In this episode, Taylor Shuler offers poetic guidance to a variety of astrology books, many of which she read while living the life of a digital nomad! Join Jenn and Taylor in this in-depth, interdisciplinary discussion of astrological practice. Plus: astrological interpretations from the inside out, permaculture, and creating containers for our grief.
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Song “Wake Up” used with permission by The E-Block Band.
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Episode timestamps (conversation recorded Feb. 2023):
00:32 – A generous hello to our astrological digital nomad this week: Taylor Shuler! Yes, we also bask in the smell of book pages! And here’s a big hip-hip-hooray to woo-woo moms everywhere!
01:33 – The first astrology book Taylor ever read? The Secret Language of Birthdays!
08:33 – What books changed the way Taylor practices astrology? First up: Alice Sparkly Kat’s Postcolonial Astrology: Reading the Planets Through Capital, Power, and Labor. Mic drop on this wonderful discussion of overcoming systems of oppression!
11:30 – What second book had a big impact? Taylor loves Arielle Guttman’s Venus Star Rising: A New Cosmology for The Twenty-First Century. The Venus Star Point is described, and the concept of permaculture has had a big impact on Taylor and her worldview. (And surprise – Taylor considers herself a witch!)
18:26 – Visit our sponsor, Rod Suskin School of Astrology!
19:21 – The next book in Taylor’s list is… a cheat? LOL! It’s really four books! Taylor selected The Elements Series by Steven Forrest (The Book of Fire: The Life-Givers, The Book of Earth: Making It Real, The Book of Air: The Art of Paying Attention, The Book of Water: Healing, Regeneration and Recovery). Lots to dig into here: fertile soil, the joy of audiobooks, “the open house system,” independent study, and a liberal arts approach to astrology.
27:11 – What books for beginners would Taylor recommend? Chani Nicholas’s You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance and Demetra George’s Astrology for Yourself: How to Understand and Interpret Your Own Birth Chart.
27:43 – Beyond beginner level and ready for more? Taylor has LOTS of recommendations! The Archetypal Universe by Renn Butler; Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas; Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice (Volumes I and II) by Demetra George; The Lunar Nodes: Your Key to Excellent Chart Interpretation by Judith Hill; and Planetary Cycles: Mundane Astrology by Andre Barbault.
31:19 – A couple of books on rulerships! Check out The Rulership Book by Rex Bills, and The Book of Rulerships: Keywords from Classical Astrology by Lee Lehman. And what do pine needles and grief have in common?
33:30 – What’s coming up for Taylor? Lots of presentations and good stuff on the horizon! (Note: Some of the presentations mentioned in this episode have passed, but some of the talks would be available if you’re a member of the organization – e.g., the Organization for Professional Astrology webinar, for example.) Also, for the record, both Taylor and Jenn know when Memorial Day weekend is! (They mistakenly associated NORWAC with Labor Day Weekend, when it, in fact, always takes place MEMORIAL day weekend, May 25–29, 2023.) If you’d like to chat with them in person about this slip-up, you can grab a ticket to see Taylor at NORWAC here: https://norwac.net/. And perhaps your 9th-house pilgrimage could include a library, as well! *hint, hint*
35:34 – Thanks for listening to Within Orb! If you love the show, please help support it at no cost to you: Follow or subscribe wherever you listen, rate it five stars, or write a kind review! And if you’d like to become a CAELi member or support our work with a contribution of any amount, we’d be delighted! Thanks!
Show notes by Jen Braun, JJ Boots Productions LLC.
Transcript, Episode 3: Within Orb
Jenn Zahrt 00:00
Hey Taylor, welcome to the third episode of Within Orb. I’m so glad that you’re here and welcome.
Taylor Shuler 00:06
Thank you, Jen. I’m thrilled to be here. And I’m thrilled to be your third or so guest. I’m like, This is awesome. So excited for your new podcast.
Jenn Zahrt 00:14
You said you were a digital nomad, as we were prepping for today. Where are you right now?
Taylor Shuler 00:19
Yeah, so I’m in Tucson, Arizona at the moment in my Landing, we call it which they’ve got an app and stuff. And I’ve got links on my profile and whatnot. If folks are interested in landings, they’ve got places all over the country. So I can go wherever I want, pretty much whenever I want, which is awesome. It’s like the gig economy for living.
Jenn Zahrt 00:37
And that’s afforded to you because you’re a pro astrologer.
