The Story of Your Life: Deep Dive on Transits

Announcing a new five-week workshop!

Scroll down for dates and to sign up

What astrological transits define “the story of your life”?  There is a lot of confusion about how astro transits work.  We are now inundated with urgent-sounding content online like “Venus is in Pisces, time to fall in love” or “Jupiter enters Leo, get ready to roar”!  What do these events actually mean for us?  Will you have a significant event occur whenever a planet changes signs?  The simple answer is no.  The more nuanced answer is, “it depends.”

Let’s say you’re a Leo Sun and Jupiter transits into Leo.  You’re probably going to have a pretty good year!  Beyond that, I can almost promise that Jupiter transiting over your natal Sun will transform your life.  You’re likely to be consumed with a new philosophy, learn from a powerful mentor, invest your time and energy in Leo-like pursuits, and maybe have some Leo-style four-alarm dramas.  Jupiter tends to bring plain-old good luck and abundance, and so these will be raining down around you as you expand your consciousness.  Remember, Jupiter is the traditional ruler of Pisces and it is associated with redemption.  Some part of you is choosing goodness, or qualities that elevate the spirit, and whatever you integrate into your identity at this time will feed your soul for years to come.  

Jupiter transiting the natal Sun by conjunction is an event that determines “the story of your life.”  It’s what I call a “top-tier transit,” meaning you’ll be a different person after you live it.  When you look back on this time in your life, you’ll have a felt sense that you were permanently changed and can’t go back to who you were before you grew in wisdom and knowledge.  

So, will everyone experience the event of Jupiter’s transit through Leo?  Yup.  But not everyone will have a top-tier, life-transforming event like the Leo Sun folks will.  You might think, “But Jupiter in Leo opposes my Sun, (or trines it or squares it).  Surely those events are significant too!”  Those events are definitely significant.  They’re just not as powerful.  A conjunction is the most powerful astrological aspect, and represents a fusion of two planetary energies.

As an Evolutionary Astrologer, I’m biased towards top-tier transits.  A lot of stuff is going to happen to you in this lifetime, and not all of it is important.  That sounds like astrological anathema these days, when content creators infuse every astrological happening with heavy significance to compete in the attention economy.  I’m reminded of when I went on spiritual pilgrimage to Egypt, and the facilitator for our New Age tour group described every temple attunement as a “peak experience.”  Surely, my inner Virgo skeptic mused, they can’t all be peak experiences.  I’m going to vibe with some places more than others and walk away with a clear favorite.  You could think about a Jupiter transit the same way. Transiting Jupiter interacting with your Sun in any way is usually pretty cool, but only the conjunction is going to give you the peak experience.

Evolutionary Astrologers, as the name implies, look at the development of your personality and the unfolding of your natal potential over time. It’s not possible to have all the strengths and gifts of your natal chart accessible to you at birth, just as it’s not possible for a baby to emerge from the womb walking and talking.  You develop those gifts through astrological transits, when extra pressure is applied to your natal planets for examination and integration.  My teacher calls these events “existential prompts.”

I’ve put together a class just focused on these top-tier events or “peak experience” transits.  You’re going to notice a couple things about the list I’ve compiled: I’m only including outer planet transits and my target planets are restricted to the Sun, Moon, and planetary returns.  Why is that?  The answer is simple: the inner planets, Venus, Mars, and Mercury, move too quickly to build up energy at any particular point by transit.  You can absolutely feel a pleasant Venus transit, but its influence is usually restricted to a couple days at most.  Neptune and Pluto transits, on the other hand, can retread the same ground for years.  When you’re reviewing your life on your deathbed, you’re not likely to remember the fabulous purse you bought when Venus transited your Sun, but you will probably recall a Neptune conjunction to your Sun as a major biographical event.  Another difference between these events - that Neptune conjunction is a once in a lifetime initiation, whereas the Venus conjunction to your Sun will happen once or twice a year.

As far as the target planets (the transit recipients) being Sun and Moon, that’s an easy explanation too.  We’re talking top-tier, and the Sun and Moon are the two brightest lights in our world.  To reiterate some basic ideas here, outer planet transits to any sensitive point in your chart are significant.  But think of that deathbed perspective again - I’m probably going to recall transiting Saturn’s conjunction to my Sun, when I first met the father of my child, more than Saturn’s conjunction to my natal Venus, when I got a really horrible haircut.  (This is a true story.  The haircut was so horrible that I flew to Los Angeles from Oregon to have my old hairdresser fix it.  I was also dealing with having a too-skinny body from ongoing medical issues, so the transit was significant, but not “top-tier.”)

