Stars, Dreams And Astrology with Juliana McCarthy

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This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Welcome to synchronicity. My guest this week is Juliana McCarthy. She is an astrologer, a writer, just an all around excellent person. I met her in person, right? Literally right before we recorded this. We just did this stargazing ambient music event up here where I live at a wonderful property called Dreamland. What we doin' some more stuff there in the future. So, if you're a fan of the show and you live in the area, you're gonna be in the area, hit me up.

We'll see what's goin' on. And she did this amazing kind of guided astrology right under the stars and gave a whole breakdown. A lot of what you're gonna hear in this episode, although we delve into some stuff in this episode. I didn't even see comin'. Some really, really, really, really good stuff. And Juliana's great. She's, you'll hear, she has a very unique perspective on astrology. And I think, when I say unique, like, right? We're looking at the same movement of the stars and planets more or less depending on your astrological background. And, you know, there's many, many, many different ways to interpret that.

And I think her particular interpretation is, it's very resonant with me. Makes a lot of sense. Particularly the stuff on the rise of the divine feminine and a more rebalancing of those energies. And this is not to say women versus men, right? Although there is some of that. It's more to say kind of the energies within us and on the planet and collectively needs rebalancing. And it seems like that's happening and what the implications of that are. And of course I dropped in some imagination stuff. I think I even forget what I was seeing at one point in this. We were at right by a lake. It was beautiful.

There was a baby playing right in front of us. It was kind of a idyllic saying and I lost my train of thought but quickly regained it. And yeah, it's just a wonderful, wonderful episode. Juliana has a book called "The Stars Within Us." She also runs a website called "Athereal Culture." And you can find her on Instagram. There's gonna be links to all this stuff. I'm just giving you this stuff upfront because I have a feeling a lot of you are gonna wanna connect with her as you're listening to the episode. So if you wanna do that beforehand, save yourself a time. You can do that. But yeah, it's a great episode.

I'm a big fan. I got introduced to Juliana through Mara James from "Unbroken Chain." She had a go check out that episode. If you want more Juliana or if you've heard her, you know who she is. It's just a lot, a lot of powerful stuff in here. I didn't know she was, you'll hear in this episode directly involved in the Shambhala tradition. Some other people who are behind the scenes in the new age spiritual world. She has direct experiences about people I've met through the ways and days of working in this field years ago. It's just a good check. If you want an inside peak behind, you know, not just astrology, but just the goings-ons of the spiritual material world, this a good one.

I'm gonna have a special episode coming up all about imagination. Yeah, can I say the word? Imagination and a technique that I did at this event presented to everyone and has just been nuts. You've heard me talk about it a little bit, but we're gonna give a real breakdown, a solo episode. So stay tuned for that if you're into it. Also, big thanks to Michael Donovan for redoing my entire website, sinkpodcast.com. He just redid the whole thing out of the kindness of his heart. Really, he was like, "You're so it looks like shit, I'm gonna fix it." That was a pretty good Michael impression if you know what he sounds like.

And he did it. So it's really cool. Go check that out. There's a lot of stuff there. And I'll be updating it with music and other things. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Big, big thanks to the guys at Ned, the CBD, Full Spectrum, hemp oil. I literally, I don't Instagram that much, but I mean, if I did, I would be taking a smiling picture of myself with the new bottle that they just sent me of the full, I love this stuff. I truly, truly find it to be a benefit to my overall health, both physically and mentally. I'm also a big fan of their body butter, right? That's pretty good. I won't tell you what I use it for.

But they're awesome. So go to helloned.com. If you use the code sink, S-Y-N-C at checkout, you get 15% off anything on the site. I highly recommend the Full Spectrum oil. It's fucking great. I get the big one, I get the 750 milliliters, is it? Is that what it is? No, 75? I don't know, the big one. That's the one I get because I use it. And if I don't, I go through it. It basically takes me, I would say, I guess the kid kind of threw things so off having a baby. But 40, 40 days is usually what it takes me to go through. I do it almost once a day, right under the tongue. My sister showed me that, I didn't even know.

I was just putting it in mouth and swallowing it like a dumb dumb. What we're supposed to do is put it underneath your tongue and let it sit there for like 30 seconds. And it's really nice. It's quite relaxing. It's like a nice little ritual to do. And I think they even wrote it on the thing. I'm just letting it pay attention. But they're good. So hello, Ned.com, use the code S-Y-N-C at checkout. Boom, 15% off. All right, that's it. Let's get to the episode. Uh, yeah. Let's get to the episode. Without further ado, here is Juliana McCarthy. [MUSIC PLAYING] I started 20 years ago. I was 18 years old.

My high school boyfriend was living in New York. And I kind of-- I had applied to college and gotten in for my second semester. So I went to New York when I was 17 and 18. And I started working randomly in the world of fashion. And I was super shy and awkward and didn't really have friends in middle school that kind of person. Yeah, sure. I was doing math crossword puzzles. And my math teacher's classroom during our free hours-- I would do this at home. I know exactly what you're talking about. I was at the Hotel Dork. I rolled my sock down and wore saddle oxfords. And my sleeves were starched out.

And like, it's crispy points. And it was a big dork. And didn't really understand people. And then suddenly I was in New York City. And in some ways, I got along better there than in Dallas, where I was from. Because I was a creative weirdo. And most people in New York are creative. Right. A lot of people are. It's a more home-like environment, even though it's crazy in its own way. Yeah. But like, the craziness resonated more than the text and craziness for me. And so I suddenly was on this shoot, like on the set of a shoot for Fashion Magazine. And the makeup artist who was there had an astrology book.

And I started reading it. And you can look up all of your planets and see what their signs are in, and then read about them. And I started doing this. And it was like blowing me away how accurate it was. Wow, yeah. And then suddenly I thought to myself, well, here's this logical system that explains like illogical human complexity. And it felt like this magic key, where I could like suddenly understand people who eluded me, including myself. Right, right. Starting probably with yourself. Yeah. And there are certain aspects of my nature or my personality that were so like completely absolutely explained by this.

And then it didn't really make sense. And I was a scientific person. I was into physics and high school. And part of me kept going with it to try to like find the loophole. Yeah, yeah, of course. Well, that's, you know, that's like what skeptic actually means in the traditional sense. Like, to us, we almost use a majority of beliefs. Like, someone's being skeptical. They're doubting. But a skeptic back in traditional Greek times was someone who just kept trying to figure out and disprove something. And thereby eventually came to accept what it was by being skeptical. So that's the origin of the word.

Yeah. Oh, I have tingles. I really like that. Yeah. Amazing. Well, yeah, that's what happened. And so I was like, in trying to disprove it, I just like got deeper into believing it and improving it to myself, you know? And I got spooked out a couple of times reading friend's charts where there are things that couldn't possibly have known or they were crying in front of me. And I was like, what the fuck? Yeah. I don't know how I knew that. I'm just reading your chart. And so it was like, at some point, I turned from trying to disprove it/find proof to prove it, like evidence, you know, to prove it.

And I went into like, well, experientially, this makes sense. And I have experiential evidence that it's accurate. And maybe I can let go of needing to know why. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And once you do that, they're surrendering to a very-- what takes up a lot of energy, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we could apply that to life in general. Like, what if we just open to nowness and stop trying to understand why, you know? Yes. I think-- I remember it, well, I eventually became a Buddhist and moved to a monastery and-- Where? Well, a quasi-monastic environment. It's called Karma Choling in Vermont. Cool.

And our lineage is now kind of-- Tibetan? --following the part. Yeah, it was-- Shambhala? Yeah. I know it. I'm like, you know, I don't know, you probably wouldn't. You don't know who I am. I worked behind the scenes for a lot of big Buddhist and nonprofit organizations and teachers from like the '60s and '70s, Chokka, Trungpa. Very well versed, a lot of teachers still in Chambhala. And Western Buddhism, having a little me to eating itself a life movement right now. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, crazy wisdom. Yeah. And I was like, weirdly instrumental in all that coming out. Awesome. I mean, not awesome, but I don't know.

Yeah. But it was weird because I was part of what's called the Dorje Kossung, which was the kind of Buddhist paramilitary group. No shit. And it wasn't violent. It was non-violent. Sure. But my job was to protect my teacher, you know? Right, right, right. And I was part of the close protection team. And I was trained in things like Chigo and Nakiro and-- Yeah, like martial arts. Yeah. And also learning how to primarily dispel violence from erupting. And I was put often in the front of the entourage, leading my teacher into rooms and events and through the airport because-- So you're a bodyguard.

