(pssst: if you’re looking for the link to this week’s good fortune!, you can find it here.)
I saw a rainbow over Cookie’s Department Store during a dreamy golden hour on Monday. The Sun was opposing Neptune.
On Wednesday, I went for my first run in over a month during another dreamy golden hour with pink clouds and a setting crescent moon. Neptune was rising in the chart of the moment.
Astrology doesn’t have to be complicated. These tiny symbolic nods often mean much more than a complex technique. But to see these tiny nods, you have to be willing to look up at the light.
That being said, a big development in my astrological study is that I’ve finally figured out one of the most complicated techniques: zodiacal releasing. What is zodiacal releasing (ZR)? Well—without getting too in the technical weeds—it’s a timing system that allows you to see your life mapped out as a book: peaks and valleys, highs and lows, challenges and success stories told through chapters, pages and sentences. You can pinpoint difficult years and even find blissful days and hours. It’s that specific! In the fate vs. free will debate, it’s a checkmate for fate. I’ve played around with ZR for years, but I thought it “didn’t work for me.” A couple weeks ago though, I watched Kira Ryberg’s lecture on ZR (highly rec her work for those who want to “learn” “astrology”) and things finally clicked. Part of the reason the lecture hit so hard for me is that Kira spoke on how challenging periods for mental health could be seen via the ZR, something teachers in the past had failed to mention, or if they had, I hadn’t heard them.
From August 13, 2021 until September 2, 2023, I was in a very challenging period in my ZR, influenced by Saturn, planet of structures, responsibility and…depression. This difficult period began exactly one week before I moved moon missives to Substack and started writing to you all more regularly. Knowing what I previously understood about ZR, I knew this era was going to test me, but the framing was more: this is a build up period for your career, a lot of work with little pay off. And that was true, but this preparatory period also had a direct correlation to a decline in my mental health, and Kira’s lecture shed light on that for me. Having this creative outlet and audience is one of the few things that kept me motivated at all for the last two years. It was a tiny bit of golden hour light in a depressive fog.
When I go through these periods (I’ve had several in my lifetime), I tend to isolate. We can blame my south node in Virgo in the 12th house which is to say: I’m comfortable hiding in the archives until I feel *ready* to face the world as the friendliest, smartest, most stylish Libra rising version of myself. Spoiler alert: it’s impossible to ever be ready enough. Compared to other periods like this, isolating was easy this time. In the past I had roommates, coworkers, or at least people to see on the subway, but now I live alone, work for myself and own a car that allows me to travel solo. I know I’ve hinted here about some of my struggles over the past couple years: mentioning a heartbreak or a process of letting go or noting a general whirlpool of overwhelm during last year’s eclipse season, and trust, on a circumstantial level, there’s been a lot happening: noisy neighbors, overdue bills, worn down brake pads and the process of figuring out who’s actually part of my “community” in this new era of my life. But this was really a soul problem, a spiritual dis-ease. To cope, I was digging ghosts out of the archival graveyard and clocking in at the obsession factory everyday. I kept most of that a secret.
(Also please know that I have an incredible support system who helped me through this time when I felt like a literal baby bird without a nest. I often felt alone but I was not alone, and I am very grateful.)
I share this all to say: being an astrologer often feels like being an esoteric weatherman. I feel responsible to be of service, to show up with a smile, and deliver the forecast with as much style as I can muster. But the truth is: I’m not a dutiful cosmic meteorologist, I’m a freewheeling alchemical artist. I know that what I write resonates not when I’m playing a role, but when I’m sharing my full self, messy and loose around the edges, in vibrant technicolor.
Like clockwork on September 2, 2023, I entered a new period in ZR. The storm was over. All at once, I felt like that golden hour rainbow over Cookie’s Department Store. Strangely placed but happy to be here nonetheless. The volume and the saturation of life turning back up. To mark the occasion, I got an aura photo at Magic Jewelry in Chinatown.
The last time I’d gotten an aura photo taken was on August 13, 2021, the exact day my rough ZR period began (I was aware at the time, but I wasn’t aware). The two auras are almost identical except for one key difference. Two years ago, there was no aura over my heart center, but this time some crown chakra energy lit up my chest, glowing purple and bright.
The reader told me I was ambitious and motivated, but that I took on too much of other people’s energy. She said had to be careful of what I took on, that I should eat only warm foods, and that I was vulnerable in my stomach and in my eyes. “You’re about to get very busy,” she added. Onto the next chapter…
As things get brighter, I can zoom out, and notice the tiny magic of astrology. Nature’s easter eggs hidden in plain sight. The names of the planets tucked into the days of the week. Seven days for the seven wandering stars. This new chapter is not for observing the minutiae, but for looking up.
on saturn day, we honor traditions.
on sun day, we bask in the light.
from here on out, i plan to write to you on sundays, i’ll share my notes on astrology, life and culture from the week, what I’ve noticed and what I’m paying attention to. I’ll share the new episodes of good fortune! here too :)
eyes on
read “On Money” from Fariha Roisin’s Substack How to Cure A Ghost this week, and can’t say it didn’t inform what I wrote to you today. also the clip of TLC as the epigraph? *chills*
went to MoMA this weekend to see the new Emerging Ecologies show (have you ever wondered if dolphins and humans should cohabitate? if so, go! no but in all seriousness, it’s very thought-provoking, especially re: fibonacci spirals) Also checked out the Edward Ruscha retrospective show there and had to look up that man’s chart because he is such a delightful art troll. He is of course, a Sagittarius, born on a full moon in Gemini.
Being 13 from this week’s New York Times - a pretty overwhelming dive into social media’s affect on the teen brain and self esteem. Thinking a lot about how the three girls profiled were born with Pluto in Capricorn, that gen is going to have a lot to teach us.
good fortune!
this week’s episode gets into: updates on the astrology of the WGA strike, continued notes on preparing for eclipse season, plus this week’s full moon in aries forecast. things are brewing!
booking
my books are open for october! grab your spot while they’re available!
As soon as the morning news gets grim on a Sunday, I reach for this podcast. Somedays its at 7:50 am. Thank you. Rich week. Will have to listen a couple of times.
So grateful for you in this world!