Why check a horoscope?

"I don't really believe that stuff. But I had my horoscope done professionally. And it was really nice listening to someone talk just about mem for two and a half hours."

Hearing a friend make that point solved a puzzle for me. I've often wondered why so many people who don't believe in astrology will read their horoscopes daily. Or even have them done professionally as my friend did. The usual answer, that it's "just for fun," has never quite rung true for me. But to hear or read about oneself, particularly about one's virtues (imagined or otherwise) -- that may point to at least one of the reasons so many nonbelievers check their horoscopes.

Astrology is a kind of self-absorption, we might say. And that's the tip-off to why we'd do better not checking horoscopes at all. Because the thing about self-absorption is, you can't really reap the pleasures of it without setting yourself up for its pains.

Maybe you get a certain self-satisfied feeling from reading that you have an acute business sense because of your zodiac sign. Accept that (and if you enjoy reading about it, you are accepting it at least a little, whether you think believe it or not), and you also have to accept that individuals of the same sign are, say, temperamental or subject to irrational impulses. Even on astrology's own turf you get stuck with the bad as well as the good.

Now, let's look at one's talent and ability in a way that doesn't involve self- absorption. To get a grip on what we could call our spiritual individuality, with all its God-bestowed talents, we have to reject the notion of a matter-based self.

God, Life, Mind, is the source of man's genuine ability and individuality. He creates man. And this man of God's creating is constituted of brilliant qualities like joy and wisdom and spontaneity and insight. Understanding this brings our own ability and individuality into sharp focus. Self-absorption is a dense fog muddling our progress.Seeing man in the light of Truth -- seeing him as the expression of Life and Mind -- tends to burn off the clouding error. Mary Baker Eddy n1 writes this: "Absorbed in material selfhood we discern and reflect but faintly the substance of Life or Mind. The denial of material selfhood aids the discernment of man's spiritual and eternal individuality, and destroys the erroneous knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed the material senses." n2 There are some high-powered ideas in those sentences.

n1 Discover and Founder of Christian Science.

n2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 91.

Christ Jesus said something that relates to this discussion: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. . . . for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." n3 What we need, and what we need to know of ourselves and our future, is gained by turning to our Father, God. And finding there the spiritual facts of our existence. This turning to God is the opposite of focusing on a personal self. It's the "Take no thought for your life" element Jesus referred to. It's the move that grounds us in a sure understanding of our genuine spiritual nature.

n3 Matthew 6:25, 32.

Man, the real man that God has created, is a wonderful expression of the whole of Life and Mind and Truth. As we realize that this is what is true about us, we'll be usefully active. We'll have little time to ruminate on the pulses or minuses of a mortal personality. We'll need only to check that we've got our relationship with God clear. And move ahead from there.

You don't have to check your horoscope, today or any day.

We cn each shut out a too-absorbed interest in our own selves -- the very thing that would leave us vulnerable to the false influence of something like astrology. God, Mind, governs your real life and mine. This day and every day. The abundant good God bestows on us is always here. This will be more and more apparent as we really understand Mind and make it the one real influence in our lives. The good in store for us is certain because it is from God. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. Jeremiah 23:24