Astrology & Human Design

When I was in my early teen years, I was a magazine junkie. Although I hardly had any money, I bought and devoured those glossy pages like it was a very fancy  religion. The fashions, the portraits of stars, the makeup tips, the glamorous advertisements, the real life stories, the diet tips, the before-and-after miracles, the gossip. I took it all in. Without discernment. Without judgement. Without critical thinking. 

In my view, that was just how women were supposed to be. This was how I would eventually be. Yes, I also read those stories about botched plastic surgery, burnout, divorce, starting over in your later years. But, truly, these didn’t really think in. I still vividly remember until this day this one article about a woman that burnt out, got divorced, ditched her 9-5 and became a horse-assisted therapist. It somehow made a mark in my memory, yet, the larger lesson of what there was to learn, that you have to follow your own individual path and not wait for burn out truly did not stuck at all. It was a side note. Maybe, it was something more for me as I still remember it some 30 years later. Yet, it didn’t change my view on life. And that was that I needed to become as perfect as the women in the pages that I regularly read. My fashion choices and aspirations, my career ambitions, my body dysmorphia – the all came from these magazines, they truly shaped me and my outlook on life. For those younger than I – in the eighties and nineties we did not have Internet, and I grew up with three TV channels for the better part of my childhood. So, yes, magazines were the one medium opening up the world to me. And that world was perfect, toned, happy and endlessly stylish. 

It took me many years and even more trials and errors, fails and disappointments to learn that this is not life. This is not even close to giving you a handle on what life is all about and how you are supposed to find your own path. Today, we have hundreds of TV channels, streaming devices, social media platforms, blogs and content by hundreds of thousands of different people. Yet, somehow, the confusion on how to find your path is still there, although there is so much valuable information out there. Somehow, though, many people still miss it, drinking the cool-aid of the social equivalents of the 80s glossy magazines. Those that try to sell you a version of a glamorous life that you think you want, too. Outfits sponsored by conglomerates that suggest that this might suit you too. Courses on generating passive income within days without lifting a finger to finally allow you to live the lavish lifestyle they trick you into believing in and striving for. It’s all a huge magic show. Those that orchestrate it are the brands and individuals that cannot get enough – enough money, enough power, enough growth because the stakeholders demand it –  that sell you whatever they want with promises that you gulp down like an eager child, trusting in the validity of their claims and motives. They have none besides gaining more. 

I think that one of the most defining characteristics of our age is the realisation that nobody wants your best. Not the government, not the pharmaceutical industry, not the big companies selling you food, clothing, drugs or beauty products. This time in history, the one we are living in currently, to me truly is the age of enlightenment, although many might disagree. But, more than in any time before, many are doubting absolutely everything that is publicly shared or promoted. I am one of those, maybe I am projecting. But, with everything that has come to light at least for me in my bubble, I look at everything, literally everything and ask myself “what might be the motive”? Is this true? Whose agenda is it? Who is gaining from it? For me, personally, there were many milestones that brought me to this very critical thinking  some of them were, the Epstein files, as they started an avalanche of revelations – how people that millions trusted were deprived, had no moral compass, and committed crimes so atrocious it rocked my whole worldview. It was the genocide in Gaza, because the darkness of the mind and soul of people able to commit such crimes was and somehow still is unfathomable for me. I truly was and probably still are a person truly believing in the good in people. But, when we are talking about Gaza, we also have to talk about the Holocaust – and all the other genocides that are somehow not talked about that often. The ones committed by colonial forces for example. Western countries have slaughtered millions of people, tried to and in some cases, succeeded in extinguishing entire people. Why don’t we talk about them? Our Western wealth and so-called standards, that have allowed us for decades and centuries to look at the African continent somehow benevolent but from a place of superiority, is entirely based on crimes and violence. Once you come to that conclusion, you have no other option than to question everything that is going on in the world, question your own place in this world. Another defining moment in my journey of waking up, of learning to question everything is “The Beauty Myth”, a book by Naomi Wolf. It’s a bit older and does not mirror the development of social media influences, but for an eighties girl like me, it’s the one thing that opened my eyes like hardly any other book. It’s about the concept of beauty and how it has been constructed and wielded as a weapon to dominate women. This, I feel, should be a must-read for any female. And once you dive into the artificially created beauty myth, you most definitely land into the territory of feminism, of the violence women all over the world endure daily. Whether it’s as obvious as in the case of the women in Afghanistan, who literally have no rights any more, or the women in Iran, who went from having all the opportunities to nothing to women to the US who die because of abortion and reproductive health laws passed by old white men. These days, one meme is going round the Internet, at least in my bubble, that says “If marriage was something benefitting women, they would have already taken it away from us”. And nothing could be more true.

