To hear club co-founder and president Dominique Butler tell it, the story of the Zodiac Society’s origin was written in the stars.
“The idea came about in a very random way – my sister Alexis and I were at a health fair and we saw a man wearing a shirt that said ‘Leo Club,’” Dominique Butler, a sophomore majoring in marketing, said. “I’m a Leo, and I’ve always been very interested in astrology, so when she joked, ‘You should start a Leo Club,’ we turned the idea into starting an astrology club on campus.”
Dominique Butler said the Zodiac Society is purposed with promoting and developing student members’ interest in astrology and other spiritual topics through exploration of practices like horoscope analysis and palm reading. She stressed club members were “not studying any of this as doctrine of any sort,” but rather indulging curiosity.
Alexis Butler, a junior majoring in telecommunication and film and German, said her own curiosity piqued in high school at her sister’s encouragement.
“In junior high my sister would talk about astrology, but I never thought of it as something serious. Once I reached high school, her fascination with astrology became more in-depth,” she said. “She bought a book that combined the astrological signs with birth dates. It’s awesome, and mine was dead-on. It’s somewhat funny and weird how astrology turns out to be true.”
Although she tries not to categorize people, Alexis Butler said astrology has often helped her understand friends and peers based on their astrological signs.
“I feel that astrology has confirmed my thoughts on why I act the way I act, and the same reason for others. I don’t automatically put people in categories, but once I befriend someone and find out their sign, it’s easier for me to justify why they act the way they do,” Alexis Butler said. “It’s not like my friends wore T-shirts that had their sign on it that told me ‘hey we’d be great friends because I’m a …’ It just ended up being that way. Kind of cool.”
It only took about two lunar cycles for the Butler sisters and their friends to transform the Zodiac Society from a humorous suggestion to a recognized student organization.
“I made a joke about it to Dominique, not thinking at all that she would take me seriously. Then I realized she could start an astrology club on campus. By the time we left the health fair and we went shopping she wouldn’t stop listing off all these ideas she had for it,” Alexis Butler said. “It was really annoying, but I knew she was just really excited about it.”
Dominique Butler quickly converted her excitement into action. The Butler sisters then recruited the design assistance of now-vice president Hillary McDaniel and had fliers up around campus by Feb. 20. Dominique Butler’s academic advisor agreed to sponsor the club, and the fliers and word-of-mouth attracted enough people to qualify for The Source’s 10-member minimum by March 4.
So far, the group has held two meetings. Dominique Butler said Zodiac Society plans to meet again in April and will operate a booth on Diagon Alley during Quidditch at the Capstone on April 21 from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Colby Moeller, a freshman majoring in finance and marketing, said he was born in February, but doesn’t know which zodiac sign corresponds to his birth date.
“[Zodiac Society] sounds pretty interesting,” he said. “I don’t know much about that kind of stuff, but I think a lot of people would be into it, and it seems pretty interesting to me. But I didn’t even think that we would have any type of club here dedicated to that.”
Both Butlers acknowledge one of the biggest challenges for the club moving into the immediate future will be generating awareness of the club’s existence among students with interest who believe no such organization exists, as well as people like Moeller without prior interest or knowledge in the subject.
“I think there may have been a demand for an astrology club, but people were just unaware that they would want to join a club that explores the subject. I talk about astrology with several of my friends, so I figured there must be enough people at this ginormous university who would gladly join,” Dominique Butler said. “I think that in a year from now, we’ll actually have enough members to have a few people from each zodiac sign. The more people there are, the more we will be able to see how reliable this stuff really is. At the moment we’re lacking Virgos and Aquarians, but we have every other sign.”
Dominique Butler encouraged all interested Virgos and Aquarians, as well as any other students with curiosity and any level of prior experience with the subject, to attend the group’s April 18 meeting in The Source Annex at 7 p.m. or visit the Quidditch booth for more information on how to join.