Kind of. Not kind of like you're a bodyguard. But you know, because I'm so non-threatening. That's what-- I mean, no offense. I know you don't take it. Would not have looked at you and thought, this is someone who is going to kick my ass if they hit my teacher. Well, that's why I was in the front. Because I was-- Amazing. --it was disarming, you know? Right, right, right. And so you put the tough person in the front of the group. And then people get aggressive just seeing this person who could clearly kick your ass. And I clearly can't kick your ass. So cool. So I was disarming. So you were literally in the front lines of Shambhala.

I was like part of the inner circle in a way. You know, I was in my teacher's house and working with his family and close with his kids. And then it was crazy because, you know, a very good friend of mine was suddenly my tent mate at a retreat a couple of years ago. And she told me that the Sakyama teacher had actually assaulted her. And that was a real screeching halt moment for me. And then suddenly, it was like the true hero or hero in his journey where all of my training in protecting my teacher flipped around to protecting people from my teacher. Right, which is insane. Which is insane. But it's so reflective of this whole paradigm shift we're in, which is about the falling of the guru, the up in the teacher and moving into like individual liberation, you know.

So it makes sense. And Buddhism was part of my story too. It was like I ended up moving from Karma Choling in Vermont to Boulder, Colorado to be close to my teacher. And I had just taken these vows with him to be in the Vajrayana path and do my Nundra, which are deep purification. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I wanted to be close to other young people who are also far along in the path because there weren't that many of us. And they were mostly in Boulder. And so I went there. And when I moved there, I actually met my astrology teacher, Kelly Lee Phipps. And he was brilliant and really animated and like a Renaissance man and super intelligent and would like do handstands and quirky and eccentric and kind of too much in so many ways, but like brilliant.

And he started filling in all the gaps for me and was convinced that I, because I have a whole stellium of planets, five or more planets in Libra that were in his 10th house of career, that I was going to like make him famous or help him, and so he was like, I'm going over to a place gravel and then we're going to talk about therapy. You know, he was like, we were just suddenly friends. And he used to always say it was a fairy or an elf, you know. And he was, you know, we were both a little bit cosmic, but he was slightly more eccentric than I. >> Yeah. >> And then he suddenly got brain cancer and he was dying.

And I was really close to him through this whole process of dying and he would invite me over to see him in the hospital and he wasn't supposed to have visitors. And he would say, but she's not a human, she's an elf. There's an elf in the room. You have to let the elf in the room. And so I'd go and spend time with him and he empowered me to be a professional astrologer during that time he was dying. And he was working on a book that he never finished that was intended to bring astrology into the mainstream for this new paradigm that's coming into 2020. And we used to always talk about how at the beginning of the age of enlightenment, you know, astrology fell by the wayside because we discovered that, you know, we were actually heliocentric and not geocentric.

>> And so they thought that was like proof that astrology wasn't real. >> Right, it changed everything and now it's all bullshit because of this, yeah, totally. >> Yeah, and then, you know, science became the fashion and it's like- >> Astronomy became the real, yeah. >> Yeah, and then mysticism sort of fell by the wayside and it was like only if you can prove something with the scientific method, is it real? >> Corresponding nicely with the suppression of the feminine and the maternal cultures that offered a lot completely lapped off in the interpretations of books and the Abrahamic religions, which up until like a month ago, I was very perturbed about the Abrahamic.

I think just quite frankly misinterpreted by people, some of the beauty that are in these things have taken as psychological states and not as historical things we should be doing and looking at. So, yeah, it's interesting how those things kind of happen at the same exact time. >> Yeah, I mean, it makes perfect, and people don't know this, but even the scientific method was based on the most popular book of the time it was created, which was the book on how to torture and draw confessions out of witches. >> Oh, shit. >> And so, that line of question now inspired the scientific method. >> I did not know that's where empiricism came from.

>> Yeah, and then the male-dominated medical world and the judicial system all founded on the killing of women, you know, the witch trials. And the symbol of justice in our culture is usually a woman who's blindfolded every single courtroom if you look at it. Yeah, if you look at it, it's every single one. Yeah, it's not great. It can be symbolism, it can work, but most people are probably going to subconsciously misinterpret what's going on there. >> Oh, God. >> It's really bad. >> Okay, but yeah, so you had the jump, the boost from this kind of like eccentric character who was also, you watched go through a dying process, which is insane in its own way.

And this is after you kind of had this like dark night of the soul with the Tibetan Shambhala, right? >> Before. >> Before. >> Before. >> Okay, okay. >> Yeah, the dark night of the Soul Shambhala episode, which is still going on. >> It's pretty recent. >> Yeah, it just happened a year ago. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, so now this was -- >> I'm quite acutely aware. >> Yeah, so this was well before the falling of the Shambhala King. >> This is Zev, you want to meet her live on a podcast? There's no reason you can't do that. Just people talking, there's no reason. >> Hi, Nathan. >> We'll get her settled after this, too, where she's going to sleep and everything.

You're good? >> Yeah. >> Okay, awesome. Nice, good move. >> Oh, cool, good to meet you. >> So, continue. >> Okay, so basically he -- yeah, so he's empowering me. He dies, and then suddenly about a couple years pass, and then I finally quit my job, my nine to five job. I was working as a book editor, because I'm just like, I need to do something more creative. >> Sure, for sure. >> And the mission of life. >> I really -- yeah, I wanted to be an astrologer full-time. I was already doing it part-time, you know, on the side. And that's really what I knew I wanted to do, since I was, you know, 19 or 18 years old.

>> Yeah. >> And I didn't really think it was possible, you know? >> For sure, I can understand why one wouldn't think that. Nowadays it's probably less -- you know, people are like, no, of course, but yeah, I get it, I get it. >> Yeah, totally, so I end up doing this whole pono pono ceremony. It was just this Hawaiian ceremony, and you set intentions before the ceremony begins. My intention was to be an astrologer. And at the end of the ceremony, which is hours long, I turn my phone back on, and I have two text messages. One from a friend who's like, I want you to do these readings for these five different people, you know?

And the other was from a friend who owns a company based in LA and resumed the floor, and they were asking me to write monthly astrology articles for their company. They were launching something called Artifacts, and, you know, and they wanted me to be their first artifact writing about the astrology of the year, and then continuing to do it every month. So after that, you just doubted it for another 10 years. So that's pretty good. What is it, pono pono? >> Hoa pono pono. >> Hoa pono pono. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Yeah. >> Taking note of it, free powerful things. >> Yeah, and so I then was like, okay, I'm going to do this, and I built my website.

I came up with a name, a serial culture. >> Yeah, which is amazing. >> Yeah, my best friend came up with a name. >> Such a good name. >> Yeah, because he knows me very well, and he likes that it kind of plays off of material culture, which is a scientific term. >> Yeah, it's awesome, and ethereal, and it's like real, but it's a theory, it's great. >> Yeah, and part of my mission is, like, working with culture creators, like artists and artistic people, it's like artists create culture, culture creates society. So this notion of, like, how do we bring mysticism back into culture, and more kind of go into the culture that already exists, right, and expose the enlightened elements.

>> I love it, because I think a tendency for a lot of people when they engage with these ideas of either simplicity or just living a different style of life is to separate those, like, to the sacred and the mundane, and kind of have this weird schism that takes over that, oh, well, this is my regular life, and this is my spiritual life, and that can lead to things like spiritual bypassing, guru, watch all of these things that are not productive, yeah. >> And that's a gripe I have with a new age scene, you know? >> I work with you, yeah, their whole thing is like, well, let's create something outside of society, and my whole thing is like, well, what if we go into society and transmute it from the inside, the only way, yeah, I agree.

So that was, like, part of my mission was, like, establishing this voice that was not new age, you know, but was spiritually deep, you know, and about transmutation. >> Authentic, real. >> Also, something that really important here came from your direct experience, right? >> Yeah, yeah. >> Not something you concocted and thought was cool and could monetize, but because this was a deep felt thing that you knew, and then that's no surprise that right after you kind of embraced that, I say this from this perspective, just to tie it in for anyone who's listening, and I rarely do this on this podcast, but it worked for me.

I realized a month ago, a little more, right before my kid was born, that I had never asked myself the question, what do you want in life? My life is awesome, I have a lovely kid, my wife is amazing, I live in a lovely place, I know all these awesome people, but I've done that unconsciously, I've not sat down and said directly, this is what I want to do, once you do that, especially if you're like, you have gone through kind of various stages of awareness, like, you know, that's a very powerful thing that I think people overlook in terms of creating real change and selecting the type of life that you want to live, too, so that's awesome, that it happened right after this intention event.

Yeah, yeah, well, totally, it was cool, and then the other thing was, I just decided that I was gonna be me, you know, and I was like, I'm not gonna do this unless I can just be me, 'cause it's gonna feel laborious and cumbersome,

It's a hassle, it's a hassle.

Yeah, and I'm not gonna enjoy it, you know, 'cause all these people who are like business people, you're like, you're just like a business class, and you should speak to the lowest common denominator to broaden your audience, and I was like, I don't think so.

