Kelly and Andrew explore the influence of the planets in their lives and the lives of their clients. Sharing ideas about Uranus moving into Taurus. They also talk about the possibilities and limits of resolving challenges with more difficult placements. They also laugh a lot!
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Transcript
ANDREW: [00:00:02] Welcome to The Hermit’s Lamp podcast. I’m hanging out today with Kelly Surtees, who is an astrologer, and someone that I’ve known for, you know, at least a decade, I’d say now a bit longer. And [00:00:17] their approach is really interesting to me because they’re super smart about what they do, but they have a great sense of humor about it as well. You know, there’s a way in which they seem [00:00:32] to me to continue to laugh and enjoy life and all of those things even when talking about intellectual stuff or hard stuff or whatever and I think that that’s a trait that I super admire and [00:00:47] try and kind of hold in myself as I go through all of life’s ups and downs and so on. But you know, hey Kelly, for people who don’t know you, why don’t you introduce yourself? Who are you?
KELLY: Hey Andrew, well, I’m Australian, which might be obvious now [00:01:02] that I started talking. I married a Canadian and so I live, currently, just outside Toronto, but I’m an astrologer, probably what people are more curious about, and I’ve been an astrologer full-time professionally for nearly 20 years, [00:01:17] so it has been my life’s work.
I came to astrology very young, not because anyone in my family was interested in astrology, but because I was, and I started learning the basics when I was 10, 11 years old, back [00:01:32] in Sydney where it was a lot warmer than where we are now, and carried on with my sort of personal exploration. It was style of astrology through my teenage years and then in my early twenties, I actually signed up to do a massage therapy [00:01:47] training course and the college I was studying at in Sydney offered an astrology training program, which just had never occurred to me was a thing. So that’s kind of how I got started, and what I do today is, I work with clients and students around the world, [00:02:02] I do one-on-one consults in astrology, but primarily what I’m doing more and more of these days is teaching the next generation of astrologists through my online training programs.
ANDREW: Amazing. So before we, before we were recording [00:02:17] here, we started kind of talking about astrology and we were talking about the history and the way in which sort of history and tradition and sort of practice all flow together, and I think that I’d [00:02:32] love to kind of try and pick that up and talk about that a little bit, right?
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: You know, what, where did your, where did your astrology start? Like what kind of, did you start out studying older forms? Did you, did you…?
KELLY: Absolutely not. Not, I started with a [00:02:47] very modern psychological astrology, which was hugely popular in the 80s and 90s, like 1980s, 1990s. I started studying astrology in the late 1990s. And yeah, just had a very, [00:03:02] I would say, a very modern introduction to psychological, almost evolutionary, components in astrology. And that was great, it got me started got me into my practice, and it was when I attended my first astrology conference, which was the FAA [00:03:17] conference in Melbourne, I think in 2004, that I was lucky enough to hear people like Demetra George, John Frawley, and Lee Lehman speak, who are very well respected astrologers who all practice slightly different forms of mediaeval [00:03:32] or traditional astrology, and connecting with those teachers really aroused my interest in things like, where did some of these things we use in astrology come from? Like who first created the houses, for instance? Or why is [00:03:47] this planet associated with the things that it is associated with? So yeah, I would say within, you know, the first five years of starting my practice, that had become a real interest for me and that was like going down the rabbit hole.
ANDREW: Yeah, for [00:04:02] sure. I think that there’s, there’s always this question about that kind of stuff for me, which is really like, where, how far down do we go?
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: You know, starting, starting out for me, you know my interest in astrology [00:04:17] came out of you know, studying Aleister Crowley and studying his magical systems. And so, you know, it was a lot of magic and ideas around the inner planets predominantly, you know.
KELLY: Yes.
ANDREW: And you know, and sort [00:04:32] of like working with that and looking at that as a magical model and so on. But you know, as you start digging in and you start looking back, you’re like: Okay. Well, where does that come from? And what is that? How far does that go? What, where is the source from which that wisdom [00:04:47] comes from? You know? And I think it’s such a, such an interesting and challenging question to kind of slide into, you know?
KELLY: It’s a huge question, because it, you know, something… To try and answer that for astrology [00:05:02] takes you back to the origins of philosophy, to the origins of mathematics, you know, things like wondering why we’ve associated a particular physical thing or phenomenon with a certain emotional experience [00:05:17] or a certain philosophical construct. So when you dive into these origin stories, if you like, of some of the magical practices, you are almost going back to the dawn of human thought and human ideas and that can [00:05:32] be a very broad research project, because then you’re not just learning explicitly about the origins of astrology. You’re actually reading, you know, ancient philosophers, and you might be reading some of the original mathematicians to get a sense on why [00:05:47] they did what they did and where they were coming from.
ANDREW: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think it’s so important to also try and understand, it’s not just about what they said, which is certainly important. But it’s also, [00:06:02] what were they? What were they thinking? How were they thinking about it too? Right? Because you know, like in a divination class that I’ve been taking with one of my elders, we were discussing how, you know, a hundred and fifty years ago, [00:06:18] the scope of life’s experiences, that we needed to speak about in divination, were equally complex probably on the human front, but on the practical fronts, were much narrower in some ways, you know? The range [00:06:33] of human experience and the range of things we have access to is so different. And then you know, when we go back to, like, what was it like in ancient Greece and what was it like in, you know, here, there, or wherever, you know? Yeah, it’s hard to even, I think, understand [00:06:48] exactly how they considered certain things.
KELLY: Yeah. That’s a . . . That’s a really great point. I mean, two topics that come to my mind. One of them is, in the older literature on astrology, there’s a lot of questions and a lot of detail around dealing with [00:07:03] ships and dealing with crops. So there’s a lot of, you know, what indicates shipwreck? Or is my ship going to come in? And that seems a bit weird to a modern person, because why are they so obsessed with ships? But then you have to remind yourself that [00:07:18] many, many hundreds and thousands of years ago, ships were actually the primary form of transport. We didn’t have trains or planes or obviously automobiles…
ANDREW: Yeah.
