(00:30) Khasanti: Hello and welcome to the Dark Moon Cafe. We are your hosts. My name is Khasanti.

(00:36) Randee: And I’m Randee.

(00:38) Khasanti: And each Dark Moon will be inviting you in for a monthly conversation about astrology and other related topics. Each episode we’ll compare notes on how the monthly transits have been showing up for us, followed by a deeper dive into a specific topic, which for tonight’s episode is How Astrology Found Us. You can find transcripts of each episode on our website DarkMoonCafe.com. We hope this podcast offers a cozy space to settle in and explore with us how we live our lives through the lens of astrology. So hey Randee, how are you doing? And what are you drinking tonight?

(01:21) Randee: Hey Khasanti. It is so good to be back in the cafe with you. I’m super excited to tackle this topic. I think that every astrologer has a story, has sort of a path that got them to where they are, and I just think that’s so interesting and I’m excited to explore this with you and hear more about your story. (Khasanti: Yeah) But for tonight I am drinking a wild sweet orange tea. (Khasanti: Oh) And this is to celebrate my Jupiter return, which I am currently in. Yes, I’m I’m feeling the glow.

(02:04) Khasanti: Yeah, the Jupiter in Leo gorgeous warm glow. Happy Jupiter return to you, my friend.

(02:12) Randee: Thank you so much. And I’m thinking, you know, when I think of Jupiter, the color orange always comes to my mind. Don’t know why, but I think of the attributes of, you know, being bright, bold, optimistic, larger than life, gregarious. And this tea just seems to embody that. It’s very, it’s very bitter and sweet at the same time. And it’s orange and yeah, so we’re celebrating Jupiter with that tonight. Yeah.

(02:50) Khasanti: That’s beautiful. Yeah, that sounds quite delicious.

(02:54) Randee: Yes. How about you? What are you drinking this fine evening?

(02:59) Khasanti: Well, I’m drinking I’m drinking a little bit too much rosemary tea today. (Randee: Oh, OK) ‘Cause I’m on a I don’t know if this is like Taurus profection year or something, but like I’m kind of I’ve been listening to this really great podcast that I love called Chaos and Cunning. And it is just a really great witchy podcast. Highly recommend it. And I was listening to an episode, you know, I don’t even remember what it was about, but by some circuitous route I’m kind of back on my bullshit of like trying to (both laughter) trying to like figure out like what herbs and things are growing in my yard and which of them I can kind of use for witchy purposes. (both laughter) And I’m like not a very natural kind of kitchen witch person. I have too much air in my chart and like very little earth. So it’s not my kind of like most comfort zone, but yeah, I I realized that rosemary is like a really good kind of starter herb for people. Like it really it just it does a lot of cool things and I just thought, you know what, let’s drink some rosemary tea and see see what happens. Yeah.

(04:33) Randee: I love that. That really does scream sort of a Taurus Venus year. Yeah.

(04:39) Khasanti: Yeah, like back to the earth. (both laughter) I’m gonna be like skipping around barefoot before you know what’s going on.

(04:49) Randee: I love that. I mean neither of us have much earth in our charts. (Khasanti: Right) So we we both could use some of that energy.

(04:57) Khasanti: Definitely. Definitely. So yeah, I’ll keep you posted what I figure out, if anything, about it. But Yeah. So what’s been going on for you and how has that been related to what’s been going on above?

(05:21) Randee: Mmm, Yes, yes. I never thought you’d ask. So…

(05:26) Khasanti: Just totally off the top of your head, see if anything just occurs to you. (both laughter)

(05:32) Randee: So this is kinda wild and I do wanna I do wanna share some insights about my Jupiter return retrospective, but Mercury is retrograde and it went retrograde June 30th in Cancer in my tenth house. Now I work on the road, okay, which I think is just very Mercury in the tenth house, right? Working on the road. (Khasanti: Yeah) And the day it went retrograde, my check engine light came on. (Khasanti: No) Yes. Yes. (both laughter) Now have I addressed the check engine light? Absolutely not. (Khasanti laughter) Are we just going to continue to drive it at this moment in time? Yes, we are. So I just thought this is amazing. Hashtag astrology good.

(06:30) Khasanti: Oh yeah.

(06:31) Randee: Just so incredible.

(06:33) Khasanti: I mean in all fairness, it might just be that Mercury popped that light on and there’s nothing wrong anyway. It’s just a communication snafu. So I mean, you wouldn’t want to be too hasty (Randee: Absolutely) going and spending good money figuring out whether your car is about to explode (both laughter) on this Uranus Mars conjunction where definitely nothing surprising and on fire is gonna happen.

(07:02) Randee: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and special shout out to this particular Mercury retrograde. It is especially charged. And I was thinking about I have a lot of Aries risings in my life and sending them an extra bit of love and compassion because this is rolling through their fourth house. (Khasanti: Ugh) And you know that, that could bring up some family stuff. So (Khasanti: Yeah, totally) but yeah, I think this Mercury retrograde is gonna be, think it’s gonna be loud and we’re we’re gonna notice it, so yeah.

