Years and years ago, when I was just beginning graduate school, I made a new friend who had an amateur interest in astrology. At the time, this interest was regarded with suspicion (or even scorn) by the more “serious” members of our academic program. I’ve always been curious about the storytelling and symbolism of the zodiac, though, so I was a willing ear for her theories about certain classmates’ behavior.

“We have too many Leos in this group,” she’d murmur to me when the same few individuals kept dominating a seminar meeting. Or, more ominously, “Watch out for the sting of the Scorpio” — in reference to some November-born classmates whom she didn’t trust…

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