Star Wars: Inside the Astrology Industry’s Battle to Sell You an App
With their impossibly cool vibe and frighteningly spot-on predictions, astrology apps are coming for your wallet
Tali Edut hates astrology memes — the kind you’d find on Instagram accounts like @cancermajesty and @yourmomshoroscope. They focus only on the zodiac signs, she says, which leaves out an entire galaxy’s worth of other pertinent information — information that could help you make sense of your relationship with your sister, or a period of professional upheaval, or a new paramour. “I want to burn them all,” she fumes.
Edut is one-half of the AstroTwins, a popular astrologist duo. Tali and her identical twin sister, Ophira, are Elle’s official astrologers. They also run their own website and have been profiled in the New York Times. They’re fairly mainstream, as far as these things go. Yet, when it comes to the memes, Tali is a firm nonbeliever.
She might be the only one. The popularity of astrology memes is just one symptom of astrology’s broader cultural renaissance: astrology merch, books, makeup, podcasts, meta–think pieces, and celebrities are all on the rise.
Certain people — savvy, technologically sophisticated, money-aware people — have capitalized on the frenzied…
