This is indeed wondrous and fascinating. I'm travelling and weary in the cold, rainy South Island of New Zealand so I can't conjure a deep reply to your invitation at present, but I bow to your wisdom and knowledge. Journeying on in our own unique ways, together on the path. Xx
As usual, Sally, this is a sensitive and beautifully written post (I’ve been reading them all). I was intrigued to hear about your early involvement in astrology. I had some interest in that area too (the reverse side of my involvement with astrophysics, I guess). I didn’t get as far into it as you did, but I retain a feeling that there is something significant going on in astrology, if not perhaps quite what we think it is. I’m struck though by your feeling that it’s time to step back from working in climate psychology as defined by our present society and look for a bigger, wider, deeper perspective. The standard story is just not working any longer. I think versions of that perception are widely shared. What it means, and where it will lead us to, I am less sure. But I think it can only be a good thing to have the openness, and the responsiveness to what is happening around us, to be able to move on when the time is right.
Thank you so much Geoffrey for these perceptive insights, which really resonate with me. Yes so much is not quite what we think it is yet the call is real and moving. And yes I too am hearing from many people this need to step back , step away a little form the old framings and narratives so we can be more fully present in the not knowing and needing to learn mind.
This was a pleasure to read. I'm a 25 year old novice astrologer with a big love for the earth and a fascination for depth psychology... we have a lot in common! Thanks for sharing your story.
Lovely to meet you here Serena, you have such journeys ahead of you following your calls into the depths and the heavens, for the love of Earth, go well and keep reporting back!
So proud to have been a part of that Knot In Time period, but you have always been drawn to untying what ever knot captures your focus and attention. All of your "new directions" have been interconnected presenting questions that you needed to explore then generously share with others. A lifetime of gifts. So lovely to read your unexpected plan and where it took you. Beautifully written ! Thank you SalX
Thank you Leonie, yes you have been a part of all these explorations of mine , always encouraging and interested. Thank you dear friend. You have a more than a few stories yourself to tell about unexpected directions and creative turns! 💚
A brightly dancing reflection into the pool of life Sally, beautiful. I'm around your age and notice more thoroughly now how life has its way with us, variously playing our spirits into realms, some even appearing material. Wonderful how you story your vital embrace of these here - thank you!
Thank you Peter, I love this ‘a brightly dancing reflection into the pool of life’ , like your art, yes age does bring surrender to being played by life.
What a fascinating career journey Sally loved reading about these phases of your life. And 15 years is a good chunk of time in each one. I see them all connected - all about systems, all about humans and how we relate to each other and the wider world, all about connection too.
Yes all connected, this is our work now I believe to pull together the threads of what has been disconnected and to recognise ourselves in the midst of all. Thank you Catriona!
Love the beautiful patterning in the unfolding of your various callings Sally. It sounds like the next logical step calls for integration of the three to create a new fourth. I still feel very much called to explore psyche deeper but am finding a new fascination with cosmology emerging alongside a pull towards how I can integrate nature (re) connection into my work. Thank you so much for sharing and offering this inspiring prompt 💫
Thank you Rachel, yes the new fourth, a sturdy number! Old threads and new combining, for us both, I think many are feeling this pull to complexity and integrate as best we can 🌏
I loved the change of focus from ‘above to below’ .. can relate. Hard sometimes to pull myself up. What an incredible story of amazing shifts which your vocational journey has taken!! Congratulations! You are inspired and inspiring. We are so lucky to have the trailing spume of your wisdom.i had an image of a multicoloured display of light and movement. Such mastery and heart you bring to your work.
Oh thanks Deb, you have been pretty agile yourself in life paths and adventures, I feel very lucky to have had you and others around who have relished making leaps in life xx
I am a caregiver to my partner with dementia. I was certain at a tender age that I would never marry or have children because of the difficulty of my parent's divorce on me from age four onward. This was not my "career choice" and it has had me in a spiral of grief ever since the pandemic.
Thank you dear Sally for sharing your journey and the cycles that have brought you here for which I am most grateful. I can relate to the value of leaning into the rhythms and cycles of life and stepping back and waiting to see what I am being called to. I am definitely at the end of a cycle and waiting to see what will unfold…. I trust that our recent meeting which was so spontaneous and inspiring is part of this new cycle.
