TIMESTAMPS

• 00:00 Introduction to Cosmic Self-Care

• 00:28 Reflective Astrology Day

• 00:51 Celebrating Cosmic Wins

• 01:37 Personal Story: Jupiter Return

• 04:30 Reflective Astrology Insights

• 06:27 Encouragement and Next Steps

• 08:33 Resources and Conclusion

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TRANSCRIPT

Reflective Astrology Day

Today is a reflective astrology day reflective astrology. In case you're new around here is the practice of using astrology for reflection. It's one of my favorite ways to use astrology, and Fridays are dedicated to that. Most of the time today, our specific lens is how to celebrate cosmic wins.

Celebrating Cosmic Wins

Here's why I wanted to talk about this. It is all too easy to notice when shit hits the fan, and it's even easier to blame the planet's Mercury retrograde. And as you know, I think from listening to me, I really don't like that. I think all that does is create an antagonistic relationship between you and I really think all that does is create an antagonistic relationship between you and the universe.

And I wanna flip this on its head, and we're gonna do that by looking for moments where we were deeply supported by source and then connecting it to the astrology of that moment to see that the universe is always conspiring to help us even when life feels fucking crazy.

So let me tell you a story about how I got to see this for myself. In April and May of 2025, I was approaching and then entering a Jupiter return.

That's when transiting Jupiter is in the same place as your natal Jupiter. I felt at that time pretty damn lost. I spent the first four months of 2024 really rethinking everything I was doing with self-help Witch. I actually publicly announced that I was. Ending Self-Help Witch in February of 2024.

And I started going on this side quest, I guess you could call it, of creating a community for teachers. It was called the Recovering Teacher or something like that. Just meant to help teachers with self-care. So it was still very much like what I like talking about and what I think is really important to talk about, but with a different audience and without astrology.

As I started approaching. My Jupiter return, which I believe happened at the end of May of 2024. I started wanting to talk about astrology again. I was trying to make content for the recovering teacher, and I was like, I just keep wanting to bring up astrology.

So I decided to come back to self-help Witch, and at the end of May, my astrology teacher, one of my first astrology teachers, Adam Ellenbaas of Nightlight Astrology announced that he was looking for co-hosts for his monthly overview episodes. And I knew immediately that I wanted to be that person. I really had a visceral reaction when I saw the post of him asking for applicants, and I knew I needed to do this. So it was a big shift.

And how I had felt am mirrored two months ago, where I was like, I'm done with self-help Witch to, I want to be on this very public, very popular YouTube channel with my teacher talking about astrology. And if you have been here for a minute, you know that I did end up. Becoming the horoscopes co-host for the last year, and now I'm doing bonus content for the next year because Adam's amazing, and he wants to just lift up his community.

So he brought in new people for the horoscopes and the overviews. And myself and the other three co-hosts are now doing bonus content on his channel for a year, which is really amazing and wonderful.

Reflective Astrology Insights

But the reason I'm telling the story is because when I look at the astrology of. Like May-ish, I can see that my Jupiter return was coming into play, and my Jupiter is in my ninth house.

The ninth house is the house of higher learning, of publishing, of teaching, of philosophy, of astrology. And so it was extremely spot on to me that I got this huge opportunity for visibility with my astrology teacher. There are so many layers of Jupiter return in the ninth house that show up in that event.

Pluto was also trining from my fifth house in Aquarius, so there's something about creativity here and a one project ending in another beginning, and it was almost like I had to have that period of confusion where I shut down self-help Witch and I went on this whole different path in order to realize no, I'm not done with astrology.

I'm actually really enjoying talking about astrology. And I find that even when I try to talk about something totally different, it just keeps wanting to come back up. And so I can see. When I look at the astrology of the moment, how deeply supported I was by the universe, even though the first four months of 2024, I felt completely fucking lost.

And it really is in hindsight where we can see the full picture. I knew it was an astrologer that I was approaching my Jupiter return, but I had no idea that it was gonna play out like that. It never ever would've guessed. In fact, I had a reading from a friend David Odyssey, right around that time, and he was like, you're gonna be out there talking, speaking.

Like he was telling me all these things that were going to happen, and I was like. I don't see it because at the time I was deep in that other project, and I was like, I really don't know where any of this is going. I would love for that to be true, but I just don't know how it's gonna happen. And then that is what happened.

Encouragement and Next Steps

And so I am gonna encourage you to look back at your life through this lens and look for your cosmic wind. This. This. I wanna remind you too, that cosmic wins may come in the form of good or helpful transits like a Jupiter return, but not always. Some of the most challenging times in your life or the most challenging transits may have been extremely helpful and useful.

I've talked about my really intense moment with Pluto during my Saturn return, and when I look back at that moment. Sure. At the time I would've been like, this is my rock bottom. But now I'm like, yeah, and that was what allowed me to get to where I am today. I never would've found astrology. I never would be sitting here talking to you had I not gone through that really horrible time.

And I do see that even though from a material mundane point of view, it absolutely sucked from a spiritual point of view. It was everything I needed and more. It was such a gift and a blessing, and it was a win not just because of, what was happening, but because of how I met the moment.

And that's another really beautiful thing about reflective astrology is it gives you a lot of grace and compassion for yourself. It helps you see how good you are doing and how you've really done your best in the circumstances you were in with the knowledge you had at the time. So there's a lot of healing that can be found here.

So the question I have for you that can help you get started with this is: what are the times in your life where you felt like the universe was on your side in supporting you? Try to think of those times in your life. Get the approximate dates, and then I want you to look up what was happening for you astrologically at that time, and connect the dots back to the transits.

If you're not sure how to do that, leave a comment on YouTube, leave a comment on Substack.

Leave a comment

Maybe next week or sometime in the future, I'll make a video kinda showing you how to do that. And I think I might even have a resource. I don't have one handy to like drop in the show notes, but if someone wants it or needs it, I can find it and certainly I can create it for you to help you with that.

Resources and Conclusion

If you're brand new to looking at your birth chart or you just want a helpful cheat sheet, I have an astrology cheat sheet for you that's totally free. It's got all the keywords, it's got a birth chart tutorial, and it's there for you in the show notes. It's, I'll be back next week to talk about all kinds of new fun stuff, but in the meantime, have a beautiful weekend.

I will see you guys later. Bye.

**CORRECTION: I said Christopher Renstrom instead of Christopher Warnock when speaking about the planetary days and hours resources!

• → Here's Christopher WARNOCK on Planetary Days + Hours.

TIMESTAMPS

• 00:27 Creating Sacred Space with Astrological Timing

• 01:46 Understanding Planetary Days and Hours

• 03:00 Practical Applications of Planetary Timing

• 04:56 Enhancing Your Spiritual Practice

• 05:36 Personal Practices and Tips

• 06:45 Additional Resources and Conclusion

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TRANSCRIPT

Creating Sacred Space with Astrological Timing

It's me, Dana, and today we're talking about creating sacred space with astrological timing. E. So exciting. Now, you may or may not know astrology has been used for millennia to find the quote unquote right time for anything at all. The Greeks called this Kairos, K-A-I-R-O-S, which is simply about finding the right time for something to take place as opposed to clock time, which would be referred to as Kronos. And there is a right time for all things. So that's what I wanna show you today is how you can use a really simple astrology timing technique for creating sacred space. And it's really not about creating so much as it is about enhancing your sacred space and your ritual practice.

 When I talk about sacred space, I'm talking about creating a container or a window of time where you connect with your spirit. That's it, and it's not complicated. What makes that space sacred is your intention that it is so. You don't need astrology to tell you the right time. Anytime is the right time for creating sacred space, but sometimes it's helpful to know you've got the stars on your side and there is an energetic support in place.

Understanding Planetary Days and Hours

And for this, I'd like to share the concept of planetary days and hours. You may already know what these are, but essentially every day of the week has a planetary ruler and there are chunks within the day called planetary hours that have their own ruler as well.

You can use planetary days and hours to inform how you set up your sacred space, as well as what you do within that window of time. And again, this is not necessary, but what it does do is bring a little bit of magic to your sacred space. It can enhance what you're already doing by knowing that you are aligning with the energetic, weather really with the astrology, and it's not even about the transits, like you don't even have to know what's going on astrologically at the moment in order to use planetary days and hours.

Practical Applications of Planetary Timing

For example, Monday is a moon day and every and at dawn on every day. For example, Monday is the moon's day, and every day at dawn, it's the hour of the planet that's ruling that day. So at Dawn, on a Monday, it is the hour of the moon, but what you could do to enhance a sacred space practice with this knowledge is you could use that. First hour of the day where you are awake if you are awake at dawn. That is. And just for the record, it's not like the ass crack of dawn for today is July 21st and it was the moon's hour between 6 0 2 and 7 0 3.

