IT may or may not have been written in the stars, but astrology is seeing something of a change in fortunes with a stellar rise in popularity. There has been a steep proliferation of apps such as Co-star and Sanctuary, which have been downloaded more than three million times in the past two years, and astrology memes are prominent on social media.

Venture capital has piled into an industry valued at more than $2 billion. In 2020, the worlds of technology and spirituality are tipped to give rise to an emerging set of practices collectively termed “algo-seance” – a searching for a greater meaning in the output of neural networks.

“The algo-seance is the evocation of spirit contact through technological production, which is really our materialist, technologised civilisational impulse to find consciousness everywhere,” explains Kenric McDowell, who leads the Artists + Machine Intelligence programme at Google Research.

Whatever floats your spiritual boat, I suppose, but I’ve never been drawn to the cosmos to seek direction.

I’m a Pisces. Apparently, they are generous, amiable, positive-natured people with a deep sense of kindness and compassion. Pisces are highly tuned in to everything around them including the feelings of others. Pisces are socially popular because of their easygoing and likable manner.

Oh if all this were true. Just a couple of the above traits would be nice. Such sweeping – and clearly inaccurate – character appraisals are probably one reason why I take astrology with a pinch of Piscean salt. It all just sounds a bit fishy.

If only I could believe, though. According to astrology.com, this coming week I’ll find it extra satisfying to spend time with friends and colleagues while the confident sun moves through my 11th house of networking. The more group projects and community events I can involve myself in, the more stimulated I’ll feel intellectually and emotionally. What’s more, working with others can help me reach personal goals during this period.

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It gets better … when the emotional moon in my ninth house of adventure forms a harmonising trine to dreamy Neptune, my emotions are cranked up a notch, and I’ll be fantasising about getting out of my comfort zone with a friend or partner.

Actually, I’ll just settle for Christmas to go peacefully and without drama. I’m quite happy in my comfort zone, thank you very much.

If you’re a fan of astrology, please don’t be offended by my scepticism. Each to their own.

I should also come clean with a confession and apologise to Evening Times readers of the late 1990s. As a subeditor on the paper, one of the duties was to edit the horoscopes, which were often way too long for their space on the page. It was a bit like playing God, or at least Russell Grant. I tried to be even-handed and chop out as much good fortune as bad. On occasion, the paragraphs didn’t pan out very neatly. Sometimes it was much more aesthetically pleasing for Capricorn’s blurb to swap with Scorpio’s. Such are the vagaries of fortune and typesetting.

Whatever the festive season holds for you, I hope it is a good one.

Happy Christmas.