Taylor Shuler 00:40
And because I have a really supportive day job right now, as a consultant. And I like to be transparent about that. Because I don’t want people to think you can just go from zero to 100, or zero to 1000. And just like jump into a new career. For most people, that’s not something that can happen.
Jenn Zahrt 01:00
I really appreciate that transparency. And also, then the next question would be as a digital nomad, how do you take books with you?
Taylor Shuler 01:07
Yeah, so I feel like I have more books than a nomad should have. But I have way fewer than a good astrologer should have. But and also, I do feel good because it means that you have to really pick the books that mean the most to you that you’re going to use. So I have a tiny house back in upstate New York, that sort of like my home ground and all of my books are boxed up there. So I’ve got like 20, boxes that I need to ship. So I actually use a lot of different things. So I use like the Kindle app. I have Scribd. I have a number of digital resources that really support me and help me to keep my books and so a lot of my stuff is actually digital.
Jenn Zahrt 01:50
That’s amazing, too. Yeah, moving into CAELi, we’ve had 350 boxes of books to unpack and counting. And there’s some that I mean, probably not even that numbers not yet Correct. So, you know, and it was nice to think like here at this library. There’s a permanent home because like you for a long time during this sort of 2013 to 2020 I was also a digital nomad. And so I’m like living vicariously through your ability to do that right now.
Taylor Shuler 02:15
Yeah, and I mean, you know, don’t get me wrong. I’m sort of like I’m wanting to put some roots down. And I really love Tucson. But I’m super curious like if you can share with folks like what CAELi has to offer. Because like I said, I have like Kindle and I have PDFs. And I have Scribd and I have audible. And also because I am neurodivergent I find it really helpful to have like an audio version and a PDF version. And like a tangible material version, like what can we get?
Jenn Zahrt 02:43
So the digital offerings are going to be on a rollout basis based off of member requests. So when you say okay, I really need a chapter from this book, and we check the copyright always. So every request has to go through a copyright check, then we would create a digital PDF for you to access through the member portal. And if you need a bunch of materials, you basically just read up on points and requests and you can just get what you need to get for your research. But the collection is non circulating meaning if you do take the time in your nomadic life to come to Olympia, every single thing is here. It’s not being checked out by someone and it won’t be coming back for three weeks. And you only have these three weeks. So when I was in German Studies at UC Berkeley, getting my PhD, we had this seminar Bibliotech that was basically non circulating so that at any hour of the day, we all had 24 hour access to the building, we could go there and look up what we might need to study. And it was really a nice resource because you knew that no one would take any books out of that library. So I thought, you know, there’s not many places in the world that have this kind of astrological collection. Oftentimes, it’s mixed with metaphysical books. And so the idea that you could kind of create a ninth house pilgrimage to here and see everything together.
Taylor Shuler 03:55
I just got chills because I was thinking that same thing. I was like, I want to do a retreat. just go on pilgrimage. And like yeah, bask in the smell of the old pages.
Jenn Zahrt 04:06
Yeah. And also just see the different book covers. I mean, we have you know, everybody’s got a copy of Liz Greene, but she was reprinted so many different times the covers have changed through the years. So you can see certain kinds of trends. That’s gonna be our tiktok reels is all the covers and things like that as we go, but enough about me and CAELi, I would love to learn first and foremost, what was the entry point for you have astrology in your life via books? What was the first book that really kind of opened your eyes to the idea that the stars create meaning?
Taylor Shuler 04:37
So I’ll give a little bit of preference. So my mom was super woo woo growing up in New York City. She grew up in Long Island, you know, born in the 50s. So in the 60s 70s, she’s going into New York City all the time. There’s this woman at, I want to say it was like, I forget what hotel it was. There’s a hotel in Central Park, and she gave readings. she was a clair audient, clair-sentient all the “clairs” and she said Oh my mom like she had to like keep her feet on the ground because people were gonna see her floating away. Now I didn’t really know this growing up like, I had like somewhat of a sense because I read the horoscope column like in the paper like New York Times or Cosmo magazine, whatever. But going to like I think it was I went to Costco one day with my parents. And there was this book, The secret language of birthdays. And I just saw, like, the artwork on the cover, and I begged my mom and I was like, please. And that was like the first entry point because I was like, this is like, It’s not my birthday. And this is apparently who I’m who I am or who I’m supposed to be. But I also like didn’t get it. I didn’t get it at all.
Jenn Zahrt 05:35
When you read the description for yourself, did it land? were you like, Oh, this is me?
