Horrorscopes

The Biblical injunction against reading horoscopes, and consulting Tarot cards and holding seances and the like, doesn't make sense until you try them. There is a certain horror that builds over time and exposure to these predestining forces, the creeping sensation that you are being controlled by external means, and impersonal ones.

"Oh," you find yourself thinking, almost accidentally, in response to a prediction that your weekend will be difficult. "I have to prepare."

Of course it starts with predictions you want to believe -- good ones, proving you're lovely or loving or loved. But they turn, even the best ones, to control. They promise structure and predictability and a certain kind of safety, by robbing you of your freedom.

It's similar to Calvinist predestination, to being a "sinner in the hands of an angry God," but with only the swirls of dust, gases and chemicals that make up stars and constellations as Fates. There is no way to win their favor or assuage their wrath. They have none of the hot temper of (the desert God) YHWH.

They're colder, in other words. Horoscopes lead into a cold hell.