The other thing you’ll notice is that I’m including different transiting events for each of the five outer planets.  The reasons for this are pretty straightforward.  None of us will live long enough to have a Neptune or Pluto return (for context, the USA had its first Pluto return just a few years ago).  So for those weeks, I’ll be looking at major Pluto or Neptune transits to the Sun and Moon.  Those will look different for everyone, and we won’t all experience the same ones.  For example, I’ll never experience Pluto conjuncting my Virgo Sun in this lifetime, because I don’t plan on living until the 23rd century.  But I have experienced Pluto square my Sun, and that was a top-tier, life-changing event.  

Planetary returns and oppositions, by contrast, happen to everyone around the same age.  We all have a Saturn return around age 29 and again at 58.  The Uranus opposition comes for us in our early 40s.  Jupiter returns visit us at nice round intervals at ages 12, 24, 36, 48, etc.               

The basic outline of the workshop I’ve assembled is this: five two-hour meetings over Zoom, each one dedicated to one of the five outer planets and its major transits to your natal chart.  The format will be familiar to my regular students: one hour of lecture followed by an hour of discussion using examples from student charts.  

What can you gain from this deep dive into the “story of your life”?  I’m not entirely sure, since I’ve never taught a course that attempts to catch all the major transits of your life!  But I’ve been a student of astrology since I was a teenager, so my own consciousness has been forged by knowledge of these planetary cycles.  What I can promise is that you will walk away with a deeper sense of the mechanics of astrology, and hopefully a profound respect for the planets as teachers and guides.  Benevolent Jupiter puts you in touch with what’s best in you, while Pluto forces a confrontation with your shadow and your hidden reserves of power.  I see Uranus as something of a mad scientist visiting from your future, dropping wildcards and triggering evolutionary leaps.  Neptune events are spiritualizing, healing, and redemptive, often restoring your link to the collective.  And Saturn, as we all know, makes you work; yet the obstacles this planet is forever throwing at you enables you to become clear and focused in your goals.  

The value of taking a fine-toothed comb to your “astrological biography” is that it will demonstrate plainly that most of us did not incarnate solely to make money or look cool on Instagram. An outer-planet transit deep dive will give you a potent sense of who you are: your determination (Saturn), your values (Jupiter), your role in society (Uranus), your softness (Neptune), and your capacity to hold power (Pluto).  Seeing your inner qualities reflected through the lens of major biographical events can also aid in self-forgiveness, especially if you failed to make money or look cool on Instagram or whatever fill-in-the-blank “sposedas” you’re carrying around.  An outer-planet deep dive will foster you falling in love with your own chart and your own story.  “Who you are” is typically not defined by your job, but rather by the steps you took to get there, and whomever you served in that role.  The story of your life is found in the bonds you make to friends, family, and the larger community, and not in material markers of success as we are so often taught to believe.

Course Dates and Price

We will meet five Sundays in a row at 2pm Pacific time (5pm Eastern) for two-hour sessions. Each student will receive a personalized report of major planetary transits to their Sun and Moon, along with selected outer-planet returns and oppositions. It is expected that you will reflect on the Jupiter events you’ve lived through before the Jupiter class, the Saturn events before the Saturn class, etc., so that you can add to the class discussion. I foster a welcoming environment, and generally attract a pretty woke and conscientious crew. I want everyone to feel safe sharing the details of their lives, and I usually keep these workshops small and intimate, or to 12 participants or less.

March 22: Jupiter, wisdom & values

March 29: Saturn, determination & structure

April 5: Uranus, authenticity & society

April 12: Neptune, vision & healing

April 19: Pluto, shadow and power

The early bird rate for the five session class is $165. The rate will increase to $195 on March 5th. Get in on the discount and purchase below!

Powered by

Relationship Astrology Class

Relationship astrology?

Perhaps there is no more popular topic within astrology than the mysteries of human relationship. Should I date a Libra or a Scorpio? Who is my perfect match? When will I meet my soulmate? Unfortunately, I have to tell you that astrology is not much good at answering those questions about predicting good partnerships.

Just as astrology for individuals can only comment generally on the types of work, relationships, experiences, and challenges that the individual will prefer, the astrology of any two charts can only show potentials and possibilities, not guarantees. For example, it’s not much use to you to contemplate the amazing chemistry that your chart has with Timothee Chalamet’s, if you’ve never met Timothee Chalamet. You could also have amazing “chart chem” with a more accessible love interest but be in a weird place in your life - say the Uranus opposition. You’re not in a mood to compromise or settle down, so the chart chem can’t do its job. You’re not open to it.

