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🎙️ Seven-Eight Magic: A Conversation with Stephanie FoleyA Magicians interview with Alison of Living the Spiral Stephanie Foley of Moon Feather Hollow joins Living the Spiral for a conversation that started with a shared obsession over the number seven and unfolded into something bigger: the relationship between seven as process and eight as the structure that holds it. We trace this through Inanna's eight-point star and seven gates, the seven planetary days of the week, grief and the gold buried in returning cycles, the masculine wound around shedding and regeneration, and the shift from matriarchy and patriarchy toward what Stephanie calls synarchy. In this episode: How Stephanie and Alison found each other through Substack and recognized a shared body of work Inanna's descent, the seven gates, and the eight-point star Why seven is the living process and eight is the structure that holds it Returning to old grief from a new vantage point in the cycle Building a life around the seven planetary days Moon Feather Hollow as an imaginal sanctuary The masculine wound and the fear of shedding Moving from matriarchy and patriarchy toward synarchy Asynchronous voice notes and untethering from performance A shared Jupiter placement in Gate 34, the gate of power Find Stephanie:Website: moonfeatherhollow.comSubstack: Seasons and Stars (stephaniefoley.substack.com)YouTube: Moon Feather Hollow Find Alison:Substack: Living the SpiralInstagram: @hearthandspiralWebsite & sessions: hearthandspiral.comAlison's Ecosomatic Astrology course opens this fall, six Tuesdays on Zoom, September 22 through October 27. Recorded if you can't make it live. Register at https://www.hearthandspiral.com/ecosomatic-astrology-human-design This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

Both Ends of the Axis My Uranus opposition landed the same day as the Leo solar eclipse, and it taught me something about integration, fire and air, and letting go of nodal shame. In this episode: two eclipses landing on my personal planets a year apart, fruit-versus-mycelium and flowers vs. wildfires, and why every axis in the chart needs both ends instead of a winner. Mentioned in this episode: Sign up for my new course Ecosomatic Astrology 101, starting September 22nd on the fall equinox → https://www.hearthandspiral.com/ecosomatic-astrology-human-design Ecosomatic Human Design (bundle discount if you take both, plus a free one-on-one consultation) If you've got Leo or Aquarius placements, or this eclipse landed on your own personal planets, I'd love to hear where it showed up for you. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

Liberation Magic: A Conversation with Aki Hirata Quetzalyolotzin This week for the Magicians series on Living the Spiral, Alison sits down with Aki Hirata Quetzalyolotzin, a medicine woman, storyteller, and founder of Minka Brooklyn and Minka Mystery School. They talk about claiming a cosmic slut identity after divorce, what magic actually means, why decolonial liberation starts with desire, and how love and grief are the same act. Topics covered [02:00] On claiming a new identity after divorce [08:00] On work as an offering rather than a role [11:00] On what magic really means [17:00] On liberation and undoing separation [24:00] On desire as a creative engine [53:00] On trauma culture and what comes after naming it [55:00] On love as a brave act [1:04:00] Aki's offerings and where to find her About Aki Aki Hirata Quetzalyolotzin, also known as Jewel Moon Medicine Woman, is a multidisciplinary energy healing facilitator and community organizer whose work centers on decolonial spiritual liberation. She has dedicated her life to studying mysticism, philosophy, and various healing systems. She lives between Japan and the US and is teaching this summer in LA, the Berkshires, and New York, including a Young Witches School for teenagers working with intuition and oracle cards, and a Reiki training during the Lion's Gate portal built around what she and her teacher call Earth Evolution Reiki. Writing: Field Notes from the Inbetween on Substack Instagram: @soulflowermedicine Teaching home: Minka Brooklyn About Alison Alison is an ecosomatic astrologer, Human Design guide, breathwork practitioner, and creative sovereignty coach based in the high desert outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work lives under the name Hearth & Spiral, where she blends astrology, Human Design, somatic practice, and myth into a path back to the body and the land. She hosts Living the Spiral as both a podcast and a Substack publication, and co-created ELA Map with her partner Jackson. Writing: Living the Spiral on Substack Instagram: @hearthandspiral Website: hearthandspiral.com Interested in being interviewed on Living the Spiral: Magicians? Send Alison a DM. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

