Signs of the times: horoscopes rise again online

Could widespread feelings of anger and powerlessness be behind the astrology boom?

A notification from the astrology app Co-Star recently told 27-year-old Bridget: "It's OK to catch feelings." Bridget knows how ridiculous that sounds, she says, and how baffled older people might be by the enthusiasm with which she follows its advice. But she believes the app's tongue-in-cheek nature is tapping into something more profound: young people's growing disillusionment with religious and political structures.

Bridget is not alone. Astrology is without doubt having a cultural moment. As well as the rapid proliferation of apps such as Co-Star, which has been downloaded more than 3m times since 2017, astrology memes are a staple on Instagram and Twitter, and have sparked a huge boost in traffic to women's news sites; a typical horoscope post on the Cut got 150% more hits in 2017 than in 2016, while gal-dem, which introduced a horoscope column in March, said posts performed consistently well.