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What's on the menu at Lucid Cafe? Stories of transformation; healing journeys; thought-provoking conversations about consciousness, shamanism, psychology, ethics. Hosted by Wendy Halley of Lucid Path Wellness & Healing Arts.
You're listening to Lucid Cafe. I'm your host, Wendy Halley. Welcome to season 7 of Lucid Cafe, a podcast exploring healing, consciousness, and the complexities of being human. Well, I am very excited for this upcoming season. I've already recorded, like, 8 episodes and have had some incredible conversations that I'm really looking forward to sharing with you.
Wendy:And in the near future, it's looking like I might have some news to share about a fun new project or 2, so stay tuned. Before we get to today's guest, I want to officially announce that as of a few days ago, I'm happy to report that the Become Your Own Shaman Introductory Online Course is now available. Yay. What a ride it's been. But I'm so pleased with how it turned out.
Wendy:I learned a lot in a relatively short amount of time, but, of course, none of it was happening as quickly as I wanted it to. But that's how life goes sometimes. Right? So if you had a desire to explore shamanism or even just a passing curiosity, you can now do so from the comfort of your own home. Become Your Own Shaman is a self paced experiential introductory course that gives you the foundations to start a personal shamanic practice.
Wendy:The foundation of the course is based, with permission, on my understanding of the indigenous Hawaiian spiritual worldview that was shared with me during the early phase of my apprenticeship. We'll explore topics like the nature of reality, the nature of the self and how it relates to consciousness, and you'll learn the mechanics of how to safely and easily enter a shamanic trance state using sound. Then we'll dive into some fundamental experiential exercises introducing you to the shamanic realms and 2 of your personal helping spirits. My goal in creating this course was to make it as affordable and user friendly as possible. It incorporates all I've learned teaching introductory shamanic workshops over the last 20 or so years, including the common areas where new practitioners can get a little stuck.
Wendy:If you're ready to learn how to dream while you're awake and access the transpersonal realms, check out the Become Your Own Shaman online course on my website lucidpathwellness.com or you can use the link in the show notes. Alright. Let's get to it. In the last episode of season 6, I mentioned that I had a bit of a recording mishap. If you're a regular listener, you might remember that I had previously teased that my wildly talented friend, Linda River Valente, was going to close out last season by offering us a glimpse into the colorful astrology of the coming months, only to discover when I went to edit said episode that only 8 seconds of our conversation had actually been recorded.
Wendy:Oops. But my very kind and understanding friend was willing to do a do over. So thankfully, the podcast gods were also kind. That and I paid more attention this time, and it went much better. Today's episode marks Linda's 3rd visit to Lucid Cafe.
Wendy:She started and ended season 4, which was several years ago now. Linda's gifts are many. In the first episode, back in 2021, she talked about her work as an astrologer and magic maker. And in the second episode in 2022, she discussed her work as a holistic sex educator and burlesque producer and performer. Highly recommend checking those episodes out if you haven't already.
Wendy:Given the nature of these interesting times, I asked Linda if she'd be willing to come back on the show and give us a taste of what we can expect in the coming months through the lens of astrology, as well as how to best navigate the challenges that she sees coming. So fasten your seatbelts, and please enjoy my conversation with Linda River Valente. We have our returning champion, Linda River Valente.
Linda:I'm doing my James Brown thing! I mean, I'm gonna take off my cloak. I'm gonna- there you go. Everyone spray water on me. Here I go.
Wendy:Get down on one knee.
Linda:I'm here. I'm here. Returning champ.
Wendy:Yes. Yes. Indeed. Yep. So, yeah, take 2 on this conversation. I'm really grateful that you were willing to do a do over.
Linda:Yeah. I mean, I don't know if I could be as brilliant as I was on the one that disappeared into the ether. I mean, that was just perfect recording, but we'll see.
Wendy:Yeah. So no pressure.
Linda:No pressure. Yeah. No. No.
Wendy:No. Yeah. Well, I'm psyched you came back and, and I I suspect people might be eager to hear your perspective on Yes. How fucked are we, Linda?
Linda:Yes. This is such a
Wendy:just a great way to start the conversation. Right? Let's start with our
Linda:Yeah. Drop our
Wendy:anchor in the negative polarity about that.
Linda:It's a great place to start. We might as well start because it's like, yep. How fucked are we? I'm a sex educator. Right?
Linda:So I'm like, can we fuck better?
Wendy:Can we be better? Always fuck better. I think we can always do that. Yeah.
Linda:But if if we think about just the astrological and cultural, political, social realms of which we are speaking, right, which is like, what's up with the mayhem and how do we ride these waves? Yeah. There's lots of astrological framing that we can look at today in terms of let's see. So we're recording mid September, and this will get to people end of October, beginning of November That's the hope. Hopefully because it would be before the, air quotes, US election.
Linda:But astrology will give us a lovely frame in which to answer the how fucked are we. We can think about the astrology of this past summer and understand how it brings us into the autumn and the winter, and we can start to think about how, you know, astrology rather than a sort of reductionist pop culture, This means that, and so there's that. We could also accept the invitation in this moment to expand our understanding of astrology to the richness of cyclical time and history, we can also remember that the oldest stories from the very first peoples in this world, stories of indigenous star lore, right, were more than just a reductionist explanation of x, y, z. They were in companionable relationship with their night sky. They used that night sky to get them all over this fucking planet with a level of technological sophistication that they are not given sufficient recognition for.
Linda:Right? So just stepping into the how fucked. Yeah. Let's use an astrological frame to look at some of this and then maybe think about once we've gotten some tip offs on that astrological framing. And we will look specifically at end of 2024, first half of twenty twenty five.
Linda:Once we have that framing, we can say, well, then what human practices are we being called to at this time to remove us just from that sense that this is being done unto us and more that we are co creating and sort of in a living time frame as we go. And we're collaborating with planets and aspects as we move along.
Wendy:Okay. So you're looking at astrology through this more relational lens. Like we could have
Linda:Yeah.
Wendy:Relationships with the planets
Linda:and the
Wendy:asteroids and
Linda:the stars. We could certainly the way that Western astrology has bloomed and boomed, I would say over the last 25 years, There's a tendency, understandably, because ourselves need help, that's for sure, but there's a tendency for people to pull toward a quote unquote sort of self help or psychological model when they're using astrology as a tool to understand themselves. So that would be like when people say, yeah. I'm gonna get my chart done. I'm gonna get my natal chart done.
