Why I Read My Horoscope

Lolo was an astrologer, long before the Sixties and the touted Age of Aquarius. She began studying astrology in the 1940s, and knew a great deal about interpreting the charts she drafted by the time she married in 1948. Remember, in that era, people didn’t have calculators, much less computers, and the mathematical work done, by hand and brain, was incredible. A real chart requires the person’s birth date, place, and as exact a time as possible. Lolo would take that information, convert to Greenwich Mean Time, calculate the longitude and latitude, and then go through a series of mathematical calculations to chart the location of planets at the time of birth, and then read and write the tendencies and significance.

In the 1950s and even into the 1960s, there weren’t many people interested in having their charts done, but I could always find willing friends. She would do a character reading after plotting it all out, write out the entire character reading in long-hand, and present it to the person. I really hope it was appreciated by all who got those free charts.

Because of her constant study, tracking events, and looking for the information that coincided between birth chart, transits, and current events, the discussion of some aspect of astrology was almost a daily occurrence in our home. As a teenager, I didn’t always appreciate the admonition of “stay away from the lake, be careful today,” because some planet had moved into a new sign, or there was a full moon.

Along with the daily interpretations, there were stories, anecdotes, and one in particular tells the tale the best, I think. It’s about what Lolo called “astral twins” – people born on the same day in the same city, hopefully close to the same time. She always stated that you could see the basic tendencies and personality traits that were similar if you could find your astral twin. Lolo had an astral twin. Of course, this requires a story with detail.

Lolo was the second of 10 children, the first four of which were all girls, generally about two years apart in age. She was quiet and self-conscious and loved to read, but hated school. Her next younger sister, Toots, was lively and out-going, far more sociable. During one particularly long summer vacation, Lolo was dragging about the house, moaning about the fact that she had nothing to read. Toots had her best friend at the house at the time, and that friend said “Come over to my house. My older sister reads all the time, too. Maybe she has a book you can borrow.” You guessed it – the older sister was Lolo’s astral twin. Of course, there were no books for Lolo to borrow, because they had all the same books!

Fast forward. Lolo is in her early 20s, war years. Lolo takes a job in…an eyeball factory. Her job was to sit in a small glass-enclosed booth, along with several other people, and paint in the fine red lines that make the white of the artificial eye look more realistic. There was a young man in the booth across from her. They noticed each other, there was something to it – some note of attraction and recognition. Lolo was very aware of the man, and they “eyed” each other all day. (Sorry, who could resist?) At the end of the day, the man left his chair, and began walking with what Lolo described as a “terrible, lurching walk.” He was disabled. She was so horrified at being very attracted to someone with a disability, she left the job in a rush and never went back.

Sometime later, she met and married my dad, Hawkshaw. (As you all know by now, he lost both legs in the war.) They dated just three months before they married. Soon after, she was walking down the street, doing some shopping, when she noticed her astral twin walking down the sidewalk toward her – married to the man from the eyeball factory.

I no longer have my “built in astrologer,” and the bits you read online and in the newspaper are a poor replacement for the real deal – but I still read for trends and indications. This story is but one reason…