Leo Season 2026: Stepping Onto Pride Rock If you want to go deep into your own chart and how this season lands for you personally, my books are open at hearthandspiral.com. And I also want to invite you to join the waitlist for ELAmap, the new astrocartography app my partner and I have been building- it's going live next week on the Aquarius full moon! This Leo season episode traces the sign all the way back to Babylon and Egypt, through the Thema Mundi, the ancient world chart with the sun in its own home in Leo, and into the Human Design gates of the season and the transits of an eclipse-charged summer. We cover the nodes shifting into Leo and Aquarius, a Full Moon in Aquarius standing cazimi opposite a Jupiter-Sun conjunction, Mars easing into Cancer, and the total solar eclipse in Leo on August 12, the first of a new two-year series and the season's real centerpiece. The season's invitation is to step fully into the light, and to figure out which parts of that radiance are true and which were only ever built for applause. Come out of the den before Virgo season asks you to get to work. Key dates:July 24/25 · Mercury stations directJuly 26 · Nodes shift into Leo and AquariusJuly 29 · Full Moon in Aquarius / Sun cazimi Jupiter, Gate 31August 1 · Lughnasadh/LammasAugust 6 · Venus enters LibraAugust 9 · Mercury enters LeoAugust 11 · Mars enters CancerAugust 12 · Total Solar Eclipse in Leo, Gate 4 (Formulization)August 17 · Venus sextile JupiterThanks for listening! Find more posts at livingthespiral.com, or on IG and TikTok @hearthandspiral This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

Hey friends, I’m trying something new here on Living the Spiral. For years I’ve moved through forecasts of different shapes - weekly deep dives, then biweekly on the full and new moons, then monthly, always tracking the sun and planets through the signs, gates and seasons. That work isn’t going anywhere- it’s my foundation. But today I felt called to record without a plan, to speak from the hip instead of from research, and to let whatever wants to come through actually come through. This is new for me in a specific way. I’m a 5/1 in human design, and that one line in my unconscious profile is about investigation, about laying a foundation before anything gets said out loud. I’ve spent years earning trust with myself by going deep before I speak. So sitting down to talk without that groundwork first is its own kind of edge. But as a self-projected projector, I need to speak out loud to know what I mean and what I desire. So it’s also, I think, exactly what today is asking of me. Listen in the player above or find Living the Spiral wherever you listen to podcasts The Gate of the Now It’s Friday, July 3rd as I record this, and we’re sitting inside the Mars-Uranus conjunction in Gemini, in Gate 20, the Gate of the Now. Mars and Uranus meet up roughly every two years, so the conjunction itself isn’t rare. What is rare is the sign. This is the first time this pairing has landed in Gemini in about 84 years, after about a decade of these conjunctions happening in Taurus. A new flavor of energy is moving through, and it’s arriving right as the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I don’t think that timing is incidental. The Fourth of July always falls when the sun is in the Gate of Provocation (39), whose gift is dynamism and whose siddhi is liberation. There’s no liberty without provoking or bringing attention to the thing that’s making you feel trapped. The gate of Provocation is a Cancer gate, and I keep thinking of the crab: a creature built to withdraw into its shell, and also built with claws. Hiding isn’t the only option. Sometimes the claws come out because the shell alone won’t do the job anymore. So we’ve got Uranus and Mars electrifying the present moment while the sun sits in the gate of Provocation, and the message underneath all of it feels pretty blunt: look around at where you believe yourself to be trapped, and take action. Shock the system a little. Move. My own Chiron in this My natal Chiron sits in the Gate of the Now, so this conjunction is landing directly on it. Chiron is the wound we hold that can eventually become the thing we teach from, once we’ve alchemized it. For me, this wound