Linda:I wanna know what is my wiring? What's going on in here? What are my gifts and my strengths? What do I need a heads up on? What are the transits that I'm experiencing?
Linda:In other words, how's the sky in real time speaking to my wiring? Right? And using astrological charts, natal charts, timings of transits, it's like pure gold. It's a pure wonderful gold way to befriend yourself through this life. And there are much bigger signatures, especially when we start to talk about things called outer planets.
Linda:So the outer planets, and they are Pluto, Uranus and Neptune. The outer planets, those are the ones that were more recently discovered. And in the case of all of them required a sort of a technological bump for us to see them. That it wasn't like since time immemorial, you look up in the sky and Venus is the morning star. Or you look in the sky and there's Mars and he's red and freaking out.
Linda:Right? So these outer planets speak to us about culture and cultural change. And to me, they are a real boon in terms of shaping the biggest questions in front of us at the moment.
Wendy:Okay. Can I interrupt here to ask a question? I'm curious about your take on interpretation. Mhmm. Like, if we had 10 astrologers Yeah.
Wendy:Sitting here right now having a conversation with us Yeah. Or having a conversation together, would all of them be in agreement or would all of them have different takes on the same
Linda:There would be a sufficient level of coherence around what do we believe it means when X planet does Y? What does that usually bring forth in the human narrative? Right? There would be some real rock solid agreement, but different astrologers will deliver this, of course, in a very bespoke way to their design. Are they people that
Wendy:based on their charts?
Linda:Based on their charts. Better believe it. Are they people that feel like we should be actively engaging with the biggest cultural and political moments that we are in? Are they people that believe that we are supposed to float above and outside of the earthly realm? I say no to that.
Linda:Yep. I say hell no to that. But there's certainly a way that different astrologers based on their own values deliver their their take on things. But if we were all sitting down, for example, and we were all looking at the notes and the first bullet point said Pluto into Aquarius. That outer planet shifting into this astrological sign.
Linda:Pretty much we'd all look around at each other and start doing wobbly eyebrows and like having a moment because, hey, We all know what conversation is opening up. So the outer planet astrology, when you start to hear astrologers and authors and thinkers speaking about these bigger cultural moments, it's worth a listen to hear what that means. Okay.
Wendy:So you're saying it would be fairly consistent?
Linda:Mhmm.
Wendy:Okay.
Linda:Mhmm. But the way that people what people believe is to be done as a result of those That's the difference. Is changeable. Yep. If people are still strongly invested in the idea that some semblance of normal or olden days is coming back, then they would make advisements that I would find pretty poor advice.
Linda:So I'd say, please go get your refund. They would be making certain advisements based on a a world view that is a material, solely empirical, profoundly capitalist. This is how to deal with this time. Play the old game.
Wendy:Which is culturally what most of us
Linda:Are conditioned to have. To have. Yep.
Wendy:We the way we've been Yep. Kind of taught to think about it or just our life experience.
Linda:Yep. And so and but then you will also have a sort of advisement which is more like what I do for myself and with other folks which is like, can you interface intimately with the realities of what these planetary transits bring, for example, genocide, poverty, political chaos, the whole spectrum of human suffering can you sit with those and witness them, and through astrology have what I think is the benefit of a framework, a cosmology to breathe inside of, but that can you also more highly engage with the animate world, with the invisible world. I think one of the things that we talked about when we recorded last time was I was talking about where the outer planets had been lately and why it was such a big juicy deal that in 2025, all 3 of these outer planets will be changing sign which portends huge cultural shifts. Right? Okay.
Linda:And I remember now that we went 1 by 1 through these and explained, well, what are they? What does if that's the title of the book, right? Like what's the story inside that book? And I remember mentioning about the aspect to Uranus and Taurus, which I'll talk about these 3 now, but I remember we spoke about that is part of what has brought animism and the idea of an animate cosmos and a living world so much more into the mainstream. Really?
Linda:Because before 2018 in a mainstream way,
Wendy:people like to be freaks. You had
Linda:to be looking for it. You had to be looking for it. Yep. The idea that rivers should have personhood. Like, so what?
Linda:Who's talking about what? So that's that's even a measure for us to think about how important are these outer planets. So for example, as we are recording in September, and when you, friends, listen to this podcast, right, whether you're hearing it in November, probably in November, you will have the benefit of looking back and saying, yeah, that's right. What was my September about? What was my October about?
Linda:Right? They have not yet happened, but you will look at them. I can say from my seat here, September, October and almost all of November are the final act the very big crescendo to an era of time known as Pluto in Capricorn has been happening since 2008. The markers of this time are deep decay, deep fracturing around empire, systems of power, around finances, around borders, immigration, prisons, policing. So much has come out of this Pluto in Capricorn.
Linda:It's everything from the cop city project in Atlanta. It's the fucking crash in 2008 with the too big to fail. It is the exquisitely painful law that was created in the 20 tens, right, saying that corporations have a type of personhood, but a river or a mountain doesn't. You know? So Pluto and Capricorn makes
Wendy:perfect sense.
Linda:Right? Oh my god. Oh, sure. Yeah. We'll give you all the votes, guys.
Linda:Okay, boys.
Wendy:Yeah.
Linda:So the Pluto in Capricorn time, we are in September October November. We are closing this time out. We will not experience this again as humans that are living because it'll take over 230 years for it to hit that same spot. We are watching our country, if you are listening in the States. We're watching the United States experience her Pluto return, and it's not a good look.
Linda:It's like overflowing sewers. When you have a Pluto return, the shadow is abundant. It is everywhere. It is like a hazmat site, right? We can look at US political discourse, social discourse from a Pluto and Capricorn perspective and we can easily say, wow, what a fascinating run up to the American election.
Linda:Again, air quotes happening, and astrologers have been looking at this for years. We've had our eyes on it saying, wow, this is such a big moment, right, before Pluto returns to Aquarius to stay for a time next calendar year. That impacts the election in an enormous way. It impacts the discourse. It impacts the profound lack of nuance, continuing lack of nuance in conversations.