Taylor Shuler 05:40
No, no, It was just because I was so young. I was like, I don’t see it. I don’t get it. And then I was still into astrology. And honestly, when I read sun sign columns as a young person, I could not pick up on the patterns. I don’t, not at all. And then my friends told me I was gullible. So I walked away from astrology. I went to Catholic school. And then around the time of my Saturn Return, I worked with a friend of mine named Michael and he was like, Do you know this website? It’s sln.me. And I was like, No, and I look it up. Sure enough, the secret language of birthdays was turned into a website. And I think it was him or someone else because I started and then it was just the rabbit hole, and found Chani and then found Anne Ortelee, found Chris Brennan found astrology hub.
Jenn Zahrt
And you were in.
Taylor Shuler
I was in and Yeah, a couple of good eclipses just sort of like got me roped back in and it was very quick and then the pandemic happened, and I ended up learning astrology actually by listening. So a friend of mine, amazing astrologer Lisa Warman, she comments a lot. she’s like, Taylor, I see you and if you spend enough time with me see like my eyes go kind of all over the place. If someone tells me their birthday I go, oh, you’ve got Saturn in Virgo, and those are here. And it’s not I don’t compare myself to Nick Campion at all. People call him like the…
Jenn Zahrt
Nick Dagan Best.
Taylor Shuler
Yeah. Oh, sorry. Thank you, Nick Dagan Best… the walking Ephemeris. I’m not like that. But once I start remembering things, as you’re calculating in my head, because I listened to podcasts, I listened to YouTube videos. And I had to paint a picture in my head of what a chart looked like. And I had to start just sort of like remember things
Jenn Zahrt 07:23
Like imagining it, because you were hearing it you weren’t actually like seeing videos or reading books about it.
Taylor Shuler 07:28
I mean, I did. I’d like go back to it later. But like, if I’m in the shower, or driving or setting or like doing my dishes, it was like too small. And I was just like, well, let me just imagine it.
Jenn Zahrt 07:36
I think it’s awesome that you’re actually like, internalize embodied that pattern system from the ephemeris inside you so that when you are like doing the interpretations, it’s just coming from the inside out.
Taylor Shuler 07:47
Yeah. And then just I mean, it’s just divination, how it happens is you get the same patterns repeating over and over, because of what’s going on in your own life for whatever, for whatever reason.
Jenn Zahrt 07:57
very cool. So it sounds like there’s a lot of oral transmission that’s important for you. But if you had to pick books that changed the way that you practice your astrology, which books do you think you would pick?
Taylor Shuler 08:08
So postcolonial astrology which is always a top for me. Alice Sparkly Kat. This was like a game changer for me. Because, first of all, like beautifully written, the research, the approach just takes you into a new place. And so it’s post colonial, it gives a treatment of capitalism, it gives a treatment of patriarchy also gives a treatment of like ancient times, like putting it in context. I grew up going to, I would call them progressive Catholic schools in New York City, where we actually learned about the Bible, like as a historical and historical document, like, what were the shepherds, like, what was their life like? And Alice Sparkly Kat does that as well, where it’s like, okay, we’re talking about Saturn. What was Saturn? Like? What was life like for people at that time? If we’re talking about the sun, what does the sun do in capitalism, it shines a light and what happened when light came in people couldn’t be in secret anymore, and what happened when privacy was violated? So reframing our current understanding of the past, by putting things in their proper context, and then pulling them forward again, to say, Okay, now let’s reset, and look at it in a new light is just, it’s sort of like Mic drop.
Jenn Zahrt 09:24
Yeah. And I love the way that in this specific text, there’s an ownership of how difficult it can be to read if you’ve never thought critically about these systems of oppression. You know, because the language itself really does like on the sentence level, worm its way inside your mind to break apart these kind of like structures that have been assumed. There’s this assumption that this is what the sun means. And it’s like, is it?
Taylor Shuler 09:48
Totally. the assumption. just breaking it up.
Jenn Zahrt 09:50
Have you ever taken what’s presented in postcolonial astrology into the consultation context like has it helped you in the way that you work with people one on one?
Taylor Shuler 10:01
I would say from time to time, if I get clients where it’s relevant for them, I would say certainly. early in my practice, which I’m still early in my practice, let’s be honest, like I founded my business in 2020. So been doing this about three years on a professional level, but certainly 2020 2021 because of the context of what was going on in the world, Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, etc, which is still going on today. But it was more heightened, then I would say it was more relevant. I’m finding as I get more out into the quote, unquote, mainstream the clients that are coming in aren’t in that sphere. I do bring it into my teaching. So I just did a class for Nadiya Shah on synchronicity University on Saturn in Pisces. And so I did use that as one of my sources and pass that on to the students in that vehicle.