(07:41) Khasanti: Yeah, that seems correct. I will say, in case I forget to say it later, that I did think that a nice kind of expression of Mercury retrograde is you and me talking about like going back in time and talking about our astrology journeys. With astrology being such a hermetic pursuit. (Randee: Oh, that’s beautiful) I always like to think that if you kind of if you give Mercury some some proactively retrogradey things, then then maybe that that works in your favor with it not having to express itself in such unexpected and undesirable ways.

(08:30) Randee: Agreed. Give it something to do.

(08:33) Khasanti: Yeah, yeah. (both laughter) We love you, Mercury. (Randee: We do, we do) We wish you all the best on your underworld journey.

(08:44) Randee: We absolutely do. But yes, beyond the Mercury retrograde, I am in my Jupiter return. Jupiter entered Leo June thirtieth and it will be exact for me July eighth. So the Jupiter return, I did do a little like looking this up and sort of familiarizing myself with it and then doing a little retrospective on the last two to see if anything really jumped out at me. You know, this happens about every 12 years. For me, it was age 11, 23, 35, and 47. We think about Jupiter themes of like growth, expansion, pursuit of wisdom, coherence, opportunity. And my natal Jupiter is in the eleventh house. So, you know, we’re also thinking about things like friends and groups and aspirations in your community. You know, a greater search for meaning. What does it mean to live from the heart, heart centered living? These are just like some concepts that were in my mind as I was sort of envisioning this Jupiter return. And so I went back, the last Jupiter return I had, it’s really incredible. At that time in my life, my husband and I sold our house. We moved into a van and, this was 2014, we traveled across the country for a few months and we called it the Greatest Adventure. (Khasanti laughter) Is that not Jupiter in Leo? (Khasanti: Oh my god) Right?! (Khasanti: Incredible stuff) And we had this intention behind it. It was to investigate and explore how other people live. It was this search for meaning. It really was. It was like our Jack Kerouac moment. (Khasanti: Yeah) You know, we’re just out on the road, we’re meeting people, we’re meeting fellow travelers doing the same thing. (Khasanti: Mm-hmm) And it was like a huge thing that we did in our life. Even though it only lasted a few months, it was very significant. And to this day, we still live in the reverberations of that trip. And there’s there are other parts of that time of my life as well. I started a new job and I met this whole amazing group of people that I’m still really close friends with. So just very 11th housey. (Khasanti: Yeah) And then the one before that, quickly, I was 23, finishing grad school, entering the workforce, meeting a whole group of fellow social workers. Really the first time I’d sort of been around a group of people doing something similar. And also around that time, really deepening my spirituality. Around that time getting into astrology. So, also very Jupiterian themes, right? (Khasanti: yeah) Like pursuing wisdom, pursuing spirituality, exploring those larger realms of life and consciousness. (Khasanti: Right) So I just thought that was a really interesting retrospective. I never really looked at my Jupiter returns with such a microscope and they really were lovely periods of time in my life. So I’m kind of excited about this and I’m feeling open and expansive and I’m just, you know, I’m I’m ready. I’m ready for it. So…

(13:02) Khasanti: That’s wonderful. I’m so excited to to have a front row seat to whatever (both laughter) whatever Jupiter has in store for you this time around. That’s that’s really cool. I hope it is just as expansive and meaning making as all of all of its previous iterations.

(13:27) Randee: Mm hmm, mm hm. Yeah. So I feel like there just feel like I know Leo is really lit up right now. And I have a lot of natal placements in Leo. And I just feel like July is very charged. You know, we’ve got this conjunction in Gemini and there’s just a lot happening and I’m already kind of feeling that energy. (Khasanti: Mm-hmm) How about you? Is anything going on with you astrologically? Are you kind of feeling the vibe of anything?

(14:02) Khasanti: Well yeah, I mentioned the tea drinking and whatnot. The other thing that’s been going on that I think is possibly also Taurus Profection Year related. Did I talk I can’t remember, did I talk about this last month at all? My return to like analog notebook stuff?

(14:32) Randee: I think a little bit. But I think we need to hear more about this.