is about not feeling heard and not feeling fully seen by my community. Gemini rules communication and local networks, and this placement sits in my 11th house, the house of larger community and friendship groups, so having Uranus and Mars stir that up is landing in a very specific spot. What I’m noticing under the provocation is a pattern I’ve built without meaning to. I tune myself down sometimes. I round off the complexity of what I actually think so that I’ll be easier to receive, softer to meet in the moment. And that habit, born out of wanting to be understood, ends up being the very thing that keeps me from being fully met. A Chiron wound reopening tends to work that way. It doesn’t just point at the wound. It points at the strategy we built around the wound so we don’t feel it as intensely, and asks whether that strategy is still serving us. The pain can turn into medicine once it has an outlet.This is where self-understanding becomes part of the medicine. I've spent years with astrology, human design, the gene keys, meditation, and deep reflection, and what they've shown me about my own wiring is specific. The only channels active in my chart are collective understanding circuits, and my sun gate is Gate 64, the gate that alchemizes Confusion into Illumination. So much of my design leans toward the big picture, toward zooming way out across long stretches of time and pattern. So when my Chiron is met by Uranus and Mars in the Gate of the present moment, I feel real friction there. For a long time I treated that friction as something wrong with me, something to smooth over or apologize for to my community. Now I hold it differently. It's information about how I'm built, and it lets me meet the now on my own terms instead of forcing myself into a shape of how the now should look that was never mine. I think this is available to anyone doing this work with their own chart. Getting to know yourself this closely means you can choose your response instead of running the old strategy without noticing. And once that kind of self-knowledge starts to settle in, it stops feeling like a personal project, and starts feeling like part of something much bigger moving through all of us. From tribal bargain to individual sovereignty Zooming out, we’re approaching a much longer transition that ties into all this. In 2027, the precession of the equinoxes moves the vernal point from Gate 37, the Gate of Family and Community, into Gate 55, the Gate of Spirit and Abundance. Gate 37 is a tribal gate. Gate 55 is an individual one. Ra Uru Hu is said to have brought human design through in part to help prepare people for this exact shift. I’ve been thinking a lot about how Tribal life runs on bargains. You give something, the group gives something back, and the whole structure depends on those trades holding. What I’m hearing from clients, and feeling in the wider culture, is that a lot of those bargains are starting to unravel, quietly failing. Institutions that promised protection in exchange for years of loyalty are backing out of the deal. Insurance companies drop coverage the moment it’s actually needed. Family systems built on the promise of safety in exchange for compliance stop delivering the safety once the compliance has already been given. We’re standing in the brackish water where one system meets the next, and it’s uncomfortable in a very specific way. It’s not simply relief that a shift is happening. There’s real grief in a transition like this, and real fear in learning to trust your own inner authority instead of an external arrangement. What abundance actually means Gate 55 carries the word abundance, and I want to slow down on that word because I think it’s been flattened. Abundance comes from the Latin abundare, built from ab (away) and undare (to surge), rooted in unda, meaning wave. It’s a picture of water overflowing its banks. Abundance, at it’s root, is not accumulation. It’s the opposite. It’s overflow. That distinction matters a lot to me right now, in a collective moment of time defined by the outer planets all in fire and air signs after a long stretch of earth and water. Water hasn’t disappeared. It’s just moved into the earthen cells of our bodies, into the emotional and energetic current each of us carries. Into the wave that fills and spills over rather than the pile that gets hoarded. The shadow side of Gate 55 is victimization, and I want to be careful here, because there is real reason for people to feel like they’ve been trapped or targeted. This isn’t a manifest-your-own-reality message. It’s more a question