Can a map of the celebrities and planets enable you crush your profession and unpack life’s massive selections? Can it additionally enable you perceive your coworkers and bridge the generational divide between Gen Z, millennials, Gen X, and boomers?
When you’re below age 35, the reply is probably going a powerful “ofc” to the primary half.
A current survey by Edubirdie discovered that 80% of millennials and Gen Z (ages 16-34) imagine in astrology and that 63% of them imagine it’s positively impacted their careers. Of the examine’s 2,000 U.S.-based individuals, a whopping 72% of them additionally say they depend on astrology to make vital life selections.
Distinction that with findings from a February 2024 Harris Poll displaying solely 10% of boomers are full-on astro acolytes (and apparently, solely 13% of Gen Z are complete believers), whereas 50% of millennials are all in.
Add it to the rising pyre of generational divides and disparities that generally sow divisiveness and dysfunction within the office. We’ve all heard the gripes about “entitled millennials” and “fragile Gen Z-ers with TikTok trauma” as usually because the wry “okay boomer” counter-offensive and loss of life rites pronounced upon Gen X’s “hustle tradition.” None of that makes our workplace environments extra fulfilling—or much less fractured.
There are an unprecedented 5 generations at present within the workforce collectively. And 6 in 10 corporations report that they fired a lately employed school graduate in 2024, it’s clear we want some new instruments to know one another and bridge the generational divides.
Given its present reputation, why not take into account a time-honored system utilized by the traditional Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and each nice Renaissance-era college—as one of many instruments in our dashboards?
Full disclosure: I’ve written greater than 20 books—most of which focus on sensible makes use of of astrology. I’ve used this “spiritual technology” as one in every of my steerage techniques for 30 years.
5 generations. One frequent office language
Right this moment’s worker is coming into a five-generation workforce that would have a 60-year age distinction between employees. That’s a serious generational divide, particularly when employees have few if any, frequent cultural references and experiences to unite them.
Except we stream the identical reveals or binge the TikTok tendencies (unlikely, because of the know-how that’s each algorithmically siloing us and serving to us reside longer), the rifts are solely getting wider.
However right here’s some uplifting information: The AARP has found that groups with older and youthful employees are extra productive than single-generation groups.
Firms of all sizes battle with faltering worker retention, low engagement, and poor crew cohesion. Perhaps we want one other system to bridge the generational divide and present us that we do share values and attributes, no matter our age or different id variations.
Does it need to be astrology? No. However since 95% of People know their astrological signal, 70% imagine in astrology, and two-thirds of millennials are open to astrological profession steerage, it may very well be one thing to think about.
I’m not right here to debate whether or not astrology is scientific (it’s not). A be aware to fellow skeptics: 74% of Americans feel that “astrology doesn’t need to be scientific to be significant and legitimate.” However there are different causes to think about it as a possible antidote to the generational divide.
The common grownup makes 35,000 selections a day. All of us need assistance.
In keeping with the Harvard Business Review, the common grownup makes round 35,000 selections every day. Much more shocking? Harvard Enterprise Faculty professor Gerald Zaltman believes that 95% of these are made with our unconscious minds.
Even these hyper-intellectual and rational sorts who satisfaction themselves on following info nonetheless make selections with instinct, biases, and reactions that they’re unaware of consciously.
After I was 21 and about to graduate from the College of Michigan, I used to be brimming with institutional data—and totally clueless about life. I wanted to enrich my training with internal instruments, one thing to assist me perceive who I uniquely was—my strengths, my blind spots, my potential. After I stumbled upon astrology, it crammed within the components of the image that my BFA didn’t and helped me make sense of myself.
Consolation and motivation
Very like sitting down with a caring one that believes in our potential, an encouraging horoscope can create the optimistic expertise of feeling seen and validated.
Within the Harris Ballot, 61% of respondents agreed that “astrology offers consolation in unsure occasions by serving as a reassuring pal for these looking for steerage.”
