This week, according to my horoscope, I’m worried about money, but shouldn’t be because a payment will be arriving soon. It also says that work is stressful.

No kidding – I’m a South African, it’s a recession and yes, I will be getting cash soon because it’s almost payday.

I didn’t need some hack with a star chart to figure that out, though, just a working brain. I don’t care if you were born sideways under an eclipse while Mercury was out buying cigarettes, I still reckon astrology has absolutely no effect on your personality.

That said, just because your star sign has zero impact on your life, doesn’t mean that the same applies to the season of your birth.

According to TIME, scientists are building up a small but increasingly persuasive body of evidence that there may indeed be some cause and effect at work.

Here’s how the season of your birth affects your personality:

SPRING

Congrats if you were born in spring, because spring babies score high on the hyperthymia scale.

Hyperthymia is general optimism — the ability to see every down as a prelude to an up, every market crash as a run-up to a boom. But that comes at a price: spring babies are also more susceptible to the precise opposite of hyperthymia: clinical depression.

Babies born in autumn, interestingly enough, have the lowest depression rates.

SUMMER

Summer babies are generally pretty happy.

Summer babies have some of the same hyperthymic characteristics as spring babies, but that can be offset by cyclothymia — rapid cycling between high and low moods.

This isn’t cycling in the clinical sense, but more moodiness and a tendency to shift in moods.

AUTUMN

People born in autumn have super low depression rates, which is good news if that’s your season. Autumn babies are also less likely to develop bipolar disorder.

On the downside, they are more prone to irritability.

WINTER

Babies born in winter are probably going to have a rough time of it.

Among the challenges facing people with winter birthdates are higher levels of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, SAD and depression. That’s a nasty handful, but there are a few compensations: winter babies are less irritable than those born in fall.

Winter babies are also more creative and more likely to become famous, so that’s a plus.

So there you have it. Fortunately, unlike the planets, the seasons are pretty straightforward, so you don’t need a week by week breakdown of what lies ahead.

Just remember that you’ll be faced with a decision this week, and you’ll meet someone, and there is the possibility of change on the horizon, and some other intentionally vague observations designed to dupe into thinking we know something we don’t.

[source:time]