Your Heart-Check Horoscopes — Venus Squares Saturn + Live Q&A

Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/].

Here we go.

Okay. Welcome in, everyone.

We'll be getting started in just a moment. I apologize. I'm running late. We had, there's an issue that we were dealing with this morning with our furnace. So I had to, I had to get on the phone with

a repair

a repair man, and was dealing with that for a little bit,

trying to get an appointment set up so that we can get the heat back in our house, because there's no heat. It's so cold. So I was like, Okay, give me just a second to get myself situated here.

So I apologize that we're about we're about 15 minutes late right now. So if you've been sitting here waiting patiently, I really do appreciate it, and sorry again for my tardiness to start. I'm really excited to today to take a look at Venus and Saturn, who are getting together in a square this weekend. It's a very intense aspect, one that I think tends to provoke a lot of anxiety in us as astrology students, lovers of the stars. We,

you know, we,

we cringe a little bit whenever Saturn's involved, especially Venus and Saturn people, you know, I get asked a million times, you know, does this mean my relationship is going to end or go through something turbulent or difficult and and so we're going to talk about what Venus Saturn means. And

you know what there is to know about Saturn that can be legitimately difficult when paired with Venus, but also some deeper archetypal understanding of the moment, the season, the pattern that they present together, and how to find ourselves within it in wisdom and when you can locate yourself in an astrological pattern with wisdom, consciousness, presence, it never becomes about what's happening to me, and instead it tends to be about, how do I participate in the unfolding of this dynamic? And that's a much more for many of us. It's a better place to be. So I hope that we'll be able to give you some of that orientation today for the Venus Saturn dynamic, which is coming through over the weekend.

In

other news, I will be doing some Q and A at the end, after some horoscopes. So we'll take Venus and Saturn together talk about them. We'll move into horoscopes for all 12 signs, and then we'll open up for some Q and A

some other things that I'll do along the way will be, of course, to plug the Kickstarter. We also have a solstice event in Minneapolis this weekend. So if you're in the area, I'll tell you about how you can join us. It's free,

and then I will

make sure that you also know about all of the upcoming live streams, because I've got a bunch of live streams planned between now and the end of the year. It's going to be really fun. I'll tell you where you can find the schedule for those, in case you want to join. But they'll all be available as replays on the channel, of course, like everything else Anyway, now that we've got about 100 people here live, tell me where you're coming in from in the

in the comment section, let's hear from you guys, where, where are you coming from today? Where, where in the world are you located? As you're joining us for the live stream today. Love to hear from you. Let's see, all right, we've got Toronto.

You so morning from Nashville. Hey, Lauren,

let's see

Ontario. Washington, Montreal,

yeah, all right. Washington, DC, here we go. Heat heat from Houston. Thanks. We need it. Yeah, in case you're joining me, I was a little bit late getting started this morning because our furnace isn't working. So it's, it's like I was on the phone trying to get someone out here today.

My daughters both have influenza downstairs, and there's no heat in the house. So I was like, my wife and I were trying to figure out, like, Okay, we got to get someone out here. Let's bundle the kids up, because it's frigid in our house all of a sudden.

So yeah, we're, we're getting hit hard by Venus, Saturn. As soon as Venus came into the started to apply into the square one of Venus's natural significations, in fact.

His daughters.

And so, you know, my, one of my daughters is a Sagittarius who has Saturn squaring her son right now, and she got influenza, so she's, you know, just, and Ashley's like, dosing her up with herbs and trying to help let the fever, you know, cook itself off. It's, it's nasty stuff though, you know. And I've been just, like, trying to get through, like, okay, like, let me just get I've got 14 days of the Kickstarter left. Like, I can't get sick right now. So I'm just trying to, like, hold on and get through. And then our heat went off this morning. I was like, All right, it's very, very all the little squares the Saturn, you know, they, they stack up. And this is what some of the things that they show up that, you know, just mundane pains in the ass.

But isn't it nice to have astrology? Missoula,

Colombia, South America.

That's cool. UK,

Manila,

Toronto, Arizona, Denver.

Bell buckle. Oh, there you are again. Bell buckle, I can't forget that one.

South

cakalaka. What is that? I'm sorry. I don't mean to laugh at the name of your town, but that's funny. Balmy Utah, Spokane, Ohio is Spokane. Spokane. I think it's Spokane San Anselm, South Texas,

Columbia, Cleveland. Please donate to the Kickstarter. Everyone. Yeah, you're gonna hear me bang the drum shortly. You

don't get your treat until you hear the until you hear the Kickstarter pitch, Seattle, dune Valley, India. Ooh, that sounds like a, that sounds sounds like a sci fi place. I want to go to dune Valley. I love it. Malta Bracknell, Bucharest, you're back. I remember you.

San Miguel, del, Mexico. That sounds awesome.

San Antonio, Brooklyn, Port Richey, Florida, Denver, Paris, Ontario,

Alabama, Malibu. I love it. This is so cool.

The Netherlands.

That's south. That's SC nickname, oh, I didn't know that.

And now I do

broad stairs UK, I feel like, I feel like, that sounds like the name of a city in the UK. Broad stairs,

Breckenridge, okay, Belgium, see how shallow I am. Belgium, Breckenridge, Dubuque. All right,

well, shall we bring the pain inside and start talking about Venus and Saturn? Let's fuck you all up.

I'm just playing.

Okay,

so

let's talk about Venus and Saturn today, and we'll do some horoscopes for all of you lovely people, and then we will

have some time for Q and A.

So

let's

we got to pump the Kickstarter. You guys know it. I know it. This is what we've got to do.

All right, let me just get out my handy dandy calculator we need between now and New Year's Eve, which is just 13 days from right now, we still need I'm putting the the link to the Kickstarter is in the live stream,

let's see 2043

backers, minus 759

we still need 1284

backers in 13 days. So let's divide that number by 13.

We need 98 backers a day.

We need 98 backers a day between now and the end of the Kickstarter. Typically, we have, of course, a big rush of people that come in the last few days. So I'm not anticipating we're going to perfectly hit our average between now and then a lot of people show up at the last minute.

I get cleansed from the inside out,

the anxiety is sacred. I i I don't like it, but I appreciate what it does for me as a as a content creator in service, right? But we do need a lot of support between now and the new year. So 98 backers a day. That means, during this live stream, we can get 2030, backers on our way and and.

And and and keep pushing toward our goal that will help significantly. I'm going to take you over to the Kickstarter campaign. I'm going to keep putting the link into the live stream chat. You'll find it pinned to the top of the comment section as well on the YouTube channel. When you watch the replay, and when you head over to the Kickstarter campaign, you're going to it's going to look like this. You can also find the link to the Kickstarter campaign on the website, Nightlight astrology.com,

at the top of the page, you're going to see just a Kickstarter link. Head over to the Kickstarter this is what you'll see on the right hand side. When you scroll down, you'll be able to make pledges and choose rewards, the different rewards that are available. Include an astrology of 2026 calendar. That's the most basic reward. You don't have to choose a reward. You could give $5 and choose no reward if you're going to get a reward. Let me tell you what's available. Scroll down a little bit more if you like the meditation that I did, the guided meditation. There are two different guided meditations if you watch the new moon guided meditation that I did a couple days ago, there is one on inviting the silence. This is a guided meditation that talks about the value of quiet time in our lives. The astrology of 2026

video is an hour and a half long lecture on all of the major transits of 2026

the Oracle within is a guided meditation that's meant to help you set intentions and visualize for the year ahead. That's another guided meditation I wrote, and that actually has some really nice like ambient music in the background. Scroll down, you'll see that you can sign up for the early release of my next book that's going to be fun, that'll be starting. I'll start to release that later in the year, year ahead horoscope readings, if you want port of I think it's about five hours worth of content. This is every single sun and rising sign for the year ahead, given a long list of the major transits of the year. So this is, you know, a full, robust horoscope for your year ahead. I only release those through the Kickstarter so you can pick that up. You're going to see there's a bunch of master classes. All the master classes are from previous years. They're all about 10 to 12 hours worth of content on different intermediate to advanced subjects. That's pretty cool. There's an astrology for total beginners. There's an ask three horary question package, which allows you to email me three horary questions during the year. I do those readings for you and email you back the results. That's a pretty cool bundle saves you significantly on the cost of a horary reading. You get three to use throughout the year. Pretty handy.

You can pick up any of the archives of previous years master classes. That's 30 to 40 hours of content on four different topics, one per season. You can get the 2025 2423 masterclass bundles, ton of different content in those really good classes on again, more like intermediate to advanced level concepts and Hellenistic astrology, the 2026,

master classes on the deccans. So if you're interested in that journey we're taking together in the new year, it's on sale through the Kickstarter. The Nightlight guild membership, ideal for people who are already in the Nightlight world, that's going to give you 20 kind of advanced craft practice sessions in group and community that I lead, as well as all of the monthly webinars that I teach included in that bundle. So another really good way to just stay plugged into what we're doing in the classroom at Nightlight. My wife's herbal apprenticeship programs are available. You can sign up for those. She is a fantastic teacher of herbal plant spirit medicine. She has a master's degree in clinical herbal medicine, so she's a great teacher. She's been teaching herbal apprenticeships for 15 years. So check her out. She's got a YouTube channel called Sky house herbs. And then you can bundle our classes together. So if you want to come study in our year 123,

horary program, any yearly master class, any yearly guild series, you can pick up the 123,

or four class passes. These don't expire. They can be used anytime you want, for any of the programs we offer year by year, and all of the Evergreen programs that are there every year, starting new in June and November. So those bundles are going to save you the most on our classes, the best sale of the year. When you bundle them together at 234, they go up to like, 50% off per class. So 70% if you get the four class bundle, it's a really, really good deal, best way to come study with us and support the channel and our school. So anyway, that's those are the rewards we offer. We need, uh,

1200 plus backers between now and the end of the year. That's a really big push that we still have left. So let me just start, uh, before we get into Venus, Saturn. Let me ask this question.

You know, do you tune into this channel once a week, twice a week, every day, a couple times a month, throughout the year, and however regularly you watch the channel. Does it give you any of these things? Does it give you astrological insight that's really helpful? Do you learn about astrology in ways that you can't in other places? Does the war.

The community, the humor, the storytelling, touch you and mean something to you that's more personal.

Do you find this a place of spiritual companionship, insight, inspiration? If you can check yes to any of those questions and please consider supporting us. Of course, this is how I earn my livelihood, but it's also 12 staff members behind Nightlight, including a full time Social Media Manager, about three hours worth of work per day to produce free content seven days a week, year round. So there's a lot of heart that goes into this, and our model is simple. We produce it. We don't want to put any pay walls or subscriptions around it. We put it out there. You know, there's 85,000 people that subscribe to this channel. We need about 2000 of that, you know, subscriber total per year, to pitch in and support us. That that ends up being how we succeed and keep moving forward as a business year after year, doing the same thing, being the same consistent presence for you guys. The other thing, of course, is that all of our programs offer sliding scales. Nightlight started as a donation based model, and over the years, every single program we offer, in terms of the formal education that we offer, has sliding scales and scholarships. The reason that we're able to provide those for people, 60% of our students take advantage of them, is because of the generosity people supporting the channel and people taking advantage of the sales and stuff like that. So again, if this is a positive force in your life, a positive place, then please consider supporting us, because we can't do it year after year without patrons. We need patrons to survive, and that means all of you. So if you like it, please support it. If you love it, please support it. Link is in the comment section. I'm going to come back to support or to try to generate some support for the Kickstarter a little bit later today. But next what we're going to do is we're going to start talking about Venus and Saturn.