(14:37) Khasanti: Yeah, okay. Well now I’m paranoid ’cause I have like a just like a really weird absolute hatred of ever repeating myself to anybody in any (both laughter) in any context. But I guess I’ll just like pretend that’s not happening. And yeah, so like I have been the biggest like digital evangelist for the longest time. Like I’ve always been like, you know, I have three planets in Gemini. I’m allergic to paper. I just want to do everything online. You know, I’m like a huge Notion nerd. I have all these kind of ridiculous databases that talk to each other and I’m like, I wouldn’t wouldn’t want to like lose that. And yet there have been you know, there’ve been times when I’ve like really longingly gazed at the kind of planner people and the washi tape people and the bullet journal people and been like, man, that looks like a good time. (both laughter) Like it’s just all so pretty and like just sort of seeing the these sort of like bulging journals full of like, you know, kind of little things stuck in them and whatnot. And yeah, to cut a long story short, I’ve been like having some challenges with executive function stuff, just like really having a hard time kind of staying on target with the stuff that I’m supposed to be doing in my day. And you know, I was reading some stuff and, you know, a lot of people were talking about how having a like an analog journal or an analog book that you can actually write in with a pen is like really good for you know, it kind of makes connections within your brain that you just don’t get when you’re kinda typing something on a screen and so I’m like, you know what? I’m gonna give it a go. I’m gonna give it a go and just see what happens. And my friend, I am currently looking at page fifty-nine of my first bullet journal. (Randee: Wow, wow, so It’s taken off) Its taken off, I fucking love it. (both laughter) I’m like I cannot even express how helpful it has been for me. Like just having this thing that’s always open on my desk and I can do little doodles in it. I was sharing some with you before we started recording. Like I’m teaching myself how to draw little kind of food items and doing my kind of fancy lettering and stuff. And it’s like I just love it. It feels like it’s alive. Like it feels like it’s a magical tool, in a way that, you know, much as I adore Notion and there are some things that are just, you know, always gonna stay there because they they just kind of need that sort of complexity. But but for the daily stuff it’s like, it’s so great. I’ve got all my washi tapes and I’ve been buying a lot of pens and yeah, it’s just really great. So. And the thing that I think is kind of fascinating about this, while I can sort of probably a little bit attribute it to this Taurus profection year, I’m also wondering if it’s like a very weird upside down manifestation of Uranus and Gemini. (Randee: Mmm, mmm). ‘Cause like Uranus one would imagine like Uranus is a very technological planet. It’s you know, we’re expecting when it’s in this kind of air sign of Gemini that there’s gonna be a lot of technological revolutions happening, like things kind of being born that we couldn’t even really conceive of that are kind of helping us, you know, live our lives more efficiently or whatever. But I’m like, wouldn’t it be weird if for me, like Gemini fully Gemini identified tech whiz everything has to be digital if my personal Uranus and Gemini revolution was we’re going back to a notebook and a pen, guys.

(19:35) Randee: Mmm, mmm. (Khasanti laughter) I think that’s a really interesting proposition. (Khasanti: Right?!) Yeah, yeah.

(19:44) Khasanti: Yeah. ‘Cause it’s still a technology, right? I kind of a paper and a pen is a type of technology. It’s just kinda not what we think of when we think we tend to think technology has to be like, you know, made out of metal and you know, circuit boards and pixels and whatnot. (Randee: Right, right) But yeah. Like it’s it feels pretty revolutionary to me. So…

(20:11) Khasanti: I think that’s brilliant. (Khasanti: Yeah) You know, I do think that there is something occurring in the ethos about people returning to analog ways. (Khasanti: Right) Like there’s landlines kind of making a little bit of a comeback. I’ve seen some things recently where certain schools are going back to teaching handwriting (Khasanti: Oh, wow) and so I think there’s something in the ethos maybe about, you know, yes, we are absolutely in a technological kind of boom right now. (Khasanti: Mm-hmm) But maybe the revolution is sort of doing something different, you know? I think that’s fascinating that’s a fascinating take on it coming from such a prominent Gemini as yourself.

(21:11) Khasanti: Well, right. (both laughter) The most prominent Gemini, some people are saying. (both laughter)

(21:17) Randee: I love that take though. That’s that’s fantastic. Yeah.

(21:22) Khasanti: And it’s so far it’s sticking, like, you know, I was worried ’cause I you know, I am like a lot of my neurodivergent siblings, prone to getting a wild hair and being like, now I’m a bullet journal person (both laughter) and like spending a kind of stupid amount of money on like journaling supplies and then two weeks later it’s like, womp womp. I’m not a bullet journal person. So you know, but it’s been it’s been going on for a good month now, so…(Randee: Yeah, yeah.)…I’m feeling I’m feeling pretty hopeful.

(22:00) Randee: I love that. I love that. Well, certainly, I mean, not to like make an obvious segue into our topic, but certainly when you and I first got into astrology, things were very analog. (laughter)

(22:16) Khasanti: Oh, for sure. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. So shall we shall we dive in? (Randee: Let’s do it) Yeah. Awesome. So I would love to hear from you, Randee, like what your most kind of formative astrology like where you did you kind of pop out of the out of the womb with a little ephemeris in your little hand (both laughter) or what’s the origin story of astrology finding you?