KELLY: And just to your point there, you do kind of have to almost put yourself back into: What was life like, two [00:07:33] thousand, two and a half thousand years ago, when things like crops were more likely to perhaps fail, water quality was a massive issue because that obviously led to the spread of disease or illness, life expectancy [00:07:48] was shorter, things like pregnancy were life threatening, in many cases, for women, and many more babies died, you know, in the first 12 months of their life then do today with modern medicine. So a lot of the questions and a lot of the, their life, if [00:08:03] you like, just to almost give a superficial summary, they lived a lot more, closer to the line of life and death than what we do today. And one of the kind of attacks against older forms of astrology is that it’s so fated, you know, [00:08:18] and it’s so deterministic, but the intention was to try and give clearer answers about really meaningful topics that were, you know, more touch-and-go than what they might be today.
ANDREW: So where [00:08:33] do you, where do you fall on the sort of fated spectrum of things?
KELLY: Oh, this is a really good question. And I’ve thought about it because it does come up. I have any . . . .
ANDREW: Yeah!
KELLY: Over the years. There’s a beautiful quote. I think it’s by Albertus Magnus, [00:08:48] who says something like, actually, maybe instead of bastardizing it. That’s how you know, you’re an absolute asteroid nerd, that you have books like this handy, [00:09:03] because there’s, he has a beautiful quote that I kind of . . . . When I first discovered this quote, however many years ago, it really helped me clarify my own answer to the fate versus free will argument. So he says, “There is in [00:09:18] man a double spring of action, namely nature and the will, and nature for its part is ruled by the stars, while the will is free. But unless it, the will, resists, it is swept along by nature and becomes [00:09:33] mechanical.”
And that idea, like fate is sort of your, your nature, or what’s kind of ruled by the stars, and the free will to my mind is our very human thinking, you know, application of effort, and I’ve seen [00:09:48] this in chart work with clients and students over the years now, enough that I know it to be true. That your birth chart might be, if it’s almost like a map of your fate and if you do nothing, if you just allow the fate to manifest freely and purely, [00:10:03] it can give very clear sense of this area of life flows, and that’s where you have success, and this area of life is where you’re going to hit blocks after blocks. But if you choose to apply your free will, I’m not saying that anyone can make anything [00:10:18] happen because I don’t actually believe that’s true.
ANDREW: Sure.
KELLY: But I do think that there are certain topics, as indicated by the chart, where the application of one’s effort, aka free will, can move the needle from completely dissatisfying [00:10:33] to perhaps somewhat satisfying or maybe from somewhat satisfying to more fulfilling. There are some topics in some charts that that have a bit of a firm no and that sort of response. So I do think we [00:10:48] have free will within a scope, if that makes sense.
ANDREW: Yeah.
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: Yeah, I think people come–because I do predictive card reading, right?
KELLY: Yes.
ANDREW: People are always like, where does, where’s my free will? Like, [00:11:03] you know? Or they’re like, well, just tell me how it’s going to be. I’m like, well, in this case, it’s a free will issue. How do you want it to be? In this case it’s not a free will issue. You know?
KELLY: Yeah, I think that’s, that’s a beautiful way of describing it. I mean, I’ve looked and worked with clients over the years and I’ve beautifully been blessed to have [00:11:18] a couple of clients allow me to share some of their chart work in my teaching. But I have a handful of clients who have been single their whole lives, and whatever they have tried or not tried or maybe they haven’t even been interested. The topic of relationships [00:11:33] has simply not come alive for them. And there are ways to see things like that in the chart, and then there are other charts where it’s like, there are some challenges here, but if you put the effort in, you got to be able to get a little bit more. But I like how you summarized [00:11:48] it there, that there are some topics that are kind of fated, and a little bit out of our hands and there are others where it’s like, you can move the needle on this, if you desire it enough. Yeah.
ANDREW: Yeah. I often think of [00:12:03] it this way: You know, so, we live on a planet with seven point whatever billion people.
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: All of those people are seeking to exert their free will.
KELLY: Yes.
ANDREW: However, you know, everybody is to a greater or lesser extent [00:12:18] acting based on culture, which is, which is a force that, you know, if it’s internalized and not undone, you know, it’s just like fate, right? You know, like the cultural bias or cultural experiences or cultural expectations, [00:12:33] right?
KELLY: Even family conditioning.
ANDREW: Right? Well, that was going to be the next thing, right? Like, you know, our baggage, our personal baggage, right? And then we’re, so, we’re not only trying to exert free will, but we’re trying to exert free will into the sphere where everybody else is exerting [00:12:48] those forces and maybe some degree of their own free will, and then there’s some amount of chaos in the system, and then there’s some fixed points, and it’s like, so how much, how free is that free will? And I think, you know, maybe it’s, you know, [00:13:03] as we’re talking about it, I think it’s a carryover from my time being so focused on Crowley’s kind of magic of cultivating the will and building the capacity, you know, in the way that that quote talks about, right? Like, you know, it’s like, how [00:13:18] free can we become from those things? The answer is, never free.
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: Fully. But like, we can create a lot more space and in many areas of our life, maybe we can create a lot more space so that then we can kind of act, choose, [00:13:33] or discover where we are aligned better maybe? You know?
KELLY: Yeah, and I think that’s a huge part of any type of magical healing work, whether it’s astrology or tarot, or other ritual practices. One of the things that [00:13:48] Dimetra George said in this very first conference years ago, which has stuck with me, she described that it’s partly the astrologist’s job to help the client understand the areas of their life that are most likely indicated flowing [00:14:03] fulfillment, and the areas of their life that are less likely to give a reward or sense of satisfaction relevant to the amount of effort that they might put in, and I think that’s, you know, sort [00:14:18] of, to what you’re speaking about here–We’re speaking about. We can influence certain things to a certain extent, but you made a great point, like the 7 billion people, all trying to influence certain things. We [00:14:33] can’t all get everything. It’s just, it’s not the way things are built. I won’t have as many children as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, no matter how hard I try, that’s just not part of my experience, [00:14:48] and other people might be like, but I want, you know, the wealth of Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or what have you and like, that’s not, you know, so part of our work is to help guide people. Like you might think that you want these things. It doesn’t really bring you fulfillment. Like there is an exploration [00:15:03] around the self-awareness, self-knowing, like knowing the self and moving beneath some of the things that we think we want, to get in touch with the things that really make us all come alive.
