Senior Lauren Peters ventured into 2021 around the people she loved, with goals in place, supporters all around her, and a determination to grow mindfully. As the new year progresses, new changes present themselves and for Peters this came in the form of her newfound passion, astrology. She uses it as her main source of energy, finding that it gives back as much as she puts in.

“I got into astrology because it was always something that had been around, and I think recently I became invested in it because I could relate to it,” Peters said. “I personally use it to gauge other people. That was one of the first questions I asked someone: How do you read other people? Astrology gauges how you interact with other people and how you interact with yourself.”.

According to a poll on @DartsNewsOnline Instagram account, over 70% check their horoscopes daily, whether it be out of interest or as a learning aspect. According to the poll, most of the students have taken up at least one new hobby or interest as the year advances, one of the most popular ones being astrology. By using astrology, along with crystals and looking into the body’s chakras, people can learn more and become a better version of themselves. 

Peters recommends starting slow and easing into astrology, as it can be overwhelming. 

 “I would say start with your sun sign and don’t try to overwhelm yourself to all the degrees and houses because even I don’t understand it,” Peters said. “Even if you don’t know other signs it is good to know your friends’ signs.”

An easy way to start the  journey into astrology is using the social media app Snapchat. There is a new function where the reader can  input their birth time and birth place and the app calculates where all the stars were in the sky when they were born. From there, the reader can determine their rising, sun and moon signs. 

“You may be wondering what the three most important signs are in your chart? “ Peters said. “Well those would be your sun, moon and rising signs. Your sun sign is the one you know most and it’s kind of like your identity, who you most are as a person. Moon is your inner self, your emotions and soul. Like yes I’m a Pisces which means I can be very nice and the mediator, but I secretly have a lot of inner anger because I’m an Aries moon. Finally, your rising sign is how other people perceive you. There are many other signs in each person’s birth chart and they mainly have a lot to do with other, more specific, personality traits: confidence, love language, how  readers may interact with other people etc.”. 

There are four houses that include all zodiac signs, earth, water, air and fire; known as the  four main elements of Earth. All four houses are known for certain character traits they have. These traits can be determined by your sun sign, along with which planet was lined up with the sun during the time of your birth. The compatibility of each sign depends on how well their natural elements combined together. 

 “Water signs are normally perceived as emotional, earth is stubborn, fire signs are fiery, and air signs are intellectual,” Peters said. “Certain houses are known to get along better with some rather than others because different personality traits sometimes just don’t mix. There are exceptions sometimes but for the most part it usually doesn’t workout.’

In order to start your journey, Peters suggests looking into your own chakra in order to help understand your emotions better. 

“The chakra chart is basically a rainbow all the way up and by using crystals that correlate with each color you can target what issues in your life you really want to focus on,” Aquarius Crystal Store employee John Aladeen said.

By learning more about crystals, Aquarius employees Aladeen and Angela are  happier and more content with their lives.

“It’s really a journey to self discovery,” Aladeen said. “You ultimately learn more about yourself and know yourself easier and can control all aspects of your emotions and thoughts. For me personally it has made me happier and I have so much more good luck, everything just runs so much smoother.”

To know the basics about crystals Angela suggested getting a book informing the reader about their properties and limitations. As a beginner, there are certain crystals that are suggested as base line necessities on the  journey of self discovery. 

“Clear quartz would have to be the one crystal I strongly recommend to all beginners,” Angela said. ”It can be programmed to do basically anything. Selenite is also used to cleanse crystals.” 

When obtaining first crystals, Aladeen highly recommends that you cleanse them in order to take away all other energies they have previously attracted. There are many ways to cleanse them including but not limited to: saging, soaking in water, leaving in the sunlight or moonlight.

“My favorite way to cleanse my crystals is soaking them in water overnight to pull all the negative energy out of them, only do this as long as they aren’t soluble,” Aladeen said. “A fun fact is that you could even bury them next to a tree, honestly there are infinite ways to cleanse your crystals.” 

According to Aladeen, crystals that are in the quartz family can be cleansed in water, along with crystals that have a harder matter to them. An easy way to tell whether crystals are real or not is by the temperature of them. The crystal should be cold to the touch if it hasn’t been in the sun or held for awhile. When focusing on certain problems in life, Aladeen recommends checking your chakras to see which color chakra matches up with the  problem. Then base what crystal is chosen by the color of the chakra. 

“Starting from the bottom is the root chakra which is red and it’s all about protection and stability,” Aladeen said. “Next is orange which means creativity, then comes yellow which is the solar plexus meaning it has to do with all your instincts and actions. After that is green which is your heart chakra and this energy is focused on all your inner personal relationships with others. Blue is the throat chakra, and it’s all about speaking the truth and harmonizing your thoughts with your words. Then comes the third eye which is in the seed of the forehead and it’s all about intuition and hidden knowledge. Finally is the crown chakra, this has to do with connection to the rest of the universe. It connects with guides and all guardian angels —seed of divinity— helps with headaches. My main advice is  just focus on getting the crystal or stone that harmonizes with one of the colors of the chakras.”

Astrology isn’t for everyone but Peters and Aladeen have found that by learning more about the spirituality of astrology, their lives have improved for the better. 

“I wish I knew before that sometimes you have to take what resonates and really run with it, some things don’t add up in your life and that’s ok. Astrology really helped me realize that,” Peters said