(22:54) Randee: You know, I wish I had like a really cool origin story. I in tracing this back, there were some cool moments later down the road once I was already on the astrological path. But I was like your prototypical psych major, (Khasanti laughter) you know, who like at some point in undergrad got into exploration of consciousness. You know, like I’m reading Ram Das’ Be Here Now. (Khasanti: Of course you are) I’m like mind blown by the Celestine Prophecy. (Khasanti: Uh huh) This is this is 2000 and 2001 Randee. Getting very into energy work and and just sort of like learning about energy, kind of new age spirituality stuff. And really being drawn to it, feeling that there’s something real and true about this stuff. And that was sort of the me that somehow stumbled across a book. There was a book, and it was called The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need.

(24:23) Khasanti: A bold claim. (both laughter)

(24:28) Randee: And so that was absolutely the first astrology book I ever cracked open. It was probably in the early 2000s. And I actually looked it up and the book was published in 2001, so it was probably right around that time. (Khasanti: OK) And it was written by someone by the name of Joanna Wolfolk. And they wrote monthly horoscope columns for like Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar. They were also somewhat of a TV personality. (Khasanti: Oh, OK) So I wish I still had the book because I’d be able to really kind of paint a picture of what it looked like and what it was all about. I did give it away to a friend many years ago. But I do recall that was the first time I started learning about sun signs. Also, the book Sun Signs was introduced to me around that same time as well. Linda Goodman. (Khasanti: Of course) Of course. And I just have some really early memories of being a senior in undergrad and then moving on to grad school and some of my friends kind of like trying to analyze them astrologically through their sun sign and then maybe I branched into moon sign a little bit, but it was I was pretty a hardcore sun signer back in those days, you know. (Khasanti: Right) And I would say that time frame and those books were really sort of the gateway for me. And it was just magical to me that you could understand someone’s personality through their sign. That just blew my mind. (Khasanti: Yeah) I don’t know, do you do you relate to that at all? Like what are some of your earliest memories?

(26:31) Khasanti: Yeah, I mean it’s funny, like I was not a particularly kind of woo-woo child or teen, really. Like I had my kind of woo-woo awakening around the age of twenty three. But having said that, for whatever reason, like I can still tell you like the sun sign of like all my friends in high school (Randee: (laughter) Same) and like you know people that I lived with in at college and stuff. So I’m like, I feel like that’s not like super normal. Like there was there was kind of something in me that was that was kind of into this thing of like it was it was a sort of pattern making, meaning making kind of thing, I think of like, I seem to date a lot of water signs. That’s interesting. I wonder what that’s about. And like, you know, just trying to kind of like connect dots and like, I seem to have a lot of Aquarian friends. What’s that about? (Randee: Was that true?) Yeah. (Randee: For real?) Yeah. Like Aquarius was before I even knew anything about Aquarius, I was like, it’s so interesting all my favorite people are Aquarians. (Randee laughter) And it’s partly because like they’re, I feel like there was I’ve probably said this before, but like there’s a a very nice but Aquarians give you a lot of space and I think I just with an Aquarius moon I just appreciated that, you know, even kind of when I was quite young. Like I didn’t really want anyone kinda hanging hanging off me in too much of a kind of overly emotional way.

(28:24) Randee: Yeah, yeah, that makes so much sense.

(28:26) Khasanti: Yeah. So just sort of by hook or by crook I ended up kind of amassing a little collection of Aquarians and it was just like, isn’t that interesting? I just seem to really like these these folks.

(28:42) Randee: We’re like koi fish, you know, we’re just kinda doing our own thing and…