Once you have looked into all of this, the news mirror your new-found perception – that nothing is designed to benefit you or your family. Basically, every new reform, bill, law or ruling cuts deeper into your health, your future or your individual sovereignty. Is it any wonder then that the trust in institutions is wavering? That we are somehow even more confused than ever before? Because at the moment no one is to be trusted, I feel. The institutions, laws and regulations are all designed to benefit the few, the rich and the establishment. We have all the resources and knowledge in the world to benefit us all, but somehow those in power don’t do that. I once heard the saying that there has never been such a divide between poor and rich all over the world like right now. Even more obvious than right before the French Revolution. So, what might be the next revolution? It’s not just one country with one king, establishing a new government. This is bigger, right? 

So, for me, the first step, and the most radical and revolutionary act any one of us can do, is to trust ourselves, to love ourselves and our individuality, and to set out to become not another obedient cog, but to realise why we are here on earth, who we are when we are looking behind the identities that society and the media created for us. 

For me, that was astrology and human design. Yes, I know that will rub some people wrong, especially those with a huge belief in religion, whatever that religion might be. But, to me personally, religion is another institution that has nothing to do with faith, but with power, indoctrination and politics. In essence, all religions are misogynistic and racist, many have blood on their hands, most force people to be a certain way. I totally agree that there might be exceptions, but this is true for many and most of them. And once you start questioning, you start questioning it all. For example, why they banned astrology as superstitious and unscientific, although it had worked for millennia and instead they established governments and male-god centred religions. If you ever watched the Netflix movie “Don’t look up” – this is it. They don’t want you to look up, to form your own opinion, your own conclusions. Actually, this movie, also should be on the must-consume-list to see what institutions set out to do. It’s an agenda. Nothing truly is based on trying to get mankind healthier, happier, wiser or more fulfilled. When things that work and do not provide profit for anybody suddenly vanish, you got to ask yourself why that is. Always. Take healthcare: Up until the 1920s, naturopathic and alternative ways of healing were everywhere, right alongside allopathic solutions. Until the Flexner Report, funded by a billionaire who wanted to use the byproducts of his oil production and make it a huge business. This is when all natural treatments were banished and the pharmaceutical industry was established. It was never about you. It was about them.

Astrology and Human Design, on the other hand – this is only about you. This is why astrology had no place in a patriarchal and hierarchical society – it would allow everybody to have their own path and purpose in life, nothing indoctrinated, nothing streamlined, everybody just fully expressed. That is dangerous, hence it must be suppressed and ridiculed. 

Whether you believe in multiple lifetimes or not, whether you believe in astrology or not, whether you believe in any of it doesn’t matter really, It nevertheless is all about you, giving you clues about who you are that none of the established modalities these days can. Not even therapy or psychoanalysis. Because they especially rely on you remembering things, talking about things, trying to make sense of things. But, you can only ever remember and talk about things that have clocked into your conscious. It’s a very biased way to think about your life, and the therapist is usually also biased – they act as pure mirrors or they have a preconception and want you to guide you to come to their conclusion as well. Believe me, I have been to therapy on and off for decades with no tangible results, with no alleviation of my symptoms.

Astrology is deeper, more individual, forces you to look into things that you truly did not want to look at or that you never registered. It gives you a multi-layered map of who you came here to be. Your emotional world, how you are perceived by others, how you relate to others, how you will earn money, how you show up daily, what skills you are blessed with more than others, what makes you stand out, where your life is supposed to develop and what it is supposed to develop into, how you relate to spirituality and belief systems, whether they are important to you or not. And this is just a fraction of what astrology can do. It is truly an ancient tool of individual wisdom that goes deeper than any therapy, any magazine and any style tip. Because astrology can also guide you on your individual expression, on your more individual style just as much as on your personal challenges and growth opportunities. Because astrology looks at you, only you. Not you as a demographic, as part of one generation, although this is also reflected in there, but as an individual that will contribute with their individual strengths to the collective and one that is here to develop and grow. This is a completely different view on you as an individual than anything else can currently provide. And, to me, this is the most revolutionary thing you can do: Look at yourself and your path and not what the governments and institutions want you to look at and for. 

I remember very vividly my professional orientation appointment when I was about 17 or 18 years old. They had an office where they would consult and inform you about different professional avenues that you could pursue. Looking back this was so ridiculous – it asked me things like “Do you like working with people” or “Do you like animals”. And in the end, I think, their suggestions for me included becoming a vet or working in a bank. It was so generic – and in hindsight, it most probably had an agenda of steering people in several directions that the government needed roles to be filled. As I said, once you start questioning, you will question everything. 