of where our attention goes once the old bargains stop paying out. Do we keep waiting for a system that isn’t going to fulfill its end, or do we start filling our own cup first, tuning into our internal wellsprings so what we have to offer comes from overflow instead of depletion or an outdated exchange? Where this is heading I’ve been deep in research on Egypt this year, on the pyramids as possible superconductors drawing on the Nile’s rise, and I keep landing on the idea that the human body works on a similar principle. The heart generates its own electromagnetic field. There’s a real connection between the water in the earth and the water in our blood, the same abundant overflow I’ve been circling all through this piece, just traced through a different lens. I think this collective shift toward abundance is going to show up first in the body, before it shows up anywhere else. Abundance was always about what moves through us and spills over, and the body is where that movement actually happens. It’s in the blood finding its rhythm, the breath filling past capacity and letting go, the heart’s own field reaching past the edges of skin. Learning to trust that overflow in your own body is practice for trusting it everywhere else - in your relationships, your work, and the wider shift we’re all living through together. I’ll be teaching a free masterclass later this summer on these larger planetary configurations, including the Barbault Basket, the grand fire and air trines forming among the outer planets, and the shift to the Cross of the Sleeping Phoenix. Comment or send a message if that’s something you’d be interested in! I’m also building toward a small group coaching offering in September, back to school season, where we’ll look at your individual chart alongside these collective shifts and work through embodied practices to meet this transitional moment with abundance. I want to talk there about what it means to attune to your own life force, your own frequency, and create from that place, instead of the one that got handed to you before you had a chance to shine your light. Happy Gate of Provocation and 4th of July, however you choose to celebrate. May whatever’s been holding you tightly loosen its grip enough for you to notice it was never as fixed as it seemed.xo, Alison Thanks so much for being here! Here are a few ways you can support me and my work: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

Wyrd Magic with Petah Raven Petah Raven is an editor, writer, and the creator of Pandora's Lost Gift, a Substack weaving together astrology, tarot, myth, and mysticism. Petah writes with the rigor of a researcher and the honesty of someone reporting back from inside the experience - and this conversation reflects exactly that. We meandered through goddess mythology, the magic of words, integrating polarity, and what it means to wield power responsibly in a world drowning in information. Find Petah at Pandora's Lost Gift on Substack and watch for his forthcoming book, The Living Language of Tarot. In this episode: (00:00) Introduction - who is Petah Raven and how we found each other through Inanna (02:00) The origin of Pandora's Lost Gift - the myth of the jar (not the box), hope as the lost gift, and the feminist lens on Zeus (07:00) The audacity of hope and the audacity of magic - what it takes to claim either (09:00) Petah's visitations by the goddess - what they were, what they weren't, and what they asked of him (13:00) Being initiated into women's business and sleeping under the stars in a sacred circle (16:00) Imagination, magic, and the imaginal realm - why something doesn't have to be historically real to be true (19:00) Astrology as meaning-making - why engagement with the symbols matters more than whether the planets "actually" do anything (21:00) Words as spells - the etymology of wyrd, spelling as casting, and the runes as the original language of magic (23:00) Imaginal cells and the butterfly - sitting in the goo before the new form arrives (24:00) Rune notes passed in junior high and the history of codes and ciphers in magical practice (26:00) Neurodivergence, following breadcrumbs, and why curiosity is the real spiritual practice (28:00) The pollinators of Gemini season and the Gate of Enthusiasm - on cross-pollination of ideas and following what lights you up (30:00) The Wild West internet as hyperlinked oracle - and how the algorithm ruined the surf (33:00) Magic, power, and responsibility - what happens when you hand people chainsaws without teaching them to wield the blade (36:00) The magician