(28:47) Khasanti: (laughter) Yeah, I love that. Kind of in the same pond, but you know. Yeah. Yeah, so that was kind of that that’s sort of what I see as like the first phase of my astrology life was just kind of being being interested but not really it not really being like a thing. (Randee: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm) And then fast forward to 1998 where I was like I’d already kind of had my woo-woo awakening. I was getting into Buddhism and stuff and very much kind of like you in into like I actually I don’t know when the Celestine prophecy was, but like just kind of waking up to like there is there is more to life than just kind of like having a job (Randee: Yes, yes) and eating your food and going to bed and you know, like sort of normie life was not really for me. It transpired and as part of my my kind of explorations in this, I kind of got involved with this group of Buddhists who in the UK who were like they were kind of like the the sort of hippies and the weirdos and the alternative kind of like people who lived in vans and things, speaking of like the biggest adventure. (Randee: Nice! My sort of people) And they were it the they were called Buddhafield. So I’m I know there’s probably at least a couple of people in my Buddhist community that listen to this podcast. (Randee: Ah, shoutout) So you’ll you’ll know what what Buddhafield is. And so yeah, I was pretty heavily involved with Buddhafield for a couple of years and Buddhafield was it sort of split its time between running camping retreats, kinda outdoors, everybody in tents and, you know, all the shrine activities in like a big tunnel tent and kinda cooking over a fire and it was really cool. And then also running a cafe at various like music festivals and kinda alternative festivals and stuff in the UK. And during my tenure there, there was this woman who was kind of like a regular who was an astrologer and she kinda got, she basically there was just this kind of this one summer where like everybody was getting their chart done by Misty. Turned out Misty turned out to like and end up being the mom of like this guy that I was involved with for like six and a half years. (Randee: Wow, OK) So that was kinda interesting. But yeah, so I got my chart read by Misty and that was back when I thought that I was born a different time than yes what I currently believe. So Misty had me down as like a Libra rising Gemini Sun Aquarius Moon, which kind of in modern astrology terms makes it makes a grand trine. Like they were all kind of quite close in degree. So like a lot of her reading had to do with like what it was like to be a grand trine person and I really kinda like took a lot of that on board, which is kinda funny given that I now don’t have a grand trine. (Randee: And you’re OK with that) But I’m okay with it, yeah. But like, you know, I learned a bit from her about what it what it means to have an Aquarius moon and what it means to have like a lot of the people that I was friends with, there was this whole bunch of us that had Venus in Cancer and it was like it was really ’cause you kind of see people’s little living spaces at Buddhafield and like all the Venus in Cancer people had like you know, I just had a tent that I was like obsessed with kind of making it beautiful inside, but like other people had like amazing trucks or caravans that were all like draped with gorgeous fabrics and so it that was kind of like one of the first times that I that I started to learn kind of things outside of the sun sign and how that could be meaningful and again kinda like making those connections and being like, ooh, I have things in common with other people who have Venus and Cancer and so so yeah from then on it was it was kind of from the that that’s kind of phase two for me. We’ll get on to phase three later. But phase two was really characterized by me kind of really wanting to kind of get more stuck into astrology and just like every time I tried to do it, like I couldn’t quite… I couldn’t quite get in there. (Randee: mm-hmm) Like I try and learn stuff, but it all seemed to be so piece meal, like you know, that you’ve got this placement here and this placement here, and there didn’t seem to be any way that I could fathom to like synthesize all of that.

(34:24) Randee: Yes, yes, I remember feeling that way.

(34:26) Khasanti: Yeah. Like I I’m sure there’s something here for me, but for whatever reason I’m not being allowed in yet.

(34:35) Randee: Yeah. I I think I can so relate to that. You know, I think even with those early books that I got, you know, introduced to, everything felt very compartmentalized. Plus my understanding of it as a system wasn’t there yet. So it was really just memorization. (Khasanti: Right, yeah) Like if I if I had a friend that was an Aries, I’m like, okay, that’s Aries. Now I’ll remember it. And then we move on. Oh this person’s Taurus. Got it. You know, my dad’s a Taurus. Got it. So yeah, I can I can totally relate to that. And and I too was like super kind of casual with my studies, also like you, always being interested in it but just kind of never almost like when you learn an instrument, you can learn the basics like fairly easily. But to kind of take it to that next level something has to happen. You either have to like sit down and practice a lot or you have to find an incredible teacher or like something has to occur. And you know, fast forward for me 2018, I’m in this random bookstore. I couldn’t even tell you where it where it was. Random bookstore, really cool old bookstore with like stacks of book on books on the floor and it it’s just like a mess, but it’s amazing. And I stumble across this Robert Hand book called Horoscope Symbols published in 1981. Now imagine like not knowing much astrology and then coming across a Robert Hand astrology book (both laughter) It’s like I opened it and it was four dollars so I’m like you know what I’m just gonna buy it and I opened it and remembered thinking I can’t understand a word of this. None of this makes any sense to me and that hooked me. (Khasanti laughter) I was like, I must understand this now. Like this is not just sun sign. This is this is about aspects. What? We’re talking math here. I loved math, by the way, so I was like, okay, this is great. We’re talking moon signs, we’re talking rulerships, like, what is this world? And it just like blew my frickin’ mind and you know, to this day that book is probably my most kind of broken in. Like there’s highlighted sections and notes written all over it, and if I went back and read it now, I would be at a different point of understanding and new things would stand out to me. But then it was all this magical text. And that completely sucked me in and you know from there from there I actually had kind of a very synchronistic encounter. One year later, it was July thirteenth, 2019, I was staying at an Airbnb and I happened to be just looking around this this place and on the bookshelf in this like foyer area was an entire bookshelf of astrology books. (Khasanti: No way!) I mean just like a hundred astrology books. And I was like, Okay, wait a minute. I need to find the host. Like this person had just given us a tour, but now I need to find the host and I need to know who these books whose these books are and I need to talk to this person. (Khasanti: Yes) Lo and behold, I’m just gonna look at my notes here…that date, transiting Jupiter was conjoined the transiting moon in my third house, forming a beautiful sextile to my fifth house stellium. Transiting Jupiter was in an opening whole sign trine with my natal Jupiter. (Khasanti: Okay) So like we’ve got third house activation big time. We’ve got a sextile to my fifth house stellium. (Khasanti: Yeah) And we’ve got you know, in in the synodic cycle of Jupiter, this opening trine occurring. Boom. So I meet the host, she’s an evolutionary astrologer. I had no idea what that meant and I was like, I need to study with you. It was like the teacher presented herself. (Khasanti: Whoah) And so she took me under her wing and I did one on one astrology lessons with her for I don’t know, maybe six to eight months and then I ended up moving, so we couldn’t continue our relationship. But it it was perfect for what it was. And that cemented my interest in astrology. I can’t say I remained an evolutionary astrologer. I obviously ended up studying at nightlight and getting more into ancient techniques, but that synchronicity, that event really was a major turning point for me in deepening my studies. And just to have that one on one time with her was amazing. And she was seasoned, a seasoned evolutionary astrologer. and she just she just took me under her wing and it was incredible. Yeah, yeah. I know.