Now we are at 759

backers as of the start of this program. When I come back, after we talk about Venus and Saturn, after we do some horoscopes, and I come back, I want to see that sucker at like, 780 I want to see like, let's get like 20 people that say, Okay, I haven't donated yet. Today's the day I'm going to go over there. Pop in a $5 donation. Help us reach our goal. So let's see if we can't get like 20 backers during our live today. I think we can do it.

Okay, let me put up the real time clock. Let's turn, as I like to say, let's turn our attention to the real time clock.

Here we go.

Okay, so what we're talking about today, it's a New Moon in Sagittarius. Happy New Moon in Sagittarius. If you want coverage on the New Moon in Sagittarius, check out the video I just did. I did a fun guided meditation on the new moon that I was surprised. I was kind of experimental. I'd been writing other meditations for the Kickstarter, like I was just saying. And so I wrote a guided meditation, and people seem to like it, so maybe I'll do it again. But I really said everything I have to say about the New Moon in Sagittarius in yesterday's video. So make sure you check that out. Today, we're going to focus in on the major aspect happening over the weekend, the pain in everyone's ass.

We also talked about sun and Neptune. So there's also a sun Neptune video on the channel. Sun's Moving right into a square with Neptune. If you want more coverage on the Sun Neptune, please do check that out as well. So those you know, those kind of topics that are also in the air today have been covered in the regular content on the channel. Venus is heading into a square with Saturn. Let's track this out today. Venus is just a little over, like a degree and a half or so away from making the exact aspect. If I take everything forward by a day, tomorrow morning, Saturday, December 20, sort of the eve of the solstice, we have Venus within a degree bump this forward, and by Sunday morning, Venus has just passed through the square. So that means between today, the 19th, tomorrow, the 20th, and by Sunday the 21st the Venus Saturn square will be moving through its perfection. And so that's the time range that you should keep in mind. You could extend this a little bit more to like Monday, but by then, we're getting into Venus square Neptune, which is kind of little different vibration. We're going to talk about that later, later

in today's show. I'm also going to tell you about all the live streams I have scheduled, and where to find the schedule for them. So you can join me for a bunch of fun live streams at the end of the year here. But so that's the Venus Saturn dynamic that we're looking at

now as always. What I want to highlight here is the archetypal dimensions of this transit. And let me just do something really quick that's annoying me. I.

Hmm, okay, perfect.

So what we always want to do as astrologers is we want to make sure that we have an understanding of the archetypal dynamics of a transit. The reason that having an understanding of the archetypal dynamics of the transit is important is because that's what helps us

create some separation between ourselves and the events that manifest around the archetypal field. You might say, Well, why would I want distance or separation? It's not to dissociate. That's something that lots of people, very rightly, are skeptical of, like, well, I don't want to use astrology to like, try to step outside of my life or my experiences and dissociate from them. No, that's not the idea.

The idea is to create space because space takes ourselves out of conflation, which means we get identified with events. It's like saying, I am what's happening to me right now, and what we want is to say something is happening. The archetypal field recognition, the pattern recognition that we use allows us to see the event as archetypal, as patterned that then creates an ability to step out of conflation or identification and to have some space within which to relate and relating. Another way of putting that is to participate. I want to participate in the unfolding of the symbolic field or patterning that's showing itself right now. And how can I participate if I'm so identified with it that there's no space to relate to it from. So the goal on this channel is always, first, let's create the relating space. Let's create the participatory space. That means identifying the archetype, identifying the field. Once we've got that, then we have so many options for how to relate, how to participate, and that's why we give you not just, you know, kind of this is the pattern, but these are the different angles on the pattern that create different lanes or avenues of participation, that create different spaces or fields within which to relate. So that's what we're going to do next, and what I have for us today. Surprise, surprise. I have an I Ching reading.

So what I'm going to do now is

I am going to just unpack for you

the reading that I did this morning to prepare my notes. So sometimes what I do is I sit and I just free write. I free write on the archetype. I create a list of five things to watch for based on free writing. Other times, I pick some of my favorite books that I know talk about certain archetypes, James Hillman, Liz green, the Tao Te Ching, the Hermetica, whatever, all sorts of different wisdom texts that are beloved. You know, in my closet, my closet, you can see, look, look at that is my closet over there. It's just totally stacked with stuff.

So we all have a stuff closet, right? Anyway, let me move this all right. There we go. So

you and your stuff closet probably looks better than mine. But anyway, I will sit and write out whatever I'm going to talk about today from the standpoint of a voice of wisdom, maybe from my collection of books that and, you know, astrologers, that means that Richard Tarnas or Liz green or whatever. Then other times, what I do is I sit down and I approach the I Ching and I say, Can you please give me a hexagram, or hexagram sequence that nicely maps the archetype? And then I often, I use that to inform my writing. And I don't ever tell you guys about it. I don't tell you guys about it because a lot of people don't necessarily know the language of the I Ching. And then once in a while, I go through phases. And if you've been around my channel for long enough, you know this where I'll take the I Ching out of the closet and just show you what I'm doing. I'll just be like here, rather than taking the I Ching reading and translating into a list of five things to watch for, I'll just take you through the I Ching reading, and how I'm thinking about it in relation to the archetype. And I just do that organically. And I tend to do that when the I Ching becomes more

exciting to me, there's phases I go through with the I Ching where it's like, ooh, it's really exciting. And it's I feel like my a bit like, maybe I'm understanding things more or differently, and it's exciting to articulate it. And also part of this is because, not surprisingly, I just found a new translation of the I Ching that I really love by benefel Wen, who's going to hopefully come on my channel in the new year to talk about the I Ching. So

for that reason, I also.

Want people to consider bringing the I Ching into their lives. If you like the stuff on this channel, a lot of it comes from the I Ching. So anyway, all of that being said, That's how we're going to approach it today. What I'm going to do next,

I'm going to I need to make some banners here. I just realized I didn't make I didn't make banners for this, and I think it'll help. So let's do

okay.

So the first hexagram that I got when talking about Venus and Saturn was hexagram number 33 which is translated as retreat. And the in the trigrams, the image is of Heaven. The trigrams are like heaven, mountain, Thunder. There's different like, sort of like elements in

the teachings philosophy that the trigrams constitute, and this is it has carry over into like Chinese medicine and all sorts of other things.

In this hexagram called retreat, heaven is on the bottom, the mountain is on the top. So you could think of it as mountain over heaven, or heaven below, mountain above.

And the hexagram is called retreat. Let me read you the Oracle text, and then I'm going to tell you a lot about this hexagram, and then slowly relate it back to Venus and Saturn.

Okay, sorry, taking me just a second to get

here. We are.

Okay. So hexagram 33

benefel Wen's translation calls it withdraw. I am pretty used to the conventional translation called retreat.

The Oracle retreat does not mean surrender. This is a strategic withdrawal into safety and seclusion while you plan your next move. When the opponent is on the offensive and you have neither the power nor support to prevail, recede and move away, eventually, the opponent will come to arrest, and that is when you strike, return to the Oracle to affirm when the timing is right. Now is a time for self reflection, prayer to heaven and personal growth.

Beneath heaven, there is mountain absconding into the darkness. The sage maintains distance from those who are inferior. There is no need for enmity, but you must remain solemn and stern. Better to retreat for now, there is small gain to be had if you withdraw from the Endeavor hostile forces are advancing. Confrontation will not serve your interest. It is better to retreat for now, but do not mistake the act of retreating for fleeing. Do not flee. Do not abandon the endeavor, and do not try to escape your opponent. Giving the opponent a false impression of victory is not the same as giving the opponent a victory. Withdraw temporarily and plan a counter attack when the opponent has come to a position of rest and complacency. That is when you strike the most profound degree of wisdom comes from knowing when to retreat. It is always the most difficult decision to make, and only the wisest are capable of making it.

There's a lot here that we're going to unpack,

but first of all, this is a wonderful hexagram for Venus squaring Saturn. When Venus squares Saturn, and

you could say

Venus is running into kind of like a roadblock,

the advice that this hexagram is giving on the surface is therefore very, very simple. If you're running into a roadblock when it comes to the advancement of your desires, which Venus can represent just simply, what we desire for the sake of happiness or bliss or a feeling of satisfaction, Venus is just what do you want? Well, what I want and what I'm attracted to are meeting with resistance. Okay, chill out for now. Step back. Don't try to push through retreat. Wait for a better time. Simple piece of advice, super Venus Saturn. Piece of advice, however, Venus Saturn can also be about running into intractable negative people, people that we might describe as enemies or opponents, people blocking us or stifling us, people we feel frustrated by. The advice is very simple again, don't try to win. Don't get into a power struggle. You'll lose. Instead, step back. You can even give the impression that you're defeated. Remember, some of this is used as a.

Um tactics for engaging in in struggles with opponents or with tyrannical people trying to overthrow the light of the kingdom, type of stuff. So if you're dealing with, you know, if you're dealing with an asshole, play possum.

No, I'm kidding, but it's like, if you're dealing with people that are negative or that you would consider enemies or opponents. Venus, Saturn, along the lines of hexagram, 33 is very simple. Step back. Don't engage. Wait for a better time. The timing isn't right. Don't try to push forward. Don't try to win. You're probably going to lose. Venus is meeting with resistance or opposition or hostility when she squares Saturn. So it's like, yeah, check out. This would be if you're in an argument with a spouse, and you feel like your spouse is being a shithead. You know you're like, well, now is not the time. If I keep pushing forward in the current dynamic, in the current field, in the current moment, the pattern is not going to lead to a good outcome. So retreat, step away. Wait until the time is right. Gather resources, gather information. Be patient, wait until the situation changes, and then move forward and suddenly you'll find that your partner, or the person that has been, you know, like recalcitrant, is now ready to listen, is now open. There's a way through so the hexagram, in terms of Venus, Saturn, if your desires, if you're pursuing them and you're not getting what you want, chill out for a second. Step back, let it go for a minute. Take a breath. It doesn't say give it up. It says, chill yourself out. On the other hand, the very simple advice from the hexagram is like, you know, if you're dealing if it's a relational situation and you're dealing with something really stuck or hostile, or a power struggle or something that's just not, not a good social, relational dynamic. Chill out. Don't push forward. Step back. Wait. Bide your time. Gather information. Wait till the time or the dynamic shifts somehow, and it will if you step back. See that's the part of this hexagram that's so beautiful. Is everything success oriented and this hexagram has to do with stepping back in order to move forward. Later, if you just it's like, oh, you know what?

My My wife is really overwhelmed because she's dealing with a broken furnace right now. If I try to bring up something that I was really hoping we could do, that she's a little resistant to, I'm going to get the big no. You know, everyone knows this from the time we're kids. Ooh. Mom's in a crappy mood. Let's not ask for the thing, right? Can I use the car? Wait, chill out. Wait until she's calmed down and on the couch and laughing again. And then you go and ask, and the dynamic is different. The result is different. So you can feel the wisdom of Venus Saturn being like, don't push forward, step back, wait, and then there'll be a way through. So this is super simple advice for Venus, Saturn. Isn't it beautiful? How simple it is. Sometimes we forget. Oh, yeah, you know, we make it so complicated. This can be very, very simple.

So,

yeah, I like, there's a really nice comment being left here that I want to highlight, tactical retreat is discussed in the art of war, and it's a battle move in and of itself. I'm the child of a military veteran, so this makes perfect sense to me, exactly. That's exactly it. And the I Ching is has tactical advice like that, but it's, it's tactical advice that doesn't necessarily have to be martial, like we don't have to find ourselves in a literal, you know, power struggle with a literal enemy, although it could be that way. But it's, it's, it's like, yeah, I like this comment too. Social Aikido. That's right, exactly.

