Your Very Own Astrology
As you took your very first breath, the sky was alive with
Your Very Own Myth…
Art by Holly Parson Nielsen
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Yes. Astrology.
Believe me, I am at least as surprised as you are.
But since you’re here, and wondering what on earth I could be thinking…
Maybe let’s start with a couple of our most basic needs, and how, to my total surprise, astrology has turned out to be a playful and imaginative way to engage them…
Every part of us has an innate need to be seen; to make itself known. We might call this need authenticity: the ability to consciously experience our feelings, thoughts, and instincts, and to act in meaningful relationship with them.
We also have another need. We might call that need attachment: the ability to stay connected to the adults on whom we depended as children.
The trouble is, as children, in the Paper-Rock-Scissors game of attachment vs. authenticity, attachment beats authenticity nearly every time. For the sake of survival, we all had an inner default towards outer attachment.
As a result, something-in-us sensed that if we showed up fully as ourselves, we would lose relationships.
And so, as a matter of survival, many of our thoughts, feelings, and instincts were pushed down, buried deep, often in the earthy cells of our bodies (where they can show up as symptoms). This happens both personally and collectively.
Still, these buried affects remain a part of us, even if we think they’re safely locked in the basement. They are there. They appear in our dreams and in fairy tales as swamps, forests, dungeons, toilets, kitchens, closets, and locked rooms, and…
They, too, have an innate need to be seen, accepted, and related to. This is true of all the parts of us that were pushed down: our inner lead, our inner gold, and everything in between.
PROJECTION
Thankfully, these hidden parts are constantly in motion. They are alive and seeking to be known.
For a while, these basement-dwellers might knock on the door at the top of the stairs, wanting to be let into the living room. But if we remain unconscious of them long enough; if we don’t open the door and let them in, they will eventually sneak out of the basement, and attach themselves to the people, events, and objects in our lives. They do this so that we have the opportunity to make them conscious again.
Carl Jung called this projection.
How do we know when we are projecting?
1) Anytime our emotional response is way bigger than the situation really merits. A friend doesn’t respond to a text, and suddenly we find ourselves swimming in a story of how unlovable we are. Or our boss asks us to do something differently, and we find ourselves terrified that our heads are on the chopping block, questioning our validity as professionals and humans. (Not that I’ve ever experienced either of these…)
2) Anytime we think the behavior of one person applies to an entire group of people. If you can think of a group of people who you instinctively dislike (or instinctively love), you’re in projection-land.
That stuff you see in “them?” Sorry, friend. It’s not just “out there.” That’s your very own basement critters. (It might also be “out there,” but it’s not exclusively “out there.”) Cute and cuddly, or genuinely scary, they are a part of you, and they’d like you to invite them home and care for them.
Projection is unconscious. No one projects their basement stuff onto someone else on purpose. No one “chooses” which parts of themselves are projected.
What’s more, because projection is unconscious, it isn’t bad or good. It just is.
Until we learn to recognize our projections consciously, they remain unconscious, which means they will keep showing up in our outer lives as actual people and events.
We experience this as patterns and habits that we don’t understand or can’t seem to shake. The next time you find yourself repeating a familiar pattern, you might pause and reflect: something in you is giving you chance after chance to meet it.
As Jung famously said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.”
Let’s recap.
Every part of us has a need to be seen, known, accepted, and related to.
Many authentic parts of us have been hidden or buried inside. This is true of everyone.
These hidden parts are constantly trying to communicate with us. Projection is one way they do that, whether onto people, places, events, objects, or our dreams.
METAPHOR: OUR FIRST LANGUAGE
But here’s the catch: Our hidden parts communicate in a language most of us have forgotten. That language is symbol. Image. Metaphor.
The word metaphor can be understood as “a carrying across;” as in a bridge. If we don’t speak the language of metaphor, then we have no bridge to the buried parts of ourselves.
Put another way, our split-off parts will continue to experience the wounding of abandonment until we see, hear, and relate to them in their own language.
So where do we start?
Where might we begin to relearn the human psyche’s first language of image and metaphor?
