Astrology is successful because Brazilians are more mystical, says astrologer

“I’m using Tinder in Brazil, and one thing I’ve noticed on the profiles is that everyone is talking about 1) your current (or future) job and 2) your zodiac sign. It’s not uncommon to talk about what you do for a living, but I’ve never been in a country where everyone emphasizes their zodiac sign. Why is this such an important issue here?”, asked a foreigner looking for a “date” in Brazilian lands on the popular Reddit forum.

This impression is corroborated by the profusion of profiles on social networks on the subject, the resounding success of astrological podcasts here and, well, the presence of the subject at parties, meetings, at work and, of course, in memes.

Brazil is certainly not alone in this – the famous American astrologer Susan Miller is there to prove it – but astrology finds a lot of ground here in comparison. Ask a friend or relative who has lived abroad.

The poet and astrologer Júlia Hansen also has the same feeling. “I notice this because I read many people’s birth charts in Portugal, because I lived there for a few years, and the adhesion, interest and strength of astrology among Brazilians are much more impressive”, she says.

According to her, Brazilians are more mystical. “I see this a lot in map readings. When I ask ‘Do you have a spiritual life?’, I hear everything from Brazilians. ‘My spiritual life is the shell that I carry as an amulet’, ‘I had a religious education’, ‘I am initiated in terreiro de candomblé’. With foreign clients, the answer is more closed. And I think that this relationship with spirituality, not religion, of Brazilians is a kind of strength that combines with the sensitivity of astrology.”

Astrologer Cláudia Lisboa has a similar view. “Brazil is beautifully eclectic in its spirituality. It is a country that has devout saints, orixás, syncretism, a whole mixture, and astrology enters in a certain way in the field of spirituality, because it has a clear spiritual approach to dealing with questions of the soul. . But it is a spiritual tool, not a religious one.”​

Raquel Dommarco, a trends expert at WGSN, a behavioral and consumer trends firm, says she has been following a widespread and global erosion of trust in institutions, governments and even formal religions.

“This has led more and more people to look for alternative spiritual experiences that help them connect with what they believe to be their ‘true self’. In Brazil, we realize that astrology has conquered a representative portion of this space created by the increase in spirituality. of the public, a process that tends to intensify in moments of crisis and disruption – such as a pandemic, for example – in which people need tools and narratives that help them find answers in situations that are out of their control.”

In fact, Hansen and Lisbon noticed an increase in demand for the service and the subject of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I feel like it’s increasing exponentially, and I don’t know when it’s going to stop growing. We live in a time of transition, and you don’t have to be an astrologer to say that about the last couple of years. contour to what you live”, says Hansen, who works professionally reading maps since 2014.

For Lisbon, an astrologer for over 40 years, the increase has a lot to do with the spread of astrology on social networks, which amplified voices on the subject.

“In the 90’s we also had an astrology boom like now, but through the communication tools we had. It was from there that they started to offer quick courses to train astrologers that made our hair stand on end. they go.”

Bárbara Abramo, who has worked as an astrologer since 1981, also sees an abundant and easy supply of content about sun signs on social media. “As a language, astrology adapts to different audiences in the hands of those who know how to do it. But astrology is a complex system that goes far beyond signs.”

At the same time, Lisbon questions which astrology people are interested in. “There are pages of memes dedicated to mocking the subject, an episode of Porta dos Fundos about the baby’s sign, so it turned into a fruit salad. There’s nothing serious about this side, it’s astrology to gain followers, and that annoys me.”

Raquel Dommarco, from WGSN, cites the profile “Deboche Astral”, which already has more than 1 million followers on TikTok, as an example of the success that astrology has made in Brazil. So much spotlight has also increased reactions against astrology, with t-shirts that compare astrology, terraplanism and memes, especially in a moment of exaltation to science, with the success of vaccines against Covid-19.

Astronomers, who are often confused with astrologers, also realize how popular and current the topic is in Brazil.

“Many times, when they find out that I’m an astronomer, they ask me if I do a natal chart. A colleague even offered to do mine and I saw it out of curiosity, but you notice that it’s very random. You identify with some things and with others you don’t. I don’t have that concern, but I respect those who are interested in the subject. Everyone believes what they want, if it will help the person feel safer”, says Simone Daflon, astronomer at the National Observatory.

For those who confuse the two, she recalls that astronomy and astrology had a common origin, when people began to observe astronomical events and relate what was seen in the sky with phenomena on Earth. “Many sciences were born that way, but over time astronomy was structured around the scientific method, with studies of cause and effect, and not correlation.”