Hurry up and wait. There you go. You've got it all right. Let's talk a little bit more about hexagram 33 though, because this is really

interesting at its core, this hexagram is not defeat. It's not withdrawal out of fear or loss of desire, all Venus, Saturn dynamics that we could interpret. But hexagram 33 gives us insight. It's strategic retreat, timely self restraint, self preservation in the presence of a greater force. Let me tell you another example that I just encountered last night. I am almost done with 35 weeks of lean, bulking.

Heavenly hash just arrived on my doorstep for my mother in law. Do you guys know what heavenly hash it is? Heavenly hash is like the world's greatest holiday gift from the gods. I don't know if you've ever eaten heavenly hash, but I could eat an entire trailer full of heavenly hash and never like I would just vanish into thin air. So good. So anyway, it arrived, and I was like, Oh, my God, it's almost heavenly hash time. But then I remembered, I have one week left of my bulk. I've made it this far. I don't want to break my diet right now when I've already set myself up to enjoy holiday treats next week, at the end of my 35 week, tremendous program that I've like, don't, don't, you know, don't, you can. You're almost there.

Hold yourself back. So that very simple Venus Saturn wisdom came up in me last night. It's timely self restraint. It doesn't mean never. It means not right now. And my wife saw me, and she goes, I'm going to put these away until Christmas next week. And I was like, Yeah, please do

such a simple Venus Saturn moment, right? Okay, so the judgment, and this is from the Wilhelm translation, says, retreat, success in what is small, perseverance, furthers that is especially important for Venus Saturn. A Venus Saturn square, is rarely about, no, it's about not this way, not now or not without maturity. And that's exactly what hexagram 33 speaks to. Let's talk about Venus and Sagittarius, for example.

The desire, if we think about Venus in terms of desire, is to expand, to explore, to be open, to confess, to share, to risk, to idealize truth, telling, romantic honesty, philosophical, moral enthusiasm, the urge to move towards something with faith and excitement. Well, it hits Saturn in Pisces, and it gets limits that are subtle, emotional, karmic, invisible boundaries around compassion, sacrifice, fantasy, longing, the need for containment rather than escape. Let me give you another simple example. I'm coming to the end of a lot of work, and I just finished some of my recordings for the year. About finished with my bulking program. The Kickstarter is almost over. And not surprisingly, Venus, which rules daughters. I was just telling you, this comes into the applying square with Saturn. Sun goes through Saturn. Mars goes through Saturn. Everyone in my family gets influenza my first, my younger daughter got it. She gave it to my wife. Then my older daughter got it. And I'm just holding on for dear life. I'm just like, I got to get through this. But you know what it feels like? It feels like in all of my desire to enjoy the culmination of a long process of work, I can't because everyone's sick. It's like a nice big turd in my swimming pool. No, not yet, not, not quite yet, but I know, because I have things like the I Ching in my life, because I read the stars, it'll come. That sense of release, that sense of optimism, that sense of getting to kind of step back from the work, finish a process, celebrate whatever. It's there. It's coming. Don't, don't take the opportunity right now. You're kind of close to the finish line. Feels like something's trying to slap you up inside the head. Don't get distracted by it. It's fine. You'll you'll be okay. The thing you want is coming, just not right now. Got to wait just a minute. It's like a little test of your metal at the very end of a process, you know, so square creates friction between wanting to advance openly Venus and sag toward what we want, or toward happiness or pleasure or connection, and then this thing that feels like nebulous, like a wet blanket that's like New, not right now, you're like, Ah,

stop it. It's like someone who wants to in enjoy, like, I'm just gonna enjoy this, but you start having a crazy, you know, allergic attack in the middle of a social setting you're supposed to be really enjoying, and you're like, Well, why won't my body just shut up and let me enjoy this moment, you know? But no, I have to have like, a total allergic meltdown to some tiny little thing. Oh, well, this person had a cat a year ago. There's little dander in the environment. It's going to shit all over my New Year's Eve celebration.

That's a very Venus and sag meet Saturn and Pisces kind of situation. You just feel like something's trying to kill your joy. So hexagram 33 says The wise person does not confront this stronger force directly. They preserve what they want. They preserve their goal. They preserve the feeling that it feels like something is trying to steal from them by stepping back,

that's Saturn's wisdom speaking directly to Venus. Go bang your head against it. You think that it's going to get anything done. It's not.

Now, when you get an unchanging hexagram, this was unchanging,

this often means that the situation itself is the teaching. There's not a need to do anything very dramatic. The Virtue is already very clear. Just demonstrate patience. Just demonstrate restraint. Don't try to push forward, first retreat, then advance, first retreat, then advance, first step back and wait and then advance. It's that simple. You'll find that by the time Venus has passed over Saturn, by the end of the weekend, anything you're running up against, it feels like a block. It'll be gone. It'll just naturally go away. If you have not flipped out, you'll be feeling fine. If you have flipped out, you'll be doing cleanup work. That's the that's the teaching of 33

retreat does not mean rejection. Hexagram, 33 is not telling us. You know that pull.

Ching back is not the same as giving up. Distance can actually be an act of love. Boundaries can protect meaning rather than destroy it. All of this can be really important for relationships or creative processes that require commitment and discipline over a long period of time, any kind of financial or value based decisions. Venus wants closeness or expression. Saturn says only what can endure and demonstrate patience and maturity is worthy of advancing right now.

Now, if we think about mountain above, Heaven below, in the structure of hexagram 33 mountain above is like Saturn setting a limit. Heaven below is desire. Will movement, wanting to rise, Venus in a fire sign, the mountain is not there to crush it. It just asks it to wait

pressure,

without permission. Desire, meeting consequence, love, meeting time.

The advice of the hexagram is in what is small perseverance furthers. This is pure Venus, Saturn. It tells us that

right now, another thing to consider is that modest gestures are more effective than grand declarations, even though Venus and sag wants to be very big, private integrity is better than public display, quiet consistency over dramatic romantic acts or grandiosity under a Venus, Saturn, transit say less mean more. Commit in a focused, consistent way, not broadly scattering your energy everywhere. Tend to what exists, rather than chasing something that's distant, Saturn rewards that kind of narrowing of focus and presence.

Excuse me. So

in relationships, hexagram 33 and Venus and Saturn says something like, don't push right now for clarity, commitment, reassurance, allow space for these things to reveal themselves in their own way. In if you're in a creative process, this is a good time to edit rather than expand, refine instead of launch. If you're thinking about business choices, this is choosing restraint, not out of fear, but because of long term self respect or long term vision in spiritual life, it's letting go of fantasies of transcendence in favor of humble, daily devotion. The big stuff will come. The big, exciting, charismatic explosions of growth potential will come. But right now, let go of those big fantasies of transcendent transcendence. Let the transcendence be expanded into a smaller space that's more present, immediate and focused. That's a Venus Saturn kind of lesson from sag to Pisces.

This is a moment when wisdom looks like not advancing. That's one of Saturn's hardest lessons for us. Love doesn't always grow by moving forward. Sometimes it grows by not violating the time constraints or necessities of the moment. It is like saying my partner is upset right now, rather than being right, I'm going to be present, even if I am right. Do you see how that's Venus, Saturn? I care more. I can see the long arc of this in three hours, they're going to recognize that I'm right. But if I try to break them down right now emotionally and conquer them, even if I am right, I will not have loved, you know, and that's a much greater loss in the you know, in the score book of life, then you know. So this is Venus, Saturn.

Okay,

I think Venus square Saturn, along the lines of hexagram 33 says retreat, not because love has failed or because your desire is wrong, but because love and desire is learning patience and time.

So

after I did this, I thought, well, that's really nice, but, you know, another layer that I'm really curious about,

what about the fact that so many of these squares that we've been experiencing between Sagittarius and Pisces are ruled by Jupiter and cancer. Jupiter and cancer is exalted but retrograde right now, like what is the overall effect of the

dynamic between these squares? This one in particular, of course, Venus square, Saturn and the rulership of Jupiter and cancer. I

So let me now,

and guys, give me just a second,

because I believe that the furnace guy is here,

and I need to make sure that.

That someone lets him in. Give me just one second. I

build up.

Build up. Come on, girl, come

on, let's go. Good

girl, come here.

Yeah,

okay.

So

Hilda was going to try to eat the furnace repair man, so I had to bring her up here.

She needs to retreat.

Wait for a better time, Hilda, you'll get to bite his ass later. I promise there'll be another day for you. Just wait.

Okay, so

now let's move on. So I asked the I Ching about the rulership of Jupiter. What does Jupiter in the background tell us about this? Now let's take a look. So the first hexagram that came back was number 59

in particular, the second and fourth lines were changing, and that leads to hexagram 12.

Let me put that up as well. I

so the hexagram sequence was 59 to 1259.

Dissolution to 12 stagnation.

So I'm going to share with you some insights about these two hexagrams next. But first, what I want to do is simply read you the Oracle text from 59

This is, again, from the benefel Wen translation, and we're going to explore now the rulership of Jupiter in the background.

Here we go.

So this is wind over water hexagram 59 is the starting hexagram for this part of the analysis, and it's a wind on the top, water on the bottom. And it's called, in Annabelle Wen's translation, she calls it making waves. The another translation that I'm pretty familiar with from Wilhelm is dissolution. So I'll call it dissolution, but here it is, a very important task is at hand, and to make waves, you will be the driver of sorry, let me There we go. Give me just one second, guys, I'll start again.

A very important task is at hand, and to make waves, you will be the driver of the forces like wind breaking waves, a voice of reason, virtue and compassion rises to reform what is broken and severe omen of one with a strong sense of purpose, who understands exactly what must be done to make waves and create necessary change. Set aside personal interest and pursue public interest. Heaven seeks you as a vessel to carry forth its mission, dispel what has been oppressive honor the gods and ancestors, to receive further insight, prayers, petitions, meditation and music.

The wind pushes the water upward. Subtle thoughts and intentions push forward. It is auspicious to cross the great stream and take risks in auspicious Omen thoughts, beget movement to commune with the gods, and First Kings made offerings and built temples to honor Shang di the sovereign of heaven. A boat traverses across the Great River. Wind disperses the water, rocking the boat forward, auspicious to cross the great stream. A cold wind chills the water to ice. A fevered wind will melt it likewise. When you are cold, all that you disperse is cold. When you are warm, all that you disperse is warm. Who you are is what you create. In this world, a favorable omen. The hexagram name initiates the second through fifth lines, creating a dactylic pattern. In these instances, the single word is translated into a phrase becomes like wind breaking waves. The story of hexagram 59 features a protagonist, horse who is introduced in the first line and then implied in the second through sixth the wind's breath on wings of water is the image of the horse in movement and an.

Image of the totemic horse's power. This

is interesting.