Jenn Zahrt 10:51
Yeah, I feel like that book is going to be changing a lot of our practice going forward as more people read it and really work with what is put forward there. Okay. So that’s one book, you have a couple more, like I said in the past, like, what would you take to a desert island, but I’m thinking also about just impact, like the ones that kind of stick with you that you would want to take with you as you go around the country.
Taylor Shuler 11:10
Yeah, so the second one is going to be the Venus star point by Arielle Guttman. She’s got two books. Well, she’s got more than two books, The Venus star rising, which gives more of an historical context. But the Venus star point book, specifically, I think, is like a more cut down almost cookbook version, where it lists the dates of the Venus star points and then gives, you know, this is what happened during the last Venus Starpoint phase and what was going on in the zeitgeist. And so you internalize that, as you know, on an individual level. And I think it gives such a beautiful color to a consultation, because there’s so much fear around astrology, there’s fear for clients who are new to astrology. And when I’m in a session with someone, I want to do a couple things, I want to give them something that they may not have gotten elsewhere. I want to empower them, I want to help them know that astrology is a tool for them to thrive in their life. And by them thriving, they are breaking the systems of oppression and whatnot, and making the world a better place.
Jenn Zahrt 12:13
I just recently listened to your podcast episode with Sam Reynolds, which everybody should go and listen to right now. Just pause right now and go listen to that. The way that you talk about wealth and plenty and like when you break these systems, and you kind of like tune into, like resourcing things properly. And the feeling of plenty that comes from that, that Sam was saying like that’s like actually maybe like the heart of what the experience of wealth is, is that resourcing and wanting to know if you wanted to say more about that?
Taylor Shuler 12:41
I mean, there’s a lot about especially with Saturn going into Pisces and Neptune in Pisces about, you know, Thoughts become things or whatever you want to say your vibration becomes what you attract. I am more and more becoming a believer of that. And I hear that, you know, yeah, some people have charts where that’s not true. Some people have life experiences where that’s not true. I think that there is an immense amount of abundance all around us. But unfortunately, we live in capitalist, patriarchal systems that are based on scarcity. And therefore it’s just counter to the current system. And astrology is a tool, one of many divinatory tools that was taken, stolen, beaten out of us, literally, so that we would not reclaim our own power. And that’s one of the reasons why I love astrology, I love to reclaim it. I feel so empowered to be in this life in this body in this day and age, because there is no other time historically, when I could have been me and been very public about witchcraft. Oh, like, it’s amazing.
Jenn Zahrt 13:54
When you’re a witch, too?
Taylor Shuler
So yeah, I mean, who’s not like, you know?
Jenn Zahrt 13:54
it’s not the first occult thing I would own because I’m definitely identifying as astrologer. So I didn’t know that about you.
Taylor Shuler 14:00
Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t be like a witch teacher at this point or anything. But yeah, I feel like if you’re doing anything divinatory and like you’re using the energies, I would count that as witchcraft.
Jenn Zahrt 14:10
What’s the permaculture angle, which is something that you’re very passionate about.
Taylor Shuler 14:14
Yeah. So permaculture, it’s all about nature. And I think that a manipulation or an understanding of nature is essentially my definition of witchcraft. Because I think that’s what witches did. They looked around and they were like, “Oh, the wind is blowing. The sun is like this. There’s going to be a flood. Let’s prepare, let’s do some preparations, like make it different.” And that’s essentially what Permaculture is, it’s essentially what astrology is. And so I like to blend the two and say, let’s use this thinking framework, this design framework that is permaculture. It has three ethics, people care, Fair Share Earth care, in order to use these 12 principles like observe and interact, and I’m forgetting all of the rest of them at the moment.
Jenn Zahrt 14:56
It’s okay. It’s like the Seven Dwarfs right? You can remember them all, but there’s 12 and, Was that intentional by the people who developed the systems of permaculture?
Taylor Shuler 15:04
it’s interesting, I haven’t read anything that I can recall at this moment where they talked about the number three and the number 12. But it just speaks to the fact that 12 is such an archetypal like human number that we hold on to so deeply. Although 13 It really should be 13
Jenn Zahrt 15:25
I was gonna say, and then going back to the Venus star point, let’s break that down a little bit. For people who don’t know what it is, like I love rushing headlong into a super complex conversation. But I also love what Arielle is talking about. So I want to sort of unpack it, unpack it for us.
