Astrological bypassing
Talking about a subset of spiritual bypassing that many of us know all too well.
[This article is a translation of what I wrote for my blog in French, my native tongue1.]
Lately, when chatting with other people passionate about astrology, there’s been a recurring theme coming up. A lot of people who experience anxiety or other health issues categorised as mental health2, such as depression or OCD, admit that their relationship to astrology can be a challenge in managing these issues. Sometimes, knowing about celestial cycles can help situate yourself and mitigate spiraling, and I assume this is partly why many people dive into astrology in the first place. But this isn’t systematic: you can also self-harm with astrological practice when you struggle with anxiety, depression, OCD, etc.
To describe such phenomena, I’ve adopted the terms “astrological bypassing”, in line with the commonly used “spiritual bypassing”. A quick DuckDuckGo3 search tells me I’m not the first person to come up with it (obviously!); Barry Rosen wrote about it back in 2020.
Spiritual bypassing
Spiritual bypassing has been described in the 90s by John Welwood, a Buddhist therapist and teacher. He noted that many people, including him, could be prone to use spirituality as a shield, as an avoidance mechanism, which leads to repress emotions and to avoid confronting certain wounds or difficult subjects, through spiritual justifications.
Quoting an article by Olga Alexandrova which describes spiritual bypassing common characteristics:
The delusion of positivity at all costs: refusing to come to terms with negative emotions, thinking you need to always stay with “high vibration”.
Denial of emotional suffering: pretending that everything always happens for a reason, that pain is an illusion, without really treating any deep wounds.
Spiritual isolation: excessively detaching from the material world and human relationships, under the pretence of transcendence.
Deresponsabilisation: believing that everything is already “perfect” and that there is no need to take action to change one’s life or release trauma.
Excusing behaviour that is clearly abusive: putting oneself in the mindset that the abuser is our initiatic master and that they’re here for our evolution.
Spiritual dogmatism: adopting rigid beliefs about spirituality without question nor critical thinking.
Astrology and other introspective-divinatory practices
Not everyone deems astrology a spiritual practice, but that’s besides the point. No matter the worldview underpinning astrological practice, I think anyone can slip into avoidance mechanisms through astrological bypassing. And I believe people who have to deal with heavy trauma baggage can be especially vulnerable to it, because we know how trauma impacts one’s health.
This also applies to other practices in my experience, such as cartomancy. In this case as well, whether you take a strictly psychological approach (“Cards reflect what I already know deep down and help me with introspection, that’s all there is to it”) or explicitly divinatory (“The cards’ spirit is communicating” / “Spirit guides speak through the cards”), spiritual bypassing can show up either way.
There is such a thing as pressing so much into introspection as a quest for control that avoidance of the obvious occurs. For instance, for a relationship-themed spread or synastry, excessively self-questioning and pondering what you need to change in your own behaviour rather than facing the harsh fact that the person you want to be with is simply not ready to deploy what you actually need. A relationship is not built by a single person’s efforts!
As for a divinatory approach, looking to know what’s going to happen at all costs can be akin to pulling the rug under one’s own self in a fatalistic, ultimately super disempowering outlook. It seems crucial to me to consider how questions are phrased and how they guide the divinatory process: do we look at a natal chart or a tarot spread asking (solely) “What’s going to happen?” or “Where am I, what’s the potential in what’s to come, and what can be supportive during these times?”. It makes a world of a difference!
A few examples
In order to get a better grasp of what we’re talking about here, I’ve thought of a few examples of what I would consider to be astrological bypassing, or signs hinting to it:
Describing whatever’s going on quasi-systematically through astrological transits, to the point where the capacity to describe emotions or life events without astrologising can be hindered
Isolating from people who do not practice astrology in order to stay in astrological avoidance mechanisms without anyone raising it up as a potential issue
Talking about astrological transits as causes without considering concrete events in one’s life; “My chronocrator is conjunct Saturn right now, I feel sooo depressed”, without taking the time to consider what is behind this depression
Neglecting other areas of one’s life, other passions or hobbies, because studying astrology takes up all the space and time there is
Justifying behaviours through one’s natal chart without digging any more beyond that, or boxing other people into their natal placements reductively (and often unprovoked); “I’m like this because I have Venus in Virgo”, “You do this because you’re a Gemini”, “I can’t stand Libras ugh”, etc.
Essentialising abuse through the person’s natal chart; “No wonder Marilyn Manson is a rapist, he has natal Saturn in Aries and Mars in Scorpio”
Being incapable of taking interest in anything without immediately astrologising it; always looking at astrological charts for people in one’s life, movies and TV shows and performers, never managing to take a break or to experience anything without astrologising one way or another, etc.