Many of us are awake at that time, or we might want to wake up at that time and have some sacred space, which I think would be really lovely. And we all know Mondays can, I don't know, like the vibe can be tough. It feels like a bit of an uphill battle, especially in the morning. And the moon is all about feeling nurtured and safe and supported.

So it could be really beautiful to have when you wake up in the morning on a Monday, a sacred space practice where you do something that feels very nourishing to you, something that helps you feel safe, secure, taken care of, and just help you ritually welcome in the week from a very supported place.

Now, if you're like, I'm not waking up to do that during the moon's hour. Then don't worry about that. You can just work with the fact that it's the moon's day and you can really do it at any time of day. The hours are optional for what we're talking about here. Again, all of this really is optional.

Enhancing Your Spiritual Practice

It's just an enhancement to help you really feel the vibes and take your sacred space in your spiritual practice to the next level. You could also. Use the correspondences of that planet on your altar. So what are the colors, what are the herbs? What are the, what are the crystals that are associated with that planet?

I am definitely not advocating for a consumerist approach to your spiritual practice. But if that makes you feel good and you enjoy it, then do it. In fact, you could probably find some really cool stuff out in nature that might align.

Personal Practices and Tips

One of the things that I really like to do because I am a Libra rising, Venus is my ruling planet.

My get-ready routine in the morning is a sacred spiritual practice for me, and one of the ways that I bring the planetary days and hours into that is my clothing. So on a Mars Day, for example, I will wear red. Of some kind. I have these earrings that have little crescent moons on them. I will wear them on Mondays.

Just different little ways I can adorn myself with the energy of the planet. It tethers me back to my spiritual practice and it reminds me throughout the day that I am a spiritual being, and that's super nourishing and lovely to me personally.

Additional Resources and Conclusion

One other thing you can do that I'll share very quickly. Is read the orphic hymns. I will link those down below where you can read more about them as well.

It'll be a website from Renaissance Astrology by Christopher Warnock, who is a genius and definitely knows a ton about this, so I'll link to him so you can learn more about that if you want. In the meantime, the question I have for you to chew on today is how might you use Planetary hours and days to zsuszh up your spiritual self-care.

The sky's the limit. I'm just throwing some ideas out there, but if you'd like more ideas than what I shared here, I do have a new free resource that has 450 plus completely free ways to engage astrological self-care and one of the sections on that freebie is all about planetary days. I wanna say I have seven to 10 different ideas for each day of the week.

So if you're curious about how you could incorporate this practice, be sure to get that frequent. Be sure to get that in the show notes tomorrow we are digging into some more reflective astrology and we're talking about how to celebrate your cosmic wins and how to find them in the first place. So I will see you then for that.

In the meantime, have a great Thursday. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.

TIMESTAMPS

• 00:28 Using Your Birth Chart for Decision Making

• 01:51 Understanding Mutable Placements

• 04:56 Cardinal and Fixed Energy in Decision Making

• 08:05 Engage with Your Birth Chart

• 08:45 Conclusion and Next Steps

💌 JOIN THE COMMUNITY

→ Subscribe + get cosmic self-care + the full transcript delivered to your inbox each morning

Subscribe now

✴️ FREE RESOURCES:

• → 🌟 Astrology Cheat Sheet

• → 🌙 450+ Self-Care Practices:

• → ✨ Lunar Ritual Builder

🫶🏼 CONNECT WITH DANA:

• → on instagram: @selfhelpwitch

• → on youtube

• → website

💜 WORK WITH DANA:

• → Readings

• → Sol Circle Membership

• → Astrology for Everyone Learning Library

TRANSCRIPT

Using Your Birth Chart for Decision Making

Today we're talking about how your birth chart can help you in your decision making process. You already know. I think your birth chart can help you get to know yourself in so many different ways. And one of those specific ways that you might not have thought about is getting to know your personal decision making style.

Now, I wanna be clear right up front, I am not about prescriptive astrological advice. This is not, this is how you should make decisions, but just a particular way to engage in birth chart self-inquiry, which can help you understand again, your personal style for approaching decisions. Big difference between those two things.

This is how I came to realize this. My whole life, I would say I felt super stressed around decisions. I just never felt like I knew what I wanted with certainty, and I felt a lot of pressure to arrive at absolute certainty around all kinds of decisions, big and small, especially big ones. And I found myself having to make choices anyway even though I never arrived at that certainty.

Because I just simply needed to do something. Choosing to new did, choosing to do nothing is still a decision. But I didn't want to just live my life passively, so I would make decisions that feel like very uncomfortable about it because I didn't feel sure about myself.

Understanding Mutable Placements

I realized after a little while of studying my birth chart that there might be some astrological.

Root that I could link to this relationship I have with decision making, and that is the fact that I have a shitload of mutable placements. Now, when I say mutable placements, I'm talking about one of the three modalities. Each Zodiac sign has the modalities tell us about. The energy of a Zodiac sign. I think of it like how that zodiac sign likes to move.

The modalities are linked to where the zodiac sign sits in the scheme of the year. So you may or may not know that the energy of the zodiac signs has a lot to do with the solar cycle, and the modalities specifically really have a lot to do with the solar cycle, meaning cardinal. Signs that's gonna be Aries Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, they are all at the beginning of a season.

So they initiate a new season, and that is the symbolism of Cardinal Energy as well. It's initiatory, it begins something for fixed signs. This is like peak energy of that season. So you've got Taurus, you've got Leo, you've got. Scorpio, you've got Aquarius. These are our fixed signs and they are at the peak of their respective seasons.

And then finally you have the mutable signs, and these signs occur at the threshold of a new season. So when one season is ending and another is beginning, and that's how we get the energy of change and changing, being associated with mutable signs. Those are going to be Gemini. Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces.

So seeing that I had the majority of my planets and all of my like really important planets, like my ascendant ruler, my son, and my moon in mutable signs helped me understand I will change my mind and I will only know what I want in a given moment. So the best way for me to approach a decision is to.

Give caveats or build in space for me to change my mind. For example, when I make plans with someone I'm checking in frequently leading up to if I'm starting to feel like, oh, I might need to leave early or whatever, I will communicate that early and often. So that I'm not in a position where I get to the event and I'm really dreading going and I feel like I have to go because I never said anything upfront.

It's basically just for me about having good communication with people and also being really clear and honest with myself about what's true for me right now and being okay with what being true for me right now in two days that might be different. And that may not be the case for all folks with a lot of mutable placements, but I found that to be really true for me.

Cardinal and Fixed Energy in Decision Making

Now let's talk about if you have a concentration of planets in other modalities. 'cause I think we've covered our mutable folks. And let me know if that feels true for you.

If you have a lot of cardinal energy you like to initiate, so I would imagine that decision making probably comes pretty naturally to you. Like you probably are not having a lot of the issues that I was having where you're like, Ooh, I don't know what I want. It's more of a, this is what we're doing kind of thing.

Because Cardinal Energy, they're like the group leaders of the Zodiac. You put a bunch of people in a group and if you have two people with let's say Cardinal Energy rising, you are going to have two cooks in the kitchen. And I know from experience that is the case. And that's not a bad thing.

It's just how you operate. And we all have a variety of energies. But if you have a dominance of Cardinal Energy. I would say trust your instincts. Don't overthink it. There may be a part of you, depending on the makeup of your chart that wants the facts and wants to read the fine print, and that's okay too.

But I would say if you've got again, like a dominance of Cardinal energy and especially if you've got cardinal energy rising. There is something instinctual about your decision making process that I would not overlook. And I'm saying that as a Libra rising, despite what I just told you about all of my mutable placements really affecting how I make decisions.

You can be both right, there, you're not just one thing. And I'm not just like a slew of mutable energy. I'm also a Libra rising, and I have found that my instincts are often accurate, especially when it comes to making a decision about something. I just second guess my instincts because hello programming, but we're working on it.

If you have a lot of fixed energy in your chart, you are probably someone that people can depend on. Reliable, stable, and your mind may not change once it's made up. I would guess it's important to you that others are on the same page as you, and that, there's an agreed upon understanding when it comes to the plan and the choices that are being made.

You don't want surprises. As a, and it's not to say you don't ever enjoy a surprise, but when it comes to making a decision. If a decision is made and then it's revealed that, oh, there's this term that I didn't see, or surprise, there's this part that you didn't know about that now is here that's going to not feel good and be a problem.

So I could see fixed energy types needing some space to mull things over, needing to take the time to read the fine print. And I would say, for my. Fixed energy folks, don't get so mired in the details that you, become overwhelmed, but do what you need to do to feel really secure about the choice because I think that is important for you to feel comfortable in moving forward with a decision that you've got the information you need to really move forward with this choice.