The D in the Oracle message refers to Shang di, or the Heavenly Emperor. Hexagram 59 reveals the presence of shangdi as the voice of the Oracle. Shang di means supreme sovereign, or the highest god in heaven. Per Shang Dynasty theology, there's one other reference to shangdi in the original Zoi, and that is in the second line of hexgram 42 burgeoning notice, we talked about burgeoning recently on the channel, noting that even earthly kings must humbly submit to the great Lord of heaven for clarity. The Shang of shangdi is not the same as the Shang of the Shang clan. It means higher above today, it has evolved to mean business, trade or commerce. The ancestor of the Shang Wang Hai was the first, or at least the most famous ancient Chinese merchant, which once meant one from the Shang now means merchant or business person. According to Shang oracle bones, yearly sacrifices are made to Shang di and had been made even before the times of the Jia, the dynasty preceding the Shang I'm of course, not pronouncing any of this correctly. I'm sure, unlike other gods in the pantheon who would descend to earth to help mortals, shangdi is considered to be beyond our capability of understanding. The God is Tao, and Tao is everything. So shangdi is everywhere and yet nowhere, because the God is separate and apart from this universe. The universe is but Shang D's creation, the Heavenly Emperor, doesn't appear to us and has no human like or animal form. Instead, the high god communes with humans through messengers, gods, spirits and ancestors. Ancestors often transmit messages to us from shangdi. Shang di is often used interchangeably with heaven and heaven with shangdi throughout the YI Ching reference to heaven, are self referential by the Oracle to Shang Di. The word Shang di itself is descriptive, Shang meaning high and D meaning God or sovereign Shangri. Shang di describes a deity who dwells above as for powers. The High God is considered omnipotent and omniscient, ordaining all events past, present and future in the cosmos. It is likened to the Tao, like shangdi, the Tao is described as the origin of all things. It unties all tangles. It harmonizes all lights. It unites the world into one whole, hidden in the deeps. Yet it seems to exist forever. I do not know whose child it is. It is the common ancestor of all the Father Mother of all things, this is really beautiful. First of all, one of the reasons that I wanted to read all of that to you is because of how profoundly the rulership of Jupiter in Cancer speaks to an organizing principle, a kind of cosmic intelligence that ordains and orchestrates all things, which was literally the way that Jupiter was talked about in ancient astrology, there's a lot of connection between Zeus and Ching di and the idea that there is a cosmic orchestrator that is also ancestral and that will speak through history, memory, clan, family, group, community, is not only appropriate for obviously, this hexagram 59 but is also appropriate for Jupiter and cancer, where the cosmic orchestrating force has ancestral and familial connections behind it. So I love that this hexagram came up, because it's a way of talking about this moment as having a very deep, underlying, kind of reverberating ancestral presence. Maybe that's a little hard to see, maybe that's hard to tap into,

but I think it's there, nonetheless, a deeper level of reflection right now might engage us with asking this block, this limit, this Venus Saturn moment that I'm experiencing, how does it lead me back to my past, my ancestry, my upbringing, my family, my home of origin? Things happening in collectives that I'm a part of, like groups or communities that are like clans or families. And how is this moment reflective of some deeper intelligence that's in those kinds of spaces? That's a really good question for hexagram 59 because hexagram 59

it talks about the story in the hexagram also has to do with ancestral veneration and trying to bring things together in life through deep reflection on ancestral karma and family kind of karma. So

that's just some very first thoughts. But let me give you some other thoughts about this,

where hexagram 33 says, don't advance. Hexagram 59 is the first of these two hexagrams that we're going to look at. Says, what has to be remember, the hexagram is called dispersion, or in Venable winds, it's making waves, or it's wind over water creating waves where hexagram 33 says, don't advance, retreat, step back. Hexagram 59 says, what has to be loosened, what has to be dissolved or released, so that pressure doesn't harden into damage. So.

There's a clear ancestral connection here that's really interesting as a kind of backdrop so that Jupiter retrograde in cancer underneath the surface says that there might be emotional, relational, value based contractions that can't be pushed through, that have their roots in the past, in family, in home, in things that are ancestral or familial

or just emotional, deeply emotional.

Jupiter retrograde is like a key. In this case, they're both ruled by Jupiter Venus and Saturn. In cancer, it's exalted, it's emotional, it's protective, it's memory based. Retrograde means reviewing, returning, reconsidering, revising. So when you put these two things together, it's clearly not a moment where we're supposed to be rapidly expanding outward, but rather seeking to resolve things

and clarify things in a different manner. We don't seek resolution through fast movement. We don't clarify things by pushing forward for answers. The Jupiter retrograde in cancer in hexagram 59 says the way forward comes through emotional untangling

memory and care, healing of the past, resolution of old things. Hexagram 59 fits this, along with Jupiter in Cancer retrograde, very well.

Here's Wilhelms paraphrase of hexagram 59/4 line, which was the emphasized line in the reading, he dissolves his bond with his group supreme good fortune. Dispersion leads to gathering

that's interesting and very Venus, Saturn. What this means archetypally, is that letting go of emotional entanglements that define identity will be positive right now, stepping back from group expectations, relational scripts, unspoken obligations, releasing the need to belong at the cost of truth. But all of that has to happen through a kind of stepping back or setting of a boundary or a thoughtful, momentary distancing. Not every bond is meant to be held together right now, and Jupiter retrograde tells us this release is inward. It's subtle, it's private, it's painful, but clarifying, this clarification and releasing of a bond is not something that you do in a really active, forward, aggressive, combative manner. It's about stepping back, creating distance, and untangling something, and then waiting for the right moment to move forward, maybe having released something of a bond or attachment that's not healthy, or that represents something stagnant, which is the next hexagram. When line four changes, along with the other line that was changing, we get hexagram 12, which is called stagnation.

I'm not going to read the entire Oracle text for stagnation. I'll just summarize it

in this one, heaven is above and earth is below, and stagnation, when Heaven is above and earth is below and they're separating from one another. It's about things not flowing.

Heaven doesn't descend. It rises. Earth does not rise, it descends. So when Heaven is above Earth, the two are moving apart. So

the question becomes, well, why would dispersion lead to stagnation? Because it's not a time of synthesis yet. So if we do not consciously loosen what binds us, stagnation will set in. And this is important, even when we do loosen things appropriately, stagnation may still be a necessary pause right now. That's the Saturn Venus dynamic speaking as well. You can do the emotional work correctly, you can release with integrity and still not see immediate movement, clarity or resolution. Hexagram 12 stagnation says, Don't mistake stillness for punishment. That's a beautiful part of hexagram 12, is that sometimes things appear stagnant, but it's in that feeling that something is stagnant that we often grow really impatient. So the opportunity Venus Saturn gives us to step back is also an opportunity to disentangle ourselves, to disperse something, to let go of something, and then it's going to feel like things are stagnant. But that doesn't mean they actually are stagnant. It means that something had to be separated, something had to be a boundary had to be created, or a cord had to be cut, that can feel temporarily like stagnation, but remember the advice of hexagram 33 retreat doesn't mean defeat. It means waiting for a better time. Stagnation is basically the exact same teaching. It might feel stagnant, but if you let the stagnation just kind of be, movement will return again.

So when we put all of this together, let's just repeat some of it.

Hexagram 33 don't advance. Preserve what matters. Step back, wait for a better moment.

Hexagram 59 line four, with the Jupiter retrograde in the background, loosen emotional and relational bonds that create.

Eight pressure, false belonging, unhealthy entanglements. Do this in a more private, non aggressive, non confrontational manner. Take the space, step back, create the disentanglement in a more quiet, private, non aggressive manner. It might feel like stagnation is occurring. It might feel like something is blocking you. But if you do that work, and you wait, movement will return again, and there will be a better time to accomplish what you're setting out to accomplish, and a more refined sense of what's worthy of pursuing in the first place because of the disentanglement that you've done

so.

Restraint without bitterness, release without expectation, patience without resignation.

These are the lessons of the moment.

So I hope that this was a useful exploration of Venus and Saturn and again, like, why are we doing this? We're doing this so that we can locate ourselves in a pattern, and by locating ourselves in a pattern we we are no longer identified with it, and it's that awareness that gives us the instructive advice, step back, disentangle. Might feel like you're not getting what you want. It might feel like stagnation. It might feel like defeat. It's not it's a kind of stepping back that has a lot of benefits right now and blessings right now and then, a new way forward, a new path around, a new resolution will present itself.

Beautiful little teachings, I hope that they are applicable and, you know, useful, like practically useful always like, what I'm hoping is that you're able to take these patterns and notice them in your life over the next three days, or maybe you you notice them at work already this week, and Then you know something good can come from it.

Do

Okay. All

right, guys, I'm going to check on the Kickstarter, and now

I may have to follow my own advice

and retreat. No, I'm kidding. All right, so let's see we have, what did I say we were at seven? What I say we were at like, 759

did I say?

Think I said 759 we're at 762

which means that in our hour or so of live stream, we have had three backers. So we're going to try to rally some more support here.

There's a Kickstarter link in the live stream chat. If you just got something positive out of that, consider throwing five bucks our way and supporting the channel. We really appreciate it. We can't do this work without people supporting us every year. We need to get to 2043

backers by New Year's Eve, that's still like 1300 more backers that we that we need. So check it out. Check out all the rewards we have. Head over to the Kickstarter. Drop us a donation. We really appreciate it. Thanks to the 762

who have already supported us, we're, you know, we're making our way along the path, so we need some big pushes now in the last 13 days.

All right,

let us now turn our attention back to the Real Time clock for some horoscopes. So what I'm going to do here is just remind you of the whole sign locations of Venus and Saturn so that you can try to more effectively identify the field and patterns we've just described in terms of the topics of the chart. That's always important, right? We want to see if we can identify it. Like, is this in my workplace right now? Like, where exactly is this showing up?

So what I'm going to do here is walk you through

the positions

of Venus and sag and Saturn in Pisces,

sign by sign,

by the way, just so You all know, if you donate to the Kickstarter, your your pledge is not collected. Your card is not charged until January 1, when the Kickstarter has been successfully completed. So anything you donate today, you're not your card won't be charged until the first or second of January. I can't remember if the first is a weekday. If it's a weekday, then it'll be charged that day. Yeah, I think it is because it's a Thursday, isn't it Wednesday? Anyway, so if you make a donation today, the point is, your card won't be charged until January 1.

Here's the link one more time.

Let's see. Let's see what we can do.

Let's rally some support today. Okay, so here's some horoscopes for you guys. All

right, if you're Aries, you can listen to this for your sun or your rising sign, either one totally works. Is is fine. So let's start with

Aries. We got Venus and Saturn in the ninth and the 12th. So the connection here I'm going to use the purusharthas. I love using the purusharthas. As you guys know, that's Dharma and Moksha. We're talking about an inflection moment between the realm of philosophy, beliefs, morality, higher learning, teachers, educational environments, religion, and a place of greater liberation from unconscious material that we're entangled in. The 12th house is a Moksha house, which means liberation, liberation from what? From suffering from illusion, from avidya, ignorance. So the two things right now for Aries are providing a profound moment of spiritual deepening, religious philosophical deepening, that can also serve to untangle knots karmically and liberate you from delusions or falsehoods or self destructive behaviors or people in your life. So that pairing is really powerful. If you're in Aries right now, Dharma and Moksha.

If you're a Taurus, it's the eighth a Moksha house and the 11th, a comma house. So here we're talking about

sort of social and civic and public forms of of happiness and connection and bondedness with other people, patronage, allies, friends, benefictors, the kinds of places that we

seek community and also seek some form of social happiness and success. I just gave a talk about the 11th house last night in my monthly webinar.

In the eighth house, we're talking about the kinds of soul contracts that we have with other people that either entangle or liberate. And a lot of the eighth house has to do with the

debts that we incur to other people or that others incur to us, and being freed from those kinds of dynamics, which is fundamentally really about using one another. And so the the

best kind of relationships are reciprocal, that benefit mutually the growth and development and cultivation of spiritual liberation anytime we're in relationships that are reciprocal and of spiritual benefit that's a good karma in the eighth house. The difficult ones are the, you know, the ones that keep us in bondage, obligated, indebted in ways that are painful and create suffering. So right now, Tauruses are looking at what defines positive value, socially, interpersonally, what kinds of bonds and dynamics are reciprocal and are worth cultivating and sticking with and developing, because their mature expression facilitates, uh, social well being, uh, promotion of good things in the world and in society

and and positive reciprocal dynamics with other living beings. So consider, right now, the social karmic contracts and whether they are entangling you in putting you in debt and suffering or creating positive forms of social exchange and happiness and well being in the world.