It's like, that doesn't sound good.

I was like, I can't really do that, like even when I was in middle school, I couldn't be anyone but my nerdy self, and I tried, like I wanted to be cool so badly, but I couldn't be anyone myself, like, I don't know how, and so I was like, I just have to be me, and then maybe I'll only have like 10 followers, but they're really gonna resonate with me.

Right, right. Well, that's how the secret to actually building a real community and audience, that no one wants to hear, who just wants to pay to build an audience or something like that, they don't wanna hear that, yeah, you really could need to be okay with like 10 people really fuck with you. Like, 10 people really care and love you, like that's the best starting point ever. It obviously blossoms into more when you're doing it for that reason.

Yeah, yeah, so I, and then I was like, okay, I'm not gonna share anything unless it makes my heart feel something. That was my other sort of barometer, you know?

That's awesome.

And so, and I was like, that's the kind of the feminine business model, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Like, I'm not sharing something 'cause it's gonna make me rich, I'm not sharing something 'cause it's gonna be successful, I'm sharing something 'cause it's making my heart feel something.

And it's also a trusting, right? You're trusting that that is something that can be supported, which I think you're gonna loot it to it, like, you didn't think you could be an astrologer. Our senses and our world at this juncture are still, even though there's more astrologers than ever, it's not a very supportive place of that type of, putting that into the world and being able to make money from it, right? I mean, so, you had to trust that, too. That's trusting that feminine model.

Totally, and, but I kind of had this feeling 'cause I was like, I'm feeling a gap in the market. Like, my friends and I want to read astrology articles that don't exist at the moment, you know? And so I was kind of writing it for me. I was like, I want to do the research and then feel into it and write the article that I want to read to make sense of what I'm feeling, you know?

This is a great reason to create something.

Yeah, it's like, it's a good one, yeah.

It's really, that's what a theory of culture is. It's just me making sense of what I'm feeling and making sense of the world and then, you know, feeling something in my heart and then sharing, you know, like, that's it. It's really, like, for me, you know?

I get it.

And so that's, so that was like how it started. And I was so surprised, my mother was like, what are you doing?

Yeah, of course.

So that's what parents are for, they're there. No matter how cool or not cool they are, that is what they're there for. Like, what are you doing?

Yeah, yeah. And I was like, life-driving and babysitting and trying to make an--

Hustling.

Yeah, I was really hardcore hustling 'cause I was like, I really want to do this. So I started and then I was so surprised by how much it blew up so quickly, you know? When did you start all of this? What?

It was, I'm trying to think of the year, but it was like three years and nine months ago.

Oh, shit, yeah.

It's not that long ago.

Not at all. I found out about you last year, I want to say.

Yeah.

Think that's the time you do it work.

It blew up really fast. And so, yeah, and then nine months passed and it was like, things have grown so much and all these, like, big people were following me on Instagram and stuff and I don't even know how they found me and--

I know how they found you.

The same way I found you. Like, when you see someone who's sharing stuff that you're like, oh, yeah, that's it. Like, they're like, I'm going to follow that person 'cause you don't see that, especially on social media and other places where you're hitting people. Like, that's not regular.

Well, that's the thing. (laughing) Oh, yeah, I was surprised and it grew and I was like, okay, I just need things to stay exactly where they are for years so I can find my footing 'cause this is crazy.

Yeah, yeah.

You know? And I was already like kind of making what I had been making working nine to five.

Right, already, right? That's great.

Yeah, I got it.

And I was like, that's nuts. And I really only wanted to make like $20,000 a year to eat rice and beans to live in the mountains. I was living in Colorado, you know?

That is such a monastic goal. (laughing)

That's all I wanted. I was like, I want to do what I love and help people and feel things in my heart and share them and eat rice and beans to live in the mountains.

You can do that, yeah.

I think, okay, I got there. We're good.

Yeah.

Like, let's just stay here, you know?

Sure, sure.

Because it was actually a lot to, it was a lot of fear to work through to put myself out there, you know, after being so private for so long.

Right, right.

In the kind of quasi-immonastic world I'd been inhabiting. - Right.

And so I had to like, how about use all these mantras? Like, this is not, this isn't about me, you know? It is for me and it isn't about me. And that would kind of give me the strength to keep putting myself out there to broader and broader audiences, which was kind of freaky, you know? I can imagine, as that happens naturally, if you're not regularly comfortable with that idea of being in front of a lot of people, that that's like, you gotta get used to it. It's an adjustment thing. And I get also the tendency to wanna kind of like, all right, let me catch my breath at this depth right here. I don't need to just keep going, and then it's like, oh, well, I guess we're gonna keep going.

Yeah, so right when I got to that point, like let's stay right here. Not going anywhere, staying right here for a year. Then the book publisher wrote me, and it was like, we'd like you to author a book on astrology.

So you know now, just to do the opposite, just George Costanza, you're good to go. (laughing) Let's do the opposite, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and so I was like, well, I can't. And this was Kelly's vision. This was my teacher's vision.

Right, right.

And he and I both are very cosmic people who can talk to dead people.

For sure.

You know, I was like, Kelly, what are you doing? You're doing this. You're like channeling through me now, and kind of puppeteering my life. And I was like, I can't say no to this.

Right.

You know, my teacher died, and this was his vision, to bring astrology into the mainstream for the new paradigm.

Yeah.

And through this book that he wanted to write, which is now I'm being asked to write.

Yeah, yeah.

I was like, okay, no big deal. (laughing)

That big deal.

Yeah, so then I made the book proposal. It was accepted, and then I'm writing the book.

Yeah, yeah. (laughing)

And then I get my friend on board who actually got me into Buddhism, who's were both verbos with Aquarius moons, so cosmic nerds, really like detail oriented, yet cosmic, big minded people.

That's quite a task. (laughing)

And he's an illustrator, and so we started sort of reconceiving the astrological archetypes, making--

So awesome. All the illustrations paired with your style, so cool.

Yeah, so I mean, he did a brilliant job. Like, I just love his work so much, and--

It pairs wonderfully. It really, it's awesome.

Yeah, I'm glad. And he's very mystical, and yet, there's such an intricate story in each of his illustrations, and he actually put the constellations in behind each of the--

That's so cool.

That images, the zodiac images--

Gotta keep it consistent on every level, I get it. I appreciate it.

It's so cool. And it was so fun to collaborate with a friend, and I was really yearning for that, just like collaboration, energy, 'cause I'd been living quasi in isolation.

Yeah.

And so, suddenly, I'm collaborating with my friend, and we're really putting a lot of care and heart and vision into this, and then it came out. It was really easy to channel it, actually, and I felt Kelly present with me kind of helping me and channeling through me, and once I had organized the layout and knew how I wanted it to go organizationally, the rest of it just flowed. - Oh, yeah.

Yeah, and so it did feel like I was just channeling something with my own style. - Which is nice. Yeah, well, with your own style, and I mean, I like to hear that because that's a nice, there's something about it that is cosmically resonant. Like I say this, here's how we're on the same page with this, not just that I read it, and I was like, "Oh, that sounds good, I believe that." So, I had the reason this podcast is called Synchronicities. In 2003 and 2004, I took LSD. I've taken it many times before, but I took it and I didn't come down for three months, so it was out of my system, so I'm tripping, and everything I experienced was one synchronicity.

It was nonstop for three months. Everything, anything I would imagine, the gap between that, me imagining it and it happening, would be so small that it was like, there was just no distance between it. So, this ultimately can change my perspective on what reality is. It was a crazy intense period that ultimately ended up with me getting diagnosed with bipolar as one point being on lithium for three years, and then three years later, I was like, I don't think I'm bipolar. I think something happened, spoke to my mom. A psychiatrist got off it, I haven't been on for 10, 15 years, but it was just very cosmically resonant kind of event that quite recently, I've had another context on, which is that our world is literally founded by our imagination.

I think everything starts internally from up there, and that gives reality to anything that we imagine. We're doing this constantly, whether we realize it or not. I'm gonna talk about this a little bit tonight, and a technique that can actually start to harness that. One of the things that I love about your story so much is it sounds like each time you were in tune with kind of whether it was your teacher who had died or you accepted something you wanted earlier and resonant in yourself, it happened almost instantaneously. And this is something that I think everyone is doing. Everyone has some idea of what's going on and have experienced equinities and these intuitions, and they happen or premonitions or dreams.

And it's, I forgot what we were just talking about before. What was the last thing you said? I had to tie into this.

Oh, we did our own channeling in the book?