card, Trump as magi, and how trickster energy shows up in politics and propaganda (39:00) World building, myth making, and who gets to plant the seeds of new stories (42:00) Finding your path - Petah's long and winding road from private school misfit to writer and archeologist (45:00) Gnosis, presence, and how you actually know when you're on the right track (48:00) Polarity vs. duality - why yin yang is one word and what gets created in the space between opposites (51:00) Full moons, the infinity loop, and integrating the opposite sign's medicine (55:00) The I Ching's first hexagram - how even pure yang contains the instruction to wait (57:00) Fuxi, Nüwa, and the cosmic polarity woven into creation myths across cultures (59:00) The Golden Dawn, tarot, and why creation requires polarity - from Waite and Colman Smith to sperm and egg (01:01:00) Non-binary figures in the Inanna myth, two-spirit traditions, and the rising integration of the sacred third (01:02:00) Petah's upcoming book The Living Language of Tarot - developing visual literacy and building your own relationship with any deck Mentioned in this episode: Pandora's Lost Gift - Petah's Substack: ravenastrology.substack.com Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta The Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck The Tarot of the Witches (the deck from Live and Let Die - yes, really) Fuxi and Nüwa - the Chinese creator myth The Inanna descent myth and Enheduanna, the world's earliest recorded author The Lord of the Rings / Tolkien on world building and the imagination The I Ching / Yi Jing - hexagram one and the hidden yin in pure yang About Alison Dale Alison Dale is an artist, writer, astrologer, and Human Design guide based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work lives at the intersection of ancestral systems that track the seasons and the planets, embodiment practices, and earth-based spirituality. Book a reading or explore more of what she offers at hearthandspiral.com, follow along at @hearthandspiral on Instagram, or on Substack at livingthespiral.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

Cancer Season 2026 Rising Sign Horoscopes (Part 2) | Chiron in Taurus, Mercury Retrograde & Jupiter in Leo I welcome you to Living the Spiral for part two of my Cancer season 2026 rising sign horoscopes, and I explain why rising signs are the most accurate way to track how the season lands in your real life (and where to find yours), while noting part one covers Cancer’s history, Human Design gates, and the season’s major transits. Then I move sign by sign, tying Cancer season to the house it activates for each rising sign and highlighting the big dates: Chiron entering Taurus on June 19 (an ~8-year healing journey), the Capricorn full moon on June 29, Mercury retrograde in Cancer from June 29–July 23, Jupiter entering Leo on June 30 (a year of expansion), and the Cancer new moon on July 14 as a fresh seeding moment. I wrap by sharing where to listen, subscribe, book readings, and grab my Cancer season guidebook. 00:00 Welcome and Overview 01:50 How Rising Signs Work 02:43 Aries Rising Home Roots 06:48 Taurus Rising Voice Care 10:50 Gemini Rising Values Worth 17:15 Cancer Rising Season Reset 21:31 Leo Rising Inner Retreat 27:02 Virgo Rising Community Check 31:39 Libra Rising Career Nurture 36:12 Scorpio Rising Big Beliefs 40:09 Sagittarius Rising Deep Healing 45:33 Capricorn Rising Relationship Axis 50:50 Aquarius Rising Routines Health 55:36 Pisces Rising Creative Bloom 01:00:11 Closing and Resources This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

Cancer Season 2026: The Fierce Embraceif you want to go deep into your own chart and how this season lands for you personally, my books are open for Soulshine Readings at hearthandspiral.com. The crab is older than you think. This episode traces the sign all the way back to Babylon and Sumer, through the Thema Mundi -the ancient world chart with Cancer rising - and into the Human Design gates of the season and the transits of a busy, electric summer. We cover Chiron entering Taurus, a very full end of June (full moon, Mercury retrograde, and Jupiter into Leo all in one day), the Mars-Uranus conjunction on July 4th, and the New Moon in Cancer on July 14 in the Gate of Details. The season's invitation is to go dark enough to find out what's incubating inside you. Come home before Leo season's stage calls you out.. Key dates:June 19 · Chiron enters TaurusJune 20/21 · Summer SolsticeJune 29 · Full Moon in Capricorn (Gate 58) / Mercury Rx begins / Jupiter enters LeoJuly 4 · Mars conjunct Uranus, Gate 39July 7 · Neptune stations retrogradeJuly 12 · Mercury cazimi, Gate 56July 14 · New Moon in Cancer, Gate 62 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