(40:52) Khasanti: That’s so beautiful and also kind of very Jupitarian, right? (Randee: So Jupiterian) To just kind of meet the beneficent teacher who shows us.

(41:04) Randee: Yes. And you know, just to lo and behold all that activation in my third house, that’s such a perfect house to learn something new. Even though like the ninth house maybe would be like the more on the nose, but certainly that third house, learning a new trade, learning a new skill. (Khasanti: Yes, yeah)

(41:31) Khasanti: And she was kind of local ish to you then, right? (Randee: Yes, she was local) So that’s another third thing. So yeah, that’s that’s really cool. Yeah.

(41:41) Randee: Did you have like a like what was it for you that brought you from the casual the friend zone to the lover zone? (both laughter)

(41:54) Khasanti: Not a fully monogamous commitment to astrology. Well, that is yeah, that’s such a good question. It happened in in a similar kind of time frame to you. Like I think mine was sort of unfolding around towards the end of 2020. Okay, which I think side note is kind of when a lot of people kind of got into astrology, pandemic kind of..I don’t necessarily kind of pin it on the pandemic ’cause like, ooh, I had loads of time on my hands and so I learned astrology or whatever. But, you know, there’s probably some you know, I probably had a little bit more, you know (Randee: Bandwidth or something?) Exactly. And I don’t exactly remember like what order this all happened in, but I think ’cause I I guess I was like I was very much into tarot by that point. So I was kind of I was imbibing a fair amount of like tangential astrology content just through like the Tarot world because the two of them are quite enmeshed and yeah, I, again, I don’t totally like remember what order this all happened in, but I know that there was I got into this I think we’ve talked about the strology show, right? (Randee: Yes, oh my god I loved that) Kirah Tabourn. That podcast. So that was one important piece for me. Another important piece was like reconnecting with an old friend of mine back in England named Jack, who had always been really into astrology. And I think I was like starting to to kind of get more intrigued about it, I was able to like have some really good conversations with them, which was cool. And so I was shopping around a little bit for like a content creator that I that I kind of vibed with. Really loved the Strology show. I think that was kind of what initially got me interested in whole sign houses. (Randee: Yeah, yeah) So that was kind of a big deal actually. There was something that just felt like that made sense to me more than the quadrant based houses. Like it just was simpler. And that let me feel like it was maybe a thing that I could get my head around somehow.

(44:44) Randee: I agree with you. I yeah, absolutely. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

(44:50) Khasanti: Yeah. And so this friend Jack recommended like two or three different astrologers that they really liked. And I started like f one of them was Rick Levine. Another one is someone who I don’t really follow anymore. That’s kind of a tangent that I’m not gonna go into. And then the third one was Adam. (Randee: Adam Elenbaas) Adam Elenbaas. The the very same. And so, you know, I just kind of yeah, started like watching all of these people’s stuff. And for whatever reason, Adams was the Adam was kinda like who I stuck with. There was obviously something that resonated with me about him. And I ended up like go it was a virtual Norwac that year. That would be twenty twenty one. I think we talked about Norwac before. It’s the astrological conference that’s here up in Seattle. And so I went along to that and you know, got listening to the astrology podcast and just like I don’t know, everything just started to come together for me with like whole sign houses. Ditching the twelve letter alphabet was another big thing, which for people who don’t know what that is, that confused the fuck out of me. (Randee: Yeah, yeah) Like when I was trying to learn signs and houses and there was just this like bizarre overlap between like, well, Aries and is the kind of the same thing as the first house and Taurus is the same. I’m like, well, why do we have two different things? To like my sort of aquarian systems brain was like, well, this is bullshit. Not to like dunk on people who love the twelve-letter alphabet, but it just didn’t like it didn’t make sense for me. And so yeah, it started to just really dawn on me that like, I think Hellenistic astrology is kind of the, that was sort of like what Kirah was into and that was what Adam was into. I’m like, yeah, and I’m not gonna lie, I kind of also had a feeling of like, I think I think kind of the cool kids seem to be into like Hellenistic astrology. (Randee: Yeah totally) I’m like it sort of feels like there’s kind of a movement happening as that I like wouldn’t hate being part of that.

(47:31) Randee: And Chris Brennan too, he was you know, Hellenistic. And Demetra George and yeah. Yeah.