Now, Human Design is not as old as Astrology, it’s only been channeled in the 1980s. So, a very young method. Yet, it is also another tool to truly look at the individual. It does not look at anything else. And, honestly, I think this is the perfect companion to Astrology. Because while Astrology gives you a map of your life and how you are showing up in this lifetime, Human Design is the manual for your individual body-mind connection. And it accounts for many things that are not as obvious in your birth chart and help you to truly embody who you have come to be in this lifetime. 

Circling back to the start of the episode, Human Design is especially compelling to me, because, already in the 1980s, it predicted that 2027 will be the breaking point when it comes to our trust in institutions. That there will come a time that we can only trust ourselves. And Human Design is exactly the tool to create this trust in our gut feelings, in our irrational decisions that might not make sense neither for the establishment nor for common sense. But, it’s exactly that trust into ourselves that will help us guide the next chapter of our lives, our societies and maybe even humanity. 

Together, Astrology and Human Design, truly are tools to help you face this increasingly confusing and unravelling world, and to finally fully trust in your body and mind, in your very own path, and, thus, to truly become unapologetically extraordinary. 

Despite what many want you to believe – astrology most definitely is not woo woo, and Human Design, which is based upon our Western tropical astrology is not woo woo either. These are tools based in history, scientific findings as well as personal experience by millions of people. 

Astrology has been around for roughly 4,000 years. It’s the oldest system to organise life and work on earth. 

• It looks at you personally at the moment of birth. All the challenges, strengths and successes already woven into your being as possibilities and opportunities. Not fate to accept, but as options. 
• In comparison to any other religion or spiritual teaching, astrology accounts for your life path – meaning, it changes and moves with you as you get older. There are different topics and areas of your life that will demand your attention at different points in time. Some are overarching for everybody – like your Saturn opposition and return or your Uranus return. Both part of what mainstream media wants to sell you as “midlife crisis”. It’s not. It’s a constellation as old as time that requires to take a good hart look at your life. 
• Knowing astrology, you know that growing older is full of new chapters, new challenges, new insights, new successes, new interests. Whereas if I look at what society at large wants to sell us, which is being young and desirable for men as the ultimate goal of our lives, I rather look at my birth chart knowing what will come to fruition when and why. 
• Dispositions like chronic illnesses, depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties, family difficulties, vanity – they all show up in your birth chart. Not as deficiencies, but as a part of the energy that we came here to live. 
• Astrology gives your life meaning. Nothing is random anymore. And you are not the victim. 
• I like to think that we are souls that came down here on earth to develop, to experience sensations and emotions that we cannot feel without a human body, without this human existence. It’s spirit having a human experience. And it might not be your first rodeo down on planet earth either, which your birth chart also takes into account, but you do not have to believe in this to get the full value of any astrological insight. I like to think that we have chosen the conditions and aspects and characteristics of our birth chart. There is also a nice story that one of my astrology teachers shared that the twelve zodiac signs were twelve kids and each one was so envious of the strengths and talents of another that they had to change again and again and again. Like souls being incarnated several times, experiencing the flavours of all the signs. That’s why envy and jealousy do not make sense anymore. Because you have chosen this story for this lifetime, you get to experience another at another time. Nothing is better, nothing is worse. Each one has their Saturn somewhere, their Chiron somewhere, their Lilith somewhere, hard aspects somewhere. Each sign comes with their particular shortcomings and challenges. And, once you know astrology and how it works, there simply is no other way than to focus on the development of your story, leave all the comparison behind and make the best out of this. Just like a video game that you came here to play. This is the game and the level that you have reached. You gotta make it work somehow – or at least try. 

Human Design then is your manual for the body that you got for this human experience. It tells you how your intuition works, how you are supposed to make decisions, what strengths you can always draw from, how you work best, how you manifest, how you digest information and food. This truly is the handbook they equipped you with for the start of this journey. It combines and connects astrology, the chakra system as well as Kabbalah teachings. It is not a religion nor a spiritual practice – it’s called the Human Design Experiment. Without dogma, without institutions and without rules that demonise, stigmatise or hurt anyone. Simply a tool for you to understand yourself and get deconditioned from all the indoctrination and social influences to truly understand yourself, how you are built, how your life is built and why that is. 

So, coming back full circle. I do believe that these times that are uncertain and chaotic at best, require us all to get back to believing in ourselves, trusting in ourselves and get independent from indoctrination, political agendas and billionaire set-ups. We came here to show up, to develop and to master the challenges that we picked. Astrology and Human Design are the maps that you were given to navigate this journey – and thus they are the best tools available at the moment, and have been for millennia, to become unapologetically extraordinary.