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Even Silicon Valley has taken notice, and venture capitalists are starting to put money into astrology - an estimated $2.1 billion "mystical services market," as one investor recently put it. One of the companies that has capitalized on the craze is Co-Star, an increasingly popular astrology app that recently announced it had raised over $5 million in funding from prominent VC firms such as Maveron and Aspect Ventures.
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The concept of Co-Star is simple: providing users with real-time horoscopes and birth charts they can compare with others to see their compatibility. It might sound simple, but people are loving Co-Star: The app has been downloaded more than three million times since it launched in late 2017.
"Then there's something that's happened in the last five years that's given it an edginess, a relevance for this time and place, that it hasn't had for a good 35 years," astrologer Chani Nicholas told The Atlantic in 2018, discussing the recent rise in interest around astrology. "Millennials have taken it and run with it."
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It doesn't matter if users are true believers in astrology or not - it's the accessibility of the pseudo-science and its personality predictions that have made it a hit with millennials.
Here's how to use the Co-Star app and find out your personalized horoscope:
If you're not an avid follower of astrology (I'm not), it gets to be incredibly confusing having your personality characteristics be explained away by the complex relationships between the zodiac symbols, the planets, the moon and the sun. Whether you're an expert or a first-timer, you're in luck — Co-Star does all the work for you.
Co-Star prides itself on generating "hyper-personalized" horoscopes called natal charts, instead of the vague predictions with many interpretations that are often found in magazines. Because of that, the app requires a "complete map of the sky" when you were born — your birth date, the time you were born, and the location — to get your complete horoscope.
Using your birth information, Co-Star provides a snapshot of your horoscope for the day. You can click on various parts of it to get additional insights on specific parts of your horoscope, or "view all" to get a more detailed explainer.
Under "view all," you'll be able to see how your horoscope changes day-by-day. Because Co-Star's horoscope is so personalized, these horoscopes can change every day. Clicking on each aspect of your horoscope will provide you with detailed predictions about certain parts of your life, including work, thinking & creativity, spirituality, and sex & love.
You'll also be able to find your complete astrological chart. While horoscopes usually cater just to your main zodiac sign (the sun sign), Co-Star's horoscope takes account your sign corresponding to the moon and other planets.
Besides your sun sign, your rising sign and moon sign are both considered significant. Underneath the chart, you can find detailed descriptions of what each sign says about your personality.
The Co-Star birth chart also includes your "houses" — the 12 sections of the sky that symbolize your life. You can see what each of the houses correspond to using this chart Co-Star posted on Instagram.
You can also dive into your astrological "transits," which refers to the movement of your horoscope and your various planetary signs. These happen for short periods of time, and can provide further insight into predictions for the near future.
However, the best part of Co-Star, in my opinion, is comparing your signs with your friends'. You can find your friends list on the main page, where you can see the three signs Co-Star considers the most important for each friend: the main zodiac sign (the sun sign), the rising sign (or ascendant), and the moon sign. The button to add friends is in the top-left corner of the app, and you can add people from both your contact list and Facebook.
Adding friends on Co-Star then allows you to delve into your compatibility levels with each person (or perhaps a love interest). Co-Star breaks compatibility down into different characteristics, and you can read more into how your signs play off of each other by scrolling down further.
Co-Star goes into your compatibility in great detail, including daily updates on what might be the most challenging part of your relationship with the other person on a certain day. It's free to look at these compatibility charts with people you mutually befriend on Co-Star, but you can pay $2.99 to compare your chart to that of a friend (or someone you want to see the romantic possibilities with) who isn't a Co-Star member.
The Co-Star app is only available on iOS devices for now, although Co-Star says it's working on an Android version. If you're an Android user, you can check out your hyper-personalized horoscope on Co-Star's website, where you'll get a nice-looking natal chart like this to share with your friends who know their astrology.
