of success - Ruby Warrington

signs
of success
W h at ’ s h a p p e n i n g to
a s t r o l o g y ? I n c r e a s i n g ly ,
h i g h - f ly e r s a r e u s i n g t h e
s ta r s to p r e d i c t f i n a n c i a l
m a r k e ts , h i r e m ds a n d
u n d e r s ta n d c l i e n ts , s a y s
ruby warrington
hen Helena Bonham Carter needed extra insight
into the character of Elizabeth Taylor for her recent
BBC4 drama, she turned to an astrologer. “She told
me Elizabeth was a water person,” says the actress.
“Water is sexual and sensual, and that’s the place she
operated from.” Bonham Carter is not alone in using
astrology to give her an edge at work. It’s becoming a secret weapon for
executives everywhere.
On or around the first of every month, about 6.5m people, in countries
as far-flung as America, China and Brazil, visit the celebrity astrologer
Susan Miller’s website, Astrology Zone, to read her lengthy and “spookily”
accurate forecast for the month ahead. Miller, a bubbly brunette with a
penchant for red lipstick and clever-girl gossip, writes about 2,500 words
for each sign of the zodiac, and makes full use of her “word of the day”
subscription from dictionary.com, just a couple of the reasons why her
demographic might come as a surprise (not least to her).
“What shocked me when I started to read the statistics is that 43%
went to college and 44% to grad school. A third have household incomes
of over £65,000 a year, with another third earning over £100,000,” she
tells me at Soho House in New York, where she had given a talk to a
packed room of high-achieving urban professionals the previous week.
“But then I write about adult concerns, about mortgages, marriages and
kids, about caring for your parents. The big stuff in life.”
If astrology was once the preserve of confused teenage girls trying to
divine their “love match” and crusty types in Glastonbury’s Green Fields,
today it is increasingly seen as the thinking person’s road map to success.
“Most of my clients come recommended by a friend, then check in at
times of transition, wanting a second viewpoint,” says Style’s own Shelley
von Strunckel. “Sceptics’ views are shaped by their misunderstanding of
astrology. It’s about cycles, similar to those in the financial markets. Many
think it’s fortune-telling and requires yielding all common sense. They’ll
also point out that it isn’t ‘scientific’, as it comes from the realms of
philosophy, so efforts to explain it aren’t rewarding.”
Who are her clients? “They’re almost all in business, about half men
and half women,” says von Strunckel. “Just yesterday I was advising an
extremely dynamic individual about a potential MD for their company
— yes, according to their charts.”
Lisa Tse, who runs a London-based branding agency and in 2010
founded the Sorority, a networking group for women in business,
describes the reading she had with von Strunckel as “like having an
experienced business adviser personally assess your individual position,
illust r at ion
:
then outline opportunities and threats”. She says she found it “insightful
and empowering”.
According to Aurora Tower, who came to astrology after studying at
Brown University, the new consumers are successful professionals. “These
are often the kind of people who have a lot of pressure on them to make
professional decisions.” The fact they might choose not to reveal their
cosmic sources (“I would never discuss it with colleagues — some people
would think it’s very flaky,” says Elizabeth Clauhsen, one of Tower’s clients,
who runs a head-hunting company) speaks to the view that it is based on
little more than intuition, when for this new breed of astrologer it is all
about the maths. “Run a mile from an astrologer who says they’re psychic,”
says Miller. “You should be able to look up everything I write in a book.”
When astrology “works”, it is usually rooted in one thing. “It’s all about
timing,” says Tower, a sentiment echoed by every astrologer I interviewed
for this piece. She is also quick to point out that free will and astrology can
coexist. “All we can do is read the cycles of the planets as they orbit the sun
in relation to your birth chart, to see how these might affect you at different
times of the year.”
Astrology was once considered a mainstream science, but it was
downgraded during the Enlightenment. “People would use it as an excuse
for irrational and bad behaviour,” says Miller, “but we’ve evolved enough to
know we are responsible for our actions and can’t blame the planets.”
Dr Chee Ming Wong, an anaesthetist who regularly casts his own
astrological divinations, uses a driving analogy: “If there is a bumpy road
ahead, then it would be wise to slow down. Conversely, there will be
moments that are potentially advantageous.” In the world of finance, Bill
spir a l st u dio at Cen t r a lillust r at ion.com
Meridian’s website “applies astrological cycles to price data to make
market forecasts”. His clients are “high-net-worth individuals and
institutions”, who also prefer to remain anonymous, “for fear others will
doubt them and they’ll lose their credibility”. Gahl Sasson, aka the Cosmic
Navigator, advises many top-level executives who prefer to remain
anonymous: “They want to create the impression that their success comes
naturally — that they were the ones who made the good investments, not
the stars.”
Another thing business people turn to astrology for is insight into
relationships, to explain why some people are more difficult to get on
with than others. Clauhsen had her astrologer cast the
chart of her business partner (“a typical type-A, controlfreak Aquarian male”), and she remembers heeding
advice to ease out of a situation with one tricky client:
“She knew they were going to be trouble.” According to
the supermodel Crystal Renn, an astrology nut who
regularly draws up charts for her friends: “It helps me
understand better who I’m dealing with — I know my
boundaries with people.”
Miller says she spends up to two hours a day answering
the cosmic queries of her 160,000 Twitter followers, and
Tower says: “The internet has been valuable in making
astrology more accessible. People can now educate
themselves about all sorts of things that might have been
considered more ‘fringe’ before, and make up their own
minds.” Indeed, my own desire to remove some of the woo-woo
stigma around astrology, and present it as a valid way of thinking
about modern life, led me to launch a website, blog.thenuminous.net.
Meanwhile, Dr Ming Wong says his medical training led him to
realise that “The scientific discipline is good at measuring observable
phenomena, yet, for all that, remains a mystery. Perhaps the way of
the ancients, which includes astrology, provides a well-trodden
pathway in exploring the science of the unknown.”
Naturally, von Strunckel saw this coming: “Astrology is about
cycles, and we are currently experiencing a shift away from the focus
on the tangible, scientific approach to life, to a view
that blends philosophical ideas with a broader
awareness. In short, we’re tiring of pure science and
craving a more metaphysical view of life.” She’s
talking, of course, about the dawning of the Age of
Aquarius, which signifies “a shift from hierarchical
structure in government, business, our own
thinking, to a time when the individual is given
freedom to shape their own life”. Put like this, it
could also be read as the age of the entrepreneur,
the very business leaders and visionaries Lisa Tse
thinks are now more open than ever to the
possibilities of astrological guidance. She quotes
Marcel Proust: “Discovery lies not in seeking new
landscapes, but in having new eyes.” v
j u st
y est e r d ay,
I wa s a d v i s i n g
a dy n a m i c
individual
about a
p ot e n t i a l m d
— according
to t h e i r c h a rt
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