ANDREW: For sure. Yeah and I know for me too, you [00:15:18] know, like because I spent a lot of time, especially magically, but you know, definitely in other ways too, kind of working to counterbalance the, you know, tendencies in my chart or the things that are more problematic there.
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: But even [00:15:33] at that, you know, like, you know, like my placement of Saturn is just, you know, it’s a it’s a recurrent point of friction for me. And that’s probably never going to change. I can see it coming. I can see it coming more now. I [00:15:48] can have better strategies for dealing with it when it kind of like, brings up its thing. I can make some degree of better choices in advance. But you know, it’s sort of, it’s a, it’s a, it’s in a place where it [00:16:03] just kind of continuously causes a certain kind of friction in my life. And you know, the reality is, it’s like, well, I’ve just got to roll with that, I’ve just got to accept that, and I’ve got to learn to to see it and roll with it and move through [00:16:18] it and to not hold onto it. And, and even kind of at this point, you know, I used to think that I would eventually kind of like learn the lesson of that position and and be free of it in a sense, and I’ve even caught a move past that where I’m like, [00:16:33] I don’t even think that– I’m sure there are lessons that I will continue to learn about it.
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: But I think that, that that’s also a wrong idea. I think that, you know, stuff like, some of the aspects are just about straight up acceptance, you know, and just be like, look [00:16:48] at that. That’s just the way it’s going to be. Stop hoping it’s going to be different.
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: And then see what changes, you know?
KELLY: Well, that is a really powerful piece. I mean, it reminds me of people who are like, I wish I was taller or I wish I was shorter or I wish I had, you know, different, [00:17:03] I mean, you can probably change your hair or your boobs or what have you, but it’s very hard to change your height. You know, it just, you are either a tall person or a short person for the most part, and these– You just have to work with it. You know, I’m a tall person. I’m 5’10”. [00:17:18] I’m like a hundred and seventy eight centimeters or something. And you know, when you’re a teenager, you hate that, because everybody, you can’t hide in a crowd, people see, but you know, as an older woman or a more mature woman, it’s lovely. I can carry a little bit of extra weight and [00:17:33] nobody knows, kind of thing.
So my relationship to that fixed thing in me has changed over time and that’s kind of, what you’re speaking to here is that there are certain parts of our self and our psyche that we do have to [00:17:48] kind of just accept and it’s what, the piece that I got really excited about, that you said, is what if I stop mentally and energetically and emotionally resisting this thing that is one way that I so desperately wish was another way? [00:18:03] If I just breathed out and allowed myself to acknowledge and accept, you know, I always have to be vigilant about money or about sexual interactions or about career, whatever it happens to be, based on, you know, you mentioned your [00:18:18] Saturn, someone else might have a problem with their Mars. You know, if you just kind of go into an acceptance place with it, the freeing up of energy and emotional power that you have been using to try and force back on that is incredibly liberating and when you take [00:18:33] that energy and you apply it to, you know, a talent or a skill, the idea of enhancing the good, you can radically change your life, not because you made that problem thing be anything other than what it was, but because you stopped [00:18:48] giving it all your focus. And you put your focus on to something that actually has, you know, some potential to take you in a more fulfilling direction.
ANDREW: For sure. And I think that that’s, I mean, that’s one of the reasons why, going and sitting with an astrologer, [00:19:03] if you’re not, you know, or learning it yourself is so helpful because there are aspects, you know. I mean, you brought up Mars, right? You know, I mean, I’ve Mars in Aries, I was a very angry young person, you know, and I have a, I have, when [00:19:18] it emerges, a very very bad temper.
KELLY: Yes.
ANDREW: But it’s not that much of an issue any more. I mean, I still need to be mindful of it. But that one has been way more amenable to management and modification than [00:19:33] other aspects of my chart, because, because of its nature, maybe because of my nature, probably, because of its placement, and so on. So. There are those things where it’s great and you can kind of turn them into an advantage. I mean it’s part of what fuels my drive to do [00:19:48] what I do around work, right? Like I have a lot of energy, a lot of the time, and so I can do a lot of work and run the shop and do all those things. You know, whereas other people are always like, how do you do so much? I’m like, I’ve got Mars in Aries. I’ve just got gas in the tank. It just keeps going? You know? [00:20:03]
KELLY: Yeah, you’re the Energizer bunny, it just keeps going and going. I mean, what we’re kind of alluding to here is something that comes to us from the Hellenistic astrology, form of astrology, that has to do with sect, which is S-E-C-T. Which kind of divides [00:20:18] charts into daytime or nighttime. Very simply based on the time of day that you were born. Then this working theory is that if you’re born in the daytime, Saturn is going to be a little bit more helpful or productive for you and Mars a little bit more problematic. [00:20:33] And if you’re born at night time, the reverse is true. Where in the nighttime, the cool of night tends to calm the heat of Mars, so you tend to get less sharp Mars problems. And in the nighttime, the cool of the night exacerbates [00:20:48] the kind of curmudgeonly Scrooge-like energy of Saturn, so you tend to get more of a harsher Saturn.
ANDREW: Sure. Yeah.
KELLY: In a nutshell. I don’t know if that rings true for you, personally Andrew, but…
ANDREW: Definitely, I was born at 9:30 at night. So.
KELLY: Yeah, that was going [00:21:03] to be my question to you, just based on the fact that you seem to really like– I mean, your Mars is placed in one of its home signs in Aries, and that also is a way of getting a little bit more of the positive potential. The other thing you’re talking about too, though, is we are all hotter [00:21:18] as energetic beings in our youth, and if we have Mars problems, they will tend to be worse in our teenage years or in our 20s.