(47:40) Khasanti: Yeah. So then Oh that’s right. That’s how I that’s how I ended up signing up for Adam’s class. So like I met like a bunch of people at Norwac in this kind of like virtual hangout zone. Actually no, I think there was a lecture. I think somebody gave a lecture, I wish I could remember who it was, on like astrological community. And like a bunch of people in that lecture, I think in the Zoom chat were kind of like we’re people who would like astrological community and don’t have it. Let’s start a Discord. And so then I joined that Discord server and then like there were a bunch of people who were like about to sign up for nightlight year one and I just had had one of my, I can’t remember which episode we talked about this in, but it was one of my trademark fuck I’m doing this moments. (Randee: Yes. Yes. (both laughter)) I’m like, this is kind of insane. This is like, I don’t know, a thousand dollars or something that I don’t necessarily even really have, but I’m just like I’m just gonna do it. I’m gonna do it. And then I did it and it was blew my flippin’ socks off.

(49:02) Randee: Uh, huh. I mean same same, like that’s where our lives converge and the the Aquarian systems thinker in me always resonated to the way that astrology categorized things. (Khasanti: Yes) Even though I could very easily argue against categorization as well, there is something pleasing to my brain about categories and the way that Adam breaks down the class the way he the way he breaks down the teaching of astrology in this beautiful systematic way where it all feels cohesive and it all makes sense. If you understand a piece, you understand the whole (Khasanti: Yes) that that sealed the deal. I was like, okay, now I understand it from a big picture perspective. And I can take my whole life to unpack the details of it. (Khasanti: Right (laughter)) But the big picture makes sense. And that was such a beautiful, a beautiful course to be involved in. And it’s funny, like around that time I was just like, I wanna I wanna study more formally. I had just come off having this amazing one on one tutorship with this incredible evolutionary astrologer and I loved it. And I was like, I want more. I want something structured. I want to go back to school for this, you know, like and actually another really interesting synchronicity, I was talking to my brother’s girlfriend at the time, or no, no, maybe were they married at the time? No, they they were I can’t recall now. No, they weren’t married at the time. And I was telling her, I really want to kind of further my studies of astrology and she was like, I have a friend that just took this class, NightLight Astrology. And I was like that’s so wild because I had been already turned on to Adam, I think maybe just through YouTube or something. (Khasanti: Right) The algorithm found me. And and so many of the same shows that you had mentioned I had also kind of been tuned into to some degree. And yeah, there we there we found each other and just an incredible learning opportunity that was.

(51:42) Khasanti: Yeah, absolutely. Any other interest did you find any other interesting kind of astrology like transit synchronicities between any of those those different periods or events or was it mainly just the the one biggie?

(52:02) Randee: The one biggie that I really studied, although I will I will say that I did look into the the astrology of June 2021 (Khasanti: Oh good) and there were some interesting aspects to my natal Saturn and my natal moon. And so there was some Saturnian lunarian connection around the time of really dropping into this study, which okay, we’re gonna study the ancient art form of the sky. It’s pretty lunar and Saturnian.

(52:47) Khasanti: It is. Yeah. And we’re gonna be really serious about it. (Both laughter)

(52:51) Randee: Exactly. We’re gonna take it so seriously. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

(52:56) Khasanti: That that’s really cool. So when I looked at the transits for that first class, there wasn’t anything like super wild, but one thing that I did notice was that like actually I’m yeah, my bad. I’m not talking about the first class. I’m talking about like the months that kind of led up to that, the kind of like the period where everything was was percolating and whatnot. But I had Neptune like going back and forth over my lot of spirit for a lot of that time. And the lot of spirit is one place you can look in the chart for like what is a person’s kind of destiny or like their life purpose or whatever. And so yeah, I thought that was that was pretty cool actually.

(53:52) Randee: Oh, that’s beautiful. Yeah. And and Neptune, right? Just this this art form, the poetry of (Khasanti: The mysticism) The mysticism. Yes. Yes.

(54:07) Khasanti: So that yeah, that was that was pretty sweet. So yeah, kinda looking back on it all then, from where we are now, like, do you have any any sort of thoughts or threads or like, you know, ways that it all fits together somehow?

(54:29) Randee: Right. Way that it all organizes into one coherent whole. (Khasanti laughter) I don’t know. I I just think that it was always something that interested me from the moment I cracked that first book open and and started to read about what it meant to be an Aquarius. Something resonated. I really enjoy studying people and thinking about how people operate. And so that was like a natural fit. The magic surrounding it really appealed to me as well. And so yeah, beyond that I don’t know, but there was just always something about it, and it just needed some formalization for me to (Khasanti: Right) bring it into manifestation into something more real.

