SAM DINGMAN: Do you know your astrological sign.
MARK BRODIE: I do. I'm an Aquarius.
DINGMAN: OK, OK. I myself am a Taurus. I'm told that means I love food and comfortable chairs, which I have to say tracks. Do you put much stock in being an Aquarius?
BRODIE: I can't say that I do. No.
DINGMAN: OK. OK. Well, astrology has been on my mind lately, in part because of that conversation I had a moment ago with Jason about ecstatic truth.
And this idea of something feeling real, even if you can't prove it on a factual, rational basis, but also because of a study that our producer Amber told us about, which suggested that 27% of Americans believe in astrology — with even higher numbers amongst LGBTQ+ folks, where the figure is 43%.
So, in light of all that, I recently spoke with an astrologer named Deon Brown. Brown is not technically a trained astrologer, but he's the editor of ION Arizona, a local queer culture magazine, and he writes the magazine's astrology section, which he calls "homoscopes."
Full conversation
DEON BROWN: It is probably one of the most read parts of the magazine, actually. And I've been doing them for 10 years, anyways.
SAM DINGMAN: Oh wow, OK. And how do you know that they are as popular as they are? Do you hear from readers about them?
BROWN: Yes, they said, you know, “Whoever your astrologer is is spot on. That is absolutely me.” People frequently comment on it. We have done informal polls with our readers before about what they like best about the magazine, what they don't care as much about the magazine, and a lot of the readers will comment homoscopes are their favorite.
DINGMAN: OK. So, as the astrologer in question who is being praised in these conversations, how do you go about writing the homoscopes?
BROWN: I'm not standing out in the yard gazing up at the stars in the universe ... asking for help from the infinite. But I do consult a variety of reliable sources on the web, and I cherry pick. Sometimes I look at actual astronomy to see what is happening, and if they say that there's a conjunction of five planets, I will look up and see what does the conjunction of these five planets mean astrologically? And I put that together into, you know, a few sentences for each star sign.
DINGMAN: Yeah, and am I right that, I mean, the nature of a lot of the homoscopes currently is, you'll say things like, “Expect a surprise this month,” or, “Expect some resolution on a family issue,” or “You might get a visit from a stranger.” That kind of thing, right?
BROWN: Yes, there's always, you know, Sam, whether it's a fortune cookie, or tea leaves or palm reading. There's always that little X factor that it's like, “Oh, a stranger. Oh my gosh, I've been having trouble with my aunt. What's going to happen?” I think people like to do a little bit of detective work on their own to try to puzzle out is this all accurate? I try to give it a queer spin. Maybe I'll try to relate it to something locally that's happening within the LGBTQ community. You know, “It's a good time to go to the Charlie's chili cook-off.”
DINGMAN: So when you're writing these, is it a tongue-in-cheek thing, or are you sort of earnestly trying to offer folks some advice without — you know, actually knowing who they are?
BROWN: It's a little bit of both. I try to make it kind of cheeky. The homoscopes are not going to change in two sentences — they're not going to change anybody's life.
DINGMAN: Well, maybe, maybe not, you never know. [LAUGHS]
BROWN: Maybe not, maybe not. But, you know, I've read some horoscopes that will be like, “This month, you know, Jupiter is clashing with Saturn and financial disaster awaits, and a business venture goes south.” And I discovered that people like hope. You have to give people hope. And so I try to, even in those two sentences, I try to let people know, “Expect bottomless mimosas at brunch.” That's a pretty queer spin, I would say. You know, I mean, I know straight people go to brunch too, but, you know, people don't want to be scared. There's enough scary things in real life. Astrology is not about disparaging your life. I think that's why a lot of queer people do like astrology is nobody's been kicked out of the universe for being gay.
DINGMAN: Right, right. Well, so let me ask you a little bit more about this, because one of the reasons we got interested in talking to you is because our producer Amber noticed this really amazing survey that came out recently. This was a survey of more than 9,500 adults last fall, and it said that 27% of the respondents believe in astrology. Which is already a pretty significant number. But the numbers were really high amongst LGBTQ folks. What do you make of those numbers?
BROWN: I think it's about self-discovery. Like, people will say, “When did you come out?” It's like, well, I think that coming out is always kind of a lifelong process, in many ways. You know, with everyone you meet. It's also, I think astrology is non-binary. Venus was always a woman and Mars was always a man. A lot of that is being erased by astrologists.
DINGMAN: Interesting. So, I mean, broadly speaking from what you're saying, there is just less a sense of strictures, boundaries.
BROWN: Exactly, there's no damnation.
DINGMAN: Right, yeah, yeah. Well, and in the spirit of self-discovery, I'mreally struck by — to go back to, you know, the examples of some of the homoscopes' we were talking about before, you know, if it's something like, “Expect a surprise this month;” or “The resolution of a family issue.” It's left to the reader to discover within themselves what they might want to attach that prediction to. It's not as though you're giving them a prescription about, you know, “Keep an eye on your aunt whoever.” It's more that you're kind of prompting this look inward where there might be something unresolved that a homoscope could just gently prompt you to think about a resolution for.
BROWN: That's it perfectly. I think people are always looking for something optimistic. We all have a place among the stars and the planets from the moment of our birth. I think that that's another thing that people like about astrology, is that we are assigned from the moment we're born. You know, if you were born on April Fool's Day, there's a spot for you.
DINGMAN: Right, and to the point that you were making earlier, if you are a queer person, there are some organizations — whether they're religious organizations or or other parts of life — where you're explicitly told, “There is no spot for you here, you're not welcome here.” But astrology kind of implicitly says, “Yes, you are part of this, you are included.”
BROWN: You know, when you look at these pictures of the universe and the Hubble telescope and all that, and you see this vast field of stars and planets and galaxies, it's like, do I fit in? And I think that this is a small way of anybody, not just queer people, but feeling, you know what, I am one of those little stars.
