In the stars

With her book breaking all local sale records, I revisit Maguy Farah to see what all this astrology business is about.

You were a media student…

I started off studying media in university. It was my first year and a war-time station was born. I joined ‘Sawt Lubnan’, and I was a student with no political views whatsoever. I wanted the practice really, and the experience. When I graduated I became a presenter.

And the horoscopes?

It was a hobby really, something I was interested in. A guy I knew guessed my horoscope (Libra), and that of a friend of mine. I asked him how; remember I never believed in this prediction nonsense, and I still don’t. I asked him how he knew, and he told me it was a science. He gave me some reading material, and I took it up as a hobby.

But it eventually became much more than that…

Sometime later the station asked us for ideas for new shows, and I had one. I’d done quite a bit of reading by this time, and I’d tried my hand at the calculations involved. I proposed a show about horoscopes, and everyone loved it. People asked about it so often, and asked for reruns and recording that I was pretty much forced to publish it; and that’s how the first book was born. It was a coincidence, and I believe that coincidences change your life.

I agree…

Half your life is a coincidence; your choices are perhaps the second half, but at least half your life is a coincidence. I was working in media, how does that lead to horoscopes? You’re an Aries, aren’t you?

I am; what gives?

Aries was the first thing that came to my mind. Some people wear their horoscopes well; you have a strong, lighthearted presence, one that I can get along with. But where were we?

Thank you… So it was your shows that made your name?

I used to do talk shows, in the common Arabic, at a time when these things were unheard of. They were a success, as measured by viewers and advertising. The horoscope shows seemed to get more advertising.

But you didn’t indulge in those till later…

I was asked to take over the news. I initially refused; I was afraid. And I had every right to be. I’d already been threatened, and things were already tense. It was a huge responsibility, a time of political parties none of which I subscribed to. The political world was in turmoil: Amine Gemayel was president, Bachir had just been killed. But it was a golden age for news, and Sawt Lubnan was unique; it grabbed 90% of the audience. When something happened everyone would tune in, those with or against the station.

So how did your second book come about?

They asked me for a second one, and I did it. At a time when books would sell maybe 500 copies a year, I sold 10,000. I was still in university, and I didn’t at first realize what I’d done. I had no frame of reference, how could I know that 10,000 was a hit. But I eventually stopped making books, until I got my first bitter taste of politics.

What was that?

The station was taken by force, and you could do that during the war. Who could say anything? I was left without a job and without severance pay. I was approached by Dar el Kiteb el Lubnani. I was approached by May, one of my closest friends now, and she wanted to meet me and see what the fuss was about. She told me she had a bookshop, and had gotten many requests for my book. She proposed we make another together. We made 12, and she paid me in advance. She also suggested I start with the prediction books; we launched the first of those in the early 90s.

And the rest is history…

It sold, it was different. I never pretended to tell the future or look into crystal balls, I wrote about an old science, and people appreciated it. And I’ve released a book every year, ever since.

Well how accurate is it?

It’s a science of probabilities, not magic. In old times people notices that some planetary alignments coincided with major events, things like wars and disasters. With time they refined it, and made clear rules. So if this planet is in that location, then there might be a war; that’s all it is.