Linda:It's huge. Uranus and Taurus, we have this through the end of this year, through into the beginning of 2025, innovation around farming, agriculture, education, health care, systems of currency, the way they all come together. We have had so much, the whole idea of rematriating land, the idea of sustainable agriculture, looking at our health care system, understanding the things that we do now, looking at our systems of education, how, quote, unquote, pandemic era policies blew up what we knew about education and health care and banking to to be fair, as well as human culture at large. Right? So that's that's just one of them.
Linda:We can look at these bigger signatures and find that evidence of these are writ large through all the headlines. They are political. They are deeply personal. All of these stories are here. There is an abundance of things happening and an astrological frame can provide someone a lens through which to understand that we are individually a deep and essential part of what's happening, and that there is something an intelligence far larger than us, far larger than us, and we are on that ride.
Wendy:Okay. Well, fasten your seatbelts, it sounds like. Okay. Well, what's interesting is that a lot of what you're saying supports, at least in some ways, I don't know if in all ways or not, but the visionary experience I had
Linda:Yes.
Wendy:Yes. Back in 2008 Yeah. Which Yes. I did bring up in our our initial conversation, but I'll bring it up again just from a different vantage point to look at this particular time according to what I was shown. I had a visionary experience that I thought was going to go in one direction, and it took me in an entirely different direction.
Wendy:Where I landed was at the center of the Milky Way galaxy in the black hole, and it was a very weird experience. It was hard to breathe. It's super dense. It was just a very intense experience. And when I got in this space, the only way I could describe it was like I was going in something, but I don't even know if I was in something or not.
Wendy:But when I was there, I perceived small patterns of colored lights that reminded me of Aboriginal art.
Linda:Yes. Yes.
Wendy:And I felt like this place that I was in was a place of creation and destruction, and that these lights had information embedded in them. And then I didn't know what that information was, but the insight I had was that I would come to understand it in the the hours and the days following the experience because it was I was just basically being immersed in the information and then my brain parts would catch up later. Right? So after that experience, what came to me in the in the ensuing hours and days was that we were going through this huge transitional process on the planet, and that it would be uncomfortable. Yeah.
Wendy:And it would take a long period of time for it to happen, that it already had started a long time ago, and that this process was unfolding and would get very intense. I ended up calling it the chaos. Yeah. Because what I was shown was that every system on the planet from the big systems, like you were mentioning, the economic, the political, the environmental systems, everything was gonna be going into chaos. Yeah.
Wendy:And I'm not a physicist, but my understanding of chaos theory is that when a system goes into chaos, it's either going to collapse and reorganize itself Yeah. Or it'll just collapse. Yes. Yes. So that's my crude understanding of chaos theory.
Wendy:But the chaos would not be happening just on this global level, but it would happen on the societal level, the regional level, the family system level
Linda:Yes.
Wendy:Between individuals, relationship level, with each individual Yeah. Be happening within themselves. It's it was like you can run, but you can't hide.
Linda:Yes.
Wendy:That my understanding of what we were going to be going through, and and it seemed like it was really necessary because that's how transformation works. Right? Is that it's like deep shadow work. It's like all of the stuff that was hidden was gonna be revealed on every level, in every system, whether it's the individual system or Yeah. All the way up to the all the way up to the global system.
Wendy:So things that were hidden were gonna be revealed, and then that would create a lot of chaos Yes. And disorder because it's like, what do you do with this information that you thought was this and now it's that.
Linda:Totally. That's a really that's a beautiful way to step toward understanding Pluto. Because Pluto is about shadow work, flipping over the stones and looking at what's underneath. And you're not gonna like it, but you gotta flip it. Pluto spends we can define different human generations by where Pluto was at any given time because he's hanging out in a sign sometimes for about 20 years.
Linda:We'll give him 20. Right? Twenty is just like top window. When Pluto moves through a sign, we better understand cultural shadow. We see where human fears lie, and we see the underpinning of power dynamics.
Linda:It has been such a moving human moment to experience a Pluto in Capricorn moment, because what it's doing is exactly as you perceived and exactly as so many of those who choose to perceive and listen have had us be prepared for this moment because there have been plenty of teachings and wisdom teachings that have had us be ready or better positioned. This is decay. This is collapse. Global dismemberment. This is this is a global dismemberment journey, and what happens is there is a Reconstruction.
Linda:And this reconstruction that is available to us when Pluto shifts to stay in the sign of Aquarius for a time in 25, we've had little nibbles of it over the last 2 years. But when he comes to stay in 25, the project is like, what are our fears about the future? What are our fears about human society, about the human tribe? What are the fears we have about the primacy and the takeover of technological systems that are actually driven by an impoverished worldview by very unimpoverished characters? Right?
Linda:So when we're talking about the vignette, that visual that you had, that is deeply where we are from an astrological perspective. What catches my ear about that is when you said, well, I knew that when I was in it, I was gonna absorb the lights. I was gonna do the thing. I was gonna basically receive the transmission. And I figured when I got out of it, my big juicy brain could do a thing with it later, but I needed to be available to the intelligence that was coming into me, and something that gives me such hope and such encouragement for the absolute shit show that is impending through 2032.
Linda:Don't get me wrong. Do not get me wrong. Something that gives me such hope is that more and more people around the world and in their own way, because it doesn't look the same, it absolutely doesn't look the same, but more and more people are willing to say there's some other intelligence coming in, or there's something I'm perceiving. I might not have language for this right now. This might be a sensate experience.
Linda:This I don't know really what the hey this is, but show me and maybe my big juicy brain can do something over here later. There are more and more people who looking at how ludicrous the quote unquote consensus reality of the moment is, are more and more willing to entertain that they're actually being invited to a much funner party,
Wendy:like a way better party. But we have to go through this process in order to get to the party. It's kind of like
Linda:we have to go through this process and the way we engage this process speaks volumes about us and about what we've been able to deconstruct or not. One of my super fave thinkers and authors that I have followed for years now, Bioakomalaf, one of the teachings that he shared when it was not a popular question to ask and it's still not popular, but people are easier about the asking of it but his question was, what if the way we respond to the crisis or the trouble is part of the crisis, part of the trouble? And he proposes something called post activism.
Wendy:It it doesn't seem too far fetched to ask that question, really.
