I went to America’s largest gathering of astrologers. It was a battle over how to read the stars

‘Astrology is really an art form,’ said one practitioner at the United Astrology Conference in Chicago. ‘There is the technical component, but it’s mostly about understanding human behavior.’ Illustration: Dajah Callen/The Guardian

“The dwarf planets change everything,” said the woman with the smart haircut as she made a mind blown gesture with her fingertips, temples to air.

I am at the United Astrology Conference, the largest professional gathering of astrologers in the world, in downtown Chicago. Around me, vendors are hoping to excite the 1,500 attenders, flogging books, tracts, affiliations, proprietary apps and various software programs that have replaced the laborious chart-drawing of yore.