ANDREW: Sure.
KELLY: And then the aging process, where we cool and slow, just biologically, that does [00:21:33] temper some of the Mars problems. The reverse is true for Saturn, though. Saturn problems can sometimes be something we do have to carry with us, even as we age, because the nature of aging tends to kind of stimulate more Saturnian type manifesting.
ANDREW: When [00:21:48] you talked about the, the coolness at night exacerbating, you know, Saturn.
KELLY: Saturn…
ANDREW: Yeah, I’ve had this image of like, oh, it’s chilly, and my knee hurts cause it’s cold now, and oh…. [laughing] You know, it’s just like, oh, man, such a Saturn image, right?
KELLY: Yeah, to have sore knees, or a sore back, and it’s worse in the winter, because winter is like exacerbating Saturnian qualities as does nighttime. Yeah. I mean [00:22:16] there is a positive reversal here, which is that Venus and Jupiter, considered the two benefic planets, people born in the daytime tend to have more Jupiter type gifts or talents, because the [00:22:31] heat of Jupiter is really conducive to the heat of day time. Whereas Venus is more of a moist cool planet, generally speaking, and she really comes to the fore in the evening. So if you’re born at night time after the sunset or before the Sun has [00:22:46] risen, and obviously daytime and nighttime is different depending on season and time of year and birth location. So–
ANDREW: Sure.
KELLY: ….being born at 9:30 at night, if you’re born in Europe in July, you might still be a daytime baby, because it’s a very [00:23:01] late sunset, but if you’re born at 9:30 at night in January or February in Canada, you’re definitely a nighttime baby though.
ANDREW: For sure.
KELLY: Yeah. You do, you get like a specific type of problem, depending [00:23:16] on whether you’re born in the daytime or nighttime, and then you get a planet that is giving you, you know, Venus is, can be, more creative or more relationship-oriented and that’s nighttime gifts. Jupiter is more about that wisdom and teaching and inspiration and motivation and that’s more [00:23:31] of a daytime gift. I mean, you have to look at the planet in the chart as well. I mean…
ANDREW: For sure.
KELLY: You’d want the Jupiter or the Venus to be in a nice sign or making a great aspect. Yeah, but that’s, I don’t know just when you were talking about your problem with Saturn, I’m like, I feel [00:23:46] like you must be born at nighttime because this is very–
ANDREW: For sure. Yep. My parents remember exactly what time I was born, because my dad was watching Hockey Night in Canada, which was on a Monday, [00:24:01] and you know, whatever right? Like he’s like, there’s like a very specific set of things that we associate around that, the memories around that, so they’re like, there’s no question about what time you were born, you know?
KELLY: I love birth stories like that. Yeah. That’s fantastic.
ANDREW: Yeah, for sure.
KELLY: So yeah, so this [00:24:16] is my guess, we got here, I’m like, how did we get here, fate versus free will and what’s in the chart? And [24:24 not quite clear] really amazing.
ANDREW: Yeah, I definitely think so. So, I’m also very interested, because I’ve been following along [00:24:31] what’s going on in the stars these days, even though, even though it sort of, on a personal level, astrology has shifted away from what was at one point a more professional folks into a more just kind of personal curiosity. You know, I got really curious [00:24:46] about: we have this big shift into into Taurus right now, right?
KELLY: We do.
KELLY: Big energy.
KELLY: We’re recording this just as Uranus, like a big explosive volcanic planet, has moved into Taurus, which is the most [00:25:01] fixed stubborn stable sign in the Zodiac. There’s a real contradiction, if you like, in the symbolic imagery here, Uranus loves to shake things up. It literally is like earthquakes and volcanoes and lightning strikes and [00:25:16] Uranus is like the farmer in the field. He’s just plowing year after year, so this is a huge– We’re starting this new kind of seven to eight year cycle that is going to radically reshape society, [00:25:31] culture, and individually, each of our lives as well.
ANDREW: Yeah, it’s been, it’s been interesting to watch sort of– In my orbit, there’s been a lot of people who’ve had a very [00:25:46] sort of disruptive shift go on in the last kind of, you know, like in the last few weeks, really, kind of you know, and it’s sort of like, we’re going along, I’m going this way. Oh, wait, what the hell am I doing? No, I’m [00:26:01] going to go this other way, you know? And it’s such a, such an interesting shift to watch happen, you know, and to sort of, and also to try and roll with it, you know, because it’s been– A bunch of that’s had an impact on me as well. So it’s always, it’s really [00:26:16] interesting to see it’s going on everywhere. I’m like, all right, I’m gonna keep my eyes open, could be anywhere now, because it’s the other thing about it.
KELLY: Well, that’s– I was talking about this with a client earlier this week, and they had something in, their chart is being activated by [00:26:31] Uranus, they’re a little bit resistant as you know, everyone with planets. So if I back up a second, Uranus is moving into Taurus, so it is activating anyone with planets in the sign of Taurus, but the way the planetary aspect patterns [00:26:46] or energetic patterns work, while Uranus is in Taurus, it will also have a fairly dramatic impact on the other fixed modality signs, which include Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. So those four signs, Taurus, Leo, [00:27:01] Scorpio, and Aquarius are all quite activated but it does get a little more technical than that in the sense that Uranus moves quite slowly. And so we actually had a taste of Uranus in Taurus in 2018 between [00:27:16] May and November, but Uranus was only activating the first one or two degrees of Taurus in 2018.
This year in 2019, Uranus is going to activate all the way up to the first six degrees of Taurus. So [00:27:31] for people who might be familiar with their birth chart. Very specifically, if you have a planet between zero and six degrees of any of the fixed signs, so taught, you know, you could have, could be four Leo Well, three Scorpio or two Aquarius or five Taurus. [00:27:46] They’re all getting that Uranus transit. And I was talking, I had a client this week who fell in that category, and they were very sort of resistant around: What if I don’t want to make this change? what if I’m not ready to make this change? And [00:28:01] I kind of laughed because having worked with, you know, Uranus for many years, here is an indicator of that major kind of upheaval and change that leads to new freedoms and Independence. You know the Uranus change has a purpose, it leads [00:28:16] to new freedom, it leads to new authenticity, it leads to Independence. But if it’s coming, it means that the shake-up, the time for the shake-up is now. And it can definitely surprise you.