All right, let's go

Gemini, you've got comma and arta, comma in the seventh house is a place of love, desire, passion, sex, intimacy. It's a house that is fundamentally about satisfaction and happiness, psychologically, emotionally with other living beings and intimate interpersonal relationships.

The 10th house arta, your reputation, your work in the world. And so the question for Geminis right now is about the intersection between personal, interpersonal fulfillment and public or social pressures or conventions, how you perform, how you show up in the world, your vocation, your professional direction, your clout, your mastery, how people see you, and what kinds of dynamics those pressures or constraints are creating in relationships and relational intimacy or happiness. There's a dialog going on between those two spaces right now. For Geminis,

for cancer, we're talking about Venus in the sixth, an art to house. Saturn in the ninth a Dharma house,

the sixth house, arta, all the artha houses, about work in the world, the material sphere,

making a living, putting food on the table, surviving and thriving, developing acquisitions and money, developing material things, having them, deriving some happiness from what we have, etc.

Up. But the sixth house is a place where there's a lot of work and labor and effort and sacrifice that goes into maintaining and developing material things in in addition to the things that we have to face that are real hardships or like real adversities, sickness, hard work, labor, low pay. You know, being having to grind your way. You know across many years before your work starts paying better, for example, very sixth house,

the ninth house, is dharma, where we learn about higher truth.

What is worth your work in the world, if it's not connected with higher truth. For cancers right now, there's a question about what is worth suffering for, and what isn't is what you are suffering for and working toward and laboring over, connected in any way to something of higher spiritual value. It's also about people you work with, or colleagues or friends or even lovers in the workplace environment, and how your values and beliefs shape the cooperation you have to work together on things that matter, things that are worth sacrificing for, with other people. You know, if you're not aligned with a lover in what you believe or think, you're going to have very different definitions of what stress and happiness look like. These are the kinds of conversations happening across the sixth and the ninth right now for cancers,

my wife is a cancer rising and one of the women in her life, who has been a dear kind of sister, mentor and teacher, is just just discovered that she's terminally ill and is going into hospice. That happened right as Venus in the sixth was approaching Saturn in the ninth. So simple example, really sad. You know, there's a that's perfect for a cancer rising in the horoscope right now

as one possible expression, not that someone's going to die, right for everybody, but that's a that's a really tough one for my wife right now.

Leo rising Venus in the fifth the creative Dharma house, Moksha with Saturn in the eighth

the question here becomes about creative self expression and whether you feel free or you feel like you can't be free creatively because of entanglements, debts, obligations, karmic entanglements with other people that create bondage and suffering and that prevent free flowing, happy, expressive, creative fulfillment. On the other hand, what are the bonds that are worth fostering that might require you to have like a dimmer switch? Yes, it's important to feel free and unrestricted creatively, to be yourself. But there's other people you care for that have needs and obligations, that you have to them for caring for them. That might mean your own creative light has to dim itself just a little bit, because there's obligations. You might be on fire creatively, but you have a sick partner you have to take care of for the week. That's a very fifth, eighth house kind of dynamic. The intersection between creative light and karmic bondage with other people is conversing here for Leos,

for Virgos, we've got Venus in the fourth, a Moksha house,

and Saturn in the seventh, a comma house. So we're talking about

the fourth house as a place of rest, nourishment, home, grounding roots. It's like the well that we draw water from. Ideally, that environment is supportive and nurturing. But a lot of us have karma that needs to be cleared around, that which leads directly, if we do clear it, to usually feeling like we're able to take better care of ourselves. We're able to nurture ourselves. We're able to draw deep from a well within when we clean and heal family karma, because that's connected to the well space in our life,

the intimacy space of the seventh and the private well home, family space of the fourth, are in dialog right now. For Virgos,

your ability to feel happy may feel blocked in relationships because you need to rest and recharge. My daughter's a Virgo rising. She was really disappointed that her last day of school before winter break today, she couldn't go to school because she has influenza to have her What do you call it Secret Santa? They don't call it that anymore at the school. They call it something else, but it's like holiday Secret Santa stuff. She can't go have that experience with her friends, because she has to stay home and recharge for a little like that's a 10 year old Virgo horoscope. You see what I mean? Pretty cool. I mean, it's pretty cool how it works, though. But anyway, the conversation between rest, home, family, roots, private, nourishment and intimacy and pleasure, socially, there's a dynamic going on right now that could be a little difficult to reconcile, but some good work there to be done.

All right, so for

for Libras, we have Venus in the third, a comma house, and Saturn in the sixth, an art to house. Now the third house is really about your psychological.

Logical happiness, your well being, mentally, emotionally, that's derived from having a healthy, strong sense of ego, that has competency, that has skill, that has ability, that likes itself, that feels like it's smart and articulate. That's a very important part of the third house for ancient Indian astrologers. The sixth is about the grind, the work, the effort, the sacrifice. It's the it's the burn of material existence. Well, when these two things come into contact with one another, you might be feeling personally limited in your ability to feel happy or joyful within yourself because of obligations and shitty things you have to take care of. Let me give you a simple example. Just yesterday, a Libran rising family member called and said that they have a huge plumbing problem in their basement that's preventing them from feeling very happy right now. Is the big pain in the ass that they have to deal with, and it just feels like it's sapping their joy around a time where they were starting to feel really happy. Does that feel like does that feel for a Libra rising like Venus in your third square Saturn in your sixth? Yeah, totally. So the exchange, though, between them is also about healthy checks on the ego, as well as developing confidence and feeling, being able to feel happy even when limitations arise, like, can I whistle while I work? Okay, I've got to clean up shit in the basement bathroom.

In this case, they had to, literally, you know? But it's like, there you go, there, there, there's, there's a work in the world. So anyway, no, I'm and this is just like a super funny it's mostly like just a funny situation, you know. But so,

so Scorpio rising. Scorpio rising, you got Venus in the second, and Arthur house, Saturn in the fifth, the Dharma house. So Arthur in the second, material resources, material security. What you have, do you feel? You know, secure, safe, stable, in a in a way where there's there's money, there's food, there's clothing, and more than that, you maybe you feel like you there's value because of what you have or own or possess. These are real concerns. In the second house, meeting Saturn in the fifth it's like, well, how creatively fulfilled Do you feel? Spiritually, psychologically, emotionally? Does your very being feel like it's happy creatively? Well, there's conversation or clash between material well being, material sustenance, material forms of happiness or success or good fortune, and creative forms of success or good fortune, it's one thing to feel like, well, my my paycheck is good enough that it's helping me pay off debts. That's making me feel more secure, but I feel constricted creatively. I don't feel fulfilled creatively. That would be a very common Venus, Saturn, second, fifth kind of dynamic. So watch for conversation between those two houses. All right, for Sagittarians, we're talking about the first and the fourth houses. So Dharma in the first and Moksha in the fourth, creative identity in the first house with Venus there feeling of expanding, growing, feeling free, feeling creative, feeling happy, feeling attractive. And then Saturn in the fourth maybe feeling privately drained or depleted obligations, duties and responsibilities around home or family, the past trauma at your roots and family is sort of saying, No, you don't deserve to be happy, or you can feel happy, but only for two seconds because you need to come and take care of this responsibility or this obligation or something like that. So Venus, Saturn, across these two houses is really for sadges, is bringing up questions about personal happiness versus blocks around home or family or or maybe deep healing work that needs to be done. There's a feel like I'm just, I'm I'm rolling on a river with Venus in your first house, you know, it's, it's hitting some really choppy, turbulent spaces in the water with Saturn in the fourth that are calling for deeper witnessing, deeper attention,

you know? So, so that's, that's one way of looking at it here for Sagit. Alright, let's roll on to Capricorns. Got Venus in the 12th, the Moksha house, Saturn in the third, a comma house. So with Venus in the 12th and Saturn in the Third, we're talking about unconscious blind spots in relationships, in your own psychology, in your own awareness. For example, you might have some really uplifting, upbeat people who really love you and like being around you, and you're not able to see it because you're feeling sorry for yourself. So be so be very Venus in the 12th, Saturn in the third,

feel sorry for yourself too long and you're going to push people away,

or, let's say you're just you can't receive the love and joy that's that's trying to come in right now. You got to get out of your own way. Stop being so stressed out, let it go and see all of a sudden that you're surrounded by things that are actually are actually kind of fun and uplifting, that would be, again, very typical for Venus in the 12th, a Moksha house, where something's trying to be released, relative to a very joyous Venus in in Sagittarius and Saturn in the third looking at psychology, emotional wiring, mental makeup and.

That could be part of the block that has to be released. Another way of looking at this would be about just mature relationships and those that are superficial, those that undermine you, versus those that fulfill you.

Your own mental, emotional habits and values in relationships might be up for review.

For Aquarians, it's Venus in the 11th, a comma house, and Saturn in the second and arts a house. So we're talking about socially conditioned forms of success, approval, Joy. For example, Venus in the 11th is like, I want to be popular. Venus in the 11th is like, I want to be liked, or I want to feel like I'm seen as beautiful, attractive, interesting, fun. Or I want to have fun socially, or be around people that are uplifting, free spirited fun. It's like, I want to go to a rainbow gathering, you know, very Venus. And let me go to Burning Man Venus. And sag in the 11th Saturn, in Pisces in the second. Is like, Yeah, but you're a broke ass. You can't you can't go. You don't have the money for a Burning Man ticket.

Or like, well, it would be great to have all these forms of happiness or success, but I'm having trouble accessing the joy because I'm so scared about, I mean, scarcity mindset, you know, I'm really I'm so wrapped up in the difficulties of paying the bills, which might be very real, but it is it. It could be that you can also be happy while dealing with, you know, constraint or restriction financially. Sometimes we think just because there's pressure financially means I can't be happy. I can't experience joy. There could be false dichotomies like that, presenting yourself right now, between social belonging, social happiness or success, and things like financial realities or material security.

Also any kinds of conversation about social values, beliefs, common interests or goals or visions for life that draw you together with other people, and then concerns or considerations you have for material things.

You know it sometimes there's different parts of ourselves. There's a part of us that likes designer things, and there's part of us that wants to be like a homesteader, and so rather than dealing with the fact that we contain multitudes, we

we hide the person who likes the designer things, and we only present the homesteader. You know, we're also silly. We're also messed up and silly. All right, so then there's, there's Pisces in the first house.

We got last but not least, we have Venus in the 10th, an art to house, and Saturn in the first, a Dharma house. So the conversation is directly between identity and your role in the public, visible sphere, workplace, what constitutes success or happiness or well being or harmony or relational happiness in the public sphere, in the workplace, in vocation, and then, you know, how does that square up against a process of trying to be more authentic, trying to be

more mature, trying to become more self realized. Again, the 10th house, we could just label a superficial and we could say the first house is the real deal. We all have an intersection between ourselves and the public through work or through, you know, just civic social engagements.

How do we find a balance between personal integrity, being real and authentic, and also being a person who has to, you know, exist in a world that's going to involve some compromises that, that the happiness can can, at times, be a compromise between personal authenticity and different different social conditions and adaptive adaptability that we have to demonstrate. So, yeah, those are some horoscopes for you. Just hopefully a way of taking our Venus Saturn conversation and it's like bringing it to life a little bit more.

Let's see. So

I'm going to now head over to the Kickstarter and let's see how it's doing.