If only we could find a space where, for tens of thousands of years, humans projected their inner realms onto the same objects across the globe.
If we could find such a site of shared projection, wouldn’t it be thrilling to uncover those mysteries, those maps of our inner terrains, and the languages they speak?
THE NIGHT SKY AS A MAP OF THE HUMAN PSYCHE
Enter the stars. The night sky.
Imagine what it was like for our ancestors to look up at the cosmos in the night sky, that mysterious order that could not be seen by light of day.
Imagine seeing the veil pulled back, as blue sky fades to reveal cosmic black, alive with lights and what appears to be Ananke’s Spinning Wheel, or Hera’s Milky Way.
Now imagine noticing that a few of those lights—7 to be exact—moved differently than all the others (Sun, Moon, and the five inner planets).
7 planets. 7 days of the week. 7 chakras. 7 steps to heaven. 7 gates of descent. 7 gods and goddesses. 7 archetypal forces or patterns, alive within us and the natural world.
Out of the movements of those “stars,” myths were born in an ancient dance with the human psyche; the secret language of our dreams; a primal cartography of the human soul.
So begins our adventure in the playground of astrology, myth, dream, poetry, and lore. It is an adventure that can open us to experiencing the buried parts of ourselves, on their terms, in their language.
For me, astrology is a way of re-learning this language of metaphor; of inhabiting a world beneath, behind, between, and beyond the literal.
The planets, signs, houses, and aspects, to me, personify archetypal patterns or forces within the psyche and in the world, and grant me the opportunity to imaginatively engage them.
From this perspective, the birth chart becomes a tool for exploring archetypal patterns within ourselves and in our lives.
A CAST OF CHARACTERS
First, it shows us that we all have a cast of characters alive in us, represented by the planets and their placements in signs and houses.
Psychologist James Hillman suggested that many of us feel fragmented because we were told that we are supposed to be a single, unified person when, in fact, we all have many characters (read: patterns/forces/energies) alive within us.
To use a garden metaphor, instead of identifying with a solitary plant or shrub, there may be wisdom in viewing ourselves as an entire garden, an entire ecosystem, where every part of us is essential to that ecosystem.
If this is a more accurate view of our inner life, then you and I, as ecosystems, are absolutely teeming with life. We can trust that completely. “Why do we have more trust in an amethyst bulb than in ourselves?” Marion Woodman once asked.
This means wholeness is no longer something to achieve; no longer something that involves feeding the “good” parts of us and lopping off or overcoming the “bad.”
Rather, wholeness and healing become an unfolding process of compassionately and honestly relating to every part of ourselves with understanding and courage.
No compost, no plants; no dirt, no life. “No mud, no lotus.” (Thich Nhat Hanh)
A favorite folk tale of mine tells the story of a person whose demons live in a nearby cave. For much of her life, she gathers the courage to go to the cave and confront her demons.
Sometimes she battles them; other times she tries to outsmart them.
But every time, they win; every time they seem to grow in size and strength and outright scariness.
One day, she goes to the cave to try something new. Once inside, she sets a table and invites her inner monsters to tea. And that is when transformation begins.
Astrology can be a playful and profound way to invite your inner characters, monsters and all, to the table for tea; a way to wander and explore what’s growing in your inner garden.
CYCLES OF RENEWAL
Second, I love the way that cyclical rhythms are embedded in the language and myth of astrology.
I feel drawn to astrology’s exploration of rhythms and cycles.
To paraphrase Demetra George, these cycles remind us that within every ending is a mysterious realm, a dark phase of the moon, where endings are distilled into seeds and seeds give birth to new life. Or, to invite a music metaphor, “The music happens between the notes.” (Yo-Yo Ma)
This mystery of rebirth lives at the heart of every myth I have read; every season or cycle I have experienced; and every planetary or stellar movement I’ve seen in the night sky.
Astronomically, we know the planets have elliptical orbits. But astrologically, from the perspective of this earth, the planets’ movements appear to wander.
The word “planet,” after all, means wanderer. Maybe that’s why Astrologer Liz Greene speaks of the “circuitous meanderings” of our souls.