Taylor Shuler 15:40
So the Venus star point is when Venus and the Sun are conjunct in the sky, and we get a new Venus star point every nine and a half months or so. And it’s either going to be retrograde or direct. And it’s going to be an evening star or a morning star. And it happens in one of five different signs at any given time, which creates the shape of a star. For example, we had a Venus star point in Libra last time, that was in October 22. I believe 2022. And now we’re going to have a Venus Starpoint in Leo. And I think before the Libra one, it was in Capricorn if I’m not mistaken. And we actually are in this really interesting period where we’re shifting the Venus Starpoint think for every sign last about 100 years. We get the star point every four years in any given sign. Is that right?
Jenn Zahrt 16:33
It does sort of recess through the sign. I was going to actually ask you about what you thought about the October 2022 Venus Starpoint being in Libra for the first time in a long time, because of the way that it slipped back.
Taylor Shuler 16:46
Yeah, I think it’s amazing. You know, Arielle Guttman talks about how the Venus Starpoint moving from Scorpio into Libra. One of the things that happened was fuel, right? So we had petroleum that fueled cars. And now Libra is an Air sign. And so we’re moving more into like electric energy, the Tesla’s sort of thing. And so we’re seeing that I actually have an episode of my podcast that I talked about Venus with Louise Edington who is certified in the Venus star point. I’m not certified yet. But yeah, I think one of the things Venus is about it’s like relationships. It’s how we love, it’s what we love. It’s who we love. It’s why we love and the color of the Venus Starpoint for someone, you know, like when I can just talk to Gemini, Venus Starpoint and say you’re supposed to bring more laughter to the world. It’s just an lovely way to end a consultation.
Jenn Zahrt 17:37
Do they melt a little when you say that, like, “oh, you see me like I have permission to do that. Like, that’s actually my mandate”?
Taylor Shuler 17:43
Yeah, I think giving permission validation and inspiring and encouraging people is like one of the most beautiful things, such an honor and a privilege to be in consultation with people. Yeah.
Jenn Zahrt 17:53
Cool. Okay, so we’ve got postcolonial astrology, Venus Starpoint, from Arielle Guttman, Alice Sparkly Kat’s postcolonial astrology. So what would be like the next books that really changed your view of astrology and practice?
Taylor Shuler 18:06
Yeah, so I’m cheating a little bit. I can’t pick just one. But it is the elements series by Steven Forrest. So the book of air, the book of water, the book of fire, the book of Earth, and I have them all on Audible, because the person who reads them is the cadence of his voice sounds a lot like Steven. which is really cool. It’s clearly not Stevens voice. But this person does such a great spot on impression that you can hear Stevens voice come through so beautifully. And there’s certain chapters in it, like, he talks about the clan. So it’s like the Aquarius clan, or the Capricorn clan. And so he’ll talk about like Saturn. And we’ll talk about Capricorn and we’ll talk about the 10th house. And every one of those chapters runs for a little bit over an hour. And then we’ll also go into like every planet and every sign in these books as well. And for me, what I love about it is not only being able to listen to it, because I’m neurodivergent and I’m on the go constantly and I’m multitasking. But also it feels for me like it’s not a conversation quite, but it always jogs my mind. It gets my gears turning, where I might not agree with everything he has to say. But he’s such a great storyteller that I end up having a ton of ideas of my own after listening to this, like fertile soil. This just beautiful foundation and exploration. That’s not fair to say. I mean, it’s a monumental work. You know what I mean?
Jenn Zahrt 19:35
Sure, yeah. I have the first one here. So we don’t actually have yet the other three in the library. We’re gonna make a wish list sometime and be like, hey, if we need to bolster our collection. but I believe these are published very recently. I mean, 2019 came in the first one.
Taylor Shuler 19:51
Yeah. And I’ve got the air and the water here.
Jenn Zahrt 19:53
it’s like, oh, we have an elemental void in Earth. Look at that.
Taylor Shuler 19:57
I know I have Earth on my Kindle.
Jenn Zahrt 19:58
There we go. So this is like a culmination of his entire career. Right? Like, I mean, the ability to distill stories like that. I mean, this is not an immense book. It’s just potent.
Taylor Shuler 20:11
I love it. Anytime I’m doing a horoscope for the future, and I’m like, I get kind of stuck. I just throw it on and listen for an hour while I like. I’m in the shower getting ready. And then I’m, like, ready to go? Get ideas now?
