But ever since I knew I could have an effect like that on somebody, one of the many filters I put a horoscope through is a 'top yourself' filter I look for it now. Astrology columns are taken very seriously by people in need. Some of my readers are having a crap time and as an astrologer I know this because I study the cycle of crap times."Cainer once heard a reader committed suicide after reading one of his horoscopes. "In my column I'd said 'If you've got something that's big in your life go ahead and do it today' And they did it. They killed themselves." How did he feel when he heard?"Not very pleased I had to wrestle with it for a long time But I'm not going to carry the blame for it They were obviously in that frame of mind They would have done it anyway I didn't write 'End it all today'.
"For everyone who reads my column to have a bit of a laugh, wondering whether they are going to win the lottery today or to find out what the astrologer says about the fact that their car wouldn't start that morning, [there] is somebody who's had a crisis, whose marriage is breaking up or who's got a health issue. We are taught to believe that Saturn means restriction and Jupiter means expansion. It's scientific in as much as we have to have accurate planetary positions and it's based on actual physical phenomena. But it's a form of divination ultimately, a glorious blending of occult and science."Writing horoscopes, he continues, does come with serious responsibilities. "I always used to argue strongly that astrology is a science.
These days I think the safest answer is to say it's a belief system with some very rigid dogma. And one of the world's most successful astrologers - genius or crank, depending on your point of view - was born.When I tell him that I'm deeply sceptical about horoscopes, he demurs. Cainer rejected it out of hand as "the ramblings of a LA stoner", yet he found himself in a bookshop one day picking up a book called Instant Astrology "Something drew me to the book I was in California; astrology was everywhere. "I came back to England and let social security take care of me," he says.