Linda:It doesn't mean but if you ask the systems of power in this world that question, they will say, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please look over here where we are making continual perfection of the human race. We are so embedded in a technocracy. There is no problem we can't solve with science with a capital s.
Linda:Well, I beg your pardon, but the entire fucking rest of the world for eons of time before you might have some thoughts about the way in which you can interrogate, quote, unquote, reality and receive information, receive knowledge, and figure out how do I conduct myself in a time like this.
Wendy:So you're you're referring to when you say the rest of the world, what do you mean the rest of the world? Because to me, most of the world has now been embedded in the kind of the modern world. Sure.
Linda:In a modern western and in that unfortunate western globalization, which brought really just the shadow of the west. You know, the the west as a project, like, isn't really fucking good at looking at its trauma and handling its shit and, like, copping up to, like, the stuff it's botched. You know?
Wendy:Really? I hadn't noticed. And so
Linda:right? So what do we have? Well, look at indigenous cultures throughout time. And please remember that indigenous culture and indigenous ancestry is not something that happens outside of the western magical frame. I am an Italian American person.
Linda:My nana, my grandmother, was born in Avellino, Italy and came to the United States after World War 2, and my mom is first generation. Italy as a project wasn't Italy until 18 60. The number of fucking diverse tribes and peoples and languages and customs. Like, this is not spaghettis on a plate. This is like we have a lot of fucking magic.
Linda:We have different kinds of magic all over the place. Our indigenous human magics are plentiful, but it's never been in the interest of western society and certainly never in the interest of capitalism to allow us access to that spirit communication. What gives me a measure of good cheer even in the extreme dark that is impending, and you'd better believe it is, there are people who are reaching back through time and finding something that is both deeply ancient and wildly futuristic. This is one of the high spots of Pluto and Aquarius because Aquarius has that sensibility. Is it about AI?
Linda:Is it about whoever, whatever, what's his face just did this morning with private space? I'm not even gonna give him my oxygen right now, but, you know, those who are, like, doing private space travel for citizens, what have you. Oh, that guy. That guy. That guy.
Linda:That guy. Yeah. So sure. Cybertruck man. Sure.
Linda:All of that is a really serious part of Pluto and Aquarius. Deepfakes, the way that AI as an intelligence is being fed and nourished on word salad and junk food, and it's gonna keep spitting out word salad and junk food at some point. But still, Pluto and Aquarius, Pluto and Aquarius is vibrational. It's nonverbal. It is ancient technologies that are the answer for now.
Linda:Right. Human technologies.
Wendy:You're not suggesting from what I'm gathering, and I just wanna clarify if if I'm accurate in my understanding of what you're saying, That we go back in time and we live like our ancient ancestors. It's about a new way of being. That's what we're moving towards.
Linda:Yep. This game is all new from now on. Like, we just in the spring of 2015, we started getting a little bit of a memo. 2020 gave us a real big indicator, spring of 23. You know, I'm looking at these astrological markers.
Linda:The new day is frankly already here, but it is being created moment by moment as we go. So where there is no supposition on my part well, until the shit fucking crashes, which will be a riot, but there's no supposition that, like, we need to forego a digital world or we need to forego all medical technologies. Right? No. This is something far more nuanced because if we have that frame of mind, we are also assuming that our ancestors, there's such a fallacy around human development.
Linda:There's such a lie that arrived during the enlightenment period that said, we're just on an upward trend and we're gonna fix it. We're gonna make it better. We're better every day. We're going to this perfected utopia. We can automate and solve.
Linda:Technology's gonna take care of you. Daddy's gonna fix the problem. And when that happened, it back cast old ways as superstitious, primitive Unenlightened. Unenlightened. Unenlightened.
Linda:And I propose that there are human technologies. Again, thank you, Uranus and Taurus, for having there be such an incredible resurgence of understanding around why ancestral knowledge, place making, culture making is important. So when we think about these ancestral things, we're not saying you cannot work online from home. We're saying, oh, let me think about my people. Let me think about my roots.
Linda:Let me answer the questions like, what did my people eat? How did they sit with birth and death? How did they sit with grief? What were their life ways? What was the richness in their life ways that it will help me so much to bring back into my heart to understand now things around ritual and ceremony and practice, which as I remember when we were talking before, the idea of looking at this very complex and sometimes daunting astrology and bringing it down to what is our human practice in light of the fact that, oh, yes.
Linda:You'd better believe there is a redesign that is beyond what our imagination could have come up with when we were little ones. Who would have known or guessed Right. That it would look or
Wendy:feel like this? Are you suggesting that what we're being invited to do is to live life more fully as opposed to on the surface?
Linda:Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. I would propose that in particular, the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. If this memo is just now arriving on your desk, fear not.
Linda:Right? You've got this memo and great timing. You can choose to situate your human body and your rhythms and your relationships in a way that can sustain you through the profound external chaos that will be happening. So what does that look like in your eyes? This could be everything and anything from somebody let's start on family unit.
Linda:Right? Family unit. Somebody sitting with the way that their earliest familial patterns have really defined for them, for better or worse, how they actually relate to time, how they actually relate, how their creature body relates to time. Do they have a huge sense of urgency? Are they always the one that's 15 minutes early?
Linda:Are they always the one that's 15 minutes late? What do they believe about time? Do they believe that there's never enough time? That time is only linear. That it's a zero sum game.
Linda:And if an eye takes time from over here, then this person doesn't have time over there. Right? Can they look at all those pieces and say, oh my god. I'm getting so my human body is so bossed by this. It is so bossed by the way that I interplay with time.
Linda:If I experimented or entertained the notion, which astrology surely does show us in some fascinating ways, that time is cyclical, that sometimes there is a right time for something and a no time for something. That time is fluid. That time is it's like the Henri Bergson European philosophy idea that was against the idea of positivism, which just indicated times just seconds and minutes and it's a clock and that clock bosses you infinitely. Right?
Wendy:That's just one way to look at that.
Linda:That is one
Wendy:But we all agree to it now.
Linda:And we have agreed to it. And if we look at it with singularity and don't stretch it out and experience time in our creature bodies in different ways, we become sick. We become physically sick. Our minds become sick. Our culture becomes sick.
Linda:We end up with this urgency that is nervous system poison. And so even just by looking at your own tiny self patterns, you can be in conversation with the big patterns in such a huge way. This is why we think of the outer planets as transpersonal because they're personal but they're bigger than personal. They're cultural, they're global, they're ancestral. You could just sit down with yourself today and you could say, what do I believe about time?