Jenn Zahrt 20:26
Yeah, right. And it’s cool that it unlocks that for you, because I feel like there’s a lot of people similar to me who practice more traditional methods. And it’s like, what if we like pivot for a second, what we know to be our normal standard of practice with traditional things, and then allow ourselves to be the recipients of these stories and see what else can come out from that vantage point?
Taylor Shuler 20:46
Yeah. And so what you bring up is, you know, I didn’t quite say what kind of astrologer I am. But I like to say that I take a liberal arts approach to astrology because I really learned first through Chris Brennan, I didn’t – I’m sorry, Chris – take your class I’d love to, but I just couldn’t at the time, and have the book and listen to the podcast and watch hundreds of his episodes. So really learned there and also through Chani, and so learned a lot of Hellenistic and Demetra as well. And then got into evolutionary actually read shamanic astrology after I got back into astrology. And so just blending all of these different things. I even switch between house systems, which I feel like you should switch systems.
Jenn Zahrt 21:29
I call that the open house system.
Taylor Shuler 21:31
you know, and what you said, and I forget if it was NORWAC, or somewhere else you might remember or maybe it was just like on a podcast, you said that the difference between whole sign and the other quadrant systems is the difference between how I see myself and how other people see me. And the space between the two is known as pain. And that just like, stuck with me.
Jenn Zahrt 21:54
Have you seen it help your clients?
Taylor Shuler 21:57
1,000%. And so I do what Gemini Brett does, basically, I say like, you know, this is the fifth sign, but it’s the third house. And framing it for people in that way. When they’re like, No, you know, Mars is retrograde in Gemini in my fourth house, I haven’t had blah, blah, blah. Okay, well, what if it’s really like, let’s look at it like this? And they go, yeah!
Jenn Zahrt 22:18
yeah, it can really liberate people’s perspectives, because I feel like that’s an astrological way of what I think life coaches do, because they’re like, look at the possibilities, except we have a lot of tangible words to attach to that, because of how we can see the lay of the land with astrology. The permaculture, as you say, of their chart, like, what about this water feature? And think about this?
Taylor Shuler 22:37
yeah, and just to say to someone, you know, I can see that other people probably think x about you. And so when you’re trying to do Y this is what’s going on, they feel so seen. So it’s just a special space to be in.
Jenn Zahrt 22:51
That’s very cool. I’m glad that you blend all of that together. And that you say, I’ve never heard anyone say this before, but I think I might even adopt it with this idea of like, a liberal arts approach to astrology, which, you know, is oftentimes self taught or not thought about in relationship to academia. Like, I love that.
Taylor Shuler 23:07
Yeah, you know, that’s another interesting thing that I feel newer, younger astrologers struggle with sometimes, too, is like, do they say I’m self taught? And I’m like, someone told me they were like, oh, call it independent study. And I was like, yeah, that’s rad. I have done independent study.
Jenn Zahrt 23:21
Yeah, I was thinking of, you know, as CAELi builds out of bringing kind of like interdisciplinary classes to the table. And it’s more for the love of it, no certifications, or anything like that. But just like, we’re planning right now, with some people who are living in Olympia. We have an archivist named Alex. And they’re planning to make an ecology and astrology Summit, where we’re going to talk about like bio regional animism and astrology of this area, and all of the ways in which astrology and Cascadia have interfaced. And it’s like, I don’t see anyone really doing that, you know, let’s just get to the 404 level right away. If you’re ready for that, here you come, you know, and there’s no there’s a lot of places now, especially with podcasts and zoom and everything that anyone can learn the basics, and it’s like when you’re ready for the next thing, then let’s play you know.
Taylor Shuler 24:04
yeah. 100% That sounds awesome. I’m going to need to just eat all that up.
Jenn Zahrt 24:10
Yeah. Well, I’m like hungry for your permaculture perspective, because I just love what I heard that in the first time. I was like, Oh my god. So ready for this? Also, like Uranus conjunct the North Node in Taurus. Like we’re ready for a different kind of embodiment of this knowledge.
Taylor Shuler 24:24
Yes, absolutely. Uranus in Taurus makes a lot of sense for the permaculture and bringing astrology into permaculture, I’ve got Uranus out of bounds on my midheaven. So that I think that also kind of makes sense of how that connects to today. But yeah, I’m doing a talk at NORWAC tentatively titled like Ikigai: finding your purpose, your passion, your profession. And then there’s a fourth thing, and at the same time I bring permaculture into everything because I feel like if we can flow naturally, then you can really do whatever you want to do and figure out what is meant for you and what’s supportive for you.