That you were channeling for him in the book. What was the point? It'll come back to me. But essentially, I love to hear that because it proves to me that there is, oh no, I remember, perfect. Here we go, the Divine Feminine. I had very few premonitions about the long-term future. It was more like a download, but one of the most important things that I came away with was that in the coming decades, 10, 20 years, this is like 2003, that there was this gonna be this drastic rebalancing of feminine energy. And remember, I'm like a 20 year old dude at college, having these thoughts about a rebalancing of feminine energy, about how we're opening up to the emotional intuitive, that these archetypes of male dominance, I was being a young fan, are crumbling before us and that the world was gonna shift in a dramatic way that what I was talking about with imagining and synchronicity was gonna be kind of the dominant mode of how things operate in this kind of new world.

And it would take that rebalancing towards the feminine to like stabilize that and have that be okay. Because if the logical rational tries to hold on and cling here, we're kind of fucked. So that's why I say I'm on the same page with you, not just 'cause I see it. So it's cool when I hear that you're basically channeling this from your friend, you know, with your own flair about what's going on.

And from the universe.

And from the universe, exactly, ultimately, right? Of course.

Yeah, no, that's so cool. I love your story. (both laughing) But this isn't about me, it's by me, I guess. So yeah, I mean, it's just crazy that you were basically, it was an effortless channeling for you to do that. And your book is amazing.

Thanks, thanks. Well, yeah, we did have to fight the publisher for things. Like I had to fight for my illustrator. I had to fight for the title. I had to fight for the cover.

But you got it all?

It did.

Right?

But it took some years off my life.

Right, 'cause I was like trying to explain to them, I'm channeling in a vision.

That's what publishers want to hear.

The vision.

Totally, that's what they usually want to hear.

I know this sounds crazy. (both laughing)

You got it all, though.

I know, and they wanted to do things that really were old paradigm-y, you know? And I was like, my job really is to tell the future, you know? And I'm really like making a trend. We're not following a trend here, you know? And so, they wanted to put this profile of a white lady with a top bun.

Oh, no.

And a comet going across her head, and they wanted to call it a Modern Guide to Astrology. And I was like, please.

She's like ruined.

That is such a bad idea.

The worst, especially compared to what it is.

It's really bad. And so, I know, we made it look more like 70 sci-fi.

No, it looks amazing.

It's really beautiful. And then the stars within you. And they were like, no, we already decided the title is called A Modern Guide to Astrology. And I was like, no. And I called my old publisher, my old managing editor, who I've passed so I used to work for. And I was like, I need a title, and I have like five minutes to convince the whole publishing house of the title. And so, I need a title and a card.

You didn't have the title?

No. And I was like, please, give me a good title. And I have five minutes. And he's like, the stars within you. And he gave you the most amazing explanation of why. And I just sent it to every single person in the publishing house at like a head send. And luckily, I mean, 'cause the editor in charge of the project was so married to her original vision, which I get, you like have this idea and you don't wanna let it go. But finally, the owner saw my email. And I was like, you know, that is actually a better idea.

Wow.

And it does resonate more.

You can't get higher up than the owner. I've learned that in business.

I mean, I had to fight her too. But, you know, it's, we won.

Written in the stars, bad pun intended. I mean, that's awesome that you got it all. And it came out the way it did. And again, it's a testament to you having a clear vision that you knew what it was supposed to be. And it ended up coming out like that. And I think, I don't want that to get lost because I really do think this is like an operative power that, you know, one of the things I love about astrology is it gives you the perspective based on these energies of what's going on in planets and where you are in specific to you and time that are really helpful with this type of stuff too. It's just, like you said, your initial hook was like it was so eerie and so crazy how it was just giving illuminating aspects of your own psyche and personality.

I mean, that's the best medicine there is in the world. So I love that, you know, of course it had to be what you wanted it to be.

Well, yeah. I mean, it had, yeah, it had to be resonant with the future paradigm, you know?

So let's talk about that because we've skirted around it. I've mentioned it briefly, feminine blah, blah, blah, but you're gonna do a better job.

Yeah. (laughs) So it's a lot to say, but I'll tell you the short version. So basically, 2020 is this huge year astrologically that astrologers have been waiting for long-breaking time. And it's, we're beginning all these new ages all at the same time. We're beginning this new Saturn Pluto, Synod, you know, Saturn and Pluto are forming a conjunction in Capricorn.

What's a conjunction?

A conjunction is when two planets are, you know, within a few degrees of each other.

Close to each other.

They're really close.

Okay, so they're in the same sign, I--

In the same, almost the same degree or the same degree, you know? - Got it.

So an exact conjunction, which is what we're talking about is the exact same degree.

Gotcha, which is kind of cool. Like yeah. - Yeah, yeah. So the last time Saturn and Pluto formed a conjunction in Capricorn was 500 years ago.

It's a long time.

Yeah, and now we're gonna have Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter forming conjunctions in Capricorn next year for the first time in 2,200 years.

That's also a longer time.

It's a longer time, yeah. And we're also moving out of the Pisian age into the Aquarian age, you know, so we're more fully inhabiting the Aquarian age. And that has to do with where the vernal equinox has been pointing.

Okay.

That point of the vernal equinox. And the Pisian age has been going on for 20, you know, about more than 2,000 years, you know? And it's been the Christian age.

Right.

The symbol of Christianity, of course, is the fish. And it's the symbol of Pisces, the fish, you know? And so that's very much been the age of waiting for a savior.

Yes, a guru, someone who saved me.

A guru, a savior, a king, a politician, you know.

Save me, Jesus.

I mean, look what we did to Obama, it's like, save us.

Save us. You never did anything wrong, Obama, you're just good. Save us.

And I remember thinking like, you guys are going to be disappointed because he's a human and he's working in a cryptite.

And he's also like, just like, just to be clear, we have the elections coming up. You have to be a special type of someone to want to be president.

Yeah.

What it's you're trying to scratch there is bigger than most of us can imagine. So, let's just say that.

That's a very good point. (both laughing) Yeah, so now we're moving into the Aquarian Age, which is about individual liberation. No longer waiting for the savior, the guru, the politician. It's about egalitarianism, grassroots efforts. You know, it's about having, yeah, I like to think about circles that are lateral in terms of power structures instead of this top-down phallic.

Hierarchy. Yeah.

You have steep age, hierarchical hierarchy, you know.

Totally.

So it's like communities empowering themselves.

Yes.

You know, being self-sufficient.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

And also it's interesting because we were talking about the New Ageers and they're all about love, light and oneness and forgiveness.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I'm like, we can't get there unless we don't have everyday daily oppression happening. So we're not ready for oneness and forgiveness until we have this period of individuation, which is Aquarius, you know?

Yes.

And it's interesting 'cause actually the ages, you know, go backwards the way the direction, the vernal equinoxes pointing is slowly moving backwards. But in astrological terms, in terms of the zodiac wheel, first comes Aquarius, then Pisces. So Pisces is transcendence, oneness, unconditional love, forgive, you know, all of those things. But at first we have to get through Aquarius, which is the pinnacle of human potential in creating enlightened society, making sure everyone's voices are heard.

Yes, yes.

You know, egalitarianism. So we have to actually build a society that makes sense in terms of, you know, all of these things, these human ideals before we can return to oneness, we're not ready to forgive others daily ongoing oppression.

It's not, we're not even close at this point just because people who I know are compassionate and kind and progressive are probably at the top of the list of people I know who are the most reactive and kind of angry. And I think anger, listen, you know about Tibet and stuff. I think the purified form of anger is not a poison and it can be clarity and sharpness, but this is what I talk about.

Right, so there is functions to this, however, if you're not aware of that and it becomes a reaction that doesn't give you any more depth and insight into what can be a solution and what that ultimately, as you know, will be, is you gotta change it in yourself first 'cause you were just totally, this is my former colleagues and professional people, Ramdas, you know, was very keen on saying this, like, have you ever gone to a peace rally and seen how many angry people there are?

Right, if people clubbing each other with their peace science.

Right, right, and I mean, like, it's not to say there isn't a point to say this isn't right, but I think people talking about love and light and that's all there is, completely casting a blind eye to what's going around, probably like 100 feet from where they live to be honest in this day and age, that's not helping, you need to go into the world, right?

Absolutely, yeah, and so, you know, I've had people say to me, oh, you need to be more feminine and expressing your feminism. I'm like, what the fuck?

What is that movie?

Yeah, and they're like, if you're angry, then I'm not gonna hear you, you know, and I'm like, well, actually you being a misogynistic or racist asshole warrants anger, you know, and anger is like a completely natural reaction. And so rather than focusing on tone policing and saying, I'm not gonna hear that substance of what you're saying behind your anger because I'm too defensive or my ego is too threatened, you know? Why don't you work on deflating your ego enough to really hear what I'm saying and work on creating a safer space for people who have been oppressed?