In this episode of Living the Spiral: Magicians, your host Alison Dale interviews astrologer and community builder Britten LaRue. She's the creator of Emergence Astrology, author of the book Living Astrology, and host of Moon to Moon podcast. Alison and Britten chat about magic as change and the willingness to be moved by it. They discuss skill as a Saturnian devotional practice developed over time, “voice” as the sum of our choices and boundaries, and one of Britten’s guiding phrases, “there’s no such thing as potential, there’s only emergence,” as an antidote to shame and striving. The conversation contrasts astrology as a living language with predictive approaches, distinguishes divination from fortune-telling, and connects desire, unshaming, and self-trust to magical practice. Britten shares her path from academia to astrology after a mystical period of intuition and lunar guidance, and she describes restructuring her offerings, clarifying Living Emergence as a community space and Emergence Astrology Pathway as a multi-year school. About Britten LaRue Britten LaRue is a recovering academic who now teaches, writes, and offers transformational readings from a place of sacred unknowing. She is the creator of Emergence Astrology, the author of Living Astrology, and the host of the Moon to Moon podcast. Her work invites us to think of the signs and planets as a living language designed to equip us to meet what is happening with our fullest, most vibrant power. Work with Britten: Enrollment for the Emergence Astrology Pathway opens at the summer solstice. If you've been looking for a long-term home for your astrological studies that feels mystical, spacious, and genuinely transformational, it's worth exploring. You can also find her in Living Emergence, her ongoing community space for practice and belonging, and pick up her book Living Astrology in her shop. Visit brittenlarue.com to learn more, follow her on Instagram at @brittenlarue, and subscribe to Moon to Moon wherever you listen to podcasts. About Alison Dale Alison Dale is an artist, writer, astrologer, and Human Design guide based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work lives at the intersection of ancestral systems that track the seasons and the planets, embodiment practices, and earth-based spirituality. Work with Alison: Book a reading or explore more of what she offers at hearthandspiral.com, follow along at @hearthandspiral on Instagram, or on Substack at livingthespiral.com. Timestamps: 00:00 Meet Britten LaRue 05:21 Claiming the Magician 05:58 Magic as Change 08:29 Emergence and Voice 11:32 Skills Desire Guidance 15:57 Unshaming Astrology 18:13 Saturn and Skillbuilding 25:06 From Academia to Astrology 28:55 Neptune Awakening Leap 32:38 Why Community Matters 39:06 Maui Intuition Moon Call 40:15 Moon Ritual Beginnings 41:16 Learning Lunar Astrology 49:22 Deconditioning and Unshaming 50:33 Divination and Trust 58:49 Restructuring Offerings 01:03:52 Community vs Pathway 01:05:29 Imaginal Spaces Online 01:07:25 Compost and Rebrand Metaphor 01:08:17 Where to Find Britten This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

Get your Gemini Season Guidebook here!Alison of Living the Spiral shares Gemini season 2026 horoscopes by rising sign. With Uranus newly in Gemini and a Gemini New Moon on June 15, each sign is guided through the house Gemini activates and what Uranus may revolutionize over the next seven years, with key dates including the Uranus cazimi around May 22, the Sagittarius Full Moon on May 31, the Mars–Pluto square on May 25, Uranus square the nodes on June 12, Venus entering Leo on June 13, and the Venus–Jupiter conjunction in Cancer on June 9. She has a Gemini season guidebook available at hearthandspiral.com and invites listeners to work with her through astrology and human design readings, coaching, and her Tending the Hearth offering. 00:00 Welcome 02:47 Why Rising Signs Matter 03:09 Gemini Season Big Shift 03:31 Aries Rising Third House 06:00 Taurus Rising Money Values 08:26 Gemini Rising Identity Rewire 11:19 Cancer Rising Twelfth House 14:22 Leo Rising Community Shakeup 17:33 Virgo Rising Career Calling 20:21 Libra Rising Beliefs Travel 22:48 Scorpio Rising Deep Transformation 25:39 Sagittarius Rising Partnerships 28:41 Capricorn Rising Routines Health 31:15 Aquarius Rising Creativity Play 33:34 Pisces Rising Home Roots 37:01 Wrap Up Resources and Links This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