Linda:How and with all the kindness in the world, all the kindness in the world, What do I believe about time? What do I believe about money? What do I believe about love and attention and affection? What do I believe about the power of technology? Why is there a part of me that's wishing to return to an old stability that we actually can look at now and say, oh, shit.
Linda:That wasn't as good as it looked on the surface. These were all the people that were crushed by that system. These were all the lands that were ravaged by that system. This is what happened to that lake when this one did that thing. I just looked great right here.
Linda:It looked okay on the top. But now, and a lot of this is down to the astrological moment of the time, it does not look good on the top. It looks ridiculous on the top. It
Wendy:looks pretty good. Look good. Show got
Linda:on the top. So if now you look at the top and you throw your hands up and say, how did we get here or is this for real? You know, this is this looks like pure farce. What is this supposed to be? Cultivate other ways of knowing.
Linda:Remember that there are so many older and deeper veins of gold here and even just touching into them little by little.
Wendy:Well and and remembering that it's in your DNA. It's like you have the record, the history of it. Mhmm. Because your ancestors understood this. Like, if we go back far enough in all of our ancestry, we bump up against these other world views that you're referencing.
Linda:Absolutely.
Wendy:I wanna just touch base on the time thing because people who regularly listen to this podcast, the 3 people who do
Linda:Hi, guys.
Wendy:You've heard me bitch about time, and it's like my perception of time seems to be changing. Yes. I don't feel like it feels like it's an external thing. Like, my experience of it is changing. It feels like it's happening.
Wendy:Like, it's not as stretched out
Linda:Yeah.
Wendy:As it used to be. Yeah. Like, when I was a kid, I remember Yeah. Summer break would last forever and it felt really luxurious and fun. And and now it feels like any break is happening within the realm of seconds.
Wendy:And so I don't know if that's a reflection of my relationship and belief around time or if it's more the energy that I'm picking up on that's asking us to look at time a little bit differently. Because it feels like it's forcing me to be in the moment more than look at my schedule even though that's how we're designed is we have schedules and looking ahead and all of that kind of thing. So I'm blabbing on about that, but do you have any thoughts?
Linda:That's the relationship to time is such a huge one because again, in astrology, we have this range of planets and these planets are people. They are absolutely people and they have different conversations between each other and based on where they are in the Star Map, they behave in different ways at different times. And so the quality of a time, the flavor or the texture or the mouthfeel or the scent of time in astrology, for example, when Venus is in the sign of Libra, that time feels different than when Venus is in the sign of Scorpio. We are presently in a culture where time has been so powerfully accelerated by design. There's really no secret to this and there's less and less, like, potential controversy about saying it.
Linda:I mean, these folks have just absolutely admitted to all of this. Who the idea of the idea of tech, like, our modern tech components are designed by design. They want to
Wendy:Are you talking about the doom scroll scrolling through social media?
Linda:So by design, these tech components of social networks, social media, the digital world have really colluded to bring your nervous system in a certain direction. So it's it's no surprise to us as a result of this time when this technology is so embedded and there are so many digitally native folks now, you know, kids that never knew the difference, right, never experienced the difference. Our sense of time and our nervous system are in a deep conversation. Our nervous systems collectively and individually have been reshaped by tech. Astrology is a celestial clock that proposes that there are different qualities of time.
Linda:There is calendar time. I would think of that as Saturnian time. There is trance time. I would think of that as Neptunian time, all stretched out like taffy, lilac fog coming in and out. There is Uranian time which would be that very electrical zingy.
Linda:It's a little bit digital, but the horizon is still sufficient to innovate and build. Right? There's lunar time, which is that changeability in the 28.5 day cycle. There are so many available types and flavors of time for our human bodies to be in touch with, that it doesn't surprise me that you are one of so many people who are saying: Wait a minute. I like to talk about the nature of time here and who time is as a being and what time feels like, and I'm noticing changes in the fabric of that time now that is part and parcel of this moment of deep collapse and deconstruction and rebirth.
Linda:Relationship to time is totally up for discussion.
Wendy:Okay. So let's talk a little bit about how the deconstruction might play out.
Linda:Yes.
Wendy:Just to give based on what you perceive in an astrological world.
Linda:So as we record in mid September, I can say that as listeners peak in in November, I would say to them, Alright, from where you sit, I want you to first bring yourself back, roll yourself back to the summer of 2024. I want you to roll back to the summer of 24, and in particular put yourself in the month of July. Now in the month of July we had an astrological marker which was a Mars Uranus conjunction that we astrologically anticipated would result in a range of things. That range of things came to fruition when it came to the July news cycle around US politics, around the way that your election ticket might look a different way than you anticipated. PS, as I record in September, I still think that ticket's changeable, but let's just say we're talking about July.
Linda:Okay? So in the month of July, we have all these changes. In the month of August, we continue to have this American social, economic, political moment that is pure chaos and not the fun kind. We come into the month of September. In the month of September, Pluto returns to Capricorn.
Linda:For September through November 19th, it is that final iteration, that final act of what does it look like in practice and for real on the ground when these systems of empire have decayed, when those external administrative or bureaucratic or systemic markers that you believe define your culture are just flipped upside down. Okay. And what that looks like is an election season in the United States, which will be deeply triggering all of the shadow components of American culture, everything around nativism and anti immigration sentiment, every I it's all on the table. Every way in which the birth of this country and the conditions which accompany its birth and its little birth chart have 238 years later come to bear like how do you deal with your own shadow? How do you deal with the shadow of this being which is your your land, your country?
Linda:You know? So let's talk about that
Wendy:a little bit more as far as from the individual level too. Meaning most of us are really uncomfortable with change.
Linda:Yep.
Wendy:And what I've learned in working with folks over the last it's coming up on 30 years. My god.
Linda:That's time for you. I started when I was
Wendy:8. Yeah. Exactly. I was very wise when I I know you were wise when you were 8. No.
Wendy:No. Nope. It's just the time things go by so fast. Yep. What I'm noticing in my practice when I started out as a psychotherapist and then not long after as a shamanic practitioner and just the states of people's minds and hearts and their nervous systems over the years, I'm seeing a lot more trauma come up for people and a lot more, what I'm calling noise.