So hard for people. I think a lot of people don't have experience cohabitating and being around with people from different socioeconomic and geo location places and groups. And when you do that, you instantly, for any length of time, you instantly have a broader appreciation for, life isn't just your particular perspective. It is a multifaceted prism that, yes, it can be a dream like heaven for us if we choose to, but to not pay attention to the people it's not like that for is just not, it's not what we're here for, especially if we have ultimate potential to create good things. Like let's try to widen that circle.

Yes, and that's one thing that I've been noticing and having conversations with white male liberal friends that are surprisingly racist and misogynistic and don't aren't aware of it. I've realized that in spiritual too, by the way, did I say that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, racist, misogynist, it's like what I realized is that we've grown up in this society and culture where the majority of movies we've watched and books we've read and laws that have been written and art that we've seen have all been from the white male perspective. And so it's more difficult for a white man to see from other people's experiences 'cause they haven't had a lot of practice.

Just not a lot of practice, it's just, they haven't had to, is the thing. You know, like someone who's black, someone who's a woman doesn't need to be told what it's like to feel a certain way in a situation at night or when someone's passing you on the street, they don't need to be explained what that feels like. They're like, no, I very much know what that feels like. Yeah, it's--

And they also know, I mean, they've also watched movies from the white male perspective and seen on-- - Most of culture. I mean, 2,500 years plus, yeah.

Yeah, so it's, I mean, we all get the white male perspective, you know? And it's like, well, when are y'all gonna get ours?

Yeah, I've had friends on both side of this and I think there's a conflation that a lot of white men make that when they hear about us talking about white men, they think because they're a white man, it means them. And that's very important to understand that when we're talking about these things, this is a cultural paradigm that has been responsible for almost everything that we've seen over the past 2,000, almost 3,000 years. That's hard for a person who's only alive for maybe 80 to 100, 110 years to understand. So it's a difficult thing and I've seen friends get red-pilled. I've seen them come back from getting red-pilled and going alt-right and like getting real weird about shit.

Yeah, it's not people and anyone is susceptible. I mean, like Jordan Peterson has like turned enough people into like weirdo, like baby men. Like, and I am much more tolerant of Jordan Peterson this day and age than I used to be just because I think on the grand scheme of things, it's a blip. It's not that much to be concerned about. But I mean, if you go down that rabbit hole, you see how people's individual psyches influence everyone else for long periods of time. It's just bizarre, but it's crumbling, right? I mean, that's why we're seeing these spasms. Well, yeah, I mean, it's really important astrologically that we do this work, not just for ourselves, but also for the collective.

And there's really no difference, right? So, for until September, we have Saturn, Pluto, and the South Note all kind of circling around each other. And the South Note is past life, karma, ancestral karma, you know, our karma from early life, the karma we still need to unravel and untangle from. And Saturn is karma as well. And Pluto is like deep transmutational work, death and rebirth, like really going into the cauldron, you know, and so that's what we have to do. It's like emptying out the cop before we refill it in a new paradigm. And so it's not just white men who are feeling the karma of 6,500 years of patriarchy.

It's like women are feeling the karma of 6,500 years of being oppressed and abused and burned at the stake. You know, black people are feeling the karma of slavery, which wasn't that long ago, really long ago at all. Really not long ago. And you know, and it's like, we do have to kind of take responsibility for our ancestors and for where we're at, you know, and it's not, we can't just say, oh, well, that was a long time ago where that's not about me. It actually is, and I would go so far as to say, it's impossible to be a white person in this country and not be racist. It's impossible to be a man in this country and not be a misogynist.

Just to be clear, like, you would expect someone who looks like me to be offended by that. It's one of the things I say the most, I say the most racist people I know are the people who don't think they're racist at all. People who are racist, like listen, I have noticed it in myself. Live with someone else. You'll see who, and ask them where your racist stuff. I have black friends, I have Spanish friends. These aren't the defense mechanisms of the racist. They know how I am. I've been like that around them and be like, what the fuck is it, my friends and the Bronx are like, what is it?

Totally, we all have it. I mean, it's impossible not to, I grew up in Texas for the love of God, you know? Like, and I had a real, like, come to Jesus moment and a couple years ago I was in a retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center and it was a very mixed race retreat and the teachers were black in Japanese and the participants were mixed race and which is unusual for Buddhism, by the way.

Yes, very much so.

And during that retreat, it was the great American eclipse and Charlottesville happened, okay?

Oh, shit.

And Charlottesville, by the way, the Tiki Torch, you know, racist march or whatever that was, you know, led by David Duke and Richard Spencer.

Yeah, Richard Spencer.

Who I grew up with.

Did you really?

In Dallas.

What a nice fellow to drop. (laughing)

I'll tell you.

Is there Dallas? I didn't know that.

Yeah, yeah, so he went to my brother's school. I went to an all-girl school, he went to an all-boy school. We were in a musical together.

Oh, he went to an all-boy school, okay, all right.

Yeah, well listen, no, just, you don't even know what happened, I'll tell you. So, we're in a musical together called Brigadoon.

You're in a musical?

Richard Spencer. And he was a, one of the popular kids and he was a nice guy, he was gay. He liked the Pesh mode. He was kind to people like me who were dorks and who weren't cool.

Holy shit.

His parents sent him to conversion camp.

Oh, that'll do it.

That's what happened to him.

Oh my God.

So fast forward, I'm in this retreat. Charlotte's Phil's happening led by my Richard Spencer. I was in a musical with, in high school. And I'm in the cauldron with a mixed race crowd and we're all processing this together.

Holy shit.

It was like this huge wake up for me. I could not run away from it. I could not be complacent, I could not hide.

I like how you set these crazy, like in your face, Miller Repa getting slapped with a sandal type situation.

Oh my God.

I approve, I approve.

Yeah, and so, and then I have a wonderful friend, Arti Tajuja, and she's been doing spiritual activism, you know, for a while now, and she's really not given up on her white friends who are at kindergarten level understandings of racism and race and racial issues. And she's really like, started noticing I was waking up and she was like, we need white allies.

Yeah, it's the most important thing. I mean, I say this as much as I can, 'cause I don't have a huge platform, but I mean, I just say like, if you're white, like just try to understand this first, just try to understand it.

Yeah, just, yeah, try.

Just try.

It's not a hard try.

So it, for me, it felt like really confronting all this stuff in me, which is my own like kind of subtle racism and whatever, it was, it felt like burning waves rising in me, you know? And if I really sat up straight and stayed with it, it was a deep process of karmic purification.

Right, right.

Painful karmic purification.

How could it not be? It's not a comfortable.

It's freaking painful to see like how you accidentally contributed to oppression and like incredible pain.

Or constantly doing this. I mean, this is something that I think a lot of people have to confront not only with racism and other unsavory shadow things, but also ecologically, right? The impact that we're having on a daily basis, even when we drive places, which you and I both love to do.

I love driving.

I know, so it's like this interesting kind of paradox of where we live, the question I have for you, and this is something I think about a lot, how do you transmute that kind of righteous anger and awareness about what's going on out in the world into something productive? How do you do that?

Thank you, yeah. I mean, this has been up for me and, you know, 'cause I do have a lot of anger about these issues, especially the more you kind of wake up to it, the more like the anger you're in.

To get back and happen, that definitely can happen.

'Cause you're just like seeing the injustices left and right and like seeing how, you know, married people are to be staying asleep, you know, and realizing your inner circle is like super ignorant and unwilling to hear a change.

Totally.

You know, but I, you know, and I was going to say too, before like doing this deep karmic work and purification and feeling the burning waves, that is Saturn Pluto south node work, like that's what we're all meant to do. Just feel your freaking shame.

Yeah, you gotta let it out.

Do it.

You gotta let it out.

Just feel it, you know?

Yeah.

But yeah, I think for now, the way I channel it is through the only way that works for me, 'cause I do feel this anger coming up and I do think it's with potential wisdom, right?

Yeah, purified as with poison, yep.

Setting boundaries, you know, finding the fire to come out of oppression or to change oppression. And so I have to have healthy outlets for my anger, otherwise I get stuck in it or it's--

You and me both.

Yeah. (laughing) And it becomes like not helpful.

Yeah.

So I don't know, recently a friend said to me, something really ignorant about race. You know, she even used the term reverse racism, which really pissed me off, which is just ludicrous to talk about in this day and age and--

Pre-stepping. (laughing)

Pre-stepping.

In talking about people of color needing to create their own spaces to heal, they're very particular wounds. She was accusing them of reverse racism, which is so ridiculous.

Right, like there's a black groups, why can't there be a white group? And it's like, well--

Or why shouldn't we be included? And it's like, well--

Do you have for everything else?