Much better. We were at 759 we're now at 771

that's like 12 backers in an hour and 24 minutes. Look, I'm going to put the link into the chat box again,

I'm going to challenge someone in the audience. Come get a class pass. Come study with us. Take the leap. There's at least one person out there right now who's like, I really want to study in one of these programs. I'm just going to tell you right now, you'll love it. It's they're awesome programs, if I don't say so myself, they are fantastic. Get a class pass. Come study with us. If you're sitting on the fence, do it. You'll love it. It is so much fun. Our programs, our staff, our community, are just incredible. So if you're thinking about it, come pick up a class pass. Come study with us. There's the link to the Kickstarter. You'll find it again in the top.

The comment section. Also in the description of the video. If you're watching the replay later, we're at 771

after Q and A. I would love to see this sucker get up to 780 that would be like 20 plus backers in the course of the live stream. That's, that's, that's great for a live stream. So, yeah, if you haven't yet, now is the time be like, okay, you know what? I I've been loving this channel for a while. I'm going to support it in 2026

and you're going to put $5 into the jukebox, and you're going to get astrological music played to you for a whole year. It's, it's magic.

Okay, that's, that's it for me, plugging the Kickstarter again. Thank you again to everyone who's donated today. Really appreciate you guys. Let's flip into some Q, A, so,

where, where, where, there we go.

Got some chocolate. I'm set. What

questions do you have?

I did you you back for year two? Excellent.

Year two is awesome. I'm in the process between now and the spring of revising significant chunks of the year two curriculum, some really fun new stuff that's coming into the year two program.

Programs are amazing.

Adam, what is on your holiday playlist? I've been listening a lot to

the professor. I think his name is. He does these mash ups of like pop, like popular songs from the 90s that I really like in, like soul. I think he uses some kind of AI program to, like, remix Stone Temple Pilots into, like 50 soul

and

I have found them so fast. I find the whole thing so fascinating. So I've been going down a rabbit hole listening to people reproduce AI covers in different styles, like heavy metal versions of smashing pumpkins, like all sorts of weird stuff. Anyway, I know that there's a lot of controversy around all that right now,

but that's my honest truth is that I've taken an interest in in that lately, but not I mean, just kind of fleeting.

My holiday playlist is Lo Fi chill like for me to get through Kickstarter season, because it's so intense and there's so much resting on like I want you to imagine

once a year. And I'm not complaining, because I I've been very fortunate for this thing to work out for 12 years in a row, and I have, I have faith and confidence that's going to work out this year. So I don't mean to sound like, oh, crime, you know, cry me a river here,

but like, imagine that every year your salary or your contract was completely dependent on an audience, you know, donating and supporting your work.

It is so humbling and so purifying, and for it not to be a time of, like, unhealthy anxiety. For me, I've had to develop very specific practices throughout the Kickstarter, really deepening into prayer, meditation, listening, really assuming that liminal space of like, well, you know, I don't know what's going to happen. There's no guarantee. And really trying to live there for the 40 plus days of the Kickstarter. Outside of that, if I'm not listening, I'm like some Christmas music or whatever that my kids like to listen to. But, like, I listen to Lo Fi chill, ambient electronica stuff, because either that or like, flute music or singing bowls, I have to listen to stuff like that because I need to keep, like, a pretty steady wave in my heart during this time of year. It's,

you know, I learned, I really learned that, like, four or five years ago, in the Kickstarter, that I needed some strategies for keeping the anxiety in a healthy place. Because there's a healthy anxiety that's very purifying about this time of year for me. But sometimes it does drift into, like, panicky and I every year it's a practice of learning how to let the right kind of anxiety do its work. You know what I mean? So that's my that's how my music at this time of year operates for a couple years now. Yeah, great question,

will you combine your wife's herbal classes and astrology or medical astrology class? No. So

neither of us are really interested in that. We never have been, although it seems like an obvious thing that we would do. I just don't have enough interest in medical astrology, to be honest. Like my interest as an astrologer is psychological and it's it's divinatory.

I do facets of medical astrology through my horary practice, and we have long matched herbs, Herb allies, with plants and planets, but we've never developed like a medical astrology course or curriculum, because neither of us have the interest.

Uh oh, you had also asked, What's the new book about?

Well, the book that I just finished is called the Oracle speaks. And the subtitle is a Mantic memoir, and it is a,

it's meant to be a,

it's meant to be a book about astrology and about divination and about oracles, but it's also, it's also a memoir. It's, it's a story about how I came to become an astrologer. It's very creative. It it's

go. It's done with its second round of editing right now. So I'm going into two more rounds of editing before you know, I'll send it off to an actual editor. So I'm just doing the editing myself right now, and then human editor will work with it. And like, you know, someone outside of myself has to, you know, it's really important, so they will take a look at that. And then

after that book comes out, in a republication of my first book, fishers of men come out in the spring. I think there'll be I'll have a book launch party here in Minneapolis. I hope maybe I'll do something online too. Then I'm

going to start writing the next book in the summer. I don't have a title yet. There's a title listed like the oracular universe. It's called on the Kickstarter. It's actually untitled. I just put that in because I needed a placeholder. But the second book is going to be, I don't know if you've ever read like one of my favorite authors in my MFA program, I studied memoir writing so and creative nonfiction, I really like Annie Dillard a lot like pilgrim at Tinker Creek is one of my favorite books of all time, and

her mode of blending story with essay is probably the direction that the next book will take, and it will be about the epistemology and philosophy of divination,

obviously, with a particular leaning toward horoscopic astrology, but it'll be about the philosophy of divination, broadly speaking, and how to live a life in dialog with an oracular guide or guidance. And so it'll be, it'll be creative storytelling, weaving essay. That's where the next book is going. I know that much about it. And a lot of the writing that you've heard me do on the channel is like my pre drafting process. It's finding the voices that I like. It's finding the streams that I like that work or that when I listen back to I hear something that feels authentic to me. There's a lot of that. And pre writing a book, for me is about drafting until the right voice that's going to be sort of like the central thread puller sort of emerges. So I've been doing a lot of that right now. The guided meditation you heard was me finding that voice, exercising, that voice, stuff like that.

What is next for you on your fitness journey once you finish this current goal you set? Yeah, so I've learned a lot. Like in my first year of working, I did a bulk that, in hindsight, I realize is what, like, I had a trainer who was nice, but not like an actual bodybuilder, and they did a bulk with me that got me from, I don't know, 165 up to about 190 but it was called, in hindsight, it's what's called a dirty bulk, which means that there was a pretty significant amount of fat that came with the lean tissue growth. So my 190 wasn't clean and lean.

Then I got a new coach, and a year and a half ago, started going through a body recomposition process. So first we trimmed me down to back down to 160 or 165

then that 165 was the best I've ever looked in my life. You know, I was like, 8% body fat 165 and just looking really cut,

you know? And like, I don't mean this in a vain way, just like, This is my hobby, right? So this is just stuff I'm interested

in. Then we started a lean bulk, and I'm finishing 35 weeks of a lean bulk, that's now got me back up to about 187 so very close to where I was at the end of the dirty bulk,

but now it's clean, meaning I'm back up to about the same weight, but I'm only at probably 10 to 12% body fat, so I I'm I put on 20 plus pounds of lean muscle in about 35 weeks, and very minimal amount of body fat. So what'll happen next after I finish this lean bulk is I'll take like, four to six months of maintenance, which is just like, you know, when you're putting on muscle, you're in a calorie surplus, and you're pushing a lot more at the gym. So it's time to give my body a little rest and reset. So I'll go back down to maintenance calories. I'll probably lose a few pounds, and I'll.

My workouts will be a little bit less intense, a little less frequent. Everything will dial back just a little bit for, like, four to six months to just give my body and central nervous system a reset. Then I'll start pushing again. And the goal is, in the next two years, to get probably to, like, a very clean somewhere between, you know, 222 102 20, like, broadly, pretty broad. And then I'll hopefully begin prep for a contest, just for fun, like an amateur show. And once I do that, then my goal is to, you know, stay around to 200 and, like, 10% body fat, as you know, for my adult life, just as, like, lifestyle maintenance. So it's kind of like, it's very similar to, like, people who set goals to run marathons and stuff like that. There's a whole program. There's a whole arc in bodybuilding. It's a lot longer and slower than a marathon, but that's still take people, like, we have a staffer who just It took about a year to get it to a marathon. So,

yeah, but that's me, like, I like things that require a lot of, like, consider, like, I love doing the same thing day in and day out, and really deepening the bond and connection I have. Like most things that start for me as discipline turn into devotion. You've heard me say that before, but like,

I love seeing small, little micro changes and things by doing them consistently over time.

What's your favorite chocolate flavor, asking, as a certified chocolatier, Oh,

what am I eating right now? This is alter eco brown butter. I don't know they were there's this dark chocolate that my wife gets. It's probably healthier, but, um, they were out of it at the Co Op, so I just got that.

Um, but, yeah, I like that. I don't know. I'm definitely like a peanut butter and chocolate kind of person. Give me a little bit of peanut butter taste in the chocolate.

Have you also Lilith integrated into your astrology?

I don't work with Lilith personally, not a part of my symbolic like toolkit, although

that doesn't mean anything about the value of it.

What in your chart indicates your high intelligence?

I'm not, I don't, I don't. I really don't think I'm that intelligent. I'm like, a I'm like, someone who has, like, you know, like you go to a coffee shop and there's someone who's like, playing above average covers of songs you love.

That's all I am.

Everything I'm just good at. I'm like, a good cover artist at covering, like, all of the ideas that I like the most, you know, and I just have a way of, kind of remixing them, and I'm really not much more than like a like above average coffee shop remix artist.

That's it.

Thank you, though, that means a lot.

Let's see i

Hi, Adam, how does the North Node transiting Moon differ from Saturn? Feels a bit similar. PS finally started the alchemy of psychology by James Hillman last night, an audio book. Loving it. That is a fantastic book. Absolutely love that book. I'm glad you're reading it. You're going to be blown away. Read It Like three or four times too, because it, it'll keep speaking to you the more you work with it.

How does the North Node transiting Moon differ from Saturn? Well, they're, they're, I would say they're very different. The North Node going over the moon will tend to amplify or augment the desires of the moon, whatever they might be in your chart, Saturn will often really put like dampness, coldness, restriction, endings, limits around the moon, and often build a bridge into a next phase or chapter for the moon symbolism in your life, but usually through a kind of a kind of wintery, contractive phase, the North Node is, is, by comparison, Compared with like moist, expansive qualities like Jupiter, the south node is more compared to Saturn.

Why anxiety?

Why? I think I described this because if the Kickstarter, the Kickstarter doesn't perform within the range that we need it to, when

you take into consideration that it's the main, main revenue stream that allows me to pay a staff of 12 people, a full time Social Media Manager, support myself, create the need based offerings without having to have higher prices so that our business bottom lines are met. Everything rides on it. Literally, the entire model of the business rides on the success of the Kickstarter, and as the business has grown, right? And we didn't used to have a staff, but we didn't used to have the Kickstarter performing at the same level, because we didn't have the same size of audience. And so as the company and the school grows, the model keeps working, the stakes also sort of go up in terms of how it has to perform.

That.

An anxiety that I have to rework with every year. And it really for me, the way that I meet it is the same that I've met it every single year. The bottom line is, this is not mine. God, this is yours. Like I just I want this to be a place that serves the spiritual growth of other human beings. I'm very excited that I get to do something that I love and showcase my my creative skills. And, you know, like, that's all total bonus, but like, that's what it's about at the heart for me, and this anxiety that comes up every year brings me back to that intention and that surrender, because it becomes something that's out of my hands. Again, I would never if I can do this every single year until Nightlight is done and I retire, I will, because of what a powerful like, you know, due north it is on the spiritual compass of the company. It's, it really has that strong of a purifying effect. That kind of anxiety is very healthy in my in my mind,

as long as it doesn't tilt into, you know, something unhealthy.