Wendy:It's like mental and emotional noise. Like, every human being is experiencing this noise. So, like, when I'm doing shamanic work, when I go into an altered state, my experience is becoming different as this time gets thicker, the noise gets louder, and that I have to kinda navigate through that noise in order to get to the person I'm working with and then get through their noise. Yes. And I'm wondering if that noise is creating or just adding to all of the people having a tough time with with stress and anxiety and their nervous systems being dysregulated and feeling kind of powerless and, like, things are out of control.
Wendy:And my take on this Yeah. And I wanna hear yours also, is that because we seem to be so resistant to change because we're comfortable with the familiar, even if it doesn't it doesn't serve us well, we like the familiar. All of us are guilty of that on some level or many level. The only way I can see a path forward when we heal anything, whether I think this applies on any level, whether it's the individual level, the family system level, the regional level, the global level, is that we need the medicine of acceptance. We need to be able to accept whatever it is that's in front of us, the way it's presented.
Wendy:And the cool thing about acceptance is you don't have to like it. You just have to accept that this is how it is. Then you can move forward and heal. If you're not accepting it, think about it. Then you're you're like clinging to something that no longer can exist.
Linda:Yeah. And that to be fair, maybe never existed for a large number of the folks. Like So clinging to the illusion of something. Someone's good old golden days. That's maybe wonderful for them, but chances are that there are a number of populations that did not experience what they think were the good old golden days.
Linda:And so that's also like there's such a narrow lens. Very true. Yeah. Such a narrow lens under which people are like trying to talk about safety or normalcy. Some people have never had the fucking experience of safe quote unquote safety or normalcy.
Linda:Mhmm. And they have not been included. Their voices have not been at the table as policy and culture has been designed. So that noise component, here's a way that that noise component I'm gonna try and fun up an astrological aspect, which is not necessarily known for its fun, but you're giving me some you're giving me some thoughts. At the end of 2024, we have an astrological aspect that will impact all of us, and it's called a Mars retrograde.
Linda:And a Mars retrograde is when the planet Mars seems to be in a backward motion and therefore his power to do what he does well is impeded. Planetary retrogrades mean that that planet person, it's not a good day for them. They can't make it work. Don't ask them for the answer.
Wendy:They wanna stay in bed.
Linda:They wanna stay. It's not a good time. A Mars retrograde is a time where people's launch power, people's will power, people's I'm gonna take the ball to the hoop. I'm gonna get it done. During a Mars retrograde, there are ways in which our attempts to work that go to it and be the boss energy will be thwarted.
Linda:And what you do do in the during the Mars retrograde is you realize the richness of what it is like to do your work behind the veil, behind the curtain, inside the chamber, within a chalice where it is a private process no less powerful than a public process, sometimes even much more powerful, but you realize during a Mars retrograde shit is just frustrating. Well, astrologers have long had their eye on the fact that this Mars retrograde, we go into the shadow of this retrograde in the month of October, we go into the retrograde itself on December 6th, and the retrograde itself does not lift until February 23, 25. A Mars retrograde, any astrologer will wisely counsel, hey. This is not the time to go to battle, to try and have the win, to push your body, to push your agenda. Let's go behind the curtain and listen more.
Linda:Listen to your interior world. Listen to your body. There are probably pieces around health, vitality, will power, purpose, agency that you can look at quietly behind the scenes. And that that can be really valuable. Will it be a really, really hard aspect after the US election?
Linda:Fuck yes. Because we'd we it is to be determined.
Wendy:I don't think it'd be surprising for anyone to hear that.
Linda:Mercury retrograde in the election period. We have a Mars Pluto opposition just a few days before election. We have a Mars retrograde following. We have an eclipse cycle change. I mean, this is a great example of, like, this is not business as usual.
Linda:But here's where we're funning up an aspect. When it comes to the idea of learning to value more deeply the wisdom and the power in our interior experiences, in our invisible experiences, a Mars retrograde is great. Right? It's like it's a power down aspect. It's a just power it down and don't push when it's not the right time.
Wendy:So you're encouraging folks to engage in whatever practice makes sense to them that pulls their focus inward?
Linda:So during that point in time, if you're realizing, this is a bitch. Shit is not getting accomplished. You can say, oh, that's right. It wasn't supposed to get accomplished now. So what can I do to care for myself during this time where the external measures of progress with a capital p where winning with a capital w may not be met, I can sit with myself and get square with myself?
Linda:So not a bad thing to do during a winter solstice, new year energetic. Right? People in their own way can say, if the crisis and the trouble is sometimes deeply related to the way we respond to that, how can I respond differently? How could I respond but not react? The political landscape globally is profoundly reactionary.
Linda:There is in the United States a 2 party system, which is still utterly laughable, and yet everything we've got is built right on that bank. What can we do for ourselves? We can think about what is the 3rd way, the 4th way, the 5th way. What are all of these other ways or intelligences? Let's look at them.
Linda:Let's play with them because this is part of the eventual uprising.
Wendy:So Okay. Uprising. Alright. So experimentation, listening to what excites you, what possible ways to
Linda:thinking more along those lines of: In my creature body, in my nervous system, how do I react to any number of stimuli or triggers? Okay. And how can I realize that my nervous system is the lens through which I experience all of this? If I am profoundly dysregulated, it's gonna be like a kaleidoscope but not cute. It's gonna be an all broken chunks of glass all over the place.
Wendy:So wherever you are, look for a harmonic egg.
Linda:Say there were this invention. Oh my god. Yes. I fell into that one. That's perfect.
Linda:Right? Or a a comparable experience. There are so many beautiful, simple ways to befriend your nervous system. Mhmm. And this astrology will be so much easier to move inside of if we experiment with doing that.
Wendy:Okay. And I'm also gonna put a plug in for because in a time like this, it's probably easy to slip into feeling powerless. Yes. And as we're recording this, I am very close to releasing my online shamanic course, my introductory course. Awesome.
Wendy:That is a self paced course. Yep. And you can just Yep. Go online. I tried to make it as user friendly as possible.
Wendy:All the years of experience I've had, tried to address all the concerns that I've seen over the years in the simplest way possible. And it's like a brilliant way to bring your focus inward, connect with spirit allies, your very own special place in the dream time that you can go to for rest and relaxation and rejuvenation and connect with personal power.