And I have a personal story where last [00:28:31] summer in the northern summer, I was very frustrated with where we were living. I just had sort of done 10 years in a little small town and I was just a bit restless and bored, and what’s next? and when can we go and live near the ocean again? And [00:28:46] and so my husband and I had some really big talks over the summer, and we pulled it apart, his career really has him here, and we came up with a plan by the end of the summer, this was all while Uranus was in Taurus, where we would move to the West Coast in two [00:29:01] years time, when he would retire. And I was like, that’s great. You know, it wasn’t as soon as I wanted, but it was sooner than he wanted. So we did that lovely relationship compromise and then like a month later, he came home and said, there’s a job in [00:29:16] a whole other part of the world, that I think I’m going to apply for, and I was like, okay, well just apply and see, and anyway, long story short, it took a few months. There’s a lot of interview processes and we found out that he’s accepted the job and we’re now going to be moving [00:29:31] literally in the opposite direction to where we thought we were going to move and that’s how Uranus works. I felt the energy of being restless and bored and we started doing our lovely logical human brainstorming about how we could come up [00:29:46] with a practical plan and Uranus is like, you’re on the right track, but I want to throw a few surprises into the mix, and so here’s an unexpected out of the blue wild idea. Do you guys want to say yes to this? And we did. And that’s [00:30:01] so what you’re saying, Andrew, it works like almost scanning. Where is this Uranus thing coming from, even when you know to expect the unexpected, Uranus can still surprise you and you know, give you those curve balls. They can be very exciting and very liberating [00:30:16] but they will not be what you had thought.
ANDREW: Yeah, for sure. I feel like my experience so far of this energy is that I was thinking that I would be doing a lot more traveling and teaching over the coming while?
KELLY: Yep! [00:30:31]
ANDREW: And the shift in energy and the shift in circumstance over the last little bit and like right around now has, has gotten me canceling most of my travel plans, and being like, you know what, I think that, I think that what I [00:30:46] need to actually do is focus more on creation and focus more on like, sort of deepening the, the foundation of the store, and, and my work in regards to that, as opposed [00:31:01] to the sort of like, I’m going to go around and teach all over the place, which I love but it’s like, it’s like, no, that, that’s not where you’re going right now, and I’m like, all right.
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: Fair enough.
KELLY: So did you have a relatively quick kind of you know, I set up [00:31:16] this schedule and then just a few months later, kind of changing it and reshaping things?
ANDREW: Yeah. I mean, it’s really, some of the stuff has been set up for a while, but it’s yeah, there’s just been a bunch of projects and ideas that have been on the table that, that, [00:31:33] you know, starting, starting about, well really, starting at the start of this year, you know, sort of. So, I mean, I got divorced last year, and then, so I’ve been, you know, sort of like living separately now for about four [00:31:48] months by the time this goes live and I was just realizing that a) I’m kind of tired because it’s been a lot, right?
KELLY: Yeah. That’s a lot to process, yeah.
ANDREW: So there’s that. B) My entire day to day living [00:32:03] situation has changed, you know, I have my kids half the time, you know, all my other work life tries to live in that sort of compressed other half time.
KELLY: Yep, three or four days a week.
ANDREW: Yeah, and, you know, and there’s a lot more, oh, a [00:32:19] lot more, there’s a lot of kind of running around that’s a part of my life, you know, especially as my kids get bigger.
KELLY: Yes.
ANDREW: You know, they’re not big enough to be…
KELLY: All the driving. The driving.
ANDREW: Yeah, or you know or like, taking them around, I mean, we live downtown so, you know, but they’re, they’re cool [00:32:34] to go. The older one’s cool to go places they know, but if they’re going anywhere new, they need us to take them, you know?
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: So, it’s like, all right, everybody’s on the bus. Let’s go here. Let’s go there. Let’s do whatever, right?
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: And, and so all of those changes just made me realize [00:32:49] that, you know, I needed to kind of shift back to reassess my actual energies and that I also needed to kind of look at what’s, [00:33:04] what am I what am I doing? And what am I hoping to get out of it? And does it make sense from that space, right? And so there are a bunch of things that I’ve been doing where, like, from a practical point of view, they seem like [00:33:19] they make sense but maybe more from an emotional point of view, I’m, I have some other agenda for being there that’s not being met?
KELLY: Yes.
ANDREW: Around the growth of my career, around, you know, interconnection with people, around a bunch of different stuff, right? And once [00:33:34] I realized that discrepancy… And I was like, okay, so all of these things where I have an unofficial agenda, that’s really my actual agenda, that is not in alignment with doing these things, I should stop that, you know? And, and [00:33:49] a lot of the travel was sort of geared around some of that stuff, right, you know, fun, escape, you know, status, whatever, I’m like, none of those things matter that much ultimately and if I want to have fun I should just go have fun. And if I want to like [00:34:04] escape, I should like, take a day off work and go do something, but like, traveling to go work somewhere else is not a way to accomplish those things, you know?
KELLY: Yeah. Yeah.
ANDREW: So.
KELLY: So this is great because it sounds like you’re coming into a deeper sense of what [00:34:19] is authentic and real and right for you. And that’s, you know, the whole pathway of Uranus is that it is, it awakens us, if you like, to things that might have been latent or forgotten or neglected, but the [00:34:34] chaos or the upheaval of of changing things is a really critical part. It’s like there’s almost a dare, a cosmic dare, you know, if you would like this level of authenticity, how much are you prepared to change in your life that’s kind of on the fake end of [00:34:49] the spectrum, to really sit in that deeper sense of self.