First off, don’t you just love that word, “meanderings?” I mean, your mouth has to meander just to say it!
Second off, to her point, perhaps our soulful meanderings are not so random as they at first seem…
Maybe they are circuitous.
Maybe they are cyclical.
Maybe they point to what Clarissa Pinkola Estes calls the “Life/Death/Life nature” of the psyche or soul.
And as images go, I feel an exhale in my bones when I hold a space for these ones; dear, spiralic cycles of Life/Death/Life.
THE “JUST NOTICEABLE DIFFERENCE”
Maybe you will find a kind of depth and enjoyment in exploring this astrological playground of myth and symbol, in a symbolic language at least 5,000 years old.
Maybe you will notice a budding, quiet curiosity as you consider the ancient tales that were alive in the sky at the moment you took your first breath.
And as you hold those living tales within, perhaps you’ll sense something-in-you, gently tracking the “just-noticeable difference” inside of you, as ordinary and simple as dew’s appearing.
Sometimes, healing begins within the smallest of movements…
Ryan
Choose Your Very Own Myth
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Birth Chart Reading: Your Very Own Myth
For those who long to know there is a map of their own soul.
Your birth chart represents Your Very Own Myth, a map of the archetypal forces alive in the sky at the moment and place of your first breath.
Do you know your Big 3? The Sun, Moon, Ascendant/Rising Sign? Or your life’s daemon or guardian angel in your chart’s lore? Or the unfolding telos of the cosmic dragon that hints at the gifts your ancestors have offered you, and clues for their development? Have you uncovered Saturn’s buried treasure? Danced with your MC, and considered the Counsel of the Mythic Deities seeking voice through your inner Moon and Sun?
This birth chart reading is steeped in the imagery of the Sacred Feminine, and focuses on exploring themes that come alive for the client.
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Inanna's Descent: Letting Go, Rebirth, and Rising
For those who sense, in their bones, the need for another way; whose curiosity draws them towards ancient healing wisdom.
Step into Your Very Own version of humanity’s oldest myth; a tale of split, reunion, rebirth, and rising.
Imagining yourself to be Inanna, your birth chart gives clues as to your soul’s unique needs for descent, letting go, healing, re-rooting, and experiencing rebirth.
Together, we descend to the Underworld of your chart, one gate at a time, until you reach your place of deepest roots. There, the symbols in your chart invite you to re-consider connection with your authentic inner soil. Your story unfolds as we explore the kinds of expression, healing routines, relatedness, and shadow work that can restore your view of your place in this world, as you glimpse what it will look like to thrive.
You’ll also meet two delightfully strange creatures, alive in your psyche, whose capacity for empathy beyond judgment is curiously earthy and healing.
Clients tend to feel seen, witnessed, and understood in this reading, as we weave a sacred container for your life’s stories, held in the temenos of humanity’s most ancient myth, tailored uniquely to Your Very Own birth chart, and guided by the resonance of Your Very Own inner rudder.
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Roots of the Mother Tree: Re-member the Ancient Feminine
For those who hold a sense of loss around the absence of the sacred feminine in their lives.
Reconnect with the archetypes of the Ancient Feminine on a healing journey to the Roots of the Mother Tree, as found in Your Very Own birth chart.
Much of modern and traditional astrology remains steeped in cultural shifts meant to remove the Feminine from the rites, stories, images, and histories of Western culture.
But the traces of the ancient feminine are everywhere to be found within modern astrology and its attendant myths, if we just have eyes to see.
Together we approach the roots of the Mother Tree (with her permission of course), following the themes in your birth chart as we re-member the ancient meanings of the Archetypal Feminine, hidden in astrological glyphs and lore.
This reading draws on years of research into the collective wisdom of authors like Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Sylvia Brinton Perera, Carly Mountain, Marion Woodman, Demetra George, Brian Clark, Nancy Qualls-Corbett, Melanie Reinhardt, Marian Dunlea, Marija Gimbutas, James Hillman, Liz Greene, Riane Eisler, Elinor Gadon, Mary Condren, Elaine Pagels, Carl Jung, Anne Baring, Jules Cashford, and Marie Louise Von-Franz .
