know, where you live, what you do for a living.

The way that we experience these things is also rooted in archetypes that are deeply philosophical in nature, which means that we often will flatten the depth of these symbols by just saying, "Oh my god, everything's about to change. Everyone's going through this. We're all about to experience this or that."

Some transits are really significant. But the distinction lies in proportionality, whether the language reflects this full spectrum of possible experiences or not, and also an understanding that when doing mundane coverage, you can never take into account the specifics of birth charts, for example, and the specifics of an individual soul with an individual karma.

A lot of what we're starting to deal with is a conflating of individual experience with group experience, which means astrology is being applied as a kind of popular, trending mass way to identify ourselves and our experiences that often a) is not true and b) eliminates the individual nuances and differences that we experience through our unique karma.

So again, sensationalism tends to flatten karmic diversity, and it tends to be very extreme and very urgent, and it tends to loop us into... On the one hand, some of this language helps us connect with one another. It helps us realize we're not alone. It helps us realize that we're all going through something, and there's an element of truth to that.

But when it's incessant, when it's over and over and over, it can also lead to a kind of burnout or fatigue in trying to keep up with transformations that feel less and less viable or tangible to us. It's like, I don't know, seems like there's always something extreme going on. And if your life doesn't actually feel like that, astrology itself can start to feel disingenuous.

So it's not that there aren't sensational, extreme things that happen, or that we aren't connected to one another in these transits, but we have to be really careful of how these transits can flatten individual beings and not get down to the fact that one of the biggest rewards of studying astrology is the sensitivity that you develop and the sensitivity required to often feel or notice the subtle expression of symbols.

The subtle expression of symbols is often far more powerful than the gross, transformative gauntlets, and staying caught in that level of things often eliminates the ability for us to get more and more sensitive, which means more and more discerning and careful and thoughtful and present.

So again, the more epic it is, in some ways, the more it is what it is, kind of like what Marvel movies are to Hollywood. It's part of the flattening of genre distinctions and art. And I'm not saying that there aren't some artful Marvel movies, but the epic, heroic, super fast action hero genre can flatten everything else, and so does that kind of astrology, when a lot of life is found in quieter and different kinds of narrative framings.

So number five would be hyper-positivity, constant talk about manifestation and self focus.

Now this is going to be messaging that's centered on personal gain, constant affirmation, or the idea that astrology guarantees outcomes. Like "this transit, you can manifest your money," or "this transit, you can take advantage of it because it's a great time to get X, Y or Z."

I think there is such a thing as electional astrology, obviously. And there is such a thing as working with transits and being cooperative, participatory, co-creative. I'm into all of that.

But when the messaging is constantly centered on pumping you up, making you better, making you more in control, getting you more things, making you feel more positive about yourself, oftentimes this is overcompensation. What we should probably really be working on is how to feel, how to be more present, and how to feel more fulfilled in the simple presence and nature of our own being.

All these spiritual traditions that astrology is born out of in the ancient world tell us that our joy, our happiness, our contentment, our peace, is within.

Now I know that the world is a real place that we live in, and paying the bills and getting jobs and finding love is really important. I wouldn't do this if I didn't think it was super important to people. I don't condescend to people who come to me because they're interested in these things. I am too.

But astrology should not be a celestial tabloid gossip column that is just encouraging a kind of new age narcissism. We don't want astrology to be just wish fulfillment, self enhancement, and leave out themes like conscious spiritual responsibility for our enlightenment or our relationships to grow in love, the acceptance of fate and the reality of karma, dealing with limits, finding what it means to be humble rather than having an ego.

All of these things are absolutely vital to the spiritual traditions that astrology is born out of, and so the more it becomes about making you more and more spectacular in a temporary, limited, egotistical framework, probably the less healthy it is and the less representative it is of astrology's spiritual roots.

Now, encouragement and empowerment are valuable, so to play devil's advocate to my own point here, the concern to me is not about the value of astrology as encouragement or empowerment, because those things can be so valuable psychologically for people who have been wounded or hurt, or for people who feel really disempowered, to gain confidence, to find your sense of purpose, and yes, sometimes to manifest new versions of life.

To me, the concern is when positivity becomes one-sided, excluding the complexity of real life conditions and the basic spiritual goal of life, which is about consciousness, presence, love, humility, patience, curiosity, compassion, and an arc of self-development that is spanning many lifetimes, moving us toward God realization.

Whether we like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, it is at the roots of our ancient tradition. If you don't want to call it God realization, you want to call it returning to source or goddess realization, you know, whatever. The point is that the purpose of our life is bigger than the temporary concerns and investments of the ego in this lifetime.

We have to always balance that when doing astrology with the fact that we also do have egos in a temporary lifetime, and the life and the ego of this lifetime is sacred and also important. But balancing those things means that we are careful to frame astrology in a way that includes encouragement, empowerment, even maybe some emphasis on co-creating with transits, alongside a bigger picture that we're a part of a soul trajectory, an evolutionary trajectory.

So now look, I don't think that tabloid astrology, to use that phrase again, is really about bad people. I don't look at it that way. I think it's more about formats and tendencies that tend to prioritize speed and emotional impact over depth and nuance.

And sometimes these styles meet real needs, they serve as gateways or doorways. And so my practice, however frustrated some of this stuff might make me, is to say: I don't know the grand design of the universe. I'm not in charge. I'm not the gatekeeper. I am not perfect. I have my own issues. My own astrology is where I should sit and focus on just being the best I can be and doing what feels right to me, not policing or judging other people, right?

So that's how I try to focus on this. But since everyone was asking for me to address this conversation a little bit more, I thought it would make for a fun bonus episode.

At the end of the day, when I see people at astrology conferences, and let's say I might see an influencer at a conference, and I know that their thumbnails or the way they do their marketing is driven by a slightly different set of values than myself or whatever, here's the thing, though: when I see them in person, I'm always reminded, yeah, this is a soul.

And when I see them in person, I remember that a lot of this is entertainment, and there's room for a lot of different ways of astrology being done and presented that serve a lot of different needs in a very diverse karmic landscape of evolving souls.

So to sit around and think that I have the gold standard would be serving myself up a can of cosmic whoop ass. I'd be setting myself up for karmic disaster.

So it's tricky, though, because to not be discerning and look at these things carefully would also be to risk karmic disaster, because looking at these things is part of how I hold myself accountable to a standard. But there's meaningful gray in all of these spaces, because we want to reach people with a spiritual message and a spiritual language that can truly help heal. It can save lives. Astrology can.

And so I think generosity of spirit, tolerance, patience, compassion for one another, and knowing that Spirit uses a lot of different things for a lot of different reasons. So who are we to judge, right?

So anyway, I thought I would continue this conversation that started in the comment section this past week for a bonus episode. I hope you found this useful today, and we'll see you again tomorrow. Bye, everyone.