Linda:And it's important to remember that these traditions and these technologies are not a fucking escape from reality. We're not saying that they are an escape from reality. We're saying that they are a deeply these are deep wells of knowledge and tradition and experience that are a sorely needed counterpoint to what is usually served up on your plate on the daily. For example, I'm about to start teaching yoga nidra practice. Okay.
Linda:Yoga nidra is a practice that has saved me. I first learned about yoga nidra the last time Saturn was in Pisces. 30 years ago when I went to college, was the first time I learned about Yoga Nidra is yogic sleep, and it is a state of pure awareness bordering on trance but pure awareness, that allows you to, as your body lies still, to take your conscious awareness and travel through the body in a way that brings you to a place that your nervous system desperately needs. Now, this is only one of the many beautiful traditions and tools that folks have created over time to interface with spirit, to support their human bodies in a living world. Shamanic journeying, yoga nidra, ecstatic dance, trance dance, altars, ceremonies, Sound healing.
Linda:Sound healing. Light healing. Biofield tuning. Petting your fucking cat. Petting your cat.
Linda:Even if it's fresh
Wendy:ginger like mine. Pet your husband. Pet your dog friend.
Linda:I'm a sex educator. Petting your husband. No.
Wendy:It's in all the places.
Linda:But really, this is like our human bodies need more nourishment in times like these. There is now a beautiful, respectful, culturally appropriate, not appropriating. Conscious way of looking back at your roots, your human roots. This is what I mean about ancient technology. Right?
Linda:Shamanic journey work, that's ancient technology.
Wendy:But it's now transforming to fit with the modern person because we cannot go back in time and we are not culturally native. Most of us. Right?
Linda:Yep. These are the tools. They are asking for us to use them. It hurts their feelings when we ignore them. Like, it hurts a drum's feelings when you don't play it.
Linda:There's so much here that's available to hand accessible, appropriate. Let's We need the support. Talk is simple as
Wendy:is having a relationship with your body. Most of us are very familiar with our minds and what the content of our minds is. Yeah. All of our thoughts and anxieties and beliefs and all of that stuff. We live there very comfortably, but most of us do not have a relationship with our body.
Linda:And Yeah.
Wendy:We don't acknowledge how hard our liver is working, for example.
Linda:And Yes.
Wendy:All of our organs and how beautifully they work together
Linda:Yes.
Wendy:In this kind of amazing orchestration to keep us Yes. Going.
Linda:The billion things they do right in every moment that keep you animated like Right. If you stopped at woah. Right? Wow.
Wendy:So your practice of yoga nidra, did I say that
Linda:correctly? That's one that for me provides my physical I think something that's also important is if you're somebody who is dealing with chronic illness and more and more and more of us will be over the next decade. If you're someone that's dealing with chronic illness and you think about taking care of your physical body, it can sometimes feel like a punish like, I've got to fix this problem, I am suffering, I am Or your body has betrayed you in somebody. It has betrayed me. What can I do?
Linda:Right? When you approach your body, giving it a sufficient amount of respect and honor for what it does every day and every second. You can also give it a little extra boost of love and care through practices, just for example, like Yoga Nidra, because your physical body is experiencing a state of deep rest that P. S. If you have chronic illness, and if you are any one of the zillions of Americans that have sleep problems, you may maybe do not reach that state in your sleeping life.
Linda:But you can reach it in Yoga Nidra.
Wendy:And it's really important. Yeah.
Linda:Yeah. I'm also I teach burlesque. I teach belly dancing. There are so many ways that just being in the physicality of our bodies for the pleasure of it, not because it's a self improvement project. Like, please don't do yoga nidra because you think you're an absolute disaster and you're gonna use this most updated like, please do yoga nidra because you say 'Nidra Shakti, Queen of Sleep.' I don't get to talk to you very much.
Linda:You don't get to visit me very much. I am distant from you. I am apart from you, and my body needs your level of love and care and sustenance, and so I'm willing to enter this relationship with you and not just do a thing that makes x happen. I'm gonna enter a relationship with you and I'll probably learn more about again, what does my body believe about rest or recovery? How do I feel about living with some of my challenges or disabilities that are ongoing?
Linda:That's a relational thing. Yeah. So having a relationship with the tech or the tool, not just using it, using it as a transactional Western capitalist. I'm gonna do x because it's gonna make me y. Right.
Linda:Okay. Of course you're gonna do this because you want a thing, but what door are you gonna go in?
Wendy:So what frame are
Linda:you using? What frame are you gonna use?
Wendy:That's a really good distinction. Yeah. So Using it versus being in relationship with it.
Linda:Yes. So seeing if you can say, hey, shamanic journey. Hey, ancestral dance. I'm coming to you because I'm a seeker or I'm coming to you because I'm hurting. But I don't wanna come to you transactionally.
Linda:I wanna come and build a relationship.
Wendy:Meaning that you don't owe me anything. Right.
Linda:Or I'm not coming to you just so you can give me the thing that fits me perfectly and I can say that you checked that box. Yeah. Okay. So well, what about it? Let's get to know each other.
Linda:So that's part of it.
Wendy:So I'm thinking like, I hope all of this doesn't come across as lecturing. These are just merely suggestions or invitations
Linda:Yeah.
Wendy:To explore yourself and be in relationship with yourself in a different way
Linda:Yeah.
Wendy:To take care of yourself as we go through this tumultuous time that Linda's suggesting is
Linda:gonna be happening. To remember to remember that, like, you are not this self improvement project that is supposed to turn out in a certain way. Like, you have been living a life under these broken and exploitative systems within a worldview that does not the dominant worldview does not have your best interest at heart. You may be living in a body with chronic illness. You may be dealing with There are so many ways that we are humaning right now.
Linda:None of this is meant to be prescriptive. It is all invitational. If you have ever considered any of these things, or my wacky cousin does this. Right? Like if it has ever tugged at you and you thought there's something more than just what I can see with my eyes, you are invited.
Linda:You are needed. This is not a cool club where you have to do this and you do this program and you have this guru. Fuck. Fuck. No.
Wendy:So it's like paying attention to where you feel drawn.