Engage with Your Birth Chart

So I'm curious if you're familiar with your chart, if you know that you have a lot of fixed cardinal or mutable energy, how do you make decisions?

What's your decision making style and do you feel like the symbolism of the dominant modality in your chart aligns with how you approach decisions? Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Feel free to leave comments on substack or YouTube.

Leave a comment

If you need help looking at your birth chart, you can download the astrology cheat sheet.

I'll show you how to pull your chart and what it all means. You can also course book a reading with me. I'd love to break that down with you and for you.

Conclusion and Next Steps

We will be back tomorrow to talk about creating sacred space with astrological timing. I'm really excited for this one. Until then, have a beautiful Wednesday.

I'll see you guys then. Bye.

TIMESTAMPS

• 00:27 Understanding Mercury Retrograde

• 01:23 Mindfulness During Mercury Retrograde

• 03:48 Pop Culture Example: Mercury Retrograde

• 05:13 Reflecting on Mercury Retrograde

• 06:45 Conclusion and Next Steps

💌 JOIN THE COMMUNITY

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✴️ FREE RESOURCES:

• → 🌟 Astrology Cheat Sheet

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• → ✨ Lunar Ritual Builder

🫶🏼 CONNECT WITH DANA:

• → on instagram: @selfhelpwitch

• → on youtube

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💜 WORK WITH DANA:

• → Readings

• → Sol Circle Membership

• → Astrology for Everyone Learning Library

TRANSCRIPT

Understanding Mercury Retrograde

We're talking today about Mercury retrograde as a mindfulness practice. I'm obsessed with this idea because it really grinds my gears when people blame astrology for things happening, and the reason it bothers me is not because. It's unfounded because look, mercury retrograde does bring frustrating circumstances a lot of the time, not all the time.

But the reason I really don't like when people blame the planets for things happening is because it presumes that you have no choice and how events unfold in your life, which is totally wrong. And I've said it a million times and I'll say it a million more. Astrology doesn't negate free will.

Mercury retrograde doesn't take away your agency, your ability to choose for yourself. So I think most of all this idea that, blame Mercury retrograde, it's just really disempowering. And the way to flip that script is to look at any transit as an opportunity for a mindfulness practice. So today we are going to do that with Mercury retrograde.

Mindfulness During Mercury Retrograde

So let's start with a scenario. Let's say you start a new podcast and you have a bunch of technical issues, like things are uploading strangely, you're sending one episode that was meant for Thursday out on Friday. There's just all kinds of Mercury retrograde esque things happening to you

if you are not approaching mercury retrograde with a mindful mentality. You're probably gonna get pissed off you. You're probably gonna blame Mercury retrograde, and you're then, maybe not consciously, but on some level, going to feel doomed. You're going to feel like, glitches and problems and frustrations are inevitable, and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because you're going to be going into it with that feeling and you're just setting yourself up for, at the very least, to feel really frustrated and to have a really bad experience doing it.

All because you have told yourself. I can't avoid these frustrations. They're bound to happen and it's just something I can't avoid because it's Mercury retrograde and there's a very defeated kind of feeling behind that, which guys, that is the opposite of what we want our astrology practice to do.

We want astrology to empower us and to help us feel more connected to our agency and our spirit. And. What we really want to get out of life and not like we have no choice in the matter. So if we have that same scenario, but we have a mindful approach, that same moment becomes an opportunity for reflection.

You might ask yourself a question like, am I doing too much right now? Like maybe all of these snafus are here to tell me that I'm trying to do a lot and maybe I need to slow down. How can I slow down? You could also open up the question, is this process working for me? Can I be kind to myself in the face of mistakes?

A mindful approach to the transits is a really simple shift. It goes from taking what's happening and making meaning out of it. To a more curious mindset, a questioning mindset. So instead of putting meaning onto what's happening immediately we get curious about it and we ask questions about what's happening.

Okay.

Pop Culture Example: Mercury Retrograde

I think too about a situation that happened recently in pop culture. I am not a pop culture gal. Like I don't really know a lot about what's going on, but I have seen. The memes and the videos of the CEO guy who was at some baseball game with his mistress and they were put on the kiss cam with the Coldplay song.

Fuck Around and Find Out Right During Mercury retrograde especially, but. Let's say that guy is really into astrology. He is an astronomer. So I don't know, maybe he could blame Mercury retrograde for that, right? Like he could say fuck, I shouldn't have done that during a Mercury retrograde.

I can't believe like Mercury retrograde did this to me. Or he could take that event happening as a cosmic nudge that he should be more honest in his life. Was I being too bold? And too arrogant going to a fucking public event. I got a lot of fuck words today. Sorry guys. Sorry, not sorry. We like to cuss around here. I would say it was definitely arrogant for him to go to a .Public event with his mistress and expect nothing to happen.

And yeah, you could get mad at Mercury retrograde, or you could use it as a moment to. Look at what you're doing right? And so for us as people who are hopefully not doing things like that now is a good time.

Reflecting on Mercury Retrograde

We're about in the middle of the Mercury retrograde cycle for this current cycle that we're going through to ask what is Mercury retrograde nudging you to reflect on or potentially revise in your life?

I would say to consider the house topics that are activated for you. I posted something a couple weeks ago on my Instagram that has. Different themes for each of the house topics depending on where Leo is for you. So if you wanna find Mercury Rx overview that post on my Instagram can help you with that.

You can also check out the astrology cheat sheet that will help you pull your chart. And then you can see for yourself where Leo is in your chart. It's also got keywords for the house topics, so that will help you just get a sense for what. Areas of life are up for review.

You could also keep this really loose and simple and just think since

you could also just keep it really loose and simple and think since July 17th, which is when Mercury Station retrograde, you could even go back like a week or two, say two weeks before that when the shadow period began. What has been bumpy, what's been a little glitchy. Where have things been slower than maybe I'd like, or where have I just hit some bumps and what might that be trying to tell me, what is the universe communicating through these events about what needs to be revised, what needs to be thought through a little bit more and what actually may not be a thing that I wanna follow through with, given what I know now.

That Mercury has been retrograde.

Conclusion and Next Steps

So I hope that is helpful. I would love to hear what comes up for you, what you realize in this mindful, reflective practice. And really more than anything, this is a mindset shift. It's not something you have to like really try hard to do. It's definitely a practice.

It may take some work to shift your mindset, but it's just a matter of being open and curious about. The events and lessons that are coming down the pipe from the transits instead of blaming and ascribing meaning and leaving it at that. So yeah, would love to hear your thoughts and reflections.

Feel free to leave them in the comments. I publish this on YouTube, on all podcast platforms and on Substack where you can get the full transcript. You can leave comments on substack or YouTube.

We will be back tomorrow to talk about how your birth chart can help you make decisions. I'm excited to share that with you, but in the meantime, have a fantastic Tuesday and I'll talk to you guys soon. Bye.

TIMESTAMPS

• 00:00 Introduction to Cosmic Self-Care

• 00:24 Understanding Your Venus Placement

• 03:41 Venus in Different Signs

• 05:07 Personal Example: Venus in Pisces

• 07:04 Applying Venus Insights to Self-Love

• 08:54 Conclusion and Next Steps

💌 JOIN THE COMMUNITY

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💌 JOIN THE COMMUNITY

→ Subscribe + get cosmic self-care + the full transcript delivered to your inbox each morning: https://selfhelpwitch.substack.com

✴️ FREE RESOURCES:

→ 🌟 Astrology Cheat Sheet

→ 🌙 450+ Self-Care Practices:

→ ✨ Lunar Ritual Builder

🫶🏼 CONNECT WITH DANA:

→ on instagram: @selfhelpwitch

→ on youtube

→ website

💜 WORK WITH DANA:

→ Readings

→ Sol Circle Membership

→ Astrology for Everyone Learning Library

TRANSCRIPT

Understanding Your Venus Placement

Hey guys. Welcome back to Cosmic Self-Care. It's me, Dana, and we are talking today about your Venus placement and specifically the power that your Venus placement has in helping you build. Safe, sustainable, fulfilling relationships, and not just relationships with other people, but your relationship with yourself as well.

Now you already know my whole thing is getting to know yourself with your birth charter. I guess that's one of my things. But really believe that your birth chart is the most powerful tool you have for getting to know yourself, especially. Beyond a surface level, really getting to know the core of who you are, your spirit, your soul, and we have a lot of nice Venus transits coming through this week.

So I thought it would be nice to focus on needle Venus and really helping you tap into the wisdom of that placement in your birth chart. Now I like to think about Venus as the two of Cups energy in tarot. If you're familiar, this, our Venus placement is. Indicative of how we find harmony. Venus, generally speaking, is about harmony, connection.

