Archetypal Astrology
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When I broke my ankle (catastrophically) at the end of May there was no sense of how long it would take me to recover. Now, almost five months later, I am walking (around the house at least), living independently (with help here and there), and back to work full time for my dayjob as program manager of the philosophy, cosmology, and consciousness graduate program at CIIS. In June I thought I’d be back to doing readings by August, then in August I thought October, and in September I thought November. Now I realize I need more time.
I have decided to extend my pause on astrology readings through the end of the year, and in January will review how much time I can devote to this practice, which I so dearly love, and also struggle to make space for in my busy schedule of trying to make rent, student loan payments, etc.
For those looking further into the future, I will say that at the moment I am dreaming of offering another introduction to archetypal astrology course in summer 2024. My big dream is for this course to have an optional extension into intermediate level transit analysis for those who want to explore further. My way-big dream is to offer these courses yearly and to eventually offer mentorship for those who wish to begin their own consulting practice, or who simply want to deepen into their personal relationship with astrology over the long term.
For now, my ankle reminds me that I need to rest diligently and move strategically. Each extra moment in my day should be spent stretching, massaging, and getting my body back into shape after this serious trauma. On a personal/emotional level, I also need time to come back into a place of steady balance rather than sacrificial pushing before I can hold the kind of space I know my astrology clients come to me for.
Thank you to everyone who has checked in, sent love, donated to the very successful go fund me, and been supportive and patient in so many ways since this broken ankle business took over my life. I appreciate you. I look forward to working with you in the future, and I hope that in the meantime you are well, finding balance, and riding the waves of the cosmos/world with peace and compassion.
Hello everyone, if you follow me on social media you already know that while I was on vacation in France I fell, broke my ankle rather catastrophically, and needed emergency surgery. Long story short, I am back in California recovering from surgery, looking at a long but realizable road to full recovery.
As a result of this accident, I have decided to keep my books closed until November 1st (updated). I will do my best to update my availability online before then, and will post here when I do. There’s always a chance that I’ll open things up sooner, but right now it just doesn’t feel realistic, since all of my energy is needed elsewhere – internally – for healing and navigating this complicated situation of having received surgery in one country and aftercare in another.
I appreciate your patience and support as I navigate this unexpected life event! For more updates and a chance to contribute to my recovery fund, please see the Go Fund Me created by my dear friend Lexi.
I am heading toward some much needed time off this summer, including a trip abroad, the Psychedelic Science conference in Denver, and a move back to my hometown of Sonoma all within the span of June! As a result, I have paused my reading schedule for a bit, but I plan to return with more availability in July. Please stay tuned and check back with my booking link (Get A Reading) if you’d like to work together this summer or beyond.
Big thanks to all my clients and students – this year has been amazing so far and I look forward to continuing the adventure of archetypal astrology with readings and classes again soon!
Much Love,
Lilly
I am very pleased to announce that this winter I’ll be offering a four-week online intensive on the basics of archetypal astrology exclusively designed for PCC (Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness) and CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies) students and alumni. This is not an official university class, it’s just something on the side that has been missing from the CIIS community for a couple of years. It’s also a chance for me to test out my teaching chops while I’m working on plans for classes in the future.
This intensive will consist of eight 2.5 hour sessions over four weeks, from December 20th until January 13th. Sessions will be conducted live on zoom (recordings available) with additional optional discussion space provided for mid-week questions and insights. The cost is a sliding scale (pay what you can) between $200-$400 per person (payment plans available; let me know if cost is an obstacle and we’ll work something out).
Registration will be open until December 15th, or until the course fills. You can either email me or fill out this Registration Form to sign up.
For current CIIS students, this intensive will be considered sufficient preparation in lieu of the official prerequisite course requirements for the two courses being offered by Becca and Richard Tarnas in spring 2023.
Unfortunately, this class is only open to students and alumni from CIIS, but don’t worry, I’m cooking up plans for more courses in the future – this is only the beginning!
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. I’ll see you in class!
I’m thinking about Pluto today. This dear dwarf demon has been my guiding light since I started on the astrological path. Some of you know I’m incubating a larger offering, and in recent years I have been absolutely floored by the wealth of material this archetype has brought into my life through my own biographical digging, personal/relational dynamics, client work, and synchronicities.
Today we have the opportunity to observe the first exact conjunction of transiting Pluto returning to the position it held when the founders of the United States signed the Declaration of Independence.
The United States’ Pluto Return. What an opportunity! What a moment to notice, make room for, breathe into and attempt to relax around. If we can find the courage to bear down into whatever is calling to us from below, from the places we normally try to tighten around and control — to bear down and listen — we may hear something like the sound of our own true, deep, wise, and ancient power calling us home.
A few technical notes to set aside any catastrophic tendencies: outer planet returns are not one-day events. They take place over years, like a rolling, tumbling, restructuring massage. This is the first of three exact conjunctions that will be spread out over the course of this year, but we’ve been feeling Pluto’s signature moves for a few years now and will likely continue to feel them for a few more.
If I’ve learned anything about Pluto in these past few wild and precious – and often terrifying – years it’s that we have an opportunity to understand power in deeper, wider, wilder, and more sustainable ways when we pay attention to what Pluto is asking us to acknowledge. Sometimes the task is simpler though, and Pluto asks us to stop ignoring a basic truth which is that change is the way, dissolution is as inevitable as an exhale, and power is far more interesting (and powerful) when it isn’t held too tightly.
Today we find ourselves in the eye of a great needle; pulled into weaving a pattern that we have little control over other than our own ability to breathe, look, listen, and widen our capacity to understand. The scent on the wind is change, and I am interested in being in it with you.
In pursuit of justice, fairness, equity, inclusion, and wellbeing for all – may we know Pluto in a good way, even when it can be terrifying.