Get your Gemini Season Guidebook here! In this episode, Alison shares a refresh to Living the Spiral, moving from full/new moon episodes to a monthly rhythm with three releases: a season-ahead episode (with rising sign horoscopes, key transits, and a Human Design gate walkthrough), ongoing “Magicians” interviews, and a third, more spacious big-picture episode. She also points listeners to her written Mandala 64 Walk on Substack via livingthespiral.com and mentions a new astrocartography app project in the works. She then welcomes Gemini season (May 20/21–June 20), describing its breezy, curious, pollinator energy and its links to breath, lungs, arms, and childhood. She weaves in Gemini mythology (Babylonian Great Twins; Castor and Pollux) and outlines the six Gemini Human Design gates (20, 16, 35, 45, 12, 15), plus major transits, and closes with offerings like the Gemini season guidebook and astro-human design readings at hearthandspiral.com.Work with Alison Alison is an ecosomatic astrologer, Human Design guide, and spiritual teacher based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She weaves together astrology, Human Design, the Gene Keys, the Celtic wheel of the year, and somatic practice into readings, courses, and seasonal gatherings that help people attune to the deeper rhythms they're already living inside. Her Soul Shine readings combine astrology and Human Design into a single session that looks at your chart, your body, your timing, and what's asking to move in you right now. If you want to go deeper into how the current transits and your own design are intersecting, her books are open. You can find her full offering of readings and courses at hearthandspiral.com, and follow the Living the Spiral podcast and Mandala 64 Walk here on Substack. 00:00 Welcome and Updates 01:21 New Monthly Format 02:38 Mandala 64 Walk 04:43 Magicians Interview Series 06:27 Big Picture Episodes 08:43 Summer Schedule and App 10:00 Gemini Season Begins 11:49 Gemini Body and Breath 14:17 Gemini Childhood and Air 19:23 Mercury and Ecosomatic Lens 23:39 Gemini Myth of Twins 27:30 Human Design Gates Intro 31:19 Gate 20 Presence 35:40 Gate 16 Skills 38:52 Gate 35 Change 41:56 Gate 45 Gatherer 45:04 Gate of Caution 48:21 Solstice Gate Extremes 53:28 Six Gates Recap 55:24 Uranus in Gemini Era 58:29 Uranus Cazimi Revelations 01:01:07 Mars Square Pluto 01:05:00 Sagittarius Full Moon 01:08:45 Mercury into Cancer 01:10:07 Venus Jupiter Sweet Spot 01:11:52 Uranus Squares Nodes 01:15:22 Gemini New Moon 01:17:14 Chiron Enters Taurus 01:20:51 Season Wrap and Offers This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

In this Living the Spiral: Magicians episode, host Alison Dale frames magic as making the invisible visible through attention and intention. She interviews Rachel Simon Stark, founder of Widening Circles Collaborative, about ancestral reclamation, cultural repair, and collective liberation. Rachel describes being contacted in 2018 by her grandmother Ruth during a rock-bottom period, which initiated Rachel’s ancestral work and led to her nine-week course Cultivating Culture that emphasizes grounding, guided tools, community processing, and service. Drawing on urban planning’s focus on belonging, Rilke’s “Widening Circles,” and identity as a fluid river, she discusses chosen ancestors, more-than-human ancestors, boundaries rather than walls, and meeting ancestors in their wholeness. The conversation addresses trauma, shame vs humility, colonialism and indigeneity, being future ancestors, releasing victimization into agency, and Rachel’s plan to offer the course again around October/Samhain.Thanks for tuning in! Work with Rachel:To learn more about working Rachel and the Widening Circles Collaborative, visit her website at wideningcirclescollaborative.com. Follow Rachel on Instagram and on Substack at Rachel Simon Stark, where she writes the deep and thoughtful publication hi•ne•ni : here i am. Work with Alison:Book a reading or explore more of what I offer on my website at hearthandspiral.com, follow along at @hearthandspiral on Instagram, or on Substack at livingthespiral.com. 00:00 What Magic Really Is 02:31 Meet Rachel Simon Stark 04:41 Grandmother’s Wake Up Call 07:23 From Dreams to a Course 10:46 Urban Planning Meets Soul 14:22 Why Widening Circles 18:37 Homecoming to Lineage 22:46 Inside the Nine Week Container 28:22 Future Ancestor Mindset 30:35 Identity as a River 39:22 Resistance and Hard Histories 43:09 Beyond Shame Toward Humility 49:57 Beyond the Melting Pot 51:27 Ancestral Creativity 54:37 Grandfather on the Road 58:04 Calling In Ancestors 01:00:16 Wise and Well Debate 01:06:46 Boundaries Not Walls 01:11:58 Roots Over Progress 01:23:18 Indigenous Marrow 01:27:38 What Ancestors Need 01:33:57 Course and Farewell This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