Thank you Lody, love this thought that our recent meeting was part of a larger spark we are both fanning in our lives as we cycle into a new cycle. We must explore this more when we get to meet up again next. I am very much feeling not only shifts in myself but in many people right now, it’s a dynamic time for all of its challenges
Strange how the cycles of life work. I find comfort in retreating to a far bigger and wider perspective every so often, though I do so mindful that it needs to be balanced with not losing immediacy and presence as well - a tricky juggling act, at times, with a voice in my head that challenges whether it's the right thing to do or not at times. Thank you for your sharing. I would never have guessed that you were an astrologer! You kept that one hidden :)
It's lovely to get to know you a bit better, Sally! I listened to this yesterday as I was unwell in bed and couldn't eye read - how amazing is that AI voice. Like most things I am conflicted about AI but as tools of equity - making content accessible for people with differing abilities, it is super.
Oh Gill that’s amazing you could get an AI read out , I didn’t know this was available. I think this is the nudge I need to start doing my own read out, it’s been on my list for awhile now. Hope you are on the mend now
How funny, I thought that was something you had done specially - indeed it is not, a feature in the Substack app! lol. It would be lovely to hear your voice :)
A beautiful meander you are making Sally! I loved reading this, love discovering the synchronicities that shape a person’s life.
You also confirmed the inkling I had when we spoke - so quick you were to note that February’s full moon would be in virgo :) The novice I am, I’d need to walk my mind around the wheel to figure that out.
As for me, I’m finding myself in a water cycle. Seems I followed the river all the way to the spring. It’s a new phase closer to the source.
Thank you Julia, I am afraid I am a rusty old astrologer as have now realised it will be a Leo full moon not a Virgo one mid Feb ! A water cycle, the deepest of callings, looking forward to hearing more about where you the currents are taking you.
Fabulous post, Sally. It really resonated with me, although I began life as a science teacher, then became a sociologist of eduction, until my 60s when birds and dreams pushed through my busy life.
I’m writing creative nonfiction now. Telling stories that step into the metaphysics that you identify:
“A worldview which dances with and celebrates the cycles, relationships and communications that modernity denies and crushes.”
This work is fun and challenging, tho finding ways to speak it is harder.
So true Terri! Great to hear where your careers have taken you and then how birds and dreams called you, as they do! Looking out now for your writing and our connections 🐦⬛
This is indeed wondrous and fascinating. I'm travelling and weary in the cold, rainy South Island of New Zealand so I can't conjure a deep reply to your invitation at present, but I bow to your wisdom and knowledge. Journeying on in our own unique ways, together on the path. Xx
Kia ora Brigid, hope our homeland is warming up today , wish I was journeying with you right now, may the clouds part arohanui 💚
As usual, Sally, this is a sensitive and beautifully written post (I’ve been reading them all). I was intrigued to hear about your early involvement in astrology. I had some interest in that area too (the reverse side of my involvement with astrophysics, I guess). I didn’t get as far into it as you did, but I retain a feeling that there is something significant going on in astrology, if not perhaps quite what we think it is. I’m struck though by your feeling that it’s time to step back from working in climate psychology as defined by our present society and look for a bigger, wider, deeper perspective. The standard story is just not working any longer. I think versions of that perception are widely shared. What it means, and where it will lead us to, I am less sure. But I think it can only be a good thing to have the openness, and the responsiveness to what is happening around us, to be able to move on when the time is right.
Thank you so much Geoffrey for these perceptive insights, which really resonate with me. Yes so much is not quite what we think it is yet the call is real and moving. And yes I too am hearing from many people this need to step back , step away a little form the old framings and narratives so we can be more fully present in the not knowing and needing to learn mind.
This was a pleasure to read. I'm a 25 year old novice astrologer with a big love for the earth and a fascination for depth psychology... we have a lot in common! Thanks for sharing your story.
Lovely to meet you here Serena, you have such journeys ahead of you following your calls into the depths and the heavens, for the love of Earth, go well and keep reporting back!
So proud to have been a part of that Knot In Time period, but you have always been drawn to untying what ever knot captures your focus and attention. All of your "new directions" have been interconnected presenting questions that you needed to explore then generously share with others. A lifetime of gifts. So lovely to read your unexpected plan and where it took you. Beautifully written ! Thank you SalX
Thank you Leonie, yes you have been a part of all these explorations of mine , always encouraging and interested. Thank you dear friend. You have a more than a few stories yourself to tell about unexpected directions and creative turns! 💚
A brightly dancing reflection into the pool of life Sally, beautiful. I'm around your age and notice more thoroughly now how life has its way with us, variously playing our spirits into realms, some even appearing material. Wonderful how you story your vital embrace of these here - thank you!
Thank you Peter, I love this ‘a brightly dancing reflection into the pool of life’ , like your art, yes age does bring surrender to being played by life.
What a fascinating career journey Sally loved reading about these phases of your life. And 15 years is a good chunk of time in each one. I see them all connected - all about systems, all about humans and how we relate to each other and the wider world, all about connection too.