Particular trauma, it needs to be addressed that we don't have to address as being white people, you know? So I--

Not in that personal, specific way and felt direct experience, which is just, you know--

Yeah, so it's like literally all you have to do to help heal the situation is give people space to ask for what they need and create their spaces to heal. That's all you have to do. And now you're accusing people of color of creating waves of hate for asking for what they need in the context of your very white event.

Yes, right.

That you wanted to be more inclusive and now you're mad at them for kind of--

This is a story I've heard so many times. So how do you transmute it?

Okay, sorry. (laughing)

I get it, trust me, I get it.

Okay, so what I realized I needed to do was in my own community where I'm living in Topanga, very white, you know, very bubbly, bubble community.

For sure.

You know, I realized I needed to help create conversations about not just race, but gender and transphobia, homophobia, ableism, like all these things, you know, like, I realized my own community where I was living, the education level was mixed, but mostly pretty low, you know, and which surprised me because I thought we were all a little more advanced given the collective conversations that have been happening.

And--

Not these days, no.

Yeah, I really think it has to start where we are. It has to start in our friend groups, it has to start in our own communities. And instead of me just like yelling at my friend at the coffee shop, you know, I needed, I wanted to create a more, like, a better container, you know?

Yeah, to hold the space.

Yeah, so I invited my friend, Arthi, and then my other friend who's part of, he's Filipino and he's part of the Topanga community as well to organize a conversation among this, you know, the spiritual community about these things. And then my friend who's Filipino is organizing the people of color talks, you know, to come together. So because people of color really don't need to be present at these like kindergarten conversations 'cause it's so triggering.

They're past it. They're just past like someone being a dumb ass.

They're doing a graduate school. They don't need to go to kindergarten, you know? And be triggered by, you know.

So Anur doesn't know what the fuck is going on.

Yeah, we're frustrated.

Not to shame people who don't know what's going on, but like, you don't wanna have to get triggered by someone who just isn't seeing your perspective and wants to go through the, "Oh yeah, but like affirmative action." And like, "What do you think that's?"

And wantness and it's like, "Oh God."

Well, that's the spiritual bypass. I mean, that's the nexus of what goes on. But this is again why I love what you talk about because I've seen the guru worship and kind of that aspect of it really begin to crumble for me and my world professionally and spiritually. It was about like three years ago, three and a half, four years ago, something like that. Not three years ago, my son's three. I remember it acutely. And now to see it kind of externalized out in the world. I mean, this is what's happening. And I think we're getting these opportunities to deal with this shit. So yeah, I mean, inclusive groups where people can talk about this, that's pretty powerful.

We need to talk about it. And I mean, even in my Shambhala community, it's like, we have all these people now, like two different people have been arrested for pedophilia, which our community knew about and nobody did anything about it legally because they thought it would be handled within that community.

Yeah, right, right, right.

But it wasn't handled. And there's so much ignorance around all of this stuff and like re-triggering of people who've been harmed.

You're so cute.

Like that.

Jug is right, a lot of you are adorable. You're enjoying this podcast and whatever. No, I--

And yeah, and it's crazy 'cause in that context, the people who were abused in our community have had to be the activist and be on the front lines, which has been so freaking painful.

Which is not how it should ever be. There should be protectors. The same way you were protecting a teacher on the front lines physically, there should be people automatically on defense.

Yeah, that's why we need allies. Like women need male allies, black people need white allies, gay people need straight out, et cetera. It's like, we have to be allies for each other through this paradigm. Shift, you know, because it's so re-triggering.

I think what's hard for a lot of people right now, where we are, right, before this, we're not at 2020 yet, which is funny when you say that 'cause I've always felt like that was gonna be, I know it looks embolically nice too, but it always did feel like a big thing. It's fun, I think a lot of people are gonna have to deal with themselves before they can get to those other points. And this is where the spiritual bypass can really start to creep in for people because people can take that as, well, I don't have to be aware of what's going on. I don't have to be aware of what's going on at the borders.

I don't have to be aware of what's going on in other countries and what our president is doing. And just to be clear, I am the base level aware of what is going on politically, geopolitically, racially, the state of, you know, thought leaders and, you know, just all the friction that we experience, but I've stopped delving in and let it grab me. But I've stayed aware enough that when I'm doing things where I'm setting intentions, I'm incorporating, let's deal with this shit too. Let's not just focus on the house and the nice and the beauty and the love and the light, because that just completely negates, A, the reality of the external circumstances.

But what's really negating is inside of you, all of those things you're not facing, which, again, to go back to the imagination stuff, our outside world, I firmly believe this through a known direct experience, consciousness and awareness precedes it. This is the after effect of what we have experience and experience internally. And if that's true, that means the alchemy, the transmutation, whatever it is, it has to start deeply within first, 'cause otherwise it's just this never ending circle of like non-awareness and like karmic rebirths and redaffes in the moment.

Totally. And you know, if we try to repress something or shy away from it or ignore it or walk away from it, it doesn't actually help us, you know? Like we can take a break from it, touch and go, like come in, this is too much, walk away, come back, you know? But actually opening to all the discomfort, you know, opening to the pain, opening to the shame, opening to the reality and giving it wide pasture, I mean, that is liberation. You know, that is like--

You're allowing.

That is like, you know, and I always say like opening to what we fear is the same thing as opening to love.

Yeah, it is.

And it has another Millaripa story, right?

Right.

The demons.

I mean, I didn't know anything about your Shambhala and Tibetan roots. I never was a part of Shambhala. I've known teachers who are very high up, who luckily, as far as I know, still to date have not, and I know them, they won't be implicated. I'm sure it's ripping them up as much as anyone that this is happening. And just to be clear, when we say Shambhala, we're talking about a lineage that emanates from Chogam, Trungpa, who was a Tibetan, just basically master, who had many controversies in his own right, but what Shambhala actually means is an enlightened society. This is a utopian world where people are actually, so the irony and the gut-wrenching pain that you and people in the community are feeling is that what is supposed to be an ideal, like a utopian vision of oneness and goodness and truth and clarity, right?

Has turned into Catholic church in a lot of ways, and perversions of what it was supposed to be, which is looked at through a cultural lens is easily explainable. But if looked at through someone who would theoretically know of karmic implications for doing something like that, doing what most people wouldn't imagine the worst person they know doing, it just fucks with people beyond belief. But then this again, this is where the crumbling of the grew.

Yeah, I mean, even the Dalai Lama says there's no new Dalai Lama, you know? It's not the age anymore, and we're finding that the reason Shogam, Trungpa, Rempoche established this community that was founded on a lot of wisdom and ancient wisdom and profundity and his own talent, there was also a lot of abuse in the fabric of his community.

Exactly.

And we were finding out it was because he was abused. He was molested in the monastery in Tibet, and that's a problem, just like in the Catholic church, you know?

It's a secluded place where you're putting lots of men together, some pure of hearts, some not.

Yeah, and we exoticize a lot of Asian cultures and religions and spiritual traditions, you know? But the truth is, there are problems there, just like everywhere else in the world.

Why wouldn't there be? Like, why wouldn't there be, there are people? That's where I think this stuff, well, this is where it gets really tricky for a lot of people, and this is why I think always putting the emphasis on the individual is where it's really empowering is, when people hear about a Chogam, Trungpa, or a 16th karma, or a city, or a sadu, rather, an India who can do magical, amazing things, and just all this stuff happens. We have countless stories from countless traditions of this happening. People get glamored by it, and they think that's what they should aspire to, and just to be clear, anyone who has spent any real time studying, researching, feeling, direct experience knows that that's akin to kind of a parlor trick.

It's a distraction, if anything. It's amazing if you look at it through the lens of like Newtonian laws, it's like, "Holy shit, what the hell are they doing this?" Two places it, once all the parahansa yoga nanda stuff, which is amazing reading, I love it, and it opens your eyes to possibilities, but people get glamored by this, so they then start putting their trust and faith into someone else completely. And this is the paradox of the Tibetan guru, right? If we're talking about deep, kind of, like the ultimate levels of Tibetan work, it is the guru worship, it's this, but think of this, this is what I'm telling my friend, who's still doing the Tibetan stuff.

He's still doing some ball of stuff. Think about what the most intense Tibetan practices are. They're these incredible, imaginal, guru, deity worship, right? You do these lotus petals with the letters and the colors and this one and the consort and all of these things. This, to me, again, points to the real key and the wisdom, which is, that's us. That's our imagination, that's us, that's it. That's literally what people wanna call God source. It's a hard concept for people Jesus Christ whatever you wanna call it. That's a hard thing for people to accept because what it does immediately is it places all of the responsibility for everything at your feet 'cause now you're the arbiter of what goes on.

But it also gives you the freedom to start actually using that as like a vehicle for change and transformation. It's pretty fucking nuts, yeah.