Clients who have experienced a sense of loss from the absence of the sacred feminine in their lives can find this reading deeply moving and supportive.
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Your Ancient Many Mothers
For those who long to sense connection to their ancestral feminine as keepers of a sacred tradition.
Embedded in your birth chart are the clues of an ancient tale: a symbolic story of your ancestral lineage connecting you to the Sacred Feminine. Explore the themes of how the Sacred Feminine was protected by your ancestors, and how it was passed along—or lost—on its way to you, as found in Your Very Own birth chart.
This is a living metaphor for your intuitive connection to the Sacred Feminine.
Clients tend to experience an emergent sense of rootedness; an awareness of their own felt-sense of their Ancient Many Mothers in this reading.
Consider (con-sider, with-the stars) your role in continuing, or reviving, the Sacred Feminine, as it was written in the sky at the moment and place of your birth.
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Venus's Healing: Your Feeling Values
For those who sense that others’ voices and values may be posing as their own.
Explore Venus’s many faces within your birth chart, she who symbolizes the bridge within that connects you to your deepest feeling values; those values that are truly innate to you.
In this reading, you invite a return to those innate feeling values, guided by your inner Venus.
The problem is, for most of us, our innate values have been buried under layers of conditioning. Simply put, our culture does not value the Venus in us. But your birth chart does; and emphatically so.
As psychologist James Hillman suggested, when it comes to healing in the modern world, “Venus is our recourse.”
Or, as Gillian Demurtas has said, Venus’s aesthetics “are a matter of life and death” when it comes to the well-being of the psyche.
This is a reading for repairing the bridge to what you innately value most. Clients tend to experience a sense of empowerment from this reading; a renewed trust in their own aesthetic compass to guide their soul’s unfolding.
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Allerleirauh: Leaving Your Father's House
For those feeling drawn towards a gentler, trusting pace; where soul can wear the Moon and Sun; where ashes and bread soup deepen awareness; where mentors appear at just the right time, and you find yourself connected to patterns larger than any of us.
Explore your birth chart as never before, in a reading inspired by the work of Marion Woodman.
In this tale, you escape your father’s kingdom, find sanctuary in the womb of a tree, mentors in the basement of a nearby castle, and a magical Nut in which you have all that you ever needed, as you grow into experiencing your place in life and the cosmos. And there’s a version unique to you, found in Your Very Own birth chart.
This beautiful tale reminds us that the work of transformation is not about adding to, or taking away, but of experiencing and working with our innate wholeness.
Curated especially for those who may have passed through religious abuse, and have since found the strength to move forward.
Clients often experience an empathic witness and encouragement on their journey to “Leave [Their] Father’s House” and continue trusting their own soul’s needs; not by striving to match the rhythms of their culture, but by trusting the rhythms of their own interiority.
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When Love Blooms: the Work of Withdrawing Projections
For those who wish to understand the inner work that their relationships are inviting them to do.
While our love for others may well be sincere, it is inevitably mixed with a potent cocktail of our own inner stuff; stuff we’re unlikely to see without a little help.
In this sense, our chosen partners are destined to bring us face to face with growth opportunities (putting it mildly).
In this reading, dive into the mysteries of the inner contents you are likely placing on your chosen partners in life, albeit unconsciously.
Psychologist Carl Jung called this projection. We all do it, and Your Very Own birth chart can evoke new curiosity to explore how this looks in your relationships.
Until we become aware of our projections in the relationship, we are doomed to relate to our version of our partners, rather than relating to the person themselves.
In other words, we risk not really seeing our partners, because we don’t realize that the stuff we see in them actually belongs to ourselves. Then, one day, we find ourselves feeling betrayed. “That’s not the person I fell in love with,” we say. And so we prep the cycle to repeat.
On the other hand, when you recognize the inner contents you have placed on your partner, you can thoughtfully and compassionately invite those contents to come home to you.
As you do, your relationship dynamics will transform.
