Conversations with the Zodiac

in this final conversational episode of the series (there is one more solo episode to go), i speak with self described “most existential kid on the playground,” melanie jeanne plank.

mel is also my childhood bestie. we met on the bus in sixth grade and have been happily, easily, and lovingly in friendship ever since.

in this conversation you’ll enjoy lots of laughter - especially melanie falling into laughter at herself while i barrel forward. we speak of the performance of being human, how pisces knows this is all just a funny cosmic joke, clouds in general and also a specific cloud. we retell stories of the two fights we’ve ever had in our two-decade relationship and get into how our astrology describes the dynamics of the friction that caused them.

we also talk about a time melanie went to outer space and rubbed the planets on her cheeks, and other such galactic happenings as well as very human and mundane but still whimsical magical things. 

enjoy this effortless and absolutely pure expression of pisces. find mel’s cards, her pisces playlist, and more of my stuff in the links below.

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find melanie's card line at:

WHEW. we definitely go way out... somewhere, in this conversation.

my guest, ariel, is a long "time" soul level best friend, and this episode is basically a recorded version of many of our very long, spiraly, conversations. 

i often describe aquarius' perspective as one that is "way out there" - in the depths of space, just outside the solar system. that galactic, zoomed out vantage point comes through in this conversation, in which we process aspects of our own spiritual processes as well as dynamics within our relationship. we discuss pendulum swings in conditioning and deconditioning, being connected to spirits and entities, our cross country friendship and connecting in the astral plane, spiritual bypassing and spiritual encompassing, aquarius' super power of expanded perception and detached observation, the related misconception that aquarians don't care, and so so much more. 

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find ariel james at:

a long, steady, serious, loving conversation channeling the wisdom of capricorn.

my guest dr. karen ross and i talk about religion, tradition, divinity, society, liberation, revolution, and how capricorn's role is to hold it all together. we discuss the significance of being alive during a time when pluto is in capricorn, drawing our awareness towards the power imbalances and the subconscious currents in our societal structure, and what that means for how capricorn placements and the capricorn parts of each of us can most organically show up during a time of societal collapse and revolution. we consider personal responsibility and how that ties into the responsibility that we each have for the interconnected web of the human family. karen shares her experiences of transformation in regards to political and religious outlooks while maintaining a commitment to the structures she values. we discuss how easy it is when deconditioning from capitalism's priorities to get stuck in a binary trap between the perceived notions of "hard work" and "rest," how the flow between the two is a symbiotic dance, not an absolute. we explore what it means to be disciplined and how when in alignment, being disciplined will look and feel different to each of us. 

enjoy!

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find karen at:

the fire is strong in this one, as isabelle and i collectively have two suns, two moons, two mercuries, a venus, and an ascendant in the fire signs. this conversation is a true sagittarian transmission in that it offers all sorts of profound wisdom wrapped up in laughter, lightness, a little defensiveness, some background-noise-chaos, and an appreciation for the unapologetic.

we cover a LOT, including but not limited to: the recent gemini sag nodal transit, the experience of being mutable fire oriented to the transformation of self and the “ninja level faith” that comes with that. we discuss sagittarius as a prophet and a seer, about our not being able to turn off the faucet of sharing and teaching, a little bit about human design, a lot about life, learning, and self expression, and so much more.

if you tune in, i hope that you receive the permission to trust yourself and to be less apologetic that this conversation invites.

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find isabelle at:

in this episode, i sit in the dark with close friend slash soul family slash fellow extra terrestrial alia walston who has been a dear friend, teacher, and a witness to me on my spiritual journey to the depths. mine and alia’s convos are always long and intentional and multi-dimensional, and it’s a joy to be able to share this one with you all.

we talk about scorpio’s wish for intimacy and their sweetness that often gets overlooked because of the immensity of their power which can make people fearful or uncomfortable. we explore the concept of judgement, and judgement without judgement. alia tells us why evil is boring. we consider what the upcoming nodal transit through scorpio and taurus might bring up for us collectively and personally. we discuss the role that the scorpio parts of us will play in dismantling the justice system and other aspects of our collective experience on the verge of collapse.

like all water energy, words cannot capture alia’s essence, so you’ll just have to listen to tap into their depth of loving magic.

please consider leaving a review!