Common ground values, and if you think about it, having shared values is how we find harmony, connection, et cetera, with other people, if you think about someone that you don't vibe with, it often boils down to a lack of shared values and perspectives, which is what leads to feeling like we don't have a connection, we can't come together.

There is no common ground here. And people will often say that Venus can show you your love language, and I would agree with that and I would also group the moon in with that. But I really think too, that Venus can show you how you like to give and receive, as well as how you like to be received by other people.

Meaning how you like to be welcomed and met in so to and met, so to speak, in your. Partnerships with other people. Now, when we think about love or establishing a relationship with others, we often think about what we can give and we do need to give. But I think we also need to think about how we like to receive and what we need to feel received or feel like the other person is meeting us energetically because it's not enough.

To be in a, because just being on the same page when it comes to, I don't know, like how you load the dishwasher is important, but it's not enough. We need to feel like someone really sees us on a soul level, and that's what your Venus placement can help you do. It can also. Because it, and by giving you that information, it can also open you up to receive more because you have the tools to communicate what you need in a partnership.

And most importantly, and most fundamentally, you can give that to yourself first and foremost, because as RuPaul says, if you can't love yourself, how the hell are you gonna love somebody else? And if you can't give yourself what you need, how in the hell are you gonna expect someone else? To give it to you and have it mean anything to you at all.

You're not gonna be open enough to receive it. So this is where we change that by helping you understand what you need to feel safe, secure, accepted, and lovable really so that you can let other people give you that, as well as give it to yourself. Now, let's talk, so let's start with some examples.

Venus in Different Signs

If you have Venus in Aries. I would guess that you like to initiate in relationship. You might also value that in a partner as well. That's different than someone with, say, Venus and Taurus who might value something like physical touch and consistency from a partner. So let's ground that in a real world example.

Venus and Aries may really enjoy their partner. Let's say bringing them bagels from the new bagel spot, like a little surprise. Little treats might be really valuable to Venus and Aries, the novelty of it, something new and different, whereas a Venus and Taurus person might appreciate more the same cup of coffee being left on the nightstand each morning.

The ritual, the routine, the consistency of that. Small gesture, and it's more about the gesture than it is about the novelty. And I'm not saying Venus and Aries people don't appreciate nice gestures, but you see how the energy behind those things is different now when it comes to receiving from yourself.

This is a lot about what you need to feel safe and secure in your life, which is so incredibly important. We forget that the first and most important relationship you have is with yourself. And again, your Venus sign can help you get your footing if you're re, and your Venus sign can help you get your footing if you're reestablishing or rebuilding this relationship with yourself.

Personal Example: Venus in Pisces

And I'll share a personal example to help. Make this more concrete. I have Venus and Pisces, and for me, that shows up in so many ways, but one of those ways is needing a lot of connection, needing a lot of beauty in my life, and needing a lot of what I call magical moments. These are just moments of sacred connection with myself where I can pause and.

Transcend the minutia of the day to day and connect with something deeper, some real beauty. And by real beauty, I mean connecting with source. That's what real beauty is to me, a Pisces Queen with Venus and Pisces. I need to transcend the mundane stuff of my life periodically throughout the day and feel like I'm connected to something deeper.

And I deeply appreciate when I can get that in my partnerships as well. There's this song called I Wanna Be Adored, and I feel that deeply. I just wanna be adored. And of course that can become unhealthy, but. I really need and appreciate a lot of reminders and a lot of validation.

And it's not about being told how great I am, it's about knowing that someone is thinking about me and that I am held in this like precious light of love by someone else. So understanding that for myself, how I deeply need overt affection and love has helped me communicate that in my partnerships.

I need to know your thinking about me. I want to be. Swept off my feet, and it doesn't have to be dramatic or like grand gestures. I just want you, you being whoever I'm in partnership with, to share that with me frequently. And knowing that and being able to apply that to my partnerships has also helped me take better care of myself.

Applying Venus Insights to Self-Love

I know that I need to be received with deep love from myself in order to feel safe and secure at all, and to even be willing to open up to receive that from others. I'm not going to be able to receive that love and affection that I want from other people unless I can give it to myself first and foremost.

So I know for me how deeply important my self-love practice is, and that it's really a spiritual practice for me as well. I'm a Libra rising. Venus is my ascendant ruler, so it runs really deep for me. It's very personal and it's very empowering, and it's also a little confronting because you do have to be willing to give it to yourself, right?

So to summarize, your Venus placement is ripe with insight for what you need to feel loved, and it's also an extremely powerful placement for helping you reestablish a relationship with yourself, which is absolutely crucial if you want healthy relationships with other people. So if you want to start digging into your V Ven.

So if you want to start digging into your Venus placement and what it might mean for what you need to feel safe and secure in relationship. Both with others and with yourself. Look to the house and sign that your Venus placement is in and ask yourself. What does this planet tell me about what I need to feel good in partnership?

What am I looking for in other people? What do I value and what does that tell me about the kind of person I'm looking for? And again, most importantly and fundamentally, what is important to me, what do I need to receive from myself in order to feel security from within?

Conclusion and Next Steps

If you've never looked at your birth chart before or if you just want some help with this, you can check out my free astrology cheat sheet.

It's got keywords for all the planet signs and houses and tutorial for how to pull your chart. Everything you need to start digging into your birth chart. I also do birth chart readings. I'd be happy to look through this with you and we can. Unpack it together. Tomorrow we'll be back to talk about Mercury retrograde as a mindfulness practice.

But until then, I hope you have a lovely Monday. Happy birth chart exploration, and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.

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chapters

• 00:39 Reflective Astrology: An Overview

• 02:06 The Power of Reflective Astrology

• 02:30 Personal Experiences with Reflective Astrology

• 03:10 Applying Reflective Astrology in Daily Life

• 05:18 Weekly Reflection and Practice

• 07:27 Sharing and Community Engagement

• 07:59 Conclusion and Farewell

transcript

Hey everybody. Happy Friday. Welcome back to Cosmic Self-Care. We are at the end of the week, on the other side of a new moon. How are you feeling? How are you doing? I'm asking because we're... I'm asking because today I wanna introduce you to a concept that I love talking about called reflective astrology.

It is, I think, the most slept-on way to use astrology as a spiritual self-development tool. And I mentioned at the beginning of the week that we would be doing kind of daily themes. I'm not gonna explicitly talk about them all the time, but Fridays are going to be our day for reflective astrology, where we're gonna intentionally reflect on how the astrology is showing up for us—on how the astrology is showing up for us—and what's going on with our birth chart. Self-inquiry.

So today I'm introducing the concept to you, and then I'm gonna invite you to share your reflections on YouTube, where these are published, on Substack, where these are published. I don't know, send me a letter. You can DM me, but I want our reflections to be public because our reflections help other people understand astrology better. So if you're interested in learning deeply about astrology, reflective astrology is incredibly helpful. If you're interested in learning deeply about yourself with astrology, reflective astrology is very helpful.

This is also a huge part of what we do inside Sol Circle, which is my membership for astrology lovers who want to work more intentionally with the astrology of the moment and with their charts. So you can find out more about that down below. But in the meantime, let's talk about what reflective astrology is.

The Power of Reflective Astrology

It's pretty obvious, I think, but it's the basic approach. It's the practice of using astrology as a grounding point for reflection. Now, you can do that with your birth chart by looking at your particular placement and reflecting on how that has been true or not true in your life, how it's manifested for you.

You can also absolutely do it with transits.

Personal Experiences with Reflective Astrology

Earlier this week I told a story about my experience with Pluto in my fourth house during my Saturn return. That was an example of reflective astrology because I did not know when that transit was happening that it was happening. I was not really... I wasn't into astrology yet.

But two years later, when I started really digging into this, I was like, I wonder what was going on when shit really hit the fan in... 20... God, when was that? I guess it was 2019. Let's take a look. And what I saw was like, holy shit. It was a big deal. There was a lot going on astrologically. So that's the power of reflective astrology.

Applying Reflective Astrology in Daily Life

It can help you, number one, be a lot kinder to yourself because you start to understand the energies at play and you start to see the context of your life and how it affected you. This is a good time for me to say you are not your chart. Your chart is not just your psychology. It's also the context of your life and certainly the transits that are speaking to external forces that are going on and affecting you internally. As within, so without. As above, so below.

So we are learning about ourselves, but it's not just about our inner world. It's about the context and the environment that shapes them. For example, I was able to have a lot more grace with myself after understanding the astrological energies that were at play at that time—when Pluto was in my fourth house and really fucking my life up. Just kidding. It was really helpful in the end, but it felt really intense while it was happening.