Once we’re caught and overwhelmed, we want hope quick. Studies have found that validation lights up the reward facilities of our mind, which releases dopamine and will get us again in motion.
Given the world that fashionable employees face, particularly with much less life expertise and financial savings in the event that they’re below 35, it is sensible that astrology is usually a beacon, to not point out the constructing blocks of a bridge to the generational divide.
Stress and productiveness
Within the Edubirdie examine, 65% of younger individuals surveyed imagine astrology helps scale back anxiousness and enhance their confidence.
In keeping with a Gallup ballot, boomers have the bottom office stress ranges and the best engagement. Which may be on account of their elevated ranges of safety in life, from household help to expertise of their industries.
With overwhelming school loans, a sky-high price of residing, and an ever-shifting job market, youthful generations have much less certainty of their careers than ever. It’s no shock then, that they wish to work for an organization that invests of their progress and values their contributions.
Astrology is among the indicators individuals can use to say, “Hello, that is me—my strengths and obstacles. I work greatest in these circumstances and if you wish to get the utmost worth from me, let’s create an atmosphere the place I can thrive.”
Age and entry
After I stumbled upon astrology within the early Nineties, I needed to hunt for it. There was no Co-Star app, no free YouTube video programs, no Snapchat or TikTok feeding us intel.
My sources had been books in dusty New Age retailers, quirky journals written by “star individuals” from Sedona and Santa Fe and later (amen!), chart-making software program, and Susan Miller’s Astrology Zone web site. Astrology was bizarre, onerous to elucidate, and fringier than a flapper costume.
If the know-how had been there, I can promise you that my friends and I’d have been equally obsessed as they’re now.
Tasha Beg, a 33-year-old former Wall Avenue analyst turned skilled astrologer, went from having her first astrology studying in her late 20s to operating a full-time follow in two quick years.
A self-described Malaysian immigrant, Beg hit an emotional wall together with her intense company job throughout the pandemic. A natal (delivery) chart evaluation with a younger Arizona astrologer modified all the pieces.
“I felt very disconnected,” recollects Beg. “I’m an immigrant, so my mentality was to placed on the blinders—I’ve bought to succeed, I’ve bought to make cash. However at a sure level, particularly throughout the pandemic, it turned very apparent that one thing wasn’t proper. There was part of me that wished greater than this comfortable job and paycheck. However I had no thought what precisely that meant till I I had my chart learn.”
The epiphanies had been so highly effective, Beg determined to do a deep dive into astrological research. “I credit score astrology with serving to me perceive myself correctly,” she states emphatically. “It confirmed that I really had all this potential, and it was actually about what I selected to do with the power I innately possessed.”
Right this moment, Beg hosts a rising Instagram feed, immerses herself in astrology certification programs, and has a full calendar of shoppers, a lot of them younger and astro-savvy.
“I’ve individuals who had been actually born within the yr 2000 and it’s placing,” says Beg. “They know the terminology. They perceive the Saturn return. Astrology is simply baked in as an acceptance like, ‘It’s Mercury retrograde, so we’re not going to launch something.’” By the way, 62% of the Edubirdie individuals say they adapt their work practices throughout Mercury retrograde.
Not like the ancients, Beg finds that her shoppers aren’t merely on the lookout for their fortunes instructed. “It’s about working collectively to assist them belief what comes up for them emotionally and understanding what they’ve at their disposal to allow them to make higher decisions.”
Past labels
These of us battling ageism (in each instructions)—and really worth the contributions of individuals older and youthful than us—know that we have to respect individuals’s passions, whether or not or not we agree with them, to bridge cultural and generational divides.
As a substitute, we spend far an excessive amount of time attempting to badger and bully individuals into seeing issues our method, and too little effort looking for to know why they don’t.
Once we transfer past “proper” and “improper” and into curiosity, we’d uncover why astrology strikes such a chord.
And if we outlive astrology’s usefulness, no hurt no foul. Thanks in your service, stars. Till then, I’ll proceed seeking to the sky with those that wish to map their potential and function—with out all the additional battle.