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Through Audrey Morard et PHOTO : UNSPLASH/JOSH RANGEL
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Astrology appears on the glossy paper of many women’s magazines. What will the stars have in store for us for 2021? Good or bad surprises? Success, love, excellent health? For a long time, astrology was confined to these same women’s magazines or horoscopes to read on the last page of a free newspaper in the metro. But she has changed. She got funnier, more quirky, more hype. Better, it took place on social networks, in particular Instagram. “It is interesting to wonder if it was the Internet that came to astrology or astrology that came to the Internet?“asks Maheva Stephan-Bugni, head of the Instagram account, very rightly, Astrotruc.
The success of memes
In 2018, Maheva embarks on a crazy challenge: open an Instagram account of astrological memes. Memes are those contents that take the form of a video, GIF or image, used for humorous or sarcastic purposes. On her account, she uses elements of pop culture such as Sex and The City, classic paintings, extracts from films such as Pierrot Le Fou by Jean-Luc Godard. And with a medium like Instagram, the combination is winning: “The Internet creates great language opportunities, the range of possibilities is incredible. Astrology has not disappeared, it has reinvented itself. With humor and the benchmark use of pop culture, it speaks to everyone. The references in our European and Anglo-Saxon sphere will have a resonance. It allows you to build a speech that will speak to a lot of people.“. “Instead of summarizing astrology badly, the point is humor. Humor leads to things, we laugh, we smile, we go to meet discipline while being playful and without having technicality. What people lose is when things get too technical, people drop out.“.
Two years after its launch, AstroTruc has more than 352,000 subscribers. An unexpected success. “I never thought this account was going to be so popular. People even ask me for my development plan, when nothing was planned. There was no goal or reflection, it took very, very quickly. When people write to me to say ‘it’s my breath of fresh air, I’m kidding, or so I got stuff’, I’m happy and tell myself that I managed to touch something“.
Jewelry in the colors of the zodiac
Maheva Stephan-Bugni was one of the first to offer an Instagram account dedicated to French astrological memes. Since then, other accounts have flourished with more and more subscribers. Astrxtinity has more than 254,000 followers, Zodiacxastro 266,000 subscribers. Below each post, hundreds of comments in which Instagram users mention other friends or write to recognize themselves in the proposed memes, especially young people.
In addition to the internet, the fashion world has taken over astrology. Many jewelry brands have launched a collection dedicated to the twelve signs of the zodiac like Lou Yetu. From now on, we display our astral sign around the neck or on the wrist. Cosmetics have also smelled the blow, like Beautyblender. The brand specializing in makeup sponges launched last December its sponges in the colors of the horoscope. “We customize a necklace with something that looks like us. It makes sense, it’s something we want to have and sport“.
But why is astrology fascinating and pleasing? “In these anxiety-provoking times, we need to put ourselves in perspective. To ask who we are, how I can improve and take action. Astrology makes it possible to see pitfalls, faults. We refocus. People need to make sense, they like, read things that will resonate“. More in vogue than ever, astrology still has a bright future ahead of it.
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