And if I would've known about astrology at that time, I think it would've been easier to move through because I would've had an understanding about what was going on, what energetic lessons were on the table.

So it can help you be kinder and give yourself more grace. It can also help you forgive other people in your life because you can start to do this with your loved ones. You can look at people in your family's charts and say, okay, I get why this has been a theme in their lives, why this is a pattern they can't seem to really break through.

And not that we're limited or in any way... yeah, we're not limited by our charts. Our charts are not like a life sentence. It's... I'm thinking specifically about a family member who has repeated the same pattern over and is not self-aware and is not making any attempts to become self-aware.

We can change the way the energy manifests if we become more aware. That's what reflective astrology can help us to do. It deepens self-awareness and it deepens your relationship to yourself, which I think at the end of the day is the point of astrology. Astrology is a facilitator of a spiritual practice, and it does that by reconnecting you to your soul, to your spirit, and the truth within you.

Weekly Reflection and Practice

So we're gonna start this week really simply. We had the beginning of Leo season. We had a kind of crunchy new moon yesterday. I would love for you to reflect on this question: How did the astrology of this week show up for you? What happened this week, and can you link it to any of the astrological events of the week?

For example, the sun moving into Leo. What house topics did that activate for you? Where is Leo in your chart, and what house topics did that activate? Did you notice anything in that area of your life happening this week? And note too that it doesn't have to be the most dramatic thing ever. It could be something really mundane and basic.

I remember Adam Elenbaas, who runs Nightlight Astrology—you guys might know that I was the horoscope co-host for a while. I do bonus content for that channel now—he talked about when Mars entered Cancer, he had a water main break. Mars is cutting, breaking, and Cancer is water. This was a while ago. But it could be something like that, where it was just a thing that happened. It wasn't the most intense, cathartic, crazy thing ever. Or it could be. Could be really obvious how the astrology showed up for you.

But that's how we're gonna start to bring this practice into our astrology repertoire. At the end of the week, we reflect: How did the astrology of the week show up for you?

And you could take it a step further by bringing it into your embodiment practice, this magic moment practice, and saying, all right, what do I want to do differently or keep as a result of how I responded to that energy?

So let's say with the new moon, we talked about how that could really bring up power struggles. Let's say that you took the bait and you found yourself in a power struggle that you were like, wow, that just should not have happened. Now you have an opportunity to reflect on how it got to the point it got to, and to become more aware of that trigger and the hold that it has on you so that the next time something like that happens, you will remember and say, okay, I'm gonna take a breath instead of jumping right in and getting into an argument, because that's what happened last time and that's not what I'm doing here.

Sharing and Community Engagement

So I would love for you to again share these reflections with us. There is a Cosmic Self-Care Substack where you can share all of your reflections in the comments. This is published on YouTube. You can share it there as well. You can... yeah, those are the two places. I don't know. I think there are comments on Spotify, but I don't know. Let's say Substack or YouTube.

Share your comments. Share your thoughts. Share your reflections. It really helps other people learn. It helps you learn and internalize, and so I look forward to reading those.

Leave a comment

Conclusion and Farewell

We'll be back next week with some brand new stuff for you. But until then, I hope you have a fantastic weekend and that you're enjoying your summer.

I'll talk to you soon. Bye!

Today’s Cosmic Self-Care explores the crucial difference between dark moon and new moon energy for effective lunar magic. I'll share why timing matters for spell work, ritual, and manifestation, and invite you to reflect on what needs to be released before you can call in something new.

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Self Help Witch

All things spiritual self-development and self-reclamation from spiritual coach and professional astrologer Dana Solara.

By Dana Solara

✴️ FREE RESOURCES:

• → 🌟 Astrology Cheat Sheet

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• → ✨ Lunar Ritual Builder

🫶🏼 CONNECT WITH DANA:

• → on instagram: @selfhelpwitch

• → on youtube

• → website

💜 WORK WITH DANA:

• → Readings

• → Sol Circle Membership

• → Astrology for Everyone Learning Library

chapters

• 00:35 Understanding the Dark Moon vs. New Moon

• 02:08 The Dark Moon: Letting Go and Cleansing

• 05:49 The New Moon: Setting Intentions and Manifesting

• 06:47 Combining Dark Moon and New Moon Practices

• 08:38 Practical Tips for Rituals and Spell Work

• 09:11 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

transcript

Understanding the Dark Moon vs. New Moon

Hey everyone. Welcome back to Cosmic Self-Care. I almost said Self Help Witch. Same, same. It's Dana, and we're here today to talk about understanding the Dark Moon vs. New Moon.

The Dark Moon versus the New Moon. The New Moon in Leo is perfecting today, but as we have a New Moon once a month, every 28 days, there is a difference in the energy between a Dark Moon and a New Moon.

So I wanna clarify the difference between the two, specifically for magical spell work, ritual purposes. So I think actually the first thing we should talk about is the difference between those three things, because they're not exactly all the same. When we're talking about spell work, we're talking about energy workings. We're talking about energetic actions that create an outcome.

It's manifesting, but with action behind it. It's obviously a witchcraft practice. Ritual doesn't necessarily have to involve spell work, but it can. Ritual, to me, is like spiritual self-care. So it's taking a routine—something that you would do on a regular basis—and turning it into a spiritual practice by simply having the intention that it is. So that's what it is.

And when we're working with "the lunar cycles," we are often doing so from one of those vantage points. We might be practicing some kind of ritual. We might be doing spell work. We might be trying to manifest. We can get into the distinctions of all of that maybe in a different episode.

But the energy of the Dark Moon versus the New Moon is quite different. So let's get into it.

The Dark Moon: Letting Go and Cleansing

The Dark Moon is the period of time the Moon is not reflecting the light of the Sun before the New Moon is exact. So it's gonna be the day or two before the New Moon is exact. So in this case, the New Moon in Leo is happening at 2:11 PM Central Time on Thursday the 24th.

Today. So currently, right now, if you're listening to this before then, we are in a Dark Moon period. The Dark Moon is excellent for letting go, shedding, cleansing. And generally speaking, the waning Moon—from the Full Moon to the New Moon—is really good for this too. But the Dark Moon is like an amplifier.

If you think about the concept of creativity, there is this notion of the void—that everything that's created comes from this void, this creative void. And honestly, that's a lot like Pisces energy too. But I digress. We need to release, to let go, to cleanse. In order to bring in new things, we need to go into the darkness of the void to connect with creative consciousness. And that does involve, frequently, letting go, releasing, clearing, purging.

So the Dark Moon is incredible for those things—for making space so that you can connect with divine consciousness, your inner wisdom. Either one or both, honestly. If you want to create a ritual with the Dark Moon, it's gonna sound really basic, but I highly recommend literal cleaning. This is something I do frequently as part of my Dark Moon/New Moon ritual practice. This space that I record in, I'll sweep it up, I'll light incense—so I'll literally clean, and then I'll energetically clean with smoke.

You don't have to use smoke. You can use sound—like clapping or using a bell are good options.

Definitely also recommend rest. Sitting in silence. Meditating. If you can do any kind of journeying in your meditation practice—any kind of pathworking, which is a visualization technique where you essentially place yourself either in the past or in the future or in the liminal space.

I teach a concept in Homecoming, which is a program I offer, called the Inner Temple. I'm probably—I'm certainly—I would guess not the first person to come up with this. But your Inner Temple is like the waiting room, the holding room, the safe space in the liminal space where, if I'm going to, for example, do spell work and I want to work with spirit, I will go to my Inner Temple. It's my safe space in the liminal that allows me to feel safe, feel grounded, and then invite in my guides or whoever or whatever I'm trying to work with in that moment.

The Dark Moon is a great time to just go there and receive.

I think that's like the great—I think that's the best word for what to do with the Dark Moon: receive. To not force. To not do. To not exert a whole lot. And so even cleaning might be doing too much, but it's that idea of preparing the space by clearing out what doesn't need to be here. Getting rid of the excess. Throwing things away. So that there's more space.

So that's the Dark Moon.

The New Moon: Setting Intentions and Manifesting

Then we have the New Moon, or the Magical New Moon. So this is the time from when the New Moon is perfect or perfected (which is when the Moon and the Sun are in the same exact place in the sky) to where the Moon starts waxing until it leaves the next zodiac sign—or the zodiac sign that it's in.

So in this case, when the Moon leaves Leo, we are no longer in that New Moon territory. The New Moon is quite different from the Dark Moon energetically, because now the energy is building. The light is building. So now is the time where we wanna set our intentions. Now is the time where we want to think about and start planning for and take ritual action to support whatever we're trying to manifest, accomplish, bring into material being over this next 28 days.