I don't see the class pass. Can someone tell me what it's called? Yeah? So let me actually, I'll just show you if I can find it. Yeah. Here it is. If you scroll down on the list of rewards, you're going to see that at the very bottom there is attend one Nightlight astrology course, and then all of our courses are listed. And you'll see, attend two classes, attend three or attend four. There are four major programs that we have, and then there are two annual programs that are always new and different every year. So the class passes don't expire. You can use them toward any of those year. One would be the obvious starting point, but you can use them on on anything, and they don't expire. So you can save them, use one this year, another the next year, you know, whatever. So, yeah, that's that. I hope that helps. I hope you're able to find it and come join us. Just donated. So grateful for you and your channel. Thank you. Really appreciate it. Yeah, I'm interested in trying Ayahuasca in the near future. What would you suggest looking for when deciding where to go or red flags to watch out for? The number one thing I would watch for is indigenous background. There are a lot of very legitimate practitioners who have studied with and apprenticed with and sort of not certified, but then commissioned into the role of shamanic facilitator with the medicine of Ayahuasca from indigenous curanderos. You want to work with people that come from a lineage that's, my humble opinion. Take it early. I mean, I'm not trying to be puritanical, but that's what I believe. I believe that's the safest and deepest medicine path that you can find is work with someone that's coming from an indigenous lineage. There are many indigenous curanderos in South Central America that bless and deeply train and like you know, support people from other places in the world carrying the medicine. It's very open, like, I've not met a coonandero to date that thinks that someone from Europe or Africa or the United States or some other place couldn't practice Ayahuasca. It's about the sincerity of your heart. Every conandero I've met from the jungle has treated it that way. So I see it as very open, like, if your facilitator is not a mestizo shaman, so to speak, which is like a,

you know, like a, like a very common type of shamanic practitioner you'll find in South America, then it doesn't mean that they're not legitimate, but if they've not studied with one, then To me, that might be a red flag.

However, my very first piece of advice would be to actually sit with an indigenous healer.

The ceremonies that were the most life altering were were with that like rooted in the jungle, in the medicine, in the people. And you know, bloodlines that carry the medicine from this place of the planet.

I worked with some from Brazil. I worked with some from Peru. There's not one that's more legitimate than another, in my view. But having that like steeped in the TE of the jungle like it really does mean something.

Look for positive reviews. Look for people in the way that they talk about it that are grounded and not like on some kind of crazy hype train. Yes, at this place, they're out to heal and save the world. I've not met any indigenous curanderos who have messianic personalities that are all about saving the world or converting everyone. So be very careful of that.

Otherwise, I would say, you know, grounded simple, this is something that's meant to heal you. I learned it from my teacher, who learned it from his teacher, in the jungle like that's the safest, most reliable path that I've found. So that's what I would recommend. I.

A real editor is extremely important. Yeah. I mean, I when I wrote my first book, I

it's very similar process, but the difference is that now I'm self publishing, and so I've had to hire an independent contractor, you know, as an editor, whereas with my first book, I worked with the editing in house at at at Penguin, and I'll honestly say that I was really worried that the quality of editorial expertise would drop off if I was publishing on my own, that hiring someone, it wasn't they couldn't be as good as penguin. And I've actually found just the opposite. I've already started working with this editor, and, like,

just as good, if not better, than penguin. So there's also, like, for me, it's been a lot of learning about, I mean, everything's changed around self publishing, you know. And, yeah, I had some ideas that I'm realizing weren't correct. Like, I'm still gonna have a really great product working with a freelance, you know, independent, contracting editor, as I did with the in house editing at Penguin. So that's been really eye opening to me, because it's really helped me feel confident that I can self publish.

The reason that I wouldn't

self publish is if I felt like there was a press whose ability to promote my work was greater than my own. Because otherwise I'm going to be with the press who's going to lean on my platform that I've created anyway, you know, and then it's like, Well, why would I, why would I take, you know, 20 cents on the dollar, when I could take 80 cents on the dollar, if a, you know, mid tier public spiritual publishing house is going to require to use my platform as their major form of of advertising anyway, you know. So I'm, like, in a very special niche where I have a platform, and unless I was getting a book deal with a major, you know, press, and it's unlikely for, you know, spiritual nonfiction about oracles, you know, so, so it's kind of like an educated decision that I had to make. I bought

the four class passes last year. I wasn't sure it had questions, so I contacted support course directors, got back to me and answered my question. I'm in year one this year, and I love it. Oh, great. That is that's fantastic.

Is it possible that you do much more guided meditations? Those are typically tedious at times, your ears are very softly engaging. Just a thought, yeah, well, I you know, it's kind of new for me to do them honestly, but the feedback was great, and they they really, they don't take me a long time, honestly, stream kind of stream of consciousness writing. So I find that that kind of writing is not very hard for me. It flows out pretty easily. It might take me an hour, but, I mean, an hour is easily the amount of time I take, if not more prepping most talks. So it's not, it's like, pretty one to one, like, it wouldn't take me a lot longer to write more guided meditations.

Can you talk a bit about the chart ruler and how to work with it? Yeah, there is no chart ruler, so don't work with one. I

don't mean to be snarky, but the idea of a chart ruler is made up. There is no chart ruler in the entire history of astrology. There have been, you know, several different techniques talking about something called the ruler of the Nativity, or the master of the Nativity. All of the techniques to find it vary and lead to different planets. In modern astrology, we have the idea of a chart ruler that's based on your, you know, your ascendant these are all made up. They're all and I say that not to say that you can't use the idea of a chart ruler, like if you conventionally want to call your ascendant ruler your chart ruler, fine. But the point is that that is not some kind of objective thing.

It's a symbolic thing, and it has symbolic import or value, not concrete, literal objective, like engineering, you know, data kind of value. It's not empirical. In other words, it's, it's a symbolic choice to call a planet

the ruler of the Nativity is often no more it, what it really is is saying that when you consider which planets might be sort of the loudest in the course of the lifetime, in terms of the patterns that are the loudest, well you could conventionally call that the master or ruler of the lifetime.

But where something like that breaks down is when you actually apply it to living people and look at biographies over a lifetime, it just doesn't hold up. It will, there will be many people who could identify, Okay, yeah, by this technique of finding my ascendant ruler, or some other technique for finding the loudest, most dominant, strongest planet by dignities, does it have a lot of sway in the life.

Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the soul living the life will assign the same value to it that the technique does, and that's very important, and that's why I say there is no chart ruler, because a lot of technique in astrology and the way we assign value to it in like hierarchies of strength or importance are complete fictions. They're fictions that have a lot of value symbolically in oracular situations. So I'm not trying to say they're useless, but unless we recognize them as such, we're putting the cart before the horse, and we will lose contact with the living presence of the oracle that directs us to use any technique we ever thought to use in the first place. So to me, it's like, you know, be really careful of like things that

dress themselves up in the importance of being more objectively important than other things in the realm of technique. That's it's a big trap in most divinatory systems. That would be like someone saying to that Celtic crosses and Tao are more objectively true than three card past, present and future spreads. No one would take that kind of claim seriously in Tao, because it's so much clearer that we're not dealing in Tao with some kind of engineering empirical scheme

in astrology, the delusion that we are is pervasive, and so people love to have these kinds of conversations that are actually quite meaningless. But anyway, that's my perspective. I don't mean to be disrespectful to your question. That's just my honest response. That's That's how I feel about it.

Adam and midway through writing my first novel, what advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Well, so this is, I'll tell you, this is, I mean,

lots lots of thoughts about writing. You know, I did two graduate degrees in creative writing, so there's so much to say. One thing is, just keep writing. You know, if you it's like an instrument, if you keep playing it, you're going to get better at it. You're going to enjoy it more. You're going to have more fascinating things to express with it. So just keep doing it. That's the best piece of advice I've ever gotten. Is just don't stop writing. Even though I didn't write a book for 15 years after my first book, I never stopped writing. I wrote content here all of the time, every single day. I've been writing for years. Finally, it turned into another book, and now, look, I've got two more books planned, and they're now. They're just flowing out. So you never know when something's going to turn into a book, but the important thing is to keep writing. That's the that advice I got in my MFA from my MFA thesis director, and it has stuck, and it has gotten me through 15 years between one book and another. And now I'm just like, wow, I really get it books. It's not a linear thing. Creating pieces of art for some artists is very consistent. For other artists, you know, it's only when the Muse calls and you have to, but you have to stay faithful to the craft, even if the Muse isn't calling, to turn it into something that's really, really important.

The other thing that I would say not that I'm some great writer either, but I've stayed true to my writing and my process and it it certainly has seen me through a large gap between creative projects that have been really meaningful to me.

But the other advice that I would give is,

write, don't revise. So

when I was in New York City, I had the first editor that I had that I was just talking about there was through penguin. But then my agent's dad was a retired editor that worked for Grove Atlantic, and he was one of the editors on a team of editors at

Grove, Atlantic that did the editorial work for Jack Kerouac, Allen, Ginsberg, Malcolm X, like a bunch of, like, really fantastic writers and really important works.

And I was telling him about my writing process, and he said something to me that I said to myself, next time I write a book, I'm going to do that because I didn't do it in the first book that I wrote. And when he said this to me, it stuck. He said, Well, how did you write your first book? And I was like, Well, I you know, I mapped it all out, and I wrote through each chapter, and I would refine and tighten each chapter before moving to the next. And he was like, you know,

I remember working with Jack Kerouac, and he said, Jack said,

you know, first drafts are the best, always the best. By that, he didn't mean that there's not editing, polishing, revision required. But the most honest thing that you have to say and the most creative work is usually something that you find just coming out of you with less control and dictation in the initial stages of the writing, like, you just have to, like, get it out so you.

And I told him, I said, I'm, I'm going to do that, like next time I write, I'm not going to sit down, I'm going to I'm, I kind of know, like an idea for a book for Oracle speaks that I just wrote. I had an idea,

and then what I let everyone in on was the chapter by chapter writing of the book with zero polishing, zero revision. I mean, literally, every single chapter that people got in the early release was from my fingers to the screen to you. There was zero editing outside of formatting it for a PDF that I had one of my team members do no line editing, nothing

that I've gone through two edits of the book. The book looks, I mean, 100 times better than the drafts, right? Because I've really poured over it, paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, it's so much better, cleaner, more polished. Still this book, I did not try to make it clean, polished, amazing as I was writing it. I just got it out first, and then went back and began that process. I didn't do that the first time. I had way too much sense of control over the process, and this book was so much more organic, and it to me, it reflected a lot of growth in myself as a writer, because I just let it come out. I would say that a lot of people could benefit from that advice, if they're a writer, just like, don't try to curate your work too much. Just let it come out of you. You can curate it later. Like, when you, I don't know if you read Oracle speaks, and I think you might have been someone who did, but when you read the actual published version, you're going to be like, Wow, this is like, 10 times better than the first draft, you know, because it's because I've gone through the process now, but you know, that's, that's,

you know, that's the advice I would give.

8% is super hard to maintain, yeah. I mean, for some people, it is. It just depends on your discipline, with with food, more than anything, in my experience, but I would say, like, that's why for me, you know, like 1010, to 1212, ish, maybe even 13, that's pretty easy for me to maintain. Not, not too bad they you know, you can still have treats. You don't have to be so super diligent. But you know, most days you have to be on to maintain that. But that means you have to be healthy, which is, like, you know, to me, that's like, that's what I want. So it's, it's a it's not about maintaining a look as much as that range of body fat for most people, like, say, 10 to 13 or something, 10 to 14 even, is going to be about living healthy most days of the week.