(55:35) Khasanti: Do you feel like there’s any world in which like you needed to wait for it or something? Like it wasn’t the time for when you were like you know, back in the when you were kind of first getting into it. Like I don’t know. Maybe not, but…

(55:57) Randee:I think that’s a that’s a really interesting point that I’d have to like reflect more on. But it is interesting, you know, in that sort of covid world that we were all living in, I do think we all had a little more spaciousness to some degree. And that that’s for me kind of was the opening. I needed to study it formally. I needed more time. But you know, I was curious though, as you were kind of reflecting, what’s the earliest book you ever recall? Like do you have any early books?

(56:42) Khasanti: Oh obviously Linda Goodman.

(56:45) Randee: Ok, Ok, alright, yeah yeah of course. And by the way, by the way, just the astrology podcast or yeah, the astrology podcast did an incredible deep dive on Linda Goodman. If you’re at all interested, she had a very eccentric, fascinating life. And it’s surprising in many ways. Like that book was, and I think still is the all time best selling astrology book ever. Yeah. And I think she had only been a practicing astrologer for a couple months. Like and and there’s like more (Khasanti: Whoah, that’s crazy) of a back story behind that. But yeah. So what a what an amazing book that so many people found.

(57:33) Khasanti: Yeah, (I’ll definitely link to that. I’ll definitely listen to that episode and put a link to it in the show notes because yeah, that sounds sounds like a good time. (Randee: Mm-hmm) But yeah, I don’t know if I ever read it cover to cover. I think it was more like a kind of like I’ll just dip in and out. You know. I don’t know how it would hold up these days. I’m sure it’s probably a little bit kind of women are from..Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. (Randee: Yes, I have a feeling, yeah) But still, shout out to Linda for like being the gateway drug to so many of us. (Randee: Yeah) Yeah. all right. Well, I think we’re kinda getting up there on time, aren’t we? Anything that you feel like you didn’t get a chance to say that you wanna say?

(58:33) Randee: I can’t say that there is. I was curious though what might be your answer to that same question of were there any common threads that you noticed as you looked back on things? Did anything kind of stand out?

(58:52) Khasanti: You know, I don’t know if there’s really anything that’s kind of like that notable. I did like the Lot of Spirit thing. There was I guess when we started at nightlight, there was something going over my Mars. I can’t remember what it was now. And then as we’ve talked about on prior episodes, that thirteen degrees of cancer point seems to have been something that’s been activated quite a bit for me kind of since starting at nightlight. So so yeah. One thing I feel like it’s gonna just take too long to get into it. I’ll just say super briefly, I just recently learned about this technique that’s to do with like the triplicity ruler of the sect light and how you can like split your life into like either two or three chapters and da da da it’s way too complicated to get into at this point. But I just was looking into it this last week and there’s a way to calculate kind of like what date that switcheroo might happen from like chapter one to chapter two. And would you believe it? I like mine was in like August, September, I think, of 1998. This was before I started prepping for this episode, and I like went through my journals to see like, you know, exactly what was I doing on August thirtieth, 1998. And I shit you not. It’s an entry about how I just had my birth chart read by Misty.

(01:00:36) Randee: oh, wow, that’s wild.

(01:00:40) Khasanti: Yeah. So I just thought that was kinda cool, like you know, I think there are other other pieces to that time of my life that made it pivotal other than just that getting my chart read. It was like part of a lot of bigger other stuff that was happening, but still I kinda loved that in the context of we’re literally just about to talk about this and then this kind of cool (Randee: that is amazing) timing thing pops up.

(01:01:11) Randee: That is amazing. That is amazing. Yeah. Wow. Well there’s you know, maybe like my parting words would be there’s opportunities out there for anybody who is a casual a casual observer of astrology and who wants to deepen their love of it. I mean, I feel like I’m I’m just in love with this thing and there’s so many opportunities to do that and so if you’re at all interested in astrology, there’s just so much more to fall in love with the deeper you go. So I encourage anybody out there who’s a casual observer to just go for it and take that class and just see where it takes you.

(01:02:07) Khasanti: Hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Couldn’t agree more. And find more people to speak this language with. That’s another that was the thing that Kirah used to say a lot on the strology show. Like, you know, it is astrology is a whole language and not everybody speaks it. And it is pretty special to find other people who you can be like Hey Randee, you’ll never guess what just happened to me today when you know, Venus went into my ninth house and not have to like sort of backtrack a million miles to explain why that’s amazing.

(01:02:51) Randee: Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. well on that note, is there anything last and final we wanna say?

(01:03:02) Khasanti: I am good. I feel complete.

(01:03:05) Randee: Yes, I feel complete. Okay. Well, to all of our beloved listeners, we have loved hanging out with you at the Dark Moon Cafe tonight and we sincerely hope you enjoyed your time with us. It would mean so much to us if you would subscribe to the pod in your podcatcher of choice and leave us a great review. We also love hearing your thoughts and you can now write to us directly at letters@darkmooncafe.com. Let us know what you like, what you’d like more of, or any questions you have or topics you’d like us to cover. We’re wishing you the very best for the coming month, happy Mercury retrograde, and we look forward to seeing you again next Dark Moon.