Combining Dark Moon and New Moon Practices

I think a lot of people don't realize that distinction. And a lot of people also don't understand that you can actually bring these two practices together to have a really beautiful, complete practice.

When we talk about manifesting and New Moon intentions, we don't really ever talk about the Dark Moon and how going into the creative void is step one in figuring out what the intention even needs to be. We need to get silent. We need to get quiet. We need to go inward before we just jump into action and manifesting and, "Hey universe, gimme all this shit."

So I offer that to you as a way to kinda work with the New Moon today and moving forward. Now, if you're listening to this in the morning, it is currently the Dark Moon. So what you could do is consider what you wanna release. You don't need to do a huge, long, involved ritual. You can if you want, but you might not have time to. And it would be good enough—plenty. It would be more than enough, I think, to sit with yourself for five minutes, ten minutes, and say, "What do I wanna release? What do I wanna let go of?" Or literally just sitting in silence and seeing what comes to you with no expectation that anything will, with maybe just the intention that you're energetically clearing out.

I like the idea of doing a body scan visualization during that five, ten minutes. And in that body scan, you're imagining like a magic energetic wand is just cleansing you from head to toe and releasing any energy that's stagnant and needs to be let go of before we move into the New Moon.

Then, when we get to the New Moon later today—this evening, for example—you could sit and think of what's one, two, no more than three (I would suggest) intentions that I wanna work with over this lunar cycle.

Practical Tips for Rituals and Spell Work

So that is what I suggest for working with the Dark and the New Moon and really just having a complete New Moon practice. You can also do this with the New Moon today—or anytime. Take symbolic action that supports you energetically.

I'm talking about magic. I'm talking about spell work. You could use sigils. You could create a sigil with your intention. That's a really simple, fast, and effective way to—yeah, a way to bring your intention to life and to put your energy behind it.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

If you are still looking for a ritual creation guide, I do have that for free in the show notes.

If you have any questions or any comments, share 'em on Substack. Share 'em on YouTube. You can find me on Instagram at @selfhelpwitch. And remember, the most important thing is trust and gratitude. Know that when you set your intention—like know in your bones—that it is done. And know the universe has your back.

I'll see you guys tomorrow. Until then, happy New Moon. Bye.

hey cosmic self-care crew!

trying something new with our email digests–I’m dropping the full transcript with chapters down below rather than a digest of the episode.

moving forward, in each email, you’ll get a brief overview of the ep at the top of the page, my links, then the transcript.

I hope this makes your cosmic self-care experience more enjoyable! ☺️

In today’s Cosmic Self-Care, we're exploring Pluto's spiritual invitation and why your biggest breakthroughs come disguised as breakdowns. I'll share how letting go of control opens us to universal abundance, and invite you to reflect on where you're trying to control outcomes instead of trusting the process.

TIMESTAMPS

• 00:33 Introduction to Pluto's Influence

• 01:19 The Pluto Experience: Digging for Treasure

• 02:18 Letting Go and Releasing Control

• 04:41 Personal Pluto Journey: A Story of Transformation

• 08:45 Embracing Change and Trusting the Universe

• 0:15 Cosmic Prompts and Meditation Practice

• 11:39 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Subscribe now

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• → on youtube

• → website

💜 WORK WITH DANA:

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• → Sol Circle Membership

• → Astrology for Everyone Learning Library

transcript

Introduction to Pluto's Influence

We're digging deeper into Pluto today because if you listened or watched yesterday, we know we have a new moon that's opposing Pluto. Pluto is always in the sky, and a lot of us might have some interesting Pluto dynamics in our chart. So it is the perfect time for us to unpack the depth of Pluto, and specifically we're gonna talk about the spiritual invitation.

Of Pluto in general. Of course it's gonna be different depending on what transit, what house, et cetera. But I think that if we can approach Pluto from a spiritual lens, that we are gonna set ourselves up to be a lot more equipped to meet it where it's at and get the lessons that Pluto wants to teach us out of the energy it's bringing.

The Pluto Experience: Digging for Treasure

So we mentioned yesterday that Pluto means riches , and the Pluto experience is a lot like digging up buried treasure. If you think about the experience of digging for treasure. It's a dirty job. You have to dig in the dirt, you have to look around. You can get lost. You can get frustrated.

You can be really confused and unsure and you get dirt under your fingernails, like digging through all of the stuff that got thrown on top to get to the treasure. This is a really good analogy for what the Pluto experience is and I think frequently what that looks like in our lives is letting go of old beliefs and releasing control.

I think just about any Pluto experience, if we abstract it out from the really specific details of how it shows up in your life, that's what it's really about.

Letting Go and Releasing Control

Letting go. And releasing control. I really think that so many of the obstacles we encounter in life are self-imposed because we are in our ego.

We're trying to control and manipulate the situation instead of tapping into universal abundance, trust gratitude and just allowing the universe to help us. And the reason why it's very human, and I'm telling you, as someone who has lived this over and over again, not as someone who's like on a pedestal and has somehow transcended all of this, I'm a human too.

And I know this because I've lived it. But when we're talking about Pluto and the situations that it can confront us with. The reason they're so challenging is because they are a direct shot at our ego. They are a direct reminder that, oh, you thought you were in charge LOL. No. There's a whole universal cosmic plan going on here that, I believe we're a part of and we've somehow chosen prior to coming here on Earth, what those lessons are gonna be.

But Pluto Transits remind us that we are. Not in control. And if nothing else, we're in a lot less of control than we thought we were. And so if we can trust and let go and surrender. That is going to make things much, much easier. And specifically what it's gonna make easier is that death and rebirth process that Pluto facilitates.

If we go back to our digging up treasure analogy, if we go to dig up the treasure and we get pissed off about how much dirt there is or how dirty we're getting or whatever other, like how hard it is and how we'd rather just have someone else do it. Do you see how that creates so much resistance? And it makes it so much harder than it needs to be With Pluto, that is the opportunity for us to learn and internalize how to let go and trust the universe.

Now that is so much easier said than done, especially when. Pluto situations are frequently very confronting.

Personal Pluto Journey: A Story of Transformation

I'm gonna tell you about my big Pluto moment that I've had in my life. A lot of you, if you've been here for a while you know this already, so sorry you're gonna hear it again, but it's a good reminder.

We're talking about Pluto during my Saturn return. Saturn for me is in Capricorn. Pluto was also in Capricorn. So Saturn and Cap natives you already know, the struggle was very real. It was very intense. And it was in my fourth house. So where your IC is, which is an angle in your chart, that's like the deepest, most private part of you.

So during my Saturn return when Pluto was conjoined or in the same place as my ic, I had a really crazy experience with alcohol. I used to drink. I don't anymore, and I stopped after that night. Where Pluto was conjoining my ic. I wasn't even really into astrology at the time. I didn't even know that was happening.

I only found out later as I went back to reflect on this moment that I was having a really intense. Pluto experience Pluto conjunct. The IC is like my friend Alex Amorosi, who I make content for nightlight astrology with calls it the basement of the basement. It's like Pluto, the Lord of Death and Rebirth just came to exhume, everything that's deep in the depths. And that to me showed up as blacking out in Chicago, waking up the next morning in the hotel room and having absolutely no clue how I got there. And to be really honest with you, I've had a lot of nights like that. Like in my life, I've had many nights like that, but that was the night that like it scared the shit outta me.

And that's a Pluto thing too, and that's why it's so hard to let go with Pluto is because it's scary often the situations that Pluto puts us in. But I needed to be scared. I needed that to happen because that was the final straw for me of I can't live like this. I'm gonna get hurt. I'm gonna die, like I'm gonna hurt somebody else.

I can't be just walking around sleepwalking, blacked out, drunk like this anymore, and why am I doing this? It really raised a lot of questions for me, and it confronted me with the reality that this way of being was not working for me anymore. It was hurting me immensely. It was hurting the people in my life.

This is a Pluto experience. So the reason I'm telling you about this is because that was one of the hardest things I ever had to do, or I thought it was gonna be. I thought quitting drinking was going to be really hard because it was such an important part of my life. As sad as it is to say it felt like, the core way I had fun was like to go to happy hour, and I was really worried about what I was gonna lose.

I thought my life was not gonna be fun anymore. Truly. But what I found out was, number one, it was actually very easy for me to stop. I stopped and never had an urge to do it again after the first, two or three weeks where I realized, oh, this isn't so bad. I'm not really missing out on anything.

And I also understood that I needed to do this in order to live a happier life because the truth was I was very unhappy. I was very unhappy with my life and I was. Searching and seeking and moving across the country and ending relationships and changing jobs, and doing all of these things to try to feel better about my life.

