Booming for several years in France, astrology is enjoying a second lease of life with a generation of connected young women, who associate this esoteric practice with notions of psychology and personal development. In an increasingly stressful world of work, astro-coaching has a bright future ahead of it.
According to a YouGov survey/Female dating from August 2020, 28% of French people believe in astrology. Women peak at 35% (compared to 20% for men). Among 18-24 year olds, 46% say they have already made a decision based on their horoscope. This underlying trend has been observed for several years on social networks, where a new generation of astrologers capable of creating content on Instagram, then on TikTok (where the hashtag #astrocoaching has more than 9 million views), has flourished.
Among them, Léna Nicole fell “in the pot of astrology” eight years ago. Seduced by training offered by an astrologer on Instagram, this former digital SEO consultant left her permanent contract to launch into entrepreneurship. She becomes an astro-coach, a portmanteau word which designates astrologers focused on personal development and not prediction astrology. In a word, Léna is not Madame Irma!
Specializing in self-awareness, she specifies: “The astro-coach supports a blocking point which undoubtedly comes from a vulnerability experienced in the past or from something that the person needs. The astro-coach is the messenger of the GPS – which is the astral theme – to achieve his dream or his objective. » Léna says she has supported nearly 400 people in a year and a half.
The meeting between skills assessment and astrology
Applied to professional issues, astro-coaching is intended to provide complementary assistance to a traditional skills assessment, which will reveal the soft skills (these are psychosocial skills, such as relational intelligence) of the person. “The astrological chart talks a lot about achieving oneself while respecting one’s own rhythm. It will illuminate the areas where the person can most nourish their heart. It is a manual for creating financial abundance, obtaining recognition with your talents and, at the same time, it does not put you in a box by saying: “You must be a psychologist, you must be a baker or a pharmacist”. »
Finding your professional path thanks to the stars? You still have to believe it! Indeed, astrology is not a science, but a set of beliefs and practices based on the symbolic interpretation of supposed correspondences between celestial configurations (the position and movement of the planets of the solar system).
Burn-out astral
Before embarking on the field of astrology, Léna experienced two burnouts, or generalized professional exhaustion. The subject is close to his heart. “I was not at all cut out to be an employee. I had to be free in my daily life, because I really had good student syndrome. So I was burning out. The astral chart speaks a lot about the mechanisms we have in work, in relation to authority, to the needs for freedom and creativity”she explains.
For three years, Léna has turned to training astro-coaches, after receiving several requests in this direction. And she noticed that several of them had also experienced burnout. They wanted to specialize in supporting retraining or focused their training on the professional aspect. For example, Audrey (Dare to Shiine on Instagram) offers astro advice to entrepreneurs on the best way to manage their business.
If, indeed, the world of employment can be oppressive and freelance jobs (1.2 million people are freelance in France, 45% of whom are women) and independent workers continue to gain ground, not to mention the dream of creating a thriving business, the issue of burnout cannot be reduced to personal management.
The increase in professional burnout in recent years also appears systemic. We are always asked for more in an ultra-capitalist world driven by performance. The fact remains that while waiting to change the world, everyone is looking for solutions to live without losing their mental health.
Women and astro-coaching
On the question of deviations, inevitable when approaching alternative practices, Léna has not noticed any herself. She concedes that it must exist, “as in all areas”. On the other hand, in her astro-coaching training, she advises her apprentices to “not to take oneself for God” and of “set your limits”, for example by advising a person for therapeutic follow-up when the need arises. The guardrails still remain thin. Like the world of personal development coaching, this profession has no ethical framework and is not accountable to anyone.
We also see that this boom in astrology in France in recent years is predominantly female. The reasons for this are multifactorial. First, science has long mistreated women. It has long been used with the aim of proving their inferiority (the same for minorities). Today, women still experience obstetric violence and the lack of research in the field of women’s health remains glaring.
It is therefore not so surprising that they turned to esoteric practices. “There is also a taste for magical thinking which gives comforting answers to existential anxiety. […] This is the case with the New Age beliefs that are developing at the moment”explains Élisabeth Feytit, co-author of the book Astrology works!… Too much: journey of a fallen astrologer (The Silk Road, 2020).
Finally, in a professional world that is still hostile to women (they remain paid less for equal positions and salaries, are subject to sexual and moral harassment), the world of astrology, dominated by women, acts as a refuge. By training more than 800 astro-coaches, Léna has created a sororal community. “There is definitely a form of support. They don’t start on their own. They have their friends from mentoring with whom they help each other. And, as they do not specialize in the same themes, they are not really in competition. » His training log is never empty.
As Élisabeth Feytit reminds us, astrology, comparable to a less dogmatic religion, can push “to accept other esoteric or conspiratorial discourses” and cause a “escalation of commitment”. But we understand the attraction of women to astrology, which promises them to find self-confidence, more fulfilling work and quite simply a little meaning in a world which is singularly lacking in it.
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