THE PREMISE

For more than two thousand years, human beings looked up and believed the sky was speaking to them.

The ancient world divided the heavens into twelve signs. Chinese astronomers tracked Jupiter through its orbit of almost twelve years; these years came to be marked by Ox, Tiger, Dragon and the rest.

Physicians checked star charts before surgery. Kings consulted astrologers before going to war.

The zodiac was studied, trusted and feared.

Then the Scientific Revolution came, and astrology did not survive it.

No experiment could prove that the position of the stars at your birth had any effect on who you became.

By the 20th century, astrology had been reduced to personality quizzes, a tattoo on someone’s wrist, newspaper horoscopes. Something people no longer took seriously, but read anyway.

The devastating irony was that it had been right all along.