Jenn Zahrt 24:58
Yeah, and just for those who don’t know What NORWAC is, it’s the Northwest astrological conference that was born in Cascadia by the Nalbandian family Maggie Nalbandian and has been going nonstop since it was founded about 30 to 33 years ago. It’s been around for quite some time uninterrupted. And a lot of CAELi’s lineage comes from the Nalbandian family as well. So, you are coming to an astrology conference in May. It’s always in Labor Day weekend. So I hope everyone comes to see your talk. [Note: Oops – It’s Memorial Day weekend!]
Taylor Shuler 25:27
Yeah. And I think they’re also doing it for the first time hybrid. So you can do online or in person, but we’d love to see you in person.
Jenn Zahrt 25:34
Yeah. And I like to kind of wrap up the conversation. We’ve spoken about a lot of books, but I’m wondering and you’ve also said podcasts, which isn’t quite books like that. I’m gonna have to think about that in the context of CAELi like, how do we like capture that here, but I mean, they’re distributed everywhere. But if you were going to advise a student about getting them there into astrology as an angle towards being a professional, not necessarily just learning about it just for its own sake, but just kind of giving an advice of like, what books do you think they should read to uplevel their experience with astrology?
Taylor Shuler 26:07
Okay, so if you’re like, not past the level of a cookbook, you’re like, I’m not even sure what a Sun Moon or rising or an Ascendant is like, you’re born for this by Chani Nicholas, like Demetra George astrology for yourself. Those are great. If you’re at that next level, and you’re like, I got it. I’m trying to learn. You know, there’s a lot. some that I really like okay, the archetypal universe buy Renn Butler because it combines two or three planets together. And so you can start to like get your mind going about what does it mean when I combine planets like if I’m combining them in a square or I’m combining them in a Trine or sextile and opposition, a conjunction? Cosmos and psyche by Richard Tarnas is a classic to get you thinking on a mundane level about how the planets work in our society. Ancient astrology, Volume One and Two by Demetra George, I love eclipses and you by Judith Hill, Andre Barbault planetary cycles, I think that’s what it’s called.
Jenn Zahrt 27:09
Andre Barbault is a mundane astrologer. So you’re sending people off into the world of mundane?
Taylor Shuler 27:14
Yeah, because I think that we should really take astrology and do something with it. Not just like, it’s great to do personality with it. It’s great to do timing in my life. What am I gonna find love? How much money will I make? How can I make money? How can I be a better person? You know, what’s wrong with my spouse? Why are they so nice to me? Like, how do I care for my children? Like, that’s all lovely and nice. But the whole point of why it was like, stolen from us and hidden and why it’s, we’re reclaiming it right now is because the power of that has to change the world. And, yeah, Andre Barbault when he talks about all of the planetary outer planets, synodic cycles. But also like, you know, we’ve got Saturn Neptune coming up, and how that he says, It’s the start of like, you know, beautiful time. And that’s pretty cool to think about, because most people don’t say that. Most people are kind of terrified when they look at the future astrology. And I like to lean more into a utopian angle and say, How can we make the world a better place with astrology?
Jenn Zahrt 28:17
Yeah, and the Venus Starpoint work from Arielle also taps into that mundane approach. I was looking at page 212 of The Venus star rising book that we have here. And she was saying that because we have the Venus Starpoint changing into signs that Venus loves, Taurus, Pisces Libra, basically by 2076 We’re gonna be living in this really sweet time I won’t be alive. I’ll be like 100 something. But you know, it’s like as we approach like, it just kicked off and we’re beginning to see Venus take over in terms of these you know, away from Mars, like get away from Aries get away from Scorpio we’re going into this Taurus Libra.
Taylor Shuler 28:53
I love that. Although I have to say like Venus in pisces, I’m becoming more skeptical of it as like a beautiful Venus thing. Pisces in Libra or in antiscia. And so I think there actually is some comparison there with boundary-lessness or indecision.
Jenn Zahrt 29:11
They both have scales.
Taylor Shuler
Yeah.
Jenn Zahrt
I think people misunderstand also, sometimes the problems of exultation, like it’s seen as this great thing for a talisman. But sometimes having it as a natal placement can be a detriment.
Taylor Shuler 29:31
Exactly. Because you need to make a choice. If we’re going to actually make the world a better place. You need to make a choice to make the world a better place. You know, Venus, and Pisces is not always going to make a decision, because it’s just happy with things as they are.
