The stars may give us the blueprint, but they don’t get the final word. Somewhere between what is written and what we choose to do with it lies the alchemy of becoming.
- Jamie Rethage

Live your Light

Have you been through a major life crisis or change and felt like you haven’t quite been yourself since? Maybe you feel numb, depressed, fragmented, ungrounded, or like you’ve lost your zest for life. Or maybe there’s a recurring theme you can’t seem to break, whether it’s unstable relationships, financial struggles, health challenges, or simply the feeling that no matter what you do, you keep finding yourself back in the same place.

Let me first say this: whatever you have been through, or are currently experiencing, is never taken lightly around here. Every experience, big or small, is valid and welcome, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

With that being said, friend, babe, bro... you are not alone. Nobody escapes this life unscathed. Suffering is just as much a part of the human experience as joy, love, growth, and everything in between.

That feeling of fragmentation, that sense that a part of you is missing or your spark just isn’t what it used to be, has been described for thousands of years. In many ancient and shamanic traditions, it is understood through the concept of soul loss. Within these traditions, it is believed that when we experience something deeply painful, traumatic, or overwhelming, a part of the soul may withdraw as a form of protection. You could think of it as the soul’s way of coping when an experience becomes too much to fully hold.

In the language of Astrum Healing, I describe it a little differently.

We are quite literally made from elements forged in stars. The carbon, oxygen, calcium, iron, and other elements within our bodies have cosmic origins.

So rather than saying a piece of your soul has been lost, we might say:

Your light has diminished.

Astrum: the unique celestial pattern, or “stars,” within an individual, reflected through their astrological blueprint.

When life happens, it can dull your shine, dim your stars, and distort the expression of your essence. Not change it, but make it harder to fully access and express. We are the microcosm of the greater macrocosm, a reflection of the larger cosmos within a single human being.

When your mom pushed you through the birth canal, God (or the universe, if that word rubs you the wrong way) encoded you with a unique expression based on the position of the stars and planets at the exact moment you were born. That moment became your natal chart. Your cosmic blueprint. A map of the energies you came here to embody and express.

But the natal chart is only one part of the picture.

“Hi! I’m Saturn.

I’m here to build character. You’re going to hate the construction process.
Lucky for you, Jamie knows me well. Her Sun sits right in front of me in her natal chart, so she’s had a lifetime of experience with my particular brand of fuckery. Experiencing delays? Restrictions? Compression? That’s probably me.
Let’s see what’s being activated.”

Astrum Healing

The Zodiac within the Body

For thousands of years, astrological traditions have associated the signs of the zodiac with different regions and functions of the human body. Aries has traditionally been associated with the head, Taurus with the throat, Gemini with the arms and shoulders, and so on, moving through the body from head to feet.

And here’s an important piece: you encompass the entire zodiac. You don’t need to have a natal planet in a particular sign for that archetype, or the area of the body traditionally associated with it, to be relevant to you. Your natal placements simply show where certain planetary energies were concentrated at the moment you were born.

And the sky didn’t stop moving when you took your first breath. The planets continue moving through the zodiac, creating what astrologers call transits. As they move through different signs and interact with your natal chart, they continually activate different archetypal themes.

In Astrum Healing, I look at these themes through both an energetic and physical lens. Because medical astrology connects the archetypes with different areas of the body, the body becomes part of the map. But if we are born with a blueprint and continue to be influenced by the movement of the planets, does that mean everything about us, and everything that happens to us, is predetermined?

This is where things get interesting.

Fate vs. Free will

Your natal chart may describe the energies you came here with, but those energies are not one-dimensional. Every placement has a spectrum of expression. There is the shadow, the higher expression, and a whole lot of messy human experience in between.

The blueprint may be written, but how it comes to life through you is not so black and white.

Is it necessary to know and understand your birth chart in order to embody it? Nope. Not at all. You’ve been expressing it since the moment you took your first breath. Can working with it give you a deeper understanding of yourself, your patterns, and the life you’re living? Depends on who you ask, but if you’re asking me, I’m saying hell yes.

When I look back at some of the hardest moments of my own life and see how closely they line up with challenging transits happening at the time, it’s honestly become too much for me to ignore. I’ve seen those correlations play out enough in my own life that astrology has become less about whether I believe in it and more about how I choose to work with it.

Because if certain energies are part of the blueprint and certain cycles are going to activate them, the question becomes: what part of all of this this do I actually get a say in?

This is how I like to think about fate and free will:

Fate: The energy you were born with and are here to embody and express: Natal Chart

Fate: The cycles, conditions, and turning points that interact with and activate that blueprint throughout your lifetime: Transiting Planets

Free Will: What you do with what you’ve been given. The opportunity to work consciously with these energies and transform their shadow into their higher expression: Alchemy

You may not get to choose the blueprint. You may not get to choose every circumstance that activates it. But you do have a say in what you do with it.

And that is where the alchemy begins.

You are stars wrapped in skin. The Light above is also within.
- Jamie Rethage

What Does an Astrum healing session actually look like?

Now that you understand the philosophy behind Astrum Healing, you’re probably wondering what actually happens during a session.

Every session is different because every person, chart, and intention is different.Before we begin, we talk about what is bringing you in. Maybe there is a specific experience you’re trying to move through, a pattern that keeps repeating, or maybe you can’t quite put your finger on what feels off. You just know something does. From there, I look at your natal chart alongside significant transits to see what themes and archetypes may be particularly relevant to what you’re experiencing. Then we move out of the analytical and into the energetic.

Using the chart as a map and my intuition as an energy healer, I tune into your energy field and allow the session to show us where the work needs to happen. This may include clearing residual heavy energy, working with areas of the body associated with prominent archetypes, balancing opposing expressions of an archetype, and recharging areas of your Astrum that feel diminished.

Astrology + Soul Retrieval + Light Work

The goal isn't to force you into the “positive” side of your chart. Both poles belong. The goal is balance. Because anger isn't inherently bad. Grief isn't bad. Fear isn't bad. Neither are ambition, sensitivity, intensity, independence, or any of the other qualities we might be tempted to label as positive or negative.

Alchemy isn't about rejecting one side of yourself in favor of another. It's about becoming less trapped by either extreme and having greater freedom in how that energy moves through you. And once that energy has more room to move, you get to decide what you do with it.

That's the free will part.

Astrum Healing - Let’s clear the static and reveal what the moment is asking of you.

The Great Work Begins Here!