Yes all connected, this is our work now I believe to pull together the threads of what has been disconnected and to recognise ourselves in the midst of all. Thank you Catriona!
That is a lovely way to put it Sally.
Love the beautiful patterning in the unfolding of your various callings Sally. It sounds like the next logical step calls for integration of the three to create a new fourth. I still feel very much called to explore psyche deeper but am finding a new fascination with cosmology emerging alongside a pull towards how I can integrate nature (re) connection into my work. Thank you so much for sharing and offering this inspiring prompt 💫
Thank you Rachel, yes the new fourth, a sturdy number! Old threads and new combining, for us both, I think many are feeling this pull to complexity and integrate as best we can 🌏
I have actually read The Knot of Time, Sally. I loved it. Enjoyed this post :)
Thanks Tash ! So glad you loved the book and our paths cross again here
I remember your journey. And still have your book!!
Even better Lynds is that we are still in each others lives my Sagittarisn sister 💞
I loved the change of focus from ‘above to below’ .. can relate. Hard sometimes to pull myself up. What an incredible story of amazing shifts which your vocational journey has taken!! Congratulations! You are inspired and inspiring. We are so lucky to have the trailing spume of your wisdom.i had an image of a multicoloured display of light and movement. Such mastery and heart you bring to your work.
Oh thanks Deb, you have been pretty agile yourself in life paths and adventures, I feel very lucky to have had you and others around who have relished making leaps in life xx
Thanks babe. Also it was beautifully written. I will read again! 💗
I am a caregiver to my partner with dementia. I was certain at a tender age that I would never marry or have children because of the difficulty of my parent's divorce on me from age four onward. This was not my "career choice" and it has had me in a spiral of grief ever since the pandemic.
Very sorry to hear this Leslie
Thank you dear Sally for sharing your journey and the cycles that have brought you here for which I am most grateful. I can relate to the value of leaning into the rhythms and cycles of life and stepping back and waiting to see what I am being called to. I am definitely at the end of a cycle and waiting to see what will unfold…. I trust that our recent meeting which was so spontaneous and inspiring is part of this new cycle.
Thank you Lody, love this thought that our recent meeting was part of a larger spark we are both fanning in our lives as we cycle into a new cycle. We must explore this more when we get to meet up again next. I am very much feeling not only shifts in myself but in many people right now, it’s a dynamic time for all of its challenges
Strange how the cycles of life work. I find comfort in retreating to a far bigger and wider perspective every so often, though I do so mindful that it needs to be balanced with not losing immediacy and presence as well - a tricky juggling act, at times, with a voice in my head that challenges whether it's the right thing to do or not at times. Thank you for your sharing. I would never have guessed that you were an astrologer! You kept that one hidden :)
Yes hopefully we can find a way to do ‘both and’ without this being a retreat, but rather a deepening and widening!
It's lovely to get to know you a bit better, Sally! I listened to this yesterday as I was unwell in bed and couldn't eye read - how amazing is that AI voice. Like most things I am conflicted about AI but as tools of equity - making content accessible for people with differing abilities, it is super.
That all the prompting I need to start, will get on to it, so I don’t turn into an AI identity !
Oh Gill that’s amazing you could get an AI read out , I didn’t know this was available. I think this is the nudge I need to start doing my own read out, it’s been on my list for awhile now. Hope you are on the mend now
How funny, I thought that was something you had done specially - indeed it is not, a feature in the Substack app! lol. It would be lovely to hear your voice :)
A beautiful meander you are making Sally! I loved reading this, love discovering the synchronicities that shape a person’s life.
You also confirmed the inkling I had when we spoke - so quick you were to note that February’s full moon would be in virgo :) The novice I am, I’d need to walk my mind around the wheel to figure that out.
As for me, I’m finding myself in a water cycle. Seems I followed the river all the way to the spring. It’s a new phase closer to the source.
Thank you Julia, I am afraid I am a rusty old astrologer as have now realised it will be a Leo full moon not a Virgo one mid Feb ! A water cycle, the deepest of callings, looking forward to hearing more about where you the currents are taking you.
Fabulous post, Sally. It really resonated with me, although I began life as a science teacher, then became a sociologist of eduction, until my 60s when birds and dreams pushed through my busy life.
I’m writing creative nonfiction now. Telling stories that step into the metaphysics that you identify:
“A worldview which dances with and celebrates the cycles, relationships and communications that modernity denies and crushes.”
This work is fun and challenging, tho finding ways to speak it is harder.
So true Terri! Great to hear where your careers have taken you and then how birds and dreams called you, as they do! Looking out now for your writing and our connections 🐦⬛