Jenn Zahrt 29:45
Yeah, no, it’s connecting to everything even things that might not be good.
Taylor Shuler 29:51
Yeah. So But anyway, I take and I appreciate and I like your point that we’re moving into a more beautiful era and I’ll take it.
Jenn Zahrt 29:58
Yeah. And also rulerships. so you got Rex and you got Lee?
Taylor Shuler
Yeah.
Jenn Zahrt
Okay, so the rulership book by Rex bills and then this is the book of rulerships by Lee Lehman. I love Lee’s book on that because well, I’m talking about your books, but the way in which they are sources to the older texts.
Taylor Shuler 30:19
Yeah. And I love comparing them. So I was talking about like, I had a little chat with Nadiya Shah about Saturn in Pisces. And I had just gotten an email from adam elenbaas, about his wife and listened to her podcast about pine needles and grief. And then I was like, comparing them and well, I mean, you know, Saturn is trees, and Saturn is pine needles, and I forget exactly what I found. And I wrote a really lovely paragraph on it and responded to an intelligent question on the YouTube video. And YouTube deleted it. So I don’t remember what I said, but it’s super fun to look and just compare what they say because sometimes they oppose one another.
Jenn Zahrt 30:59
And sometimes, because in my understanding with evergreen trees, that’s very Leonine, even though it’s a tree. Yeah, because the heart you know, the heart always beats the sun always shines. So, and then you think of the citrus, the vitamin C in a pine needle. So I love the grief component because there’s that Saturn/sun, you know, dynamic.
Taylor Shuler 31:17
Yeah. And because pine needles open up the lungs in traditional Chinese medicine. And that’s why we have them at Christmas time because Christmas time, you know, grief and joy go hand in hand. And because so many people are sad and depressed around Christmas time, and many people pass away, unfortunately, especially during the holidays. And so we have the grief there. And then there was this whole thing on Instagram with the Today Show going to Al Roker’s house to like, sing him Christmas carols and they cried. So they’re singing Christmas carols and crying because they miss him. It was joy and grief going hand in hand. And what do we have in the background of it a pine tree to help support the joy bringing the grief out of our lungs so that we can move on. And with Saturn going into Pisces, I think that that’s important for us to do is create containers for our grief, so that we can come together.
Jenn Zahrt 32:08
Amazing. So what’s up on the horizon for you before we say goodbye? Like what do you got going on?
Taylor Shuler 32:14
Oh my gosh, so much. Well, first of all, my books are open. So if you’re interested in a consultation with me, I do consultations. I’ve also partnered with the astrology hub on their new astrologer Connect platform. And I know you’ve worked with astrology hub. I’m doing a talk with the organization for professional astrology on February 19, about the history of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity incorporated and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated and the divine nine with Omari Martin. I’m also doing a talk for OPA on April 22. They’re doing mini online conference and that will be about permaculture and astrology, which I’m super excited about. I am going to be speaking on March 10 At the San Diego astrology society. That’s Friday at 7:30pm Pacific time. I think it’s in person only. So if you’re in San Diego, it’ll be my first time there. I’ll be excited to meet you in person. And I’m speaking at NORWAC on Labor Day weekend, my first NORWAC talk, which I’m just super thrilled about.
Jenn Zahrt 33:15
oh, man, you have so many things going on. But I’m so excited to hear that you’re going to be breaking into the NORWAC speaking circuit, because it’s such a family. It’s like, you know, you go to that conference, and it’s cozy and very like, welcome to the family.
Taylor Shuler 33:29
And it’s just a dream come true for me to be like talking with you and talking with other astrologers when I was just like a viewer and I was learning these things that I’m like, I get to talk to people now. It’s so exciting. And I get to teach and I get to do these things.
Jenn Zahrt 33:43
Yeah, I mean, I think your liberal arts approach and just all that you bring to the table has just added so much to the community conversation. And so I’m just really happy that you’re here doing what you do.
Taylor Shuler 33:52
Thank you so much. Yeah, and I’ve got some other things coming up. So if folks want to sign up for my newsletter at Taylorshuler.com Shuler’s s-H-u-l-e-r. I’d love to have you.
Jenn Zahrt 34:02
Awesome. Yeah. Thanks for taking time to talk about books with me.
Taylor Shuler 34:06
Thank you so much, Jenn. It was such a privilege. So grateful.
Jenn Zahrt 34:09
See you soon.
Taylor Shuler
All right.
Jenn Zahrt
Bye.
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