Linda:Where are you yourself? Where are you ready to stand? Where are you ready to learn or play? And don't lose sight of the importance of that under the incredible weight of suffering that is at hand. It's not a this or that.
Linda:It's not a polarity. You do not have to crucify yourself on the altar of news headlines. Please don't. Please don't. Oh, God.
Linda:There are other ways to be engaged, involved, part of a birth of a new thing. Absolutely. If you have ever felt excluded or uninvited, flip that over right now. You are needed. We it's like we're waiting in the hall with the door open.
Linda:Like, you're super invited With a beer. With a beer or a mocktail, whatever. Or some of that good fizzy drink Wendy will give you when you get out of the egg that is what electrolytes? Electrolytes.
Wendy:Yes.
Linda:We'll give you fizzy drinks, but you are invited. Know that with the astrological signature of this time, there is no reverting to some normal of the olden days. You wouldn't wanna go back if you could. You really wouldn't. We know too much.
Linda:We're going somewhere else.
Wendy:Great messages. And the other thing I'll throw in there is that you're gonna be okay. Yeah. We'll all be okay. No matter what happens, we'll all be okay.
Wendy:We'll figure it out. We'll manage. We'll get through. And it's like, I guess it's just a matter of how do you wanna get through. Do you wanna get through by resisting the change Yep.
Wendy:And making it really hard? Or do you want to sort of try to embrace it in a way and accept that, okay, things are shifting, and we don't know exactly what that's gonna look like. But it's like kind of a big trust ball. It's like trusting that you have all of the resources within you.
Linda:Yeah. The wisdom Access to limitless knowledge and support from the invisible realm. Mhmm. And just just a matter of of realm. Mhmm.
Wendy:And just, it's just a matter of connecting with it and asking.
Linda:And remembering that you are never really disconnected. You fundamentally cannot really be disconnected. It's just that our over culture and lots of the systems that your body wisely had to put in place at a different date and time, under different conditions, those things stick. You got here through surviving, and this is a moment in time where we want to support each other in taking a break, trying to look at those pieces and parts that got us here, trying to reorganize things with love and care the best we can, and having a greater sense of trust in deep time and in the way that you cannot you are not disconnected. You feel disconnected.
Linda:You feel The connection is innate. The connection is innate.
Wendy:I think a lot of us just get so much in our heads that we
Linda:Everything around us culturally has conspired to disconnect you. So if you feel disconnected, that's completely understandable.
Wendy:Yeah.
Linda:And this is just it's a recovery excavation job. There's so much inside you that is ready for this moment, and there are so many allies around you. You couldn't be alone if you wanted to. You may feel isolated. You may feel alone.
Linda:You may feel othered. That's a very real experience, and that experience and that trauma should be witnessed and processed and cared for. And at a much grander level, you are invited. You are deeply invited. Beautiful.
Linda:Okay.
Wendy:It's funny. It's turned into like a pep talk.
Linda:I know. And the question was how fucked are we? And the end of it is we are absolutely fucked in a unique way that as a human race, we have not encountered this particular astrological dynamic in this mix and match, in this exact moment with this tech, with these people embodied on the planet. Right? Like, yep.
Linda:Sure. It's all a different day. New territory. New territory, and we are wayfinders. Like, we will find our way.
Linda:We always have. Humans will find their way.
Wendy:I mean, we are a young species, but we've managed to stay on the planet for, what, a couple 100000 years.
Linda:As long as we get rid of the human exceptionalism, we are doing much better. So don't get me started on that one. Mhmm.
Wendy:Alright. So I hope we didn't scare people in this conversation. You were just like, I was like, Yeah. So are you doing anything like your yoga nidra practice Yeah.
Linda:Your class rather? See, people can find my work online. You can send them the links to my site and my Patreon. So I do 1 on 1 astrological council. I am a holistic sex educator, so I do erotic liberation work with people.
Linda:I am going to begin teaching Yoga Nidra in Montpelier, Vermont in person and eventually shifting to, having recorded tracks available on Great idea. Yeah. And let's see what is coming up. Oh, if you're listening in Vermont and it's November, then you should come to our Taurus full moon belly dance bonanza, November 15th at Blossom Wellness in Montpelier, Vermont. So if you are hearing this and you're a Vermonter and you want to do something that will get you into your body in a celebratory way, women and non binary dancers most welcome.
Linda:No dance experience needed. That's something that is happening in November.
Wendy:Very cool. Alright. So I hope
Linda:this is helpful. You too. I'm hoping it will be a sort of a marker of calm and sanctuary, if folks do listen to this in November to realize that it's the astrology of the summer that brought the autumn and winter to the places that they needed to be, and therefore that sort of why your news and life arc is unfurling as it has, and maybe you can take the benefit of saying I'm gonna fun up a Mars retrograde by hanging back. This isn't my snazziest New Year party on the planet. Right?
Linda:Nope. It's okay for me to go low and slow and sit with the bigness of what is at hand.
Wendy:And remembering along the way that you're right on schedule. That's right.
Linda:It's perfect timing. Yep. Linda, thank you.
Wendy:Thank you. No. No. Thank you. Thanks.
Wendy:So it's doable. Right? Hopefully nothing that Linda shared was surprising. I mean, if you're not in a coma, it's probably not shocking to hear that we're living during a messy time of transition. It's not really new information.
Wendy:I've come to view messy times as incredible opportunities to see and do things differently, and hopefully evolve as a result. Linda's advice to take advantage of this time by going inward seems like a really good one. After all, that's where our power lives. Underneath all the bullshit we've accumulated throughout our lives. Maybe it's time for some emotional housecleaning, so finding a practice that excites you is top priority.
Wendy:Maybe that practice might include my online course. You know I had to drop that in there. But ultimately, it's up to you. As long as you find something that sparks a flame of excitement or curiosity, I think it's worth exploring and fanning that flame. After all, there's a reason why that flame, that excitement is there.
Wendy:It's a hint from a very wise part of yourself. Okay. So this might be the longest episode I've ever released. Thank you so, so, so much for listening. I also wanna thank Alex and Joanna for their donations to help keep Lucid Cafe up and running.
Wendy:I appreciate it so very much. If you'd like to help out, there's a support this podcast link at the bottom of the show notes. Alright. I'm finally gonna stop talking now. I'll be back in a few weeks with the next episode.
Wendy:Until next time.