I could probably be a lot more famous if I was willing to write a Sun Sign column. I don’t know why I’m so stubborn, without newspaper horoscopes hardly anyone would even know about astrology. And after writing the Vanity Fair horoscope column for at least 15 years Michael Lutin is finally getting to write about real astrology.

But articles like this (thanks to the Townleys for the link) show that sun signs have little effect on our ability to make any kind of reasonable predictions using astrology.

Last month a magazine from Jordan contacted me to write a “horoscope” article for their January issue and I thought about it for awhile before turning it down. But at some point it would be difficult to say no. What if the New York Times called me to write “horoscopes” using sun signs? Could I say no? Or would it give me a wider audience to whom to reveal the secrets of astrology?

And really, I write celebrity gossip profiles for crying out loud. Is that any nobler? Of course, my goal for these profiles is to make REAL astrology accessible to people who otherwise would know nothing about it.

These are all questions buzzing around my brain as Pluto begins its descent on my Capricorn Mars.

Still – we really owe it to the magic of astrology to avoid simplifying it into sun signs that add, in my mind, nothing useful to the conversation.