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find alia at:

this is a long one, because of course it’s gonna be a slow and deliberate process when an aries asks two of their libra besties a plethora of pointed questions. libra is considerate as fuck, and guests katie schwartz and jeannette gomes mindfully offer some of their perspectives on life as libra in this conversation. it is medicine for all with strong libra placements and for all of us in relationship. 

among other things, we discuss why the sun is fallen in libra and what it’s like to live with that placement. we talk about what it's like to be so oriented to justice and relationality at a time like now when the justice system is so obviously irreparable and social harmony feels hard to come by. we go deep into the libra-aries polarity as the introduction of the opposition. we process aloud what it’s like to show up for each other in relationship with individualized reciprocity rather than to attempt or expect mirror-image transactions.

all the signs are magical, but virgo’s role is to pull the magic into form, into the physical plane. virgo can change the seemingly unchangeable and move the seemingly immovable. this conversation with my new and dear friend cat fitzgerald (@weird.wellness) shines a light on the sincerity with which virgo offers its practical magic to the world.

we talk about virgo’s role in understanding, embodiment, trauma healing, chaos, and ontology. we laugh a lot, and we blame capitalism on “someone who didn’t listen to a virgo.” we consider how in this era of old-world-collapsing and new-world-building we might empower virgo people and the virgo parts of our selves and collective psyche to help us get it right, or at least get it better.

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this conversation with nicole murayama nir (@thehafuwitch) had me feeling a whole bunch of shades of seen, open hearted, joyful, and also self conscious - all of which are par for the course when dealing with brilliance of LEO. we talk about the self awareness that leo brings to the fire element and discuss movement work from the inside out. we appreciate leo’s knowing that each of us is the main character in our own story and that our story is the only one we get to write. nicole invites us all to make space for the sunshine-y parts of life even amidst the drops of dumpster fire news we endure regularly. there is plenty of warm, big hearted leo medicine to glean from this convo.

find nicole at:

in this conversation, we’re sharing a glimpse into the beautiful and deeply loving cancer-aries square that is mine and budway’s relationship.

budway is my favorite person in the world. a hero of the water realm. a dreamer and a lover and a guide and a home. a magical and gifted artist and songwriter. and the very best partner ever conceivable.

this was the first sun season thus far in which the process of getting the feelings & downloads into music was significantly easier than getting them into articulable words during the conversation. such is water.

it’s a long episode, with much more of me talking than budway. i am self conscious about this, but it is what it is. and one of the things it is is a pretty accurate depiction of how i arrive to things through fire, loudly, quickly, taking up space, and how budway has already been there all along, as water, watching, perceiving, holding.

i hope you’re able to feel his magic, his love, and his genius, as well as the cancerian vibe we were attempting to transmit through astro-talk, relationship-talk, music, and story-telling.

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recording this was soooo much fun - both the conversation as well as the song. in this episode you get to listen in on a conversation between two super close friends who both have strong natal sagittarius and gemini placements. we go really deep into some meaning making (sag) but keep it pretty light and playful, too (gemini).

we discuss timeline hopping, grief, manifestation, thinking ourselves out of reality (for better and for worse), and lots more ways that the gemini archetype shows up in our own lives and in the world around us. 

the song at the end was also REALLY fun to write, and has a pretty different flavor than the two zodiac inspired songs shared on this series thus far. hope you enjoy!

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the taurus medicine is strong in this conversation with venusian queens rosé hernandez and kate heinricher.

kate is a professional astrologer, and rosé is an energy worker, body worker, and incubating astrologer.

we talk about presence, abundance, worthiness, and living in a body. we shout out the generative nature of the actually not-at-all-lazy taurus, and taurus as a container and sustainer for the spark of life. we appreciate taurus for it’s invitation to embrace, improve, and even enjoy the circumstances of our physical lives together here on planet earth, and how we can use movement, nature, art, music, and sensual pleasures to do so.

this is the introductory episode of "conversations with the zodiac," in which kelsey nervously chatters for ~25 minutes about how recording herself talking alone is really uncomfortable and then attempts to make this navel-gazing pass for an example of aries energy. eventually, kelsey introduces this project: a collection of conversations with human embodiments of each of the zodiac signs.

this series of 12 conversations is part of a larger project that kelsey also introduces in this episode. the latter half of the episode focuses on the wisdom and lessons of truth as aries sees is, inspired by kelsey's natal sun in aries and aries season 2021.