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josephrjusticeThis is my answer to the OKC question "Is astrological sign at all important in a match?" The possible answers are: (1) Yes; (2) No.
Ummm. At first immediate glance, I was going to write "No" and let that be the end of it. And, it's still true that I don't personally believe in the real-world significance or meaningfulness of astrology or astrological signs, but... On second thought, I can see that things are a little more nuanced than that.
Allow me to try to explain. Now, I myself was born in late April of 1965. That makes me a "Taurus", astrologically speaking, as I understand it. Now, I know that people that are "born under the sign of Taurus" are supposed to have characteristics X, Y, and Z. (I don't consciously know / recall what these characteristics are, or know that they're generally well agreed upon as opposed to "Authority A says that Tauruses are supposed to be X, Y, and Z, but Authority B instead says they are M, N, and O, and Authority C says they're X and Y, and N and O, but are not at all Z or M. Wow!", so I use generic placeholder labels instead.) Since to the best of my knowledge I have no idea what these characteristics are, I have no idea if I actually have them or not, and if I do have them I suspect it's entirely a coincidence, or at most for a reason completely unrelated to any alleged astrological influence the time and/or place of my birth might have upon me.
However... I could see that someone else, a potential match, who *did* sincerely believe in astrology and who knew that I was a Taurus (or whatever else I am, in an astrological sense) might perceive whatever I do and/or say in the light of that knowledge, emphasizing some things, de-emphasizing or even disregarding others, and otherwise generally using their beliefs about how I should be based on their beliefs about astrology and its influence to color and alter their view of me.
Even more significantly, I could see that same someone else viewing how they are in real life, and saying to themself "Well, I am a Cancer (or a Capricorn, or a Gemini, or whatever), and Cancers act in such and such a fashion and have personality traits which are such and such, so I obviously should be acting more in that fashion and have those personality traits", and then alter themselves and how they behave and act in that light of how they believe they *should* be like to ultimately reinforce and confirm how they believe they should be.
I guess in this sense they would be undergoing and/or experiencing a sort of placebo effect, except that instead of taking a sugar pill and reacting to it as if it had some sort of active ingredient, instead they are using the claims of what and how they (or I) should be according to the tenets of whatever astrological belief they have and reacting and modifying themselves (or their perception of me) as if those claims were true, whether or not they would be true if they were not in fact aware of and a believer in the effects of astrological influences. And, while I might not believe in astrology, I *do* believe in placebo effects, as far as I know those are a real thing.
So... I'm still going to say "No", I do not think astrological signs are at all important in a match, based upon the fact that I do not personally believe in astrology or in the claims it makes about how people behave and are. I do not think there is any scientific significance to astrology. However, I do respect that there could be placebo effects within other people based on those other people's view of the meaning and importance of astrology within the real world, and I recognize that if these effects occur they would be real and need to be accounted for, even tho the actual mechanism which caused them was not astrology itself but the other person's beliefs concerning astrology.
I'm also going to say that acceptable answers for me to this question are "No" only, and that this question is "somewhat important" to me. This would not be a deal-breaker by any means, but I guess it would have some significance to me even if it could be overcome by other factors. And, if two otherwise equally interesting and satisfactory people were available to me who differed from each other only by their beliefs in astrology and the importance of astrological signs, I suspect I would be more likely to prefer the non-believer over the believer.
Ummm. At first immediate glance, I was going to write "No" and let that be the end of it. And, it's still true that I don't personally believe in the real-world significance or meaningfulness of astrology or astrological signs, but... On second thought, I can see that things are a little more nuanced than that.
Allow me to try to explain. Now, I myself was born in late April of 1965. That makes me a "Taurus", astrologically speaking, as I understand it. Now, I know that people that are "born under the sign of Taurus" are supposed to have characteristics X, Y, and Z. (I don't consciously know / recall what these characteristics are, or know that they're generally well agreed upon as opposed to "Authority A says that Tauruses are supposed to be X, Y, and Z, but Authority B instead says they are M, N, and O, and Authority C says they're X and Y, and N and O, but are not at all Z or M. Wow!", so I use generic placeholder labels instead.) Since to the best of my knowledge I have no idea what these characteristics are, I have no idea if I actually have them or not, and if I do have them I suspect it's entirely a coincidence, or at most for a reason completely unrelated to any alleged astrological influence the time and/or place of my birth might have upon me.
However... I could see that someone else, a potential match, who *did* sincerely believe in astrology and who knew that I was a Taurus (or whatever else I am, in an astrological sense) might perceive whatever I do and/or say in the light of that knowledge, emphasizing some things, de-emphasizing or even disregarding others, and otherwise generally using their beliefs about how I should be based on their beliefs about astrology and its influence to color and alter their view of me.
Even more significantly, I could see that same someone else viewing how they are in real life, and saying to themself "Well, I am a Cancer (or a Capricorn, or a Gemini, or whatever), and Cancers act in such and such a fashion and have personality traits which are such and such, so I obviously should be acting more in that fashion and have those personality traits", and then alter themselves and how they behave and act in that light of how they believe they *should* be like to ultimately reinforce and confirm how they believe they should be.
I guess in this sense they would be undergoing and/or experiencing a sort of placebo effect, except that instead of taking a sugar pill and reacting to it as if it had some sort of active ingredient, instead they are using the claims of what and how they (or I) should be according to the tenets of whatever astrological belief they have and reacting and modifying themselves (or their perception of me) as if those claims were true, whether or not they would be true if they were not in fact aware of and a believer in the effects of astrological influences. And, while I might not believe in astrology, I *do* believe in placebo effects, as far as I know those are a real thing.
So... I'm still going to say "No", I do not think astrological signs are at all important in a match, based upon the fact that I do not personally believe in astrology or in the claims it makes about how people behave and are. I do not think there is any scientific significance to astrology. However, I do respect that there could be placebo effects within other people based on those other people's view of the meaning and importance of astrology within the real world, and I recognize that if these effects occur they would be real and need to be accounted for, even tho the actual mechanism which caused them was not astrology itself but the other person's beliefs concerning astrology.
I'm also going to say that acceptable answers for me to this question are "No" only, and that this question is "somewhat important" to me. This would not be a deal-breaker by any means, but I guess it would have some significance to me even if it could be overcome by other factors. And, if two otherwise equally interesting and satisfactory people were available to me who differed from each other only by their beliefs in astrology and the importance of astrological signs, I suspect I would be more likely to prefer the non-believer over the believer.
