My Epiphany About Astrology & Manifesting
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For the past four years or so, my feelings about astrology have been pretty conflicted.
While I’ve experienced times of intense curiosity, study and passionate enthusiasm...
I’ve also had times when I’ve “broken up” with astrology completely, stepping away from it for weeks or months at a time.
I've seen it as being both highly beneficial and highly detrimental to my manifesting practice, depending upon which mode I’m in.
What’s the reason for this on-again, off-again relationship with all things astro?
Basically, I’ve had an underlying confusion around how both astrology and manifesting can possibly both be “true” at same time.
Manifesting teachings say that we’re the creator of our reality and have unlimited power to manifest whatever we choose.
And, astrology teachings suggest that there’s at least some element of fate or fixed-ness to reality - a limit around who we are and what we can experience or create in this lifetime.
Sometimes, I’ve just ignored this “fate versus freewill” confusion because astrology has been so fascinating to study.
And then, during my “break up” phases, I’ve denounced astrology and any aspect of “fatedess” that it seems to imply because the freewill, “no limits!” manifesting philosophy resonates way more strongly with me.
Recently though, I believe I’ve finally found a way to marry these two opposite perspectives - a way to describe the paradox of how both the fatedness of astrology and the freewill of manifesting could both be true at the same time.
And, that’s exactly what I want to explore in this article… both to try to articulate these insights more clearly for myself and to hopefully provide you with an empowering perspective on extracting maximum benefit from astrology and manifesting, should you also feel inspired as I have to study them together.
My Mixed Feelings About Astrology
But before diving into the details of my epiphany, I want to elaborate a bit more on the mixed feelings I’ve had about astrology.
One thing that’s for sure been true for me regarding astrology is that it hasn’t been just a passing interest. Over the years, I've really jumped into the deep end with this!
I’ve studied my own astrology birth chart in depth and found that it validates, confirms and provides a new way to describe why I am the way I am.
Decisions that I’ve made in my relationships, career, hobbies and home-life are clearly reflected in my birth chart in very interesting and uncanny ways.
In addition to studying my birth chart, I’ve also done in depth study on how to read the transits to my chart to understand the timing cycles of my astrology. For the past few years, I’ve kept a close watch on how I’ve experienced these timing cycles and how they relate to what’s happening for me, both internally and externally.
My astrology studies haven’t been limited to just my own chart. I’ve also read the charts of several family members, friends and others in my life. I’ve been able to understand those around me in new ways and to share helpful insights with them thanks to astrology.
To get more experience reading charts, I applied and tested to become a professional astrologer on the “Sanctuary” app. While I did pass the test and get asked to join the group of astrologers, this all happened right as I was entering one of my “breakup” phases with astrology so I decided to decline.
For several months at the beginning of 2019, I did new and full moon forecast videos over on my YouTube channel.
I’ve recently found new ways to incorporate astrology into my psychic readings sessions and coaching programs.
As you can tell by the list above, in a lot of ways I’ve become a total astronerd over the past few years!
But, to share the other side of the story, there’s also been this “dark side” for me with astrology.
While astrology has highlighted my strengths it’s also described with painful accuracy some of my biggest challenges and pain points in life. And, some of the astrologers that I’ve learned about this type of information from have through their teachings triggered within me at times a sort of despair around these perceived limitations. For example, some of the planets in my astrology birth chart are in positions described by some of these astrologers as “highly handicapped” or “malefic,” making it sound as if I’m fated to always experience challenges in those areas.
While I enjoy listening to astrology forecasts because it can sometimes really confirm what I’m intuitively feeling, they can also sometimes feel really limiting. For example, sometimes an astrologer might say something like “you shouldn’t start anything new because it’s mercury retrograde.” And, while I may not agree with this advice, sometimes hearing something like this triggers my own sense of caution or self-doubt and might dim my enthusiasm for starting new things.
Astrology has been able to describe the timing of some events in my past with surprising accuracy. While that can feel like confirmation or validation, it can also feel unsettling because it definitely can make things seem to lean on the fate side more than the freewill side of the equation!
These are some of the key experiences with astrology that have led me to “break up” with it at certain times. Basically, I’d decide that a break up was in order any time it felt like there was a danger of astrology beginning to lead me into too much of a “fatalistic” mindset that didn’t feel very empowering or good.
Then, after a few weeks or months time out from astrology, I’d inevitably become interested in it again because of all of its really interesting and helpful aspects.
So, now that I’ve given you the backstory on my back and forth astro-saga, let’s get into the solution.
Because, as mentioned, I’m happy to report that I believe I’ve found a way to resolve what seemed for so long to be opposite approaches to reality.
Below is a description of the three key insights I’ve had about astrology that are helping it to feel like I can finally go all-in with astrology and use it to its fullest potential in my manifesting practice.
Key Insight #1: Overall Life Philosophy Colors Astrological Interpretations
The overall philosophy of life of any astrologer is key to take into account when listening to their teachings, forecasts, or advice.
For example, one astrologer I used to follow tended to describe astrology transits as providing us with “lessons” to learn. She viewed life to be like a classroom where the ultimate goal was to evolve ourselves to the point where we “wouldn’t need to keep incarnating as humans on planet earth any more.”
This philosophy made her astrology forecasts tend to lean towards a more difficult description of upcoming events because a lot of what happened in life was seen as meant to challenge, test and teach us lessons.
Of course, for people who share this same philosophy of life, these kinds of interpretations would likely resonate.
But, for someone like me, who does not view life as a series of “lessons” given to us by some external authority, those interpretations always felt off the mark.