As the Sun returns, so shall we.
You may now book readings for January, February, and March 2022 via the link at the top of the Get A Reading page.
Happy New Year!
I haven’t done much, or any, writing here in 2021. This year has been filled with other work: my day job, a deepening practice with clients, my own inner work; I’ve been busy, even if it might not look like it here.
On December 31st, 2021 at 11:00 AM (PST) I will reopen my books for readings in January, February, and March 2022. I’m adopting this new booking style in order to keep my reading schedule at a pace that I can handle; with a day job, PhD studies, and all that life throws out, I’ve found myself looking back on this year and wishing I had carved out a little more rest into my schedule. I think this style of booking will suit that rhythm for me.
So, if you are hoping for a reading in January, February, or March 2022, please come back on December 31st at or after 11:00am (PST), click on Get A Reading, and follow the prompts to book your space.
My prices will also be getting an update for the new year. Effective in 2022 my sliding scale will be adjusted slightly to reflect my cost of living and ongoing sustainability. I hope that this shift doesn’t cause sticker shock; it shouldn’t, as the sliding scale still indicates a range that my clients can choose to pay within, but if there is anyone for whom the scale is not reasonably accessible, please know that you can always reach out to me for a discounted rate, which I attempt to accommodate monthly as I’m able.
I hope to see you in the new year; until then please be safe, kind, and generous to yourselves and those around you (sometimes safety, kindness, and/or generosity means allowing for strong, steady boundaries).
Y’all know how pleased I was to be invited to give a talk at the Astrology University summit a few months ago, so when Tony Howard invited me on the Astrology University Podcast to talk even more I was, to put it simple, stoked. I had a great time talking too fast and about way too many things and Tony was kind, clear, and collected as usual. It was a blast.
Working with the theme, When Will This Transit End? our conversation centered around the practice of tracking outer planet transits to natal charts for both clients and ourselves. I share a couple of personal examples of ways I’ve experienced time in a nonordinary way through my personal practice of transit astrology, and I get to use my new favorite term – mystical fascia – to describe a connective tissue of patterned meaning which may reveal itself through this practice over time in our lives, in the arts, and in the world.
CLICK HERE to listen or look for the Astrology University Podcast wherever you like listening to podcasts (iTunes, Spotify, etc.)
Big outer-planet transits can be a long, hard slog sometimes, but hopefully this conversation will shed some light and curiosity into what can otherwise be a tough spot.
Let me know what you think!
PS. At one point in the podcast I say Venus-Saturn when I meant to say Saturn-Pluto; it shouldn’t be too hard to tell that’s what I meant, but if I don’t come clean about this I know it might haunt me and my Virgo placements forever 😉
In preparation for the Astrology University Summit this weekend I thought I’d give a little preview of my lecture, Where is the Knife? Mars Movements in Late 2020.
I had a lot of fun putting this together. And by fun, I mean hours glued to the computer and ephemeris looking up charts, tracking data, paying attention to the news, and thinking about how and what information I wanted to share in my hour of time.
I thought it might be interesting to share a bit of what I came up with for my blog audience as both a preview and introduction to my talk (note: if you haven’t yet you can still go HERE to purchase the All Access pass which gives access to my lecture, three more bonus lectures, and recordings of everything for you to keep).
The first part of my lecture is spent working over Mars as a planetary archetype by itself as well as in the context of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction. While exploring the square of Mars to Saturn-Pluto-Jupiter viewers are guided through the Mars retrograde in Aries culminating in a date I’ve got my eye on, the December Solstice.
Next we hit the difficult territory; possibly the most difficult of the lecture, and certainly some of the most difficult of my lifetime (and too many before mine): systemic racism, white supremacy, and police killings in the USA. We look at a few charts here including the Rodney King assault and riots, the murder of Trayvon Martin and emergence of #BlackLivesMatter, and the recent murders of both Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. In each of these cases we explore some of the themes that Mars, Saturn, Pluto, and Jupiter correlate to in terms of activism, resistance, and organization. Why is it that among hundreds – thousands? – of violent white supremacist incidents, only a dozen or so victims have become household names? Why when video evidence of George Floyd’s horrific murder hit the internet were so many white people suddenly invested in ending racism in the US? Mars as the activist/warrior, Saturn as the organizer/general, and Pluto as the power dynamics of oppression, repression, and change might have some clues for us.
Moving on to the climate catastrophe and a larger framework of world emergency we look at charts from Greta Thunberg, Bill McKibben, the recent LNU Lightning Complex wildfires that engulfed the state of California in August, and the horrific explosion at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon. Each of the charts here show some significant alignment between our three key players, Mars, Saturn, Pluto, and Jupiter.
Then, the chart I could not ignore, we look at the transit bi-wheel for president Donald Trump on the night of the first presidential debate this past Tuesday. Oof… this one is a doozy. Honestly, I hate to give the Cheeto in Chief any more airtime than he already has, but the Mars-Saturn-Pluto action is just too hot not to handle.
Finally, we wrap it all up with an offering of song by one of my favorite musicians, Lhasa de Sela. Some of my favorite moments in astrology are when I get to slip into archetypally rich artistry and let the experience reveal deeper layers of how these planetary combinations speak through us in our lives, work, and creations. Get your headphones ready, folks, because I somehow found time to play an entire song! Lhasa de Sela’s music can be found on Bandcamp.
I truly do hope you all get time to tune in to this Summit. There are so many amazing lectures that I am hoping to catch, and I am so honored to be a part of this offering as a whole. All Access Passes are still available HERE, so purchase one or sign up for the live event today at the Astrology University Summit website.
Stay sharp, Mars-kin,
Lilly
Lilly Falconer, M.A. 