But anyway, that's just, you know different, not that everyone needs to be that way. I'm not suggesting that at all, but, yeah,

do the planets ever visit you in your dreams? Yeah, I just had this amazing 12th house dream the other night where this huge visual metaphor about being in a warehouse came to me, and there were no signs. There was no, like, familiar sign posts, you know, like, if you're in a building, you'll you'll look around, but where's an exit sign? Or you start to be able to recognize

features of the building that kind can kind of help you try to navigate your way to, like, an exit or a way out of it. But there was zero signage, and everything looked exactly the same. And I was like, like, I can't orient myself in the space. And then there was just this knowing in the dream. I became very lucid, and it was like, this is like the 12th house. I'm giving you a little analog of the 12th house to meditate on. And I was like, Oh, wow, that's really cool. Thank you. That happens to me a lot, like I'd say at least once or twice a month, I get a dream where something astrologically will come through in some kind of analog, visionary situation, and it will serve as a way to help me deepen or understand something I think that comes less from some kind of special I have no special connection that I know of. It's more just like I'm thinking about these things all the time. So then I think they, they have a way of working themselves out. You know, in the dreams, a lot of psychedelics worked like that for me too. Like when I for the first four or five years of becoming an astrologer, I was working regularly with Ayahuasca, and because I was thinking and reading astrology all the time, the vision experiences of Ayahuasca became like, super instructive, like they taught me astrology. But that's not because Ayahuasca was like, I'm your astrology teacher. It was like, I'm going to amplify a learning process that's happening subconsciously and make it more vivid and speed it up, because that's what Ayahuasca does. That's why people say it's like six hours of six years of therapy in six hours. You know, it's an it's an incredible accelerator, because it shows you unconscious material very lucidly and in a kind of fast moving stream. I.

Listen to your inner voice and cut out the noise from people who aren't writers at all. I'm a writer of novels. I'd give that advice to my younger self. I like that advice. That's good. I

consider novels as different because we have a whole story arc and at least three acts. Yeah, that's fair. And there's not just one way of doing things either. You know that's that's for sure.

Do a bodybuilding show. That's Jackie. You're the spray tan artist who came on for a reading the other day, and I know you've done spray tans for, like, people competing. The only reason I wouldn't is because the prep for a show, in the low percentage of body fat that you get into for a show is pretty extreme. And I am older, and I would want to be very careful that I'm not, like, unnecessarily beating the crap out of myself.

So we'll see. We'll just, we'll see how it goes. You know, I'm gonna kind of approach. I want to, like, it's kind of a goal, but I'm, you know, my my goal is health, happiness, being a good dad, far more than it is like getting on a stage. So we'll just see how it goes. To see

patterns over time. The Oracle speaking to you. Do you have an astro Journal of symbols and what you've seen in practice.

I used to the first couple of years I kept a journal. I don't any longer, because they're just sort of,

my brain is just sort of teeming with them.

I'm just, I'm in like a an alembic of that kind of stuff. So it just has a way of flowing in and out without me having to notate any of it at this point, but I used to a lot.

What is nightlight's birth chart? You know what? I've never publicly shared, Night Lights birth chart,

and it's something I like to keep secret, not because I think it has any superpower in it or anything bad necessarily. It's just, it's one chart I don't share, but it's a good question. If I, if I, I wouldn't have a problem telling people about it. But for whatever reason, because I never shared it, I've always just been like, I don't think I

ever will. How do you handle the feeling that having anxiety in the face of a high stakes situation gives you a better chance at a positive outcome, even though it doesn't a lesson. I've been grappling with,

uh,

I've been I've been studying. I've told all of you this lately, I've been in Buddhist land. I've just been consuming a lot of podcasts on Buddhism and learning a lot about Buddhist philosophy, because it's kind of a branch off from the Vedic philosophical world that I never took a lot of time with because most of my experience has been in the Vedic worldview, and Buddhism comes out of it, but it's different, and I know enough about Buddhism to know the basic ways in which it's different, but I've never, like taken a deep dive, so I've been doing that lately and really, really appreciating it.

One of the things that I think is is helpful when you're in a high stakes situation and having anxiety, and then we're trying to tell ourselves a story about the value of the anxiety. If there is a real value in it and you can feel it and recognize it, then sitting with that and letting it

shift like I'll never forget, there was this Ayahuasca ceremony I had. I was writing about this in my book recently,

there was this feeling that I was being burned, like from the inside out by like a fire. And it was so real that I literally thought I was on fire. And I was like, freaking the fuck out in the ceremony. I was just totally spinning out, and I was screaming and thrashing and like it was I thought I was on fire. And what the craziest thing was, was that the literal, exact same sensation in my body as I finally started surrendering into it, which was the instruction that I was being given from some of the facilitators who were helping me. They dragged me to a shower. They were putting water over me. It was crazy. And they were like, you know, just relax. Just surrender into it, and that exact same feeling started becoming a feeling of bliss. I to this day, is one of the most memorable experiences I've ever had, where something that felt like it was torching me and was very painful did not change one ounce in its sensation in my body, but changed in its changed in how I was experiencing it and what I was what the reason I'm saying this is because that's what this Buddhist practitioner was talking about when it comes to anxiety and fear, that when we don't grasp to them and tell a story about them, and we sit with them and learn to move into them.

Our experience of them changes. That's a powerful thing that can come from sitting with negative emotions, feelings, experiences, and I think that's the value of sitting with things in general. They have a chance to not

they can be more than one thing at the same time. The sensation doesn't change, but the experience of the sensation changes.

There's a lot of other schools of meditation that say the same thing, but I was impressed by the Buddhist practitioner saying this and just, you know, making the connection to that specific that was like, the first time I can remember ever having something like that happen to me. I

My partner tried ayahuasca for mind expanding after 12 years sober. That was 12 years ago, and he's still using drugs, meaning Ayahuasca made him go back to drugs, FYI, well, a

couple of things on that. First of all, I'm really sorry that that happened. That sucks.

Second thing I would say is that

Ayahuasca doesn't make you do anything, you know. It's, it's a,

you know, and I would just personally push back and say his choice to use drugs is his choice, not Ayahuasca forcing him to do anything.

Many, many people have problematic paths with drugs in their life, and Ayahuasca is not a guarantee that it'll make that go away, and depending on the kind of support network and system that someone has in place to help process experiences with psychedelics, they can become problematic, for sure. So I'm not also saying that it's not possible that that wasn't

something that you know nudged him in a problematic direction, but I would say in my experience, being in communities of hundreds and hundreds of people who have gone through these things, and seeing a lot of different things in my day, it's not usually Ayahuasca that's the problem. It's the person, and it's also the kind of support that they do or don't have around them in their life, and the kind of trauma they're dealing with. Ayahuasca is not a cure all, for sure, and so but I think it's to say Ayahuasca made him go back to drugs, to me is, I don't personally believe that's probably true, but I don't mean any offense by that. I just would disagree with that take on it. I think

let's see.

The noise quiets when I'm alone. I found the quiet there anyway. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's helpful to do that.

I had an editor as self publisher too, and mine was awesome, yeah? I mean, that was just my own, I guess, insecurity and sort of, I don't know, I, for a while, I thought to myself that it was not as impressive to write a book if it wasn't going to be with a big press again. And I think that there's been a lot of stages of me realizing that's just not true. You know, I

I have an amazing bodybuilding coach. If you ever feel the need to change it up from who you have now, oh, thank you. That's really cool. Now I have, I have a coach who's competed at, you know, at the Olympia, like every he's won at basically every stage. He's absolutely fantastic. I am very happy with him right now,

more than I am happy with him as a bodybuilding coach, too. I'm just happy with him as a person. He really has the perspective of bodybuilding as a part of a healthy lifestyle, and that I really appreciate, because he really focuses on health a lot. Yeah,

I

Why do you often bring up that you're ruled by Venus and Leo? If you're so against the idea of I don't say that I'm ruled by Venus and Leo. I say that it's my ascendant ruler.

And so I'm not and I'm not against talking about the ascendant ruler as a critical part of our charts, calling it a chart ruler, I do not do, and anytime that I would do, it would be conventionally, which means, like, you know, it's a part of, like, modern vernacular, but when people start treating it like it's something objective, that's when I take issue with it. It's the same reason I don't have a problem saying I'm a cancer. Son, but do I really think that I am a cancer? Son, absolutely not. You know what I mean. But a lot of people use that language, and then beneath it, also have problematic like ontological and metaphysical assumptions going on about what that actually means. Like, some people really.

Think that they are their birth chart. That's a problem, right?

Let's see.

These are such great questions. I'm so loving chatting with you guys. I'm gonna sign off pretty soon, but you want to go downstairs.

She's so sweet. She's like, really subtle, like, sitting there, kind of like getting antsy, wanting to go downstairs, and I didn't catch it. And then finally, she's like, Okay, well, let's let You go.

Do I work with the 27 nakshatras? I do not, but I think they're fascinating. It might be something the nakshatras are, something that I'm curious to dive into at some point. I mean, I've had readings of my chart with the nakshatras and everything, but I

let's see.

Come on Adam, time for that IFBB pro card. Yeah, hardly, you

all right, got to the bottom of the comments there. Hey, thank you guys for being here today. I'm going to end the live stream. It's been a really fun conversation. Horoscopes, it Ching, I think we got some good stuff done today. I want to tell you about a few things coming up and how you can stay in touch with us. Over the next couple of weeks, we got a ton of live streams coming up. So let me right now just walk you over to

I'm gonna put the YouTube channel up on the screen, and let's go to live.

All right, so if you want to know the schedule of live streams in the last days of the year, go to the Live tab on the home page of the YouTube channel. What you're going to see are the scheduled live streams. So this Sunday, at 10am Central I'll be coming on to do free birth chart readings and another Q and A.

On Monday, I'm going to be giving a talk called, How bad is Saturn in Aries, really, with horoscopes. That'll be at 9am Central time, live streamed,

and then on Tuesday, I'll be doing the outer planets in 2026

Uranus in Gemini, with horoscopes, that'll be live streamed at 10am

Christmas Eve day, I'll be doing the outer planets in 2026 Jupiter in Leo, opposite Pluto and Aquarius, one of the Major transits of 2026

that'll be at 10am with horoscopes.

The day after Christmas, I will there'll be Christmas Day content that's recorded. Then the day after Christmas, I'll be talking about nodes and eclipses changing signs in 2026 Aquarius and Leo activations with horoscopes. That'll be the day after Christmas at 11am Central

Sunday the 28th they'll be doing free birth chart readings and Q A again. And then Monday the 29th I'll be doing the outer planets in 2026 with the Uranus Pluto Trine and horoscopes. So a lot of really fun live streams coming up to close out the year. And hopefully, you know, really kind of seal the deal with the Kickstarter.

Here we are at 779

backers. That's what that was the goal, right? So yeah, we

are having a good day on the Kickstarter right now. Thanks to all of you pitching in. Here's the link one more time.

I You haven't yet pitched in, please consider supporting us. And thank you again to everyone who has with just 13 days left, we still need over 1200 backers to go, so

spread the word. Help us out if you haven't yet, and thank you guys for listening. We'll see you guys.

Again

on Sunday, Sunday morning for a live stream. If you're in Minneapolis, we have a solstice event Saturday night at the grapevine collective in the new at the New City Center in Minneapolis. It's free. We're going to do a little bit of movement, we're going to do some meditation, we're going to talk about the solstice, and then we've got some snacks and tea, herbal tea my wife is making we're just going to hang out in community. It's free, so just come join us. You can find that on the events page of the website. We'd love to see you guys there. It's always fun to actually get together with real people. So hope to see you guys there. Otherwise, we'll see you on Sunday for the live stream. Bye, everyone.