The journal · How it works, and what it cannot do
What a chart cannot do
Questions we refuse to answer, and the reasoning behind each refusal.
15 articles.
Can astrology predict death?
No. There's a whole traditional apparatus for it, it's old and elaborate, and none of it has ever been shown to work.
9 min read
Can astrology predict divorce?
No. A chart can describe how you tend to relate. It can't see a decision two people have not yet made.
6 min read
Can astrology predict pregnancy?
No, and because fertility is time-sensitive and medical, this is the one where a wrong answer is expensive. Speak to a doctor first.
5 min read
Can astrology predict how many children you will have?
No. And the methods that claim to count were built for a world without contraception, medicine or choice, which is most of why they no longer make sense.
6 min read
Can your birth chart show fame?
No. Any 'fame signature' in a chart also lies in millions of charts belonging to people you have never heard of, which is the whole problem.
9 min read
Can astrology show if you will be rich?
No. The 'wealth signatures' are common, real wealth is rare, and any marker that fits the rich also fits millions who stayed broke.
5 min read
Can my birth chart tell me when I will die?
No. And anyone who offers you a date is selling certainty they do not have.
4 min read
Can my birth chart tell me when I will get married?
No. But the question underneath it (what am I like in a relationship) a chart does have something to say about.
9 min read
Can my birth chart tell me who I will marry?
No. But the patterns you bring to every relationship, those a chart gives you words for.
7 min read
Can my birth chart tell me if I will ever get married?
No chart can sentence you to singleness. What the placements people fear actually say, and what the question is really asking.
6 min read
Can my birth chart reveal my soulmate?
No. But the reason the question feels urgent is worth taking seriously, and so is what the placements people call fated actually say.
7 min read
Can my birth chart tell me when I will meet my partner?
No. A chart can name seasons when love feels more possible; it cannot schedule the moment someone walks in.
7 min read
Can my birth chart tell me when I will have a baby?
No, and of all the questions people bring to a chart, this is the one where a wrong answer costs the most.
4 min read
Can my birth chart tell me when I will fall sick?
No. Medical astrology is old, internally consistent, and not a diagnostic tool.
4 min read
Astrology in trading: does financial astrology work?
This is the version of astrology that can empty your account, so it gets the bluntest page on the site.
4 min read
More in how it works, and what it cannot do
How astrology works · 9Systems compared · 6Finding good astrology · 24All sections