And so, that’s one of the first key insights that I’ve had about astrology. It’s super important to keep in mind the overall philosophy about life that astrologers have when listening to their advice because of the way this impacts and colors interpretations.
Key Insight #2: Astrology is a Frame of Reference for Our Intuition to Draw Upon
Astrology is broad. Each archetype within it can mean several different things.
So, there’s a lot of room to play with for interpretation.
As mentioned in the previous section, an astrologer's beliefs about life influence how they interpret and describe astrological symbols.
And, because astrology is broad, there’s plenty of room for adding this type of individual flavor.
Another way to say this is that astrology is like a language. You can describe pretty much anything or any situation using the language of astrology because as a system it’s pretty all-encompassing.
Our intuition can also use the language of astrology as a way to communicate with us.
While I can’t recall exactly who said this, when I heard that “the best astrologers are psychic” it made a lot of sense to me.
Since astrology is broad with many ways that the various symbols can be interpreted, it makes sense that the best way to laser in on what will be most relevant and helpful at any specific time is to let intuition, aka our psychic senses, lead the way.
For example, this can be done when studying your own chart. Perhaps you’ll read an interpretation of something in your birth chart that feels spot on and therefore resonates very strongly and intuitively as opposed to an interpretation that feels very “off” and therefore very different from your higher self’s guidance.
When interpreting astrology for ourselves or other people, those astrologers who have the clearest connection to intuition will be the ones who can most easily and accurately pinpoint from the broad possible astrological interpretations what’s most relevant and helpful at any given time.
Key Insight #3: Astrology Describes Our Path to Joy
As already mentioned, philosophy greatly influences astrological interpretation. And, for a while, my challenge has been how to marry my own philosophy of being a conscious creator of my reality with the fixed and fated nature of astrology.
Here’s my working theory:
Astrology does not describe our fate but points us in the direction of how we might best grow into our full potential for joy.
And actually, I’m now having second thoughts about the word “fate.”
For a while, I assumed that if we’re truly the unlimited creators of our reality then it didn’t make sense for anything to be “fated.”
We’re supposed to be unlimited after all, right?
But obviously, we’re not totally unlimited. I was born at a specific place and time. I have a certain natural hair and eye color. I have certain natural tendencies, likes, and dislikes.
These things that define me as me could certainly be called “limits.”
Then there’s the natural world. Plants and animals have limits too.
If you plant a seed for a cherry tree it’s going to grow into a cherry tree, not an avocado tree.
These types of limits represent some of the “fated” or fixed qualities of life.
So, with that in mind, here’s my working theory about astrology and how to best use it for manifesting our dreams in life:
To draw upon the “seed growing into a certain type of plant” metaphor I mentioned above, maybe the astrology birth chart is like the description of what kind of seed we are.
Maybe our astrology is kind of like a seed packet where on the front shows a picture of what kind of plant the seed will grow into if given the proper growing conditions. And, on the back, it states instructions for what those proper growing conditions are - how much water, sunlight and what type of soil will give the best results.
In this way, maybe the astrology chart is describing these “limits” of what kind of plant we are and what exactly we need in order to thrive.
Except, instead of how much water or sunlight we need, it’s saying things like what we need our career to focus upon or what type of personality traits our most ideal life partner should have or what are the most optimal hobbies to engage in during our spare time.
If this is the case that astrology can help us grow into our full potential, then the next logical question is:
What does it mean exactly to “grow into our full potential?”
Fully potential for what exactly?
This is then where the philosophy of an astrologer would come into play.
If you’re someone who believes that we’re here to learn lessons, prove worthiness and “graduate” out of Earth School, then “full potential” would mean seeing yourself as starting out in life as unworthy in some way and therefore needing to improve in order to become worthy enough for graduation out of physical form.
That’s not a philosophy that resonates with me at all intuitively, so I’d define it differently.
Logically to me, if it’s true that we’re all Source Energy then why would we need to improve ourselves?
If we’re already god-incarnate then there’s no outside authority giving us lessons and deciding if we’re worthy to graduate. If we’re in charge it makes no sense to me why we would do that to ourselves.
What resonates for me is that living on planet Earth as a physical being is not something to be dealt with but something to be delighted in.
I think that we as Source created this human experience for ourselves to enjoy not to evolve out of.
Growth, learning and evolution happen of course... but, in my view, the goal is not to improve ourselves because we’re deficient but because of how joyful it can be to grow, learn and evolve.
So, following this line of thinking, astrology then becomes a tool that helps us hone in on our highest level of enjoyment and our best happiness in life.
And, we can keep this function in mind by always being aware of whether or not the insights we gain from astrology intuitively feel like they’re leading us closer to or further away from our enjoyment and happiness.
The Next Epiphany About Astrology That I’d Love to Have
Hope you’ve enjoyed taking this deeper look with me at astrology and how it relates to manifesting a life we love.
Feeling hopeful now that I’ll be able to go all-in with astrology instead of doing the on-again, off-again dance of the past few years!
One further question remains for me about all of this, however.
If astrology truly is a map for thriving and happiness, why is it like that?
Why is the sky this type of a mirror for you and I?
I have a few ideas swirling around my head about this. But, nothing has fully crystallized yet.
This topic would probably make a great part two of this article so I’ll be sure to keep you posted.
Of course, if you have any ideas or theories around this, please do share - either with a comment below or send me a message. Would love to know your insights.
Until next time, here’s to finding what feels good and creating our lives on purpose.
Love and Magic,