This is a long way of saying that the astrology of human relationships is an extraordinary tool for understanding the dynamics of established relationships. It’s also not a bad tool for determining attraction or affinity (but if you need to assess those things via a natal chart, then you’re already in trouble, in my opinion).

If you compare the charts of your family members, friends, and lovers to your own, you will discover many exciting “inter-aspects” that appear karmic in their significance. My father’s Saturn is exactly conjunct my Sun! My mother’s Venus is opposing my Moon! My boyfriend’s Mars is trine my Pluto! Most charts create some inter-aspects with each other, but it’s those relationships that develop over time (as with family members, with whom we often don’t have a choice about being in relationship) where we see the most potent realization of the inter-aspects and their potential.

Does that mean our family relationships are “fated” or karmic? In my opinion, it does. Astrology employs some circular logic here: the best evidence that your relationship is karmic is that it exists and it’s taking up space in your life. In other words, all relationships are karmic. Even the bad ones (maybe especially the bad ones). This certainly doesn’t mean that you’ve been fated to suffer, but perhaps you’re drawn to those Mars-Pluto types because you need a good education in managing power, passion, and personal autonomy in this lifetime.

In other words, you can’t do it wrong, when it comes to karma. Your relationships are going to be karmic no matter what. Your soulmates will find you if you’re even half-trying. You can absolutely create better and more fulfilling relationships, and manage toxic relationships (the ones we can’t get around, as with bosses and in-laws) with more grace. But much of that has to do with your own capacity for relationship, and perhaps very little to do with the Sun signs of your near and dear ones.

Learn the basic techniques!

In my upcoming Relationship Astrology class, I will teach you the major techniques that I use for both my “Love Potential” readings and “Couple’s Alchemy” readings. The class will include:

• Techniques for assessing an individual’s relationship capacity and potential from their natal chart

• A crash course in synastry, or the inter-aspects your chart creates with another person’s chart

• An introduction to the composite chart, or the new chart that is created when your natal chart is “averaged” with another person’s

• Four live discussion classes, for answering your questions and analyzing relationship charts as a group

• Relationship chart images for you and one person of your choosing

Dates!

Class materials for Week 1 will go out January 27th, but our first meeting won’t be until Sunday, February 2nd. We will meet over Zoom for discussion from 10am-noon Pacific time, and continue for the next three Sundays. Each week you will receive a recorded lecture by me, along with some supplemental readings and learning aids. The modules will be given as follows:

Week 1: Assessing relationship capacity (discussion on February 2nd)

Week 2: Basic synastry (discussion on February 9th)

Week 3: The composite chart (discussion on February 16th)

Week 4: Bringing it all together with famous example charts

(discussion on February 23rd)

Register!

The price, you’ll find, is a steal, since I am continuing in the vein of my introductory astrology series at PRS and offering this as a low-cost community program. Register for this crash course in relationship astrology for only $125! PayPal link below, or contact me for other options.

$125.00

Powered by

The Relationship Astrology class is open to intermediate astrology students with a working knowledge of signs, houses, and planetary aspects. The house system I use is Placidus and the style of astrology I practice is Western/ Evolutionary. Ambitious beginners are welcome, but unfortunately I won’t be able to pause to explain basic astro vocab. Anyone who went through my beginner series at PRS should consider themselves prepared and feel especially welcome to join! I will make the discussion recordings available for those who can’t attend live, though I encourage you to make room in your calendar to get the most out of the class.

Is it worth it?

Relationship astrology will really make your head spin, trying to hold in mind facts like how your partner’s Sun trines your Moon, but your Sun makes an inconjunct to his Moon! Believe me when I say that synastry is the most technically challenging of all the astro work that I do. However, it’s absolutely within the reach of the intermediate astrology student, and also highly rewarding. You’ll learn things like why the Sun-Neptune relationship might drain and confuse you, while the Sun-Mars relationship stimulates you to shine. You’ll marvel at how the composite chart seems to explain the “fated” romance that nothing in the synastry can account for. You’ll understand your friends, children, and co-workers better. You might even (gasp!) realize that sometimes you are part of the problem, given the unique relationship potential and capacity we all possess.

