Linda LaZar
COTTAGE GROVE – Forty years ago, when Linda LaZar was in a bookstore looking for a birthday gift, her life was changed forever.
”My eye caught something that was foreign to me and it was like a spotlight was on this book among the other books,” she said.
The book was called ”Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes.” LaZar said she looked up her sign and it ”blew my mind.” From there, as a teenager, she used the book to collect data about her friends and family and to learn more about the different personality traits and telling fortunes.
After 15 years of studying and applying Chinese astrology, it became more than just a hobby. LaZar wrote a weekly column about astrology, made the front page of the Glendale-Burbank paper and had her own radio show.
Chinese astrology is based on the moon’s influence on earth and water in particular. Astrologists believe that because humans are made up of 70% water, humans are also influenced by the moon. There are 12 signs that work in tandem with the 12 western astrological signs that create 144 different personality traits. LaZar said that astrology, mixed with environment and biology is what really helps shape a person.
Beyond being used for personalities, Chinese astrology uses patterns for people to tell their own fortune and learn what the coming years could look like.
”I don’t think any year is a bad year; you still have control over your life,” she explained. ”(Astrology) can serve you like a roadmap.”
The patterns can help someone make a decision and determine when is the right time for something. LaZar said that the Year of the Dog is always bad for her, and she uses that knowledge to prepare in advance for what could happen.
Although Chinese astrology had been in her life for years, it took time for LaZar to bring it up in a professional setting. She was a reporter for the LA Times subsidiary for the Glendale-Burbank communities and during one lunch at a Chinese restaurant with her editor, she brought up that there was more to astrology than just the horoscopes her editor was reading. LaZar proceeded to ask her editor for her birthday and told her about herself.
They asked if LaZar would be interested in doing a weekly column about Chinese astrology, but she was worried about losing her credibility as a journalist and turned the opportunity down. Her editors, however, continued to hound her about it, and three weeks later, after a conversation with her father, LaZar decided she would try out the column.
From there, her column grew and she even wrote a front-page profile on local politicians only using their signs. Reluctantly at first, she made appearances on radio shows until she was asked to have her own, which she did for three years.
When OJ Simpson was on trial for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, LaZar looked into the astrological profiles of Simpson and his attorneys. She found that Simpson was having a lucky year, as well as his attorneys – one of whom, during the same year’s sign, had had a similar case where the defendant was acquitted. From that, LaZar predicted that he would be acquitted.
”It wasn’t because I was super smart, it’s because I was looking at the patterns with Chinese astrology,” she said.
LaZar added that one of the most rewarding aspects for her in using Chinese astrology is helping parents to better understand their children, and to matchmake based on compatibility.
”There are certain signs with kids that parents think might be behavioral problems – (that) they’re hyperactive,” she said. ”But really, they’re just being themselves.”
She had one concerned mother call in to her show saying that everyone complained about her children; when LaZar realized that she had a Gemini-Tiger son and a Leo-Dragon daughter – known for being hyperactive and bold, as well as great leaders – she was able to advise the mom on ways to work with the teachers that would better suit the children’s education.
When LaZar moved to Oregon during her son’s freshman year of college, she was exhausted with Chinese astrology and decided to take a break. Now, 16 years later, she is diving back in by starting a column in The Chronicle, working on a book about telling fortunes and doing scientific research on the gravitational pull on cells and how astrology fits in with that. Even though people have always told her to write a book about the topic, LaZar said that now she’s ready.
”Unless I have something new, I’m not going to write a book just for the money,” she said. ”For me that’s not what it is.”