Totally. Yeah, and it's interesting. Well, I wanna respond to a couple of things 'cause, first of all, what you said with the parlor tricks, it's interesting 'cause as Westerners, we're so easily seduced by that stuff because of the age of enlightenment. We was rich in killing all the witches. We shut down magic at being--

Rationality and anti-yep.

We were like, no, we're not gonna look, this is not real, therefore, if somebody has gifts where they're seeing energy, they're called crazy, they're given medications.

Totally.

They're in the mental institution. But there's that expression, the yogi swims in the same waters, the schizophrenic drowns.

Exactly.

It's actually a gift, if you can see energies and see beyond the confines of reality. And it's interesting, too, 'cause if you just meditate a little bit, do one solitary retreat. It's like, suddenly you can see energies and you can tap into these realms beyond these three dimensions of space and one dimension of time. It's not actually that hard to do. It's not even that hard to read someone's mind.

No, it's not. It's not hard to be psychic. And I think when these things naturally happen to us and we have no awareness of it, it can get difficult for an ego to manage. And I think that's where we start to see these kind of perversions and warps. And I think this goes from the lowest of novices and neophytes to the ascended master guru teacher. It is, you're always one step away on that razor's edge from believing your own bullshit. Like, that is literally, you have to be aware. And as soon as you forget that, you're done.

I know, I don't know if you've talked to people who've just done their first ayahuasca ceremony.

Like my life.

I've never done ayahuasca, but literally the number of people I know in my life. Yeah.

They're like, I'm in a snake game. And then the snake told me this really big thing. And then the snake, and now I have to go find the snake and the thing. And it's like, don't forget to default to emptiness. It's all you, it's all you.

It's hard for people to maintain that in a world that your sensory input is gonna try to deny it almost all of the time.

Something I've been doing is trying, this has been, it's been catching myself throughout the day is saying, this is the dream. My imagination is the reality. And the more you kind of warp and flip it more and more, it's interesting how synchronicities increase, weird phenomena increases, relationships can get better. And it works in both directions. You can go back and do this stuff. You can revise events that have already happened, change them in your mind how you wanted them to be, really feel how that is. I've done this a few times and people say, okay, well, that sounds interesting. Maybe that's some weird thing.

I've done this without fail. Every time I actually do it and get the resonant feeling, whatever that relationship was, someone else will bring it up, there will be the first kind of cathartic progress on any deep issue. It comes from somewhere else. I don't provoke it. I don't say, hey, let's talk about this issue. I revised it in my head. It just shows me that the ultimate power really is within us. Now, this brings us to something that you and I probably intuitively know, which is that's a neutral operative power. We know this 'cause the world is in perfect, wonderful place. People don't only do this for what we would say is good stuff.

So you have to have some type of ethical framework for using this, right? So mine is right now is the golden rule and know thyself. Those two pretty much have carried me throughout everything. How do you kind of approach all of this stuff? Like what's your ethical?

Well, because of my background is Buddhism, it really stems, I mean, I can summarize it with Buddhist lingo, basically, which is you begin with the Heneyana or the refuge vow.

Yeah, take refuge in the Buddha.

Yeah, but it's not really about the Buddha per se, but it's about renouncing the samsara, renouncing the cyclical nature of suffering. So it's deciding like, yeah, I'm not gonna go after material gain and power and I'm not gonna go after these momentary fleeting pleasures and keep trying to feed the hungry ghosts or feed myself in these ways that are ultimately not going to satiate me holistically, I'm choosing to get off of that wheel of suffering.

Yes, yes.

And so that's the foundation, the Heneyana, working with the self, making a proper cup of tea, making your bed in the morning, eating right, taking care of yourself, you know? One foot in front of the other, you know, really--

Jordan Peterson, basically.

Oh, God. (laughing) I'm not a fan.

Of course, no one listens.

No one listens, yeah.

I remember my ex-boyfriend listening to him talk to Camille Paglia one day and he was like, "Every man is an inherent rapist," or she said that and he was like, "Thank you, thank you for saying that." And my ex was like, "Finally, someone's speaking sense." And I'm like, "Can I just like, "strangle all three of you right now? "This is infuriating. "Why do people like this guy so much?"

It's the craziest thing. I have long, it was probably like four or five months ago where I stopped parading him. But it's crazy.

No, the envy think that creativity is inherently feminine and cite the ancient Greeks as an example. And I'm like, "You mean the gay as fuck "ancient Greeks who were super feminine?"

Yeah, they literally were like, that was their thing.

The liar, yeah, why aren't men's men like in bars doing ballet instead of fighting each other?

As best I can tell what happens with Jordan Peterson fans is, I'm a huge Carl Jung fan. I really, really like him. I think he did something and went through something that was pretty fucking insane for a culture that really had nowhere. So he basically lost his mind. I was talking of gods and stuff in his brain while treating, you know, being a preeminent psychologist. But I think Peterson's understanding of Jung is like very dumbass. It's like a really like, he's not an idiot. Jordan Peterson is an, intellectually he's very sharp, but he's-- - But he is a weird logic.

It's the dumbest logic. It doesn't make sense. Like he'll be like-- - It doesn't make sense.

Feminine is, he's like a feminine is chaos. Chaos is bad.

Oh, no, that's what, it's like the same plot earth or logic. - I know.

It's like convoluted logic.

And it's not that there isn't some truth to the feminine being associated with chaos, but it's also like looking at Kali, like the Hindu deity, Kali, and being like, that's all bad. We don't want any of that. If she's killing people, she's got necklaces, there's bloodheads around her. And it's like, you gotta understand what this is embodying is a destructive force that literally is a part of where we live. It literally, like this is life. It is creation, it is death. We know this for a fact. Every religion, philosophy, contemplative science has accessly, you know, accurately assessed the situation.

It's like, let's try not to deny that this is what's going on and pretend it's all bad because of women, it's like what the fuck. It's crazy, but we digress.

Okay, digress. So, okay, my second sort of moral parameter is the Mahayana or the second turning of the wheel, which is associated with the Bodhisattva vow, which has to do with may all that I do be of benefit to all beings. You know, and so for years, I mean, I've been a Buddhist for 10 plus years. I'm not, I don't consider myself one anymore, but that was my training. And for years, it was like every single thing I did, I would dedicate the merit to all beings. You know, brushing my teeth, may this be a benefit to all beings, eating my food, may this be a benefit to all beings. You know, like getting dressed, may this be a benefit to all beings.

(laughs) And so, until that just became my DNA, you know? And so like, to me, it's like, you know, of course I have an ego, of course I can get caught in egoic drives and then like I need either someone to point it out to me or I can catch myself, but everything goes back to, is this a benefit? You know, is this a benefit to all beings? Is this a most benefit? Is this how I can be of most benefit?

Yeah, and it's like that, I mean, isn't that kind of what the point of life is if we're looking at it?

Yeah, because then what's the, what happens from that second turning of the wheel or the Mahayana, it's realizing there is no self or other than we go into oneness, right? So we first have to look out for each other to get to the place of oneness. We have to care for each other to get to the place of oneness, which goes back to astrologically.

Yeah.

The phase that we're in, you know? Individuating, creating and laying society, making sure everyone's voices are heard, making sure everyone's cared for, the north node is in cancer for this paradigm shift, which means we're moving into a matriarchal age.

Yep, I'm a cancer or a suntine, so I'm aware of those traits. (laughing)

Yeah, we're unrepressing emotions, you know, cancer, emotionalism, you know.

Yep.

The illogical, the wisdom of illogical emotions. (laughing) And also the mother, right? We're thinking of all beings as our mother or our child. That's north node in cancer. And so the next 2,000 years is colored by that, you know, businesses are not going to succeed unless they're caring for humans and the earth.

They have to, right? I love it.

They have to moving forward. And it's funny because financially, everything is changing ethologically.

Well.

You know, I'm a crypto fan, so. (laughing)

Yeah, I mean, that's Uranus and Taurus. And so is socialism, by the way, and, you know, and undoing Reagan economics, you know.

Yep, more egalitarianism, more distribution to people who need it and not just siphoning off, yep.

Yeah, I mean, privatized prisons, which is legalized slavery.

Yep.

What's happening on the southern border of Texas all goes back to Reagan economics.

Yep.

You know, the no more middle class, you know, and Monsanto and pharmaceutical companies all goes back to Reagan economics, you know. So Uranus and Taurus are the next seven years as we have the paradigm shift. You know, Uranus rules Aquarius, so Uranus is extra strong for this shift. And it's all about, you know, like revolutionizing the way we relate to the earth, the environment, money, the economy, you know, the feminine, those are Altorian realms, food and farming.

I love it because this has always been kind of my vision for the future, but I've had to kind of like feel myself and know myself into it. I try to like intellectually try to dissect how are we gonna get here? How's it gonna happen? Where we are right now is proof to me that this exists because this is a community of people. I don't know if you saw there's all these vegetables, there's all this organic farming when we come up. This is a farm.