And it wasn't until that horrible confrontation with myself facilitated by Pluto that I was able to see. Drinking is a huge part of the issue. Like it's a literal depressant. It's making me depressed. I couldn't have had that without Pluto confronting me with that really terrifying experience. So I'm again telling you this whole long story because I want you to know that despite how confronting and scary, et cetera, Pluto Transits can be, not always, especially we have personal transits.

We're gonna notice Pluto in our lives. If we can. Approach it with an open-minded, open heart and attitude of surrender and letting go and not trying to control.

Embracing Change and Trusting the Universe

I think that's why I was able to successfully navigate that transition so easily because I realized I had to just let go. Like I couldn't try to do moderation.

The moderation wasn't working. Like I had to really let go and let God so to speak and be like, alright. Let's see what life can be like without this. I had to give it up which I think giving up is also pretty pluton and just letting go. So that's my cosmic wisdom for you on Pluto for today.

There's certainly much, much more to say here, but. As we move into this moment where the New Moon is opposing Pluto, you are perhaps experiencing your own Pluto transits. I wanna encourage you to try to let go of control, to try to embrace and allow whatever is trying to fall away in your life.

'cause we often will see that death or that letting go that come in first and then something new is gonna come and take its place and whatever. It comes in its place, is much more aligned and will help you feel that you actually can let go and trust the universe. And that is such a beautiful gift that Pluto can give us.

So know as we move into this Plutonian moment that it's never just about loss and fear. With Pluto, it's about learning how to trust, and it's about. Allowing something new and more aligned and more fulfilling to come through in its place.

Cosmic Prompts and Meditation Practice

If you want a cosmic prompt for this, you can think about what are the uncomfortable truths that you feel rising within you right now?

Whether you're having a personal Pluto experience, we're talking about the New Moon. What do you deeply want but are afraid to ask for? That's another like plutonian reflection question. And as we move. Into this new Moon or as you experience your own Pluto Transits, I really encourage you, this is gonna sound too simple almost, but sit in meditation and practice dropping resistance.

You can feel resistance in your body. It feels like a clench or a grip. All you have to do to release that is breathe. And I like to physically or visually imagine that grip. Loosening, like I almost see like hands going like this through my like energy line and I just let it go. And as I do that, I can start to feel abundance, I guess is the best way to explain it.

A feeling of abundance, a sense of openness and peace well up in me naturally. Okay. It might take some time. It might take five, 10 minutes, but I think this is a really beautiful practice to do all the time, but especially if you're dealing with some kind of confronting transit, like a Pluto Transit or even a Saturn transit practice letting go, and you will be amazed at how much more peacefully you can navigate through these challenging times.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

If you have questions or comments, I encourage you to share them on the Substack or on YouTube, wherever you're listening to this, you can find me on Instagram at Self-Help Witch for your resources in the show notes. As always, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Have a great day. Bye bye. 

​

It’s Giving Cosmic Compost

Pluto is all up in this new moon, and it’s asking us to acknowledge what’s ready to be transformed. There’s a big sense of confrontation, of deciding what we will and won’t stand for, and with Saturn and Neptune’s involvement (trining the new moon from Aries), I’d say a call to do the necessary but hard thing.

Let’s be real–Pluto doesn't make anything easy. It's confronting. It might show up as power struggles, triggering situations, or moments where you feel like you have to choose between fitting in and being real.

The invitation here isn't to bulldoze your way into being seen. It's to ask: what wants to be born from your most authentic self? What creative expression has been buried under other people's expectations? What is important to you, no matter what people think?

Remember, Pluto means riches. So even though this transit might feel challenging, there's gold in the dirt if you're willing to dig. More on this tomorrow!

How to Work With This

Instead of fighting the intensity, get curious about it. Where are you being asked to show up more authentically? What old patterns of people-pleasing or hiding are ready to be composted?

This is regenerative energy. Trust that what's falling away is making space for something better.

Today's Cosmic Prompts

What part of your authentic self has been buried under other people's expectations?

What would shift for you if you trusted that this intensity isn’t just inconvenient or annoying, but trying to help you be more you?

One Tiny Spell

Write down one way you've been dimming your light to make others comfortable. Then burn the paper (safely!) and plant something new in your garden or a pot. Let it be a symbol of what wants to grow from your authentic self.

Resources for the Ride

🌟 Free Astrology Cheat Sheet – Birth chart basics without the overwhelm.
→ Get it here

✨ 450+ Cosmic Self-Care Practices – Your DIY apothecary for syncing up with the cosmos.
→ Grab yours

🌙 Free Lunar Ritual Builder – Rituals for every moon phase, made simple and soul-satisfying.
→ Get it here

Stay weird, stay wild, and stay with yourself!

see ya tomorrow,

✨ Dana

I’ve found considering the Sun and Moon as a dyad reveals a deeper symbolism–not just in general astrological understanding, but with your personal chart, too.

So today we're exploring the Sun and Moon as a sacred pair, along with tips and tricks for digging into them in your chart.

In this episode, we're exploring:

• Why your Sun sign is your unchanging core essence (your spirit!)

• How your Moon sign governs everything that waxes and wanes in your life

• The beautiful relationship between these two cosmic forces in your chart

How to Work With This

Spend some time reflecting on the qualities of your Sun and Moon placement. I recommend meditating on the zodiac sign by considering modality, element, and gender/polarity, along with the house topics activated. Take it to the next level by considering if your Sun and Moon “see” each other by aspect.

Today's Cosmic Prompts

• What truths can you articulate about your core desires and deepest truths with your Sun sign?

• What truths can you articulate about what you need & the environments you find yourself in with your moon sign?

One Tiny Spell

Honestly, the awareness is the spell. Any insight you can unlock through this process of reflection will activate a sense of enlightenment that, to me, feels extremely healing and freeing.

I’d love to hear your reflections! Share them in the comments.

Leave a comment

Resources for the Ride

🌟 Free Astrology Cheat Sheet – Everything you need to break down your birth chart without the overwhelm.
→ Get it here

✨ 450+ Cosmic Self-Care Practices – Your DIY apothecary for syncing up with the cosmos.
→ Grab yours

🌙 Free Lunar Ritual Builder – Rituals for every moon phase, made simple and soul-satisfying.
→ Get it here

Stay weird, stay wild, and stay with yourself.

see ya tomorrow,

✨ Dana

Here's what's happening cosmically:

Mercury was already approaching this sextile as it stationed retrograde yesterday. When planets station (appear to stop and change direction), they move extremely slowly, which means they can form aspects while barely moving. So Mercury is sextiling Venus while stationing retrograde, and that transit perfects today.

What Mercury Sextile Venus Brings

A sextile is of the nature of Venus: it likes connection, pleasure, beauty, and harmony. It wants things to work out. Think of it like the Two of Cups in tarot if you're familiar with that energy.

Mercury sextile Venus brings:

→ Harmony to our thoughts and communications
→ Gentleness with ourselves during creative blocks
→ The ability to find beauty in the process
→ Communication infused with love (especially self-talk)

This aspect reminds us that even in the middle of confusion and creative blocks, we can still be gentle with ourselves.

The Self-Talk Connection

Want to know the first step to having any kind of connection with your creative self-expression? Stop getting in your own way.

So often our self-talk completely derails any hope we might have of having a clear channel for expressing ourselves. This Mercury-Venus energy is the perfect time to get curious about how you talk to yourself.

Quick example: Imagine you're about to give a speech.

Negative self-talk: "You're gonna mess it up. You're gonna jumble your words. You don't know what you're talking about."

Loving self-talk: "You've got this. You know exactly what you're doing. You were born to do this."

Even if the talk goes well with both approaches, your EXPERIENCE will be completely different.

The energy you bring, the confidence you feel, whether you'll want to do it again - it all shifts based on how you talk to yourself.

We literally create our reality through our perspective, and self-talk is a huge component of how that perspective gets created.

Your Cosmic Work This Weekend

Cosmic Prompt: How can you be gentler with yourself, specifically your self-talk today? Use this Mercury-Venus energy to notice when you start being mean to yourself.

Magic Moment: Send yourself a loving text message. I know it might sound silly, but DO IT! Write something kind to yourself and send it as a message. You could:

• Schedule a loving email to arrive later

• Send yourself a voice memo to listen to when you need it

• Text yourself words of encouragement

Save this love note for anytime you notice harmful negative self-talk coming up. This is how you reprogram your mind and change your reality from the inside out.

Ready to understand how planetary aspects like this sextile work in your own chart? My free Astrology Cheat Sheet breaks down all the essential planetary relationships and how to interpret them.

[Get Your Astrology Cheat Sheet Here →]

Have a beautiful weekend, and remember - you deserve your own kindness ✨

xo,
Dana 🧙🏻

Connect with Dana:

• Website

• Instagram: @selfhelpwitch`

You know that feeling when you're deep in a creative project or exploring a new version of yourself, and suddenly everything feels... stuck? Communication gets muddled, technology acts up, and that brilliant idea from yesterday feels unclear?