ANDREW: Yeah. For sure, yeah, it corresponds with sort of a drive that I’ve been feeling as well. Like there are lots of parts of my life that I haven’t [00:35:04] been public about. I mean, I haven’t been secretive about them, but I haven’t been like super public about them either?
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: And you know, so like, you know, being a polyamorous individual. It’s a thing that people, if they know me, know about me, but it’s not a thing that [00:35:19] I’ve sort of historically, you know, broadcast per se, right?
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: But also, I’ve been feeling like that’s something that I wanted to change and so I actually recorded an episode, the episode previous to this is about poly, [00:35:34] polyamory and love and spirituality, you know, and so it’s like, it’s also that, right? Like what are the risks you’re willing to take, right? What’s, what are you willing to put in? How much discomfort are you, are you able to engage to get that authenticity? Right?
KELLY: [00:35:49] Well, and this is the key, is that there is some discomfort and that’s a really beautiful way. Like what risks, what are you prepared to lose, or put on the line so that you can be more authentic? Are you prepared for people to maybe judge [00:36:04] you a little bit because you’re owning your stuff? And Uranus is really correlated with things that are counter cultural or might be defined against society’s norms as a little unconventional or atypical.
ANDREW: Yeah.
KELLY: I always [00:36:19] think about Uranus in Taurus is like just letting your freak show out, like fly your flag, basically. We all have parts of ourselves–
ANDREW: Yeah.
KELLY: That are a bit weird and a bit odd or bit unusual and when [00:36:35] Uranus shows up and really starts, because the last eight years we had Uranus in Aries. So there was a very specific type of Uranus vibration going on. And what I would say is, for most people, the last eight years brought a lot of that chaos [00:36:50] and call to authenticity. The next eight years probably won’t be as strong for you, just because, you know, if you are activated by the areas or the cardinal sign piece, you may not have as much fixed signs, you know, in your life, but there is always a risk. There’s always a level like [00:37:05] Uranus is like, how can you let the part of you that feels like a black sheep be more on display more of the time, you know, if you think you’re wearing red when everyone else is wearing white, how can you embrace that part of you? So.
ANDREW: Yeah.
KELLY: It’s wild, I mean and Uranus [00:37:20] in Taurus has some pretty specific collective themes that I think we’re going to see as well. I don’t know if you looked into those.
ANDREW: Well, I’m, I listen to you and Chris and…
KELLY: Austin. [00:37:35]
ANDREW: Austin, I was going to say Aidan, and I’m like, no Aidan is a person who’s on my podcast, Austin, on The Astrology Podcast where you do a– It’s a great thing, you should go check it out. There’s lots of good stuff about it. The episodes that I listen to are [00:37:50] the sort of monthly forecast episodes where the three of you discuss what’s coming and so, you know, I heard the discussions about, about that and the other elements, you know, that sort of tie it into maybe a bunch of economic change and other stuff [00:38:05] that might be coming. So, but yeah, if you want to share some of that I would love to hear it here too.
KELLY: Yeah, I just thought, I mean, I always love the personal because I really love working at the individual level, but I know, people are often interested in the collective. So, the last time we had Uranus in Taurus was from about the mid [00:38:20] 1930s to the early 1940s. So we did have Uranus, I just to give people some context, Uranus is in Taurus about every 84 years. So we had that period early in the 20th century and then the time previous to that was like 1850s [00:38:35] kind of mutant 19th century and some of the things that happened globally in one or another of those periods, the mid-1850s, mid-nineteenth century period, was the gold rush, where we had this idea of like mining, [00:38:50] literally blowing up parts of the earth, which is Taurus. The blowing up part is Uranus, and we would, people were discovering gold or precious metals from the land, so there is definitely an environmental component to Uranus in Taurus, around [00:39:05] what are we doing to the land, the environment? What kind of an impact does that have, is it having?
Unfortunately, you know, there may be some innovation in how the land is created or mind or what have you that may not be, that may be destructive [00:39:20] initially. So I’m not saying it’s all perfect in that 1930s, early 1940s period: food, manufacturing, really, took off. A lot of what we call sort of modern food manufacturing, the food technologies were really developed [00:39:35] then. Some of those were fantastic and some of those things were relatively quickly proved to be actually quite dangerous. So, you know, every innovation that comes through around safe food, whether it’s food production, food cloning, food [00:39:50] development, that type of thing, some of them are going to be great, that we’ll want to keep around and others, you just, keep your wits about you but– The other thing that’s really different: Taurus is a feminine sign. It’s ruled by Venus and it tends to be associated with [00:40:05] feminine type archetypes or feminine type people in society. And historically, there have been a lot of technological developments that have freed up women and changed women’s roles in society when we’ve had Uranus in [00:40:20] Taurus.
So things like washing machines or sewing machines or spinning looms have been developed in previous Uranus in Taurus cycles, you know, which was typically sort of woman’s work with air quotes. And so, if it would normally take you four hours to [00:40:35] do something by hand and now you can use this, use this gadget and get it done in an hour, it gives you back your time. So there is something about Uranus in terms of freeing up time. And you know, one of the big things in that, the, because the [00:40:50] last time Uranus was in Taurus was through World War II, and one of the changes around sort of gender roles that happened then was so many young men sent away to war in many sort of English and first world societies, at the time, women [00:41:05] were allowed to leave the home and the domestic setting to go and fill some of the working job roles that were previously run by men or taken by men. So women got this taste of their own independence. They tried on different roles. [00:41:20] Of course, you know, the men came back from war and then the women were kind of sent back from the offices to their domestic duties if you like, but those women were the mothers of the women who– mothers, sometimes grandmothers, [00:41:35] of the women who then really got very involved in the 1960s liberation that went on.
So you can see some of these seeds of larger cyclical change that can come through. So just with Taurus being a [00:41:50] little bit more of a feminine sign ruled by Venus, the sign where the Moon is exalted. So the, two sort of typically feminine planets, nurturing, you know, anything to do with people who identify as feminine and, and whether that creates limits or opportunities [00:42:05] in society, and a lot of stuff I suspect also to do with women and childbirth and child-rearing basically, so there are some really key collective themes that we can keep an eye on.