Hey friends, happy New Moon in Taurus. We’re 2 weeks out from that potent full moon in Scorpio… how are you all doing out there? How did that lunation show up for you? This new moon is conjunct the Medusa Star and happens on the same day that Mars meets Chiron. So while it’s not necessarily gentle, it’s still exalted in Taurus, and the gate that it’s falling in is a deep reminder of the power of our personal agency, care, and contributions. Thanks for liking, sharing, and reviewing Living the Spiral- it truly helps me to reach more people and continue writing and recording this labor of love. Living the Spiral is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. xo Alison Questions about this moon or my offerings or anything else? Write me at [email protected] or DM me at @hearthandspiral on Instagram. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

The Full Moon in Scorpio and the Season of Speaking Your Truth Sign up for the Beltane Ritual next Tuesday at 5pm MST here!I'd love to invite you to my May 5 Zoom ritual “Blossoming into Beltane” (somatic work, a bit of vocalizing, creative practice, and cross-cultural Beltane teachings). In this full moon episode I riff on the Taurus–Scorpio axis as security and intimacy (throat and g******s) and track it through Human Design: Moon in Gate 44 (alertness/“coming to meet,” splenic instinct, ancestral pattern-recognition) and Sun in Gate 24 (rationalization, getting out of mental loops into invention and silence). I also ground Beltane as a Gaelic fire festival (bonfires, maypole, flowers, fertility) opposite Samhain/Halloween, and share my course “Your Heart is a Compass,” weaving the Wheel of the Year with G-center gates, Inanna dream symbolism, and practices like coherent breathing.00:00 Scorpio Full Moon Welcome01:24 Mayday Timing Clarified02:15 Beltane Ritual Invite03:25 Finding Your Voice05:49 Wheel Polarity Taurus Scorpio09:19 Gate 44 Meeting Shadows12:47 Gate 24 Mind to Silence15:19 Instinct and Reason Integration20:07 Beltane Origins and Traditions23:31 Heart Compass Course Vision31:51 Why We Need New Maps34:26 Grounding Practices and Closing This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe

Uranus moved into Gemini on April 25th, and I wanted to mark this pivotal moment by talking to someone who knows this energy from the inside out. This is the first episode of a new series I am calling Living the Spiral: Magicians, conversations with practitioners who have not just studied these systems but have been changed by them. There’s a lot more to come, and this Uranian wisdom with the brilliant Christa Hamilton is a wonderful place to start. Christa Hamilton is a lifelong student of esoteric subjects and an active practitioner of divination. Astrology is the central core of her practice, and she weaves in tarot, plant medicine, animal symbolism, and dreaming as she works. She is a graduate of the Nightlight Astrology School, a founding member of the Asteri Sofia Kairos collective, a contributing writer and lecturer for the Astrologer’s Co-Op, and a volunteer for OPA. She focuses primarily on one-on-one client readings and also creates art, writes, makes videos, and collaborates with other practitioners to make astrology genuinely accessible to anyone who wants it. 🌀 Find Christa at practicalastros.com 📖 Follow her Decan Walk on Substack 📱 Follow her on Instagram and YouTube Work with me: If this conversation is landing for you, I have a course coming in May called Your Heart Is a Compass that feels very much in the spirit of what Christa and I are talking about here. It is built around the idea that the heart is a navigation system, and that when you learn to read it you stop needing external permission to know where you are going. This could be especially useful when Uranus is scrambling all the signals! I also offer natal astrology chart readings, Human Design readings, and more through my practice at Hearth and Spiral. 📬 Sign up for early bird to Your Heart Is a Compass, my upcoming course that runs from May 19-June 16. 💫 Book a reading at hearthandspiral.com 🌀 Follow along at @hearthandspiral on Instagram and Living the Spiral on Substack at livingthespiral.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.livingthespiral.com/subscribe