Waiting on a “benefic” transit as if it was going to solve all of one’s distress, without there being a need to do anything about it
Abandoning oneself to anguish when looking ahead to a “malefic” transit, as if there was absolutely nothing to be done
Living with one’s difficulties
I take to heart that people who are marginalised by trauma might access support, rather than being further harmed, so I’ve regularly pondered this topic ever since I began practicing astrology, and I keep revisiting it. I know I’m not the only one among astrologers!
I also need to highlight that I’m not describing these mechanisms in a distant and external way, and that I’m not pronouncing a harsh judgement on people who struggle with this: I’m in this picture too (and I hate it). It’s continual work to be well-grounded and to make good use of introspection and divination. I have tremendous compassion for other people who struggle to approach tools at their disposal, tripping over such obstacles. It takes a lot of perseverance to live with high anxiety, depression, OCD and the like.
I also don’t care to essentialise or depoliticise mental health topics by putting the onus on an individual “self-development” outlook: I ardently wish for collective change that may allow each and everyone of us to live in dignity, with access to necessary care (medical and otherwise), and liberation from supremacist alienations that are the root of so much harm.
How to avoid bypassing?
So, how to bypass bypassing, right? The formula in itself4 suggests what I consider to be part of a solution. I think it’s very often wayyyy more helpful to intentionally go towards something than to flee something else. Generally speaking, this can be easier said than done when there is considerable trauma, since it is a real possibility that there are no precedents for something truly nourishing and helpful, so much so that we can’t even fathom it.
It’s worth considering though: when and how has astrology been helpful to you, allowed you to go towards something necessary and supportive? Perhaps there hasn’t been such an experience, in which case I would advise you let go of astrologising altogether. It’s probably peculiar to say this as an astrologer, but to each their own, I don’t believe in a panacea and my priority is set on people finding ways to flourish and expand their capacity for relationship. So no dogmatism around here; if astrology isn’t helping, hasn’t helped thus far, causes anxiety and bad self-esteem more than anything else, in my humble opinion it’s time to let it go and orient towards other things. You can always come back to astrology later if you feel like it!
Temperance and finding ways to make it work
Besides that radical option, there’s also temperance. For instance, if you tend to get anxious when looking at the year ahead, but you’d still like to deepen your study of astrological transits, I might recommend sticking to retrospective study! I mean by that looking at astrological transits once they’ve already passed. So instead of looking at the astrology of 2026 and trying to predict anything, you can look at them once the year is done, and look back at what happened in your life5.
Another possibility is to limit time spent studying astrology, to circumscribe it so that there are safe-guards; putting a timer so that once an hour is up you know you’re done, or planning to debrief with someone who can help defuse anxiety if needed, etc… If you tend to hyperfixate and/or have an addictive temperament, this advice all the more applies.
To state the obvious: make sure to prioritise your capacity to survive, your well-being, your health in general. Because astrology is a study of time, and that our current social set-up imposes tech on steroids conceived to be addictive and to manufacture urgency, it can all very quickly become overwhelming if you don’t set boundaries for yourself. Don’t guilt-trip yourself for not trying to speedrun it all, for not knowing everything there is to know about current astrological transits—even if you study astrology and even if you’re an astrologer!
Bypassing in a context of neurodivergence
It seems to me that a significant portion of people passionate about astrology are some flavour of neurodivergent (autism and/or ADHD, for instance). If that is your case, astrologising will only help to a point. I would not recommend letting your passion for astrology take up so much space that you don’t get to learn as much as you might need about neurodivergence, disability, and the tools and skills that can help you deal with it.
To make it more explicit: if you have very deep attachment issues, synastry will not save you from it and you’ll likely need to learn about emotional regulation, informed consent practices, codependent dynamics, etc. If you struggle with social interactions because picking up on implicit cues is hard, scrutinising your interlocutor’s natal chart is not the magic solution to understand and prevent every problem without getting to know them. If your self-esteem is extremely low, studying your own nativity without considering the roots of this issue is just as likely to sink you deeper into self-depreciating narratives as to provoke a protective narcissism with tons of blindspots. So… maybe pick up a Gabor Maté book with your Judith Hill, you know?
Feel free to let me know of your musings on this topic in the comments, and my encouragements to anyone struggling with astrological bypassing!
Until next time ✨
And yes I translated it all by myself, it’s a “Fuck genAI” zone around here 🤠
I’m not very fond of separating “mental health” from “physical health” because I experience it as a continuum, but for the sake of clarity…
Don’t tell me you’re still using Google as a search engine in 2025…!
Arguably this sentence works better in French, but whatever, you get what I’m saying here.
I have loved colleague Maeg Keane’s take on this a little while ago, saying they wish it was more common to talk about “Year Behind” readings!
This is brilliant and needs to be discussed at all levels of astrological (or other esoteric) practices. Thank you!
This is a great reflection on how over-astrologizing can be a way of escapism, evading ownership, putting the blame on the planets, reductionism, and yes, immersing in a feedback loop.