Perhaps a warning: This is not a reading for someone interested in validation for what’s wrong with their partner. Repeat: this is for those who wish to understand the inner work their relationships are inviting them to do.
Clients often find this reading supportive and insightful, transforming their experience of their relationships through soulful reflection.
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Hestia's Place: Your Life's Hearth
For those who may be feeling uprooted or a touch adrift.
Locate yourself within Hestia’s Hearth, your place within the creative cycles of Your Very Own Life.
In Ancient Greece, Hestia was the goddess of hearth, of place. Her presence transformed a space into a place, a house into a home, and stones into a hearth.
She was the first to be invoked in many rituals, because without her presence, without psyche’s sense of location—of place—there could be no experience of depth or life with any of the other archetypes, any of the other life forces personified as goddesses and gods.
With Hestia’s meaning in your chart as anchor, harness the language of astrology to explore the cycles of development and creativity in Your Very Own Life, as found within your birth chart.
This is a journey through the astrological houses, viewed from a lens of understanding the spiralic “acorn” out of which your life unfolds, held in the warmth of Hestia’s hearth.
From gestating womb, to birth, ensuing individuation, creativity, relationships, vocation, community, to the experience of oneness with life, clients tend to experience a sense of place from this reading. Locate yourself within the creative cycles innate to you, and sense your own empowerment to consciously participate in co-creating your life within those cycles.
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Plato's Myth: Your Soul's Birth
For those who love to sense their life’s trajectory within a single story.
Experience a tale of your soul’s birth, drawn from within an ancient myth of Fates and Daemons and counsels with Goddesses and Gods, as your soul persuades the archetypal powers to grant you incarnation.
In this creative adaptation of Plato’s myth, unique to Your Very Own chart, you uncover the story of your soul’s journey to this earth.
Find out which gods and goddesses (the archetypal forces and patterns) you consulted before choosing to come into this life; the topics you brought to the Fates themselves for their consideration as your soul petitioned for incarnation; the Daemon or Guide they selected to keep you on course throughout your life’s journey; and the stars through which your soul was birthed, supporting you to this day with their unique capacity to perceive the workings of your life.
Clients tend to experience an increased sense of support and even destiny connected to their life’s unfolding when they participate in this reading. For those feeling pushed around by life’s vicissitudes, this reading tends to return a sense of purpose that came with them into this life.
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Making Sense: Inviting the Stars to Hold Us
For those who need a listening ear.
Share experiences from your life that may continue to evoke feelings of confusion, difficulty, dismay, joy and/or everything in between.
Explore what was happening in the cycles of the heavens at the time of these experiences. There is something mysterious and powerful in the capacity of these cycles and images to weave a container for our life’s experiences. You may well find yourself feeling a bit more able to co-create meaning and under-standing within the patterns of the cosmos and your lived experience.
There can also be a surprising sense of validation and support that comes from seeing the archetypes that were most active in your life and birth chart during times of struggle or success.
Together, we invite the stars and their lore to hold these experiences with you, in this very personal reading.
Clients tend to experience a gently increased sense of meaning and capacity to relate to their lived experiences.
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Let Your Garden Grow: Your Living Inner Ecosystem
For those who know their souls are nourished by all things green.
Explore Your Very Own birth chart through the wisdom of a garden.
Psychologist Carl Jung once suggested that the soul is a rhizome, the nourishing bulb at the heart of a root system. With this as our central image, we explore the roots and shoots of your soul’s being, as revealed by the placement of the planets at the time of your birth.
In viewing yourself and your birth chart as a garden, an entire ecosystem, we come to realize that every part of us is essential to the ecosystem.
From this perspective, wholeness and healing become an unfolding process of compassionately and honestly relating to every part of ourselves with understanding and courage.
Clients tend to experience a newfound clarity regarding the astrological symbols from this reading, as they are grounded in the relatable world of plants and gardens.
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Client Led Q&A
For those who feel drawn to partnering with the moment, whose questions move beyond those found in other readings presented here.
Bring any questions or topics that feel alive or pressing for you, from creative projects, to interpersonal questions, to weaving new stories of your life’s journey.