No, this, I got here and I was like, this is it, this is north road in council, and Taurus, Uranus and Taurus. And so you're obviously in tune enough to get invited here. I'm obviously in tune enough to decide to plant roots, not this was right here. But what I'm saying is that it feels like while this is inevitably happening, I think this is where it really hooks in nicely with your activist and kind of awareness thing. Yes, we are moving into these periods, but that does not negate the inner work that needs to be done for all of us to move into this as harmoniously as possible and be aware of how we can actually help, right?

The Bodhisapa about, right? So I love that this kind of in linear time, which I believe in as a loose construct, I love that we've all kind of chosen to incarnate in a place where we're lining up in between these massive shifts because it's just, it's one of those rare opportunities where things are actually changing substantially. And I know everyone probably feels like that all the time, but where are we?

No, it's crazy right now.

It's crazy.

I know everyone's feeling the intensity right now. And it's sort of hard, you either are like, holy shit, I have to wake up, there's no choice. It's like I have to face impermanence because the world feels like it's ending because of all these environmental disasters. It's like, well, it was always impermanent and uncertain. It's like, now we just have to deal with it. And so it's ripe for spiritual awakening. It's also ripe for checking out, 'cause a lot of people are checking out right now because it's so freaking intense. And so hopefully if we can understand the arc of what's happening, it kind of can help us see like, well, what is my individual role in this?

Okay, I have to take care of myself first and foremost. I have to like, you know, we're in the middle of two eclipses, like what do we yearn for? You know, like what basic needs are not, needs are not being met right now.

I love my thing tonight.

Aw. (laughs) Yeah, and it's like what, who do we need in our inner circle to reflect back on conditional love and nurturing and care? You know, how can we take better care of our close friends, our loved ones, our families? You know, and then moving out, you know, how can we create communities that are more inclusive, that are more egalitarian, that are more caring and loving? How can we create business models that are more caring and loving?

Yes. - How can we create an economy that is more caring and loving? You know, how can we relate to money in a different way?

Yes, completely. - You know, even on a personal level.

Completely? - You know, like I feel more generous than ever right now. And ironically, you know, I feel more of my needs are being met financially, the more generous I get.

'Cause you create a vacuum, that's the weird thing. Alan Watts has a good thing about that when you give and you're generously just flowing out, you're creating a vacuum and it fills back up immediately.

Yeah. - It's this weird thing. I mean, that's one of the reasons I do love cryptocurrency so much is people call it like magical internet money. It's just a better magical money than the shitty money we have now. (laughs)

Yeah, that's literally all it is. And once you really drill down and understand that, you recognize the only thing that gives anything value is us.

Yeah. - And trust me, when I say this, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are gonna completely redistribute where wealth is going from. - Absolutely.

Generationally, historically, it's not.

We have to take it out of the big banks.

It's going on. - That are part of this whole Reagan economic nightmare, economics nightmare, you know.

It's happening, it's happened.

Yeah. - It's pretty fucking amazing.

We've been talking longer than I planned. I end with three questions and a broader one. Is there anything else you, I know we could talk forever.

No, no, I'm good. - So, quick questions. What's your favorite color?

Blue, I mean. (laughs)

Yeah, you have to say blue. You can't change it after you go blue.

No, blue, but then I was like, there's so many different gradations of blue to add.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, be more specific. Yeah, that's good. Teal?

I don't know, it's interesting. I actually love all shades of blue.

So blue, we're just gonna go with blue. What's your favorite number?

Oh, that's a hard question. Well, okay, no, it's actually pretty easy 'cause 147 are my magic numbers and they show up everywhere all the freaking time.

Love it.

And I was in this like magical ceremony in the mountains of Colorado one time and I had just gotten a new license plate and then it occurred to me that I hadn't looked at my numbers and I knew it was gonna be one for seven and I went and I looked and sure enough, it was one for seven. So yeah, I guess one for seven.

I love it, I love it. (laughing) What's your favorite animal?

My dog, Lottie. (laughing)

I love that it's a specific animal too. I think you're the first person. People will be like dogs and then say my dog, but you actually named a specific animal. Who is adorable.

She's not really an animal, she's a creature.

A magical one at that.

Yeah, she totally came in to be with me, I can tell. And astrologically, it's indicated in there.

Is that right?

So her north road is in Virgo, conjunct Jupiter, exactly conjunct my son. So the north road is our true life path. So her true life path is to serve Virgo by bringing joy and humor into the world.

Oh my God.

Jupiter, conjunct Jupiter and specifically to me 'cause it conjunct my son.

This is incredible, incredible. The perfect companion, the mystical dog. Last question, what's a practical tip that has helped you in your life that you could share with people who are listening? Anything, could be anything.

Oh, that's a big question.

Of course.

You get three easy ones.

Okay. Well, I, on it, okay. I don't know how practical this is practical. It's cosmic and practical all in one.

That's my favorite.

Okay. So one thing that I've noticed is that, you know, in Buddhism, we call it the Samboka Chairam, which is the realm between the human realm and then the ultimate realm of oneness, right? Or the higher realms. And the Samboka Chairam is where all the deities and wisdom energies live. And so what I've noticed is that there are all these sort of deities and wisdom energies that are in the Samboka Chairam kind of waiting for us to take the bodhisattva vow metaphorically, to say, "May I be of benefit to all beings?" And as soon as we genuinely do that, as soon as we genuinely dedicate our lives to all beings, then all these wisdom energies start pouring in through our craft and shackers and opening up all these doors of synchronicity and helping to remove obstacles and unfurl our paths and help us get where we're going, you know?

And so life starts flowing with far more ease.

Absolutely.

And so first, it's like what you were saying before. It's like, first we take good care of ourselves. We make sure our basic needs are met. We have our inner circle that reflects back unconditional love, we eat well, we, you know, et cetera. And then how can I be of benefit to all beings? And those two really simple things and sitting up straight.

That's my posture so bad.

Yeah, sitting up straight and letting all of your emotions flow and your energy flow, which Jordan Peters and talks about weirdly.

That's what I was saying. Here's what he's good at. This is why I was saying like, if you want to understand why he's popular, he is not an idiot and he knows and has studied comparatively wisdom. He's studied wisdom. He's just turned it into like doofusville.

I know.

Unfortunately.

So they'll see these things that are like universally true and it's like, well, I can't negate that, but then he like mixes it in, mixes it in.

It's a little bit all right racism and misogyny.

Yeah, exactly. In convoluted logic.

Of course.

Anyway, I had to.

What the?

Sit up straight but not like Jordan Peters.

The other way, the sit up straight.

And yeah, it's like genuine emotion only lasts two and a half minutes. And if we sit up straight and give our emotions wide pasture, oof, that's where all of the wisdom, yeah, wisdom, transmutation, magic are all available to us through that simple act. And our ego will try to resist because it's like, no, it can't be that easy.

Can't be.

Has to be more complex, of course.

It is. It's so simple.

Amazing podcast, Juliana. Thank you.

Thank you! (laughing)

Nice to meet you.

Yeah.

Beautiful lake.

Yeah. (upbeat music) (light music)

Thanks for listening to that episode. Go check out Juliana, a theory culture. You can find her on Instagram, website, she does reading, she does events, she stays active. She does monthly horoscopes that she gives away for free and her newsletter on her website. That's pretty cool. Someone to tune into, you'll probably be hearing and seeing a lot more of Juliana. I know after this event, a lot of people came up to me and were like, holy shit. She was really amazing, it was not an easy thing to do what she did. I also spoke at this for like 10 minutes and did an imagination thing. And she was like way, way better than me, clearly this is what she does.

But she was just really powerful and she told me before that the stars literally spoke to her. And someone says that you may roll your eyes, you may go, oh boy, what is this? 100% they spoke to her, no doubt about it. She has tuned in to some otherworldly stuff. I'm sure you realize that after listening to this episode and her dog is adorable, the cutest. So go check her out, big thanks to everyone who rates and reviews the podcast. Go check out the new website, sinkpodcast.com. There's stuff going on there. I think you'll like it. Making it cooler, making it cleaner, making it slick, sleeping, boom, bing.

All right, I'm gonna do that. (laughs) That's how I'm this one. I will see you next week. The World Cup is on and there's no better place to be than Kalshi, America's number one prediction market platform. Now through July 7th, enter free every day for a chance to win signed jerseys from football's biggest stars. Plus every entry gives you another shot at the grand prize, Lionel Messi's Game Worn jersey from the match where he scored his historic 800th career goal. Download the Kalshi app today. Restrictions apply trading involves risk for more see Kalshi.com/regulatory, K-A-L-S-H-I. Kalshi, trade the beautiful game.