Here's what I want you to remember: This is a divine invitation to slow down and get clear before you waste time and energy on something that's not truly aligned.

Mercury Retrograde in Leo = Creative Recalibration

Leo energy is all about creative self-expression and authenticity. It's ruled by the Sun - your unique brilliance, your divine expression. So Mercury retrograde in Leo is asking:

→ Where have you been rushing your creative process?
→ What needs more time to develop?
→ How can you be more patient with your own creative unfolding?

The invitation with any Mercury retrograde is patience, and that's exactly why it feels so frustrating. We're used to immediate answers, exponential growth, and instant results.

But Mercury retrograde in Leo says: You are a work in progress, and that's a good thing.

Your Cosmic Work This Retrograde

Reflection Questions:

• Where in your life do you need to slow down and reflect instead of pushing forward?

• What creative block might actually be asking for your attention rather than your frustration?

Magic Moment Practice:

When you notice frustration, feeling blocked or stuck, take five minutes to journal about it. Don't try to solve or fix it. Just write about it and recognize that the block IS the message.

The block isn't something that needs to be fixed. It's information. And only by sitting with it rather than trying to force through it can we untangle the knot and get clear on what it's trying to tell us.

Want to understand how this Mercury retrograde is affecting YOUR chart specifically? Grab my free Astrology Cheat Sheet - it shows you how to get your birth chart and what areas of life this Leo retrograde is activating for you.

[Get Your Astrology Cheat Sheet Here →]

Keep embracing the work in progress that you are ✨

xo,
Dana 🧙🏻

Connect with Dana:

• Website

• Instagram: @selfhelpwitch

"I am not like my sun sign at all."

Look, I used to be that person too before I really got into astrology. I would say "I'm a Pisces, but I definitely don't feel like one." And what I've learned is that your sun sign is just one piece of the cosmic puzzle.

You're More Than Your Sun Sign

You've got a Moon sign, you've got a Rising sign, a Venus, Mars, and so much more. Your Sun is your core essence—like we talked about yesterday, it's your unique brilliance—but it's not your whole personality.

This is why surface-level astrology is so limiting. When you only know your Sun sign, you are missing out on the full picture of who you are.

For example:

• Your Moon sign gives us insight into your emotional world, what you need to feel safe and secure

• Your Rising sign shows us how you move through the world—your incarnation, your personality, your psychology

• Your Venus sign shows us what you desire and what you value, among other things

You're not just one thing—you're a whole cosmic symphony.

Finding Context with your Chart

I am a Pisces Sun, but I'm a Gemini Moon and a Libra Rising. Now, if I take those "big three" together, I can see that my Sun sign is a water sign, but my Moon sign and my Rising sign are both air signs.

So of course I felt disconnected from the watery, dreamy, imaginative, creative tendencies of Pisces because the other two-thirds of my big three are air signs. They're very intellectual, very interested in communication and connection and ideas.

I also definitely had some shadow work to do around my Pisces energy because I have a lot of placements in Pisces. So Pisces is very much a part of who I am, but it took a long time for me to reconnect with that because I had accepted that it was wrong or not useful to imagine, to dream, to be creative.

Why You Might Feel Disconnected

Part of why you might not feel connected to your Sun sign might be that there's some shadow work to do around that energy. Maybe you've been told those qualities aren't valuable, or maybe other parts of your chart are drowning out your Sun's voice.

Digging into your birth chart in this way—this entry point to what I call birth chart self-inquiry—is extremely powerful. You get to start unraveling and unpacking your soul's complexity and understanding the deeper reasons why you might not feel so connected to your Sun sign or other parts of your chart.

Today's Cosmic Prompt

How do you show up differently than your Sun sign might suggest?

What parts of your personality don't fit the typical description?

You're gonna come up with ideas around these questions, not because astrology is wrong, but because you are complex. This is the beauty of astrology—it honors your multifaceted nature instead of trying to squeeze you into a single box.

Your Magic Moment

If you don't know your Moon sign or your Rising sign yet, look them up today. I want you to pull your chart today and find out what those are. Notice how they add layers to your understanding of yourself.

Start to see yourself as the cosmic symphony you are instead of just one note.

Ready to Go Deeper?

If you need help understanding your full cosmic makeup, grab my free Astrology Cheat Sheet. It walks you through all the essential pieces of your birth chart, as well as how to pull your chart in the first place. It's free, it's easy, and it's your gateway to true birth chart self-inquiry.

[Get your free Astrology Cheat Sheet here →]

Tomorrow we're diving deeper into Mercury retrograde because Mercury officially stations retrograde as of Thursday.

Until then, embrace your cosmic complexity!

✨ Dana

Connect with Dana:

• Website

• Instagram: @selfhelpwitch

Cue collective groaning 😅

Mercury stations retrograde in Leo this Thursday. Instead of dreading it, let's use it as a tool for inner work.

Key insight: Retrogrades aren't cosmic punishment—they're cosmic invitations to revisit, revise, and slow down.

What This Mercury Retrograde in Leo Wants

Revisit your creative expression and the way you shine your unique brilliance:

• How are you showing up in the world?

• What creative projects have you abandoned?

• What part of your authentic self needs attention?

Today's Cosmic Prompts

• What creative projects am I feeling pulled to (that I might have abandoned)?

• What part of my authentic self needs attention?

• How can I express myself more truthfully?

Your Magic Moment

Write down three things you want to review, revisit, or reflect on during this retrograde. Consider approaching this review from the lens of creativity, self-expression, and shining your light.

Resources

Free Astrology Cheat Sheet - Learn where Leo sits in your chart and get keywords for all house topics

[Get your free Astrology Cheat Sheet here →]

Tomorrow we're diving into chart dynamics—specifically your Sun sign and how it relates to the rest of your chart.

Until then, have a beautiful day and move through this Mercury retrograde with intention!

✨ Dana

Connect with Dana

website

instagram-@selfhelpwitch

hey y’all! here today with something really exciting – a new podcast! Cosmic Self-Care will be published weekdays and hit your inbox every morning for a microdose of spiritual self-care. available wherever you listen to pods. Share with a friend if you feel so inclined!

Welcome!

In case we haven’t met yet, I'm Dana Solara, and I am SO excited you're here for the very first episode of Cosmic Self-Care.

Why I Created This Show

I believe astrology is a powerful tool for spiritual self-care: a means of deeply knowing ourselves and setting us up to live fulfilling, vibrant lives.

But most of the content out there is focused on pure prediction.

It seems like the majority of astrology content is attempting to answer the question, “what will happen?”

With Cosmic Self-Care, I want to answer the question: “What’s the cosmic invitation?”

Most of all, I want to go beyond waxing philosophic about astrology or treating it as entertainment.

Instead, I want to give you the tools to use astrology as a practical guide to live more mindfully and intentionally.

What You'll Get Every Episode

Each episode of Cosmic Self-Care gives you a complete 5-15 minute spiritual check-in with:

✨ Cosmic Insight - Current astrology or chart wisdom
✨ Soul Connection - How this applies to your inner work and personal growth
✨ Cosmic Prompt - A reflection question to deepen your self-awareness
✨ Magic Moment - A simple practice to integrate the wisdom

Today's Cosmic Prompt

Because we’re just getting started today, it’s a perfect time to get back to your roots:

What drew you to astrology in the first place?

Was it curiosity? A need for guidance? A sense that there was more than what meets the eye?

Connect with that feeling and hold on to it—because that's actually the voice of your inner wisdom calling and saying, "Hey, there's something we need to explore here." Today, honor that by simply listening and seeing what it has to say.

PS: comments are ON! I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments on Substack.

Leave a comment

Your Magic Moment

Take a moment right now and set an intention for your cosmic journey, whether that's the journey you and I will go on together with Cosmic Self-Care, or your larger spiritual path.

Maybe you want to trust yourself more. Maybe you're ready to dig deeper into the patterns you're recognizing in yourself.

Whatever it is, let's name it and make that your North Star as we move forward together.

Want to Follow Along?

If you want to actually understand what I'm talking about when I reference astrological events, grab my free Astrology Cheat Sheet. It's got everything you need to start reading your own chart, plus what all those symbols mean (planets, signs, houses—all the good stuff).

[Get your free Astrology Cheat Sheet here →]

Tomorrow we're diving into Mercury retrograde prep, so make sure you're subscribed to get your cosmic self-care delivered every weekday.

Until then, have a beautiful day!

✨ Dana

Subscribe now

Connect with Dana:

• Website

• Instagram: @selfhelpwitch