ANDREW: Yeah. Over the, [00:42:20] well, I think, I think it’ll be interesting to see how those play out. I mean, I think that we can easily look at what’s gone on in the last few years as setting the stage for that, right? Like the emergence, you know, of the me [00:42:35] too movement, you know, in the spiritual communities, the sort of rise of witchcraft and being a witch and the way in which that empowers the feminine often, you know, in a broader sense of definitely a lot of women in particular senses, [00:42:50] you know, I mean, I think that there’s, there’s lots of layers where, where I can sort of see that energy being ready for a change on some level, and you know, yeah, we’ll see where that is.
KELLY: Yeah. Yeah. I mean and I was saying, you know, [00:43:05] I’ve said to one client this week, you know, it’s the idea of, watch this space. You know, Uranus, we know is going to pave new inroads and new types of innovation, new types of technology, 3D printing is a massive Uranus in Taurus thing, the idea that out of the ethos [00:43:20] we can create material objects, but you know, watch the space, just be open, the Innovations are going to surprise all of us, even those of us that are expecting them.
ANDREW: Well, they always do, right?
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: They always do. Yeah. Yeah, I was [00:43:35] just thinking the other day about about my cell phone and about, for some reason I was talking about the, back when I had a pager, to my kids, right? And they’ve never known any of those technologies. And they’re like, what do you mean? Like someone would just send you their phone number and then you’d just call them? [00:43:50] And I’m like yeah, that was it worked, you know? And that wasn’t that long ago. I mean, it was a while ago now, but it’s not that long ago, right?
KELLY: It’s just been that, in our lifetime, Andrew. I mean, I don’t know, I think you and I are relatively similar ages. Like when I was a kid, we were on a rotary [00:44:05] phone still?
ANDREW: For sure. Yeah.
KELLY: Yeah. It’s really interesting. Alan Turing, who is a code breaker who worked in England, in Bletchley Park, decoding the German codes, funnily enough in World War II, he was [00:44:21] this mad kind of technological guy. He had a very prominent Uranus in his chart. So he’s kind of relevant to what’s being talked about. He had this image in the late 1940s. He imagined a day where women would be walking around the park [00:44:36] with their computers in their hand. And that was quite striking to me when I read that because that’s essentially what we do these days with our phones. There’s so powerful that they are I mean, you can store files and record video and interact [00:44:51] with, you know, people halfway around the world, and the phones we have today are better than the computers of the 50s, basically. So it is phenomenal.
ANDREW: I mean, they’re better than the computers of our childhood too, right?
KELLY: Well, exactly! Those big… [Traces the shape of a big computer with her hands.]
ANDREW: Think about my big 20-year, [00:45:06] my early PCs, or whatever, right? I mean, those things, you know, they didn’t even have color monitors, you know?
KELLY: No! We played black-and-white Pac-Man, basically.
ANDREW: Yeah. Yeah.
KELLY: Yeah, I remember being in like, I don’t know grade three or four in primary school and there was [00:45:21] one computer in the classroom and each student, you paired up with a buddy and you each had about 20 minutes, you know, whenever computer time was, and all you did was play games. I guess it was just to familiarize us with the fact that these things existed.
ANDREW: Yeah. [00:45:36]
KELLY: But that’s you know, that’s the late 80s. That’s a while ago now.
ANDREW: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I had a Vic-20 and we, I was very excited, that I would spend like a long time doing programming and then I would run the program and it would like change the screen color. [00:45:51] And it was exciting and exuberant and then I, and then I would record my program onto the data storage unit, which was a cassette tape–
KELLY: Oh, my goodness!
ANDREW: And it would like record it onto the cassette tape, right?
KELLY: You could put a computer program on [00:46:06] a cassette tape back then because the– Oh, my lord.
ANDREW: Because they were so small, right? Like it was just text, right? Yeah. So funny, right?
KELLY: Oh my God. Yeah.
ANDREW: All right. Well now that I feel old. [laughing]
KELLY: I know, now that we’ve made ourselves really feel middle-aged, [00:46:21] nurse? Yeah, it’ll be fun. It’ll be fun, yeah.
ANDREW: So, is there anything else that is coming up that you’re, that you’re, inspired about?
KELLY: Yeah, there is one thing that [00:46:37] I’m really excited about.
ANDREW: Yeah.
KELLY: And this is the great conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn that is happening in December of 2020 in the sign of Aquarius. It’s a very nerdy type of timing cycle. It’s currently being completely overshadowed on [00:46:52] the astrological airwaves because everybody’s focused on the Saturn Pluto conjunction in early…
ANDREW: Sure.
KELLY: Which does have, I’m not saying it’s not important. I’m just saying, personally, I’m more interested in the Jupiter Saturn. Jupiter and Saturn conjunct every 20 years, [00:47:07] but every couple of hundred years and, well, the thing is, every 20 years, they make these conjunctions in signs of the same element. So we have this elemental, you know, 200-year-cycle, and the conjunction in December [00:47:22] 2020 is really officially the start of the, air grand mutation, if you like. And so the last couple of hundred years, we have had Earth Jupiter Saturn conjunction. So we had a lot of Earth-based focus [00:47:37] collectively. We’ve had the Industrial Revolution. We’ve had structured work days. There’s been a huge focus on money and mining and accumulation.
And the air period is very much about ideas, movement, and interaction. So that’s kicking off [00:47:52] December 2020 for the next 200 years. So for all of us alive now, we are going to witness this massive collective shift over the Air, out of the Earth element that has really governed so much of human experience since the [00:48:07] early 1800s. And we’re going to be a witness to this change, which the type of technologies we were just talking about is a huge part of.