I foster a welcoming, inclusive atmosphere, and one of the things I’m really excited to do in this class is explode astrology’s heavily gendered origins when it comes to romantic coupling. Almost all my books about the astrology of relationships use language like “in a man’s chart, Venus represents the type of woman he’s attracted to” (my very favorite example of this, from a very old book, gives Rock Hudson as an example).

We’re going to get way, way beyond that idea and dive into the fact that Venus is the image of the beloved no matter your gender or sexual orientation. And also contemplate the reality that in certain cases, Venus might not enter heavily into the chart native’s coupling profile at all.

Thanks for reading this far, and please reach out with any questions you may have. I hope to see you in class!

Fortuna Webinar

Dancing with Fortuna: Coping with the Future

A webinar about divination, prophecy, and managing stress in challenging times …

Monday, December 16th

11am-1pm Pacific Time

$17.00

Zoom webinar; recording provided to those who cannot attend live

Powered by

Hey there friends - on Monday, December 16th, I’ll be offering a community webinar on the topic of the future. I see so many people in my community absolutely losing their minds with stress and anxiety over the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. I do not want to deny the reality that a Trump presidency spells disaster for a whole bunch of us. I’m also hyper-aware that he’s not in office yet, since I’m pretty good at staying in the present.

I thought it might be useful to share my perspective with my community, since - as a professional astrologer and diviner - I’m often in the position of KNOWING the future, not just guessing at it or worrying about it. Is it scary to know the future and do I wish I could turn it off sometimes? Oh, you betcha! At the same time, though, I have a pretty large skillset around managing the idea of “the future.” And dancing that line between what we can control and what we can’t, which some folks call the meeting point between fate and free will.

Here are some of the ideas I’d like to cover:

• The ancient Roman Goddess Fortuna

• The concept of the Wheel of Fortune

• The language of oracles

• The X factor of magic

• The X factor of hope

• Making friends with the future through curiosity and wonder

• And lots and lots of anecdotes about the weirdness of knowing, partial knowing, metaphorical knowing, and intuitive knowing from a professional diviner …

The first hour will be lecture and slideshow. The second hour I’m leaving open for questions. Not questions about “What will Trump do next year?!?!!!!” but rather questions about how to manage your anxiety about the future, how seriously to take your divination, when to reject a prediction, how to work productively within scary realities etc. etc. etc. I look forward to seeing you. Price is $17, tell your friends!

Seasonal Offerings: The Pluto and Neptune Readings

Greetings friends - please find below two 2024-specific offerings, each focused on reviewing an outer planet epoch of your life. Pluto and Neptune are both changing signs within a few months of each other in 2024-2025, and we are witnessing the intensification of world events as the final degrees of each sign make themselves felt. It’s a great time to review what Great Work you built with Pluto in Capricorn as it recedes in the rearview, and what evolution in consciousness you are wrapping up as Neptune waves good-bye to Pisces … contact me or pay below to book!

“Your Pluto in Capricorn Era” Reading: $110

In this one-hour reading, we will review the years 2008-2024, or “your Pluto in Capricorn era.” I will discuss the particular houses that the planet of intense psychological transformation traversed in your natal chart. I will also highlight the planets that Pluto triggered by aspect during this period, and give you specific dates. The goal of this reading is to help you reclaim Pluto’s often grueling underworld themes as a “win” in some area of your life. It is my firm belief that Pluto events always leave us more powerful. How did you become more powerful in Capricorn’s realm of materialism, commitment, resilience, or career in the last 15 years? The underworld god Pluto tends to show us these victories on the flip side of facing our deepest fears. This reading will also give you a type of closure, a way of owning your Pluto-in-Capricorn Great Work as we wrap up this chapter and move onto the Brave New World of Pluto in Aquarius. $110

Neptune’s Net Reading: $88

In this one-hour reading combining Tarot and astrology, I will review the 13-year era of Neptune in Pisces, with specific reference to your natal chart. I’ll describe the house(s) Neptune transited in your chart, and explore Neptune’s themes of victimization, mysticism, imagination, and compassion in that area of your life. Then I will do a “Neptune's Net” Tarot spread, toward understanding what treasures Neptune has revealed to you out of the Piscean depths. The Tarot reading will also identify any Neptune struggles that remain unresolved. The intent of this reading is to work gently with Neptune’s retrograde as we prepare for the “sea change” of the Neptune in Aries epoch, which begins next March. Neptune has been especially strong in its own sign of Pisces, and we may sit more comfortably with the planet’s pitfalls (like confusion and inaction!) by understanding its higher spiritual purpose.