The last time we had the Air elemental 200-year period, late 1100s, all [00:48:22] through the 1200s and most of the 1300s. Now, that was actually considered to be sort of the very first start of what then became known as the Renaissance. But in that time frame, we had these weird technologies like paper manufacturing being [00:48:37] perfected. And so the idea with Air is that we’re talking about ideas and the dissemination of ideas. Astrology actually went through a massive rebirth in that time period, pre the official Italian Renaissance. And [00:48:52] I think what we’re going to see is, ideas or philosophies are going to become more of a focus and they’re going to spread more. We’re also going to have people moving around a lot more. There was a lot of invasions [00:49:07] that happened in that time frame where people spread out with their ideas more. The big disease that happened through that time frame, of course, was the Black Plague, which is an airborne disease. So the idea, at the end of 2020, as we start this Air [00:49:22] period, where everything is to do with the mind, to do with the intellect, and to do with technology, and to do with the dissemination of ideas becomes much more. And it’s hard to imagine how it becomes more than what it has become already, but it is going, is going to be faster accelerations [00:49:37] there. And then I think you know from a disease perspective, those types of airborne issues are also something we’re going to need to be more mindful of, so yeah, so a few hundred year chapter.
ANDREW: Time to double [00:49:52] down on getting your flu shot! [laughs]
KELLY: Yeah, flu shots, you know, when you think about how mobile people are becoming, in the sense that we don’t all go to 9 to 5 jobs in specific locations anymore. That’s a very Earth kind of thing to do, [00:50:07] and also, you know, this podcasting. I mean, it’s the radio of the modern era, but it is about– Like I think podcasting is just going to get more and more popular, anything that’s online, that involves the sharing of ideas or insight or [00:50:22] wisdom is just going to explode. We haven’t even touched the tip of it yet, basically.
ANDREW: Yeah. It’s an exciting time to be alive.
KELLY: Exciting time to be alive. I don’t know that it bodes well for things like banking industries or credit systems, because I think they’re going to go [00:50:37] through a massive upheaval, but that’s… We’re probably due for that.
ANDREW: Yeah, I think so. I think that, yeah, I mean, I hear every single year that the banks here make more money than they’ve ever made before. [00:50:52]
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: And I’m just like, how is that even possible? And, you know, and the answer is well, you know, there was a time where having a bank account meant that you accrued money on your, on your savings, [00:51:08] you know, but the idea now, like, you know the amount of fees and this, that, whatever, there’s no way, you know, unless you have heaps and heaps of money in there, that, you know, anybody’s going to be making any money off of a bank account. So, you know, so those dynamics are going to, you [00:51:23] know, shift again at some point, right? So.
KELLY: Absolutely, and we’re seeing that a little bit with alternative payment process and alternative money transfer options, you know…
ANDREW: Yeah.
KELLY: Back in the day, we had to go to what, Western Union, to send money internationally. And now, [00:51:38] there are companies, and I, we use one called Transferwise, which allows you to send money if… There’s more of a mobility here that the banks don’t have the monopoly that they used to. Now look, they still have a massive monopoly, and they’re making huge amounts of money.
ANDREW: Sure.
KELLY: But [00:51:53] you’re seeing more of these little startups popping up that I think are going to become increasingly popular. Venmo, I think, is really popular in the states, that type of thing.
ANDREW: Yeah. Well, even, even PayPal and you know, Apple’s integrating it [00:52:08] directly into the, directly into the phone, so you can just text people money and stuff, like it’s all changing, right?
KELLY: That’s, that’s the thing, like you used to have to go and get cold hard currency and nobody has…
ANDREW: Right?
KELLY: ….physical cash anymore, money is just a number on a computer [00:52:23] screen.
ANDREW: Yeah, you don’t even have to talk to people anymore. [laughs]
KELLY: You don’t! I mean, you know, you go to a bank, and nowadays there’s more machines than there are people because of the automation, if you like.
ANDREW: Yeah, for sure.
KELLY: That’s something I think we’re [00:52:38] going to have to work on as a human race, is humans get something from being physically with other humans that we can’t duplicate, you know, and even doing things like this where we’re online and we can see each other. It’s great, and it’s a, it’s a functional [00:52:53] substitute, but it cannot replace the exchange of multiple levels of energy that happen when you’re physically in person. And so I think that’s going to be almost our goal, is we have to still come together in the flesh, [00:53:08] even though we don’t have to any more.
ANDREW: Yeah. So take away from this episode: go hang with your peoples.
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: Watch your money.
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREW: And if and if a company called Skynet comes and wants to sell you some robots, say no thank you because [00:53:23] nobody needs a Terminator showing up at their house later on.
KELLY: Right, nobody needs a terminator.
ANDREW: Well. Thank you so much for making time to hang out with me today. It’s been so nice to catch up. For people who want to come and follow you. I mean, I already mentioned [00:53:38] The Astrology Podcast and that thing, which I’ll put a link to in the show notes, but where else are you hanging out, where should people come and find you to be in your orbits?
KELLY: Yeah. Look, if anyone does want to, follow along if you like. My main [00:53:53] website is KellysAstrology.com, but you can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I’m a little bit chatty on Twitter occasionally. It is actually my preferred social media platform. Like, I know that sort of sound and I’m not, that’s weird these days. in addition to [00:54:08] the monthly episode on The Astrology Podcast, I also do a weekly show with two Aussie girlfriends called the Water Trio Astrology Podcast, and you can find that, as well as The Astrology Podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, and YouTube.
Coming up at the end of March [00:54:23] is my next online training class on career and life direction in astrology. So the idea here is, I’ll be showing you how to answer the question of what should I do with my life and that’s a four-part training. There will be a live weekly class initially, but it will also be all online, [00:54:38] and one of the new offerings that I just started last year that’s been really popular is my monthly astrology guide service, which is a subscription-based offering where you get details about every astrology aspect happening every week and every month. So if [00:54:53] you’re kind of obsessed with astrology and you want to follow along at home with your own chart, that resource provides all the info you need. Everything that you might need on any of those counts can be found on my homepage of my website, KellysAstrology.com.
ANDREW: Awesome. [00:55:08]
KELLY: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me, Andrew, it